Several Win Mayor's Arts Award Recognition

Several people associated with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were honored for their contributions to Lincoln's arts and culture at the 21st annual Mayor's Arts Awards. The recipients were chosen by the Lincoln Arts Council.

Those with university connections include:

o John and Catherine Angle, Leadership Award, for long-standing community volunteerism, including leadership in the UNL Garden Friends organization and the Nebraska Arts Council.

o Marjorie Saiser, Literary Heritage Award, for exellence in writing. Her poetry has been published in The Prairie Schooner and has been set to music by NU composer/professor Randall Snyder.

o Ron Bowlin, director of Kimball Hall, Cultural Celebration Award, for his work in programming that fosters and celebrates diverse cultural traditions. Most recently, Bowlin was co-chair of the Great Plains Music and Dance Festival and Symposium.

o Robert Hall, Sam Davidson Theatre Award. Hall has been associated with the theatre for more than 30 years and has directed more than 100 plays. He has long been affiliated with the Nebraska Repertory Theatre.

o Phoebe Hamann, Heart of the Arts Award. Long-time and well-known volunteer and patron of the arts community, Hamann is a past president of the College and Fine Arts Alumni Advisory Board.

o Karen Janovy, Gladys Lux Arts Education Award. Janovy, curator of education at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Janovy developed the docents program and has been honored by the Nebraska Art Teachers Association and recently was named the Western Region Museum Educator of the year by the National Art Educators Association.

Reist Is National President of Music Teachers Association

Joan Reist, assistant professor of piano, was elected president of the Music Teachers National Association for the 1999-2001 biennium.

Reist is assistant professor of keyboard skills at the University of Nebraska­Lincoln School of Music where she earned both her bachelor of music education and master of music degrees. In addition to teaching classes in keyboard skills, she trains and supervises graduate students to assist in the program. For 33 years, Reist operated an independent piano studio, which served as a laboratory school where UNL pedagogy students both observed and taught.

Deeply committed to piano pedagogy, Reist is coordinator of the piano pedagogy program at UNL, which she helped to develop. She also coordinates the Introduction to Undergraduate Music Studies course that is part of The Academy, UNL's program for first year music students. Reist is a member of the Committee on Independent Teaching for the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy and served a four-year term as co-chair of the National Group Piano Symposium.

A Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM), Reist has been an active MTNA member for 24 years. She is the past president of both the Nebraska Music Teachers Association and the Lincoln Music Teachers Association.

Mandigo Wins Burgher Beef Industry Award

Roger Mandigo, professor in the Department of Animal Science, recently received the first Wendell Burgher Beef Industry Award from IANR.

The award consists of an annual payment of $6,500 for the next two years.

The Wendell Burgher Beef Industry Award was created by a $200,000 gift commitment from Louis Burgher, M.D. and Ph.D., president and CEO of Nebraska Health Systems in Omaha. Burgher made the gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to memorialize his father, Wendell Burgher, a former Nebraska cattleman.

He was a prominent cattleman in central Iowa and western Nebraska for nearly 60 years. He died in 1987. An auctioneer, order buyer and cattle feeder, Wendell Burgher and his father owned the largest sale yard in Iowa in the 1940s. He was a co-owner and manager of a livestock exchange in McCook, Neb., until the late 1960s.

The award allows IANR to reward outstanding faculty and advance their academic endeavors. Mandigo received the award in recognition of his efforts and contributions to the beef industry.

His past and current research projects have involved improving the functionality and economic value of connective tissue in lower quality beef cuts and trimmings. In addition, he has done significant research in cooking technology aimed at maximizing beef tenderness.

A percentage of the award to Mandigo will be used as a stipend. He will use the rest at his discretion to support beef-related research, teaching and outreach activities.

"I am very enthused that a high percentage of the award will be used to increase the research environment for the recipient," said IANR Vice Chancellor Irv Omtvedt. "This will allow an already successful researcher to become even more effective in addressing problems important to the beef industry."

Mandigo said the fund has much potential. "It is wonderful to see a financial reward for my work," said Mandigo. "However, a stipend added to my paycheck doesn't necessarily increase my research options. By using a percentage of the award to further my work, the research program is greatly impacted. Funds that implement this strategy make good sense."

Junior First Receipient of Albert Book Scholarship

The first award of the Albert C. Book Scholarship for Excellence in Advertising was made to James B. Valentine of Lincoln, a junior advertising major in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Former students, led by Glenn Friendt of Lincoln, professional colleagues and friends established the scholarship at the University of Nebraska Foundation to honor Book's life contributions to the advertising field. Book retired as professor emeritus of advertising after 30 years of service, including 10 years as chair of the advertising department. Book worked at the ABC television network and served as a copy group head at BBD&O in New York City, the third-largest advertising agency in the world, prior to joining the journalism faculty at NU. His textbook, "The Fundamentals of Copy and Layout," is still widely used for college advertising classes throughout the United States.

Public Radio News Department Earns Top Honors in AP Broadcasters Awards

The Nebraska Public Radio Network took five top honors at The Associated Press Broadcasters Awards annual meeting April 24, in Hastings.

NPRN competed in Division 1, which consists of stations in Omaha and Lincoln. Out of the nine categories for which awards were given, NPRN won five first-place prizes and five second-place awards. Associate producer Keith Ludden won first place in the general news and agriculture categories for reporting on the dedication of the Niobrara Bridge and weather modification studies in southwest Nebraska. Carolyn Johnsen, also a NPRN associate producer, captured top awards in the feature and natural sound categories for stories on holiday food we love to hate and 17-year cicadas. Nancy Finken, NPRN news director, won first place in the public affairs category for her special on Alzheimer's disease.

Second-place awards went to on-air host Lora Black for her feature on Bobby Kennedy; Ludden for a story on Spanish language; Johnsen for a story on Asian students financing college; and Finken for stories on a high school basketball tournament and the PBS program The Farmer's Wife.

Ag Econ's Helmers Awarded Prize

Glenn Helmers, professor of agricultural economics, and Joseph Atwood, associate professor of agricultural economics and economics at Montana State University and an alumnus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, received the 1999 Outstanding Public Research Award from the Western Agricultural Economics Association.

The award was presented at the group's annual meeting in Fargo, N.D., in July. Helmers and Atwood co-wrote "Examining Quantity and Quality Effects of Restricting Nitrogen Applications to Feedgrains," which was published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. The WAEA is an international association of economists with member institutions from the western United States and Canada.

Plake Named To Psychological Tests and Assessment Committee

Barbara S. Plake, professor of educational psychology and director of the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has been appointed to the American Psychological Association's Committee on Psychological Tests and Assessment.

The nine-member committee is responsible for monitoring technical, professional and social-policy issues concerning the development and use of psychological test and assessment techniques. Plake will serve on the committee until 2001.

Hull To Taiwan On Fulbright Grant

Ron Hull, long-time executive with the statewide Nebraska ETV Network, has been awarded a Fulbright grant to Taipei, Taiwan, the United States Information Agency and J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced recently.

Through the Fulbright Lecture/Research grant, Hull will teach "International Public Telecommunications Studies" at Chengchi University in Taipei during this year's fall semester. Hull is one of approximately 2,000 U.S. grantees who will travel abroad for the 1999-2000 academic year through the Fulbright program.

In 1966-67, Hull was the USIA programming advisor to the government of South Vietnam and worked with the Vietnamese in establishing a four-station television network. Part of Hull's Fulbright experience will include his return to Vietnam to study the history and results of his efforts more than 30 years ago.

Retired Dairy Prof Philip Kelly Remembered

Philip L. Kelly Sr., retired professor and chair of dairy science, died Aug. 6 in Lincoln at the age of 93.

A native of Hudson, Wis., Kelly attended Northern Wisconsin State Teachers College before earned before earned a bachelor of science degree at the University of Minnesota (1930). He did graduate work at Cornell University and Minnesota and earned his doctorate at the latter university (1936).

He was a University of Minnesota extension dairyman from 1930 to 1932 and worked as a county supervisor for the Rural Resettlement Corp. in 1934 and 1935.

Kelly served on the faculty at the University of Arkansas from 1936 to 1945 and was professor and head of the department of dairy husbandry at South Dakota State College from 1945 until he came to Nebraska in 1949. He retired from NU June 30, 1971.

Among his honors, he received the American Dairy Science Association Award for outstanding dairy department chair in the United States and a special award from the Latvian government. He is remembered for helping many Japanese graduate students in dairy science.

Kelly was preceded in death by his wife, Georgia Rose Kelly. He is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Phil Jr. and Linda Kelly, Emporia, Kan.; daughters, sons-in-law, Mary and David Memmer, Chico, Calif., Nancy and Chris Nelson, Middletown, Ohio; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Baker Awarded International Studies Award

Senior David Baker of Omaha has been awarded the Edythe Wiebers International Studies Scholarship for 1999-2000.

The $1,700 scholarship will assist Baker in his African studies research. Baker, an anthropology and sociology major, says a year spent previously at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania let him immerse himself in the field of African affairs. He plans on deepening that experience this summer through internships and study programs in East Africa.

The goal of the Edythe Wiebers International Studies Scholarship is to subsidize expenses for a student for one academic year associated with a foreign study program.

Wiebers graduated cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and German from UNL in 1981. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1983 to study social psychology and preventive health care in Germany, and served in health care-related positions in Nebraska and in Xian, Shanghai and Beijing, China. She died of cancer at age 40 at her home in Lincoln.

Edwards Re-Ups As Engineers VP

Donald Edwards, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, was installed as a national vice president representing the North Central Region of the National Society of Professional Engineers during the organization's July 17 annual meeting in Spokane, Wash. This is his second term in the office. Edwards also has served at state and local levels for the professional engineers society in Nebraska and Michigan.

Hardin Fellowship Awarded

Tiffany Heng-Moss, a graduate student in the Entomology Department, has received the Hardin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship.

In her doctoral dissertation, Heng-Moss hopes to identify hereditary characteristics in buffalograss that could lead to developing chinch bug-resistant strains of this low maintenance turfgrass. This research will provide a comprehensive model for studying insect-plant interactions.

Darrell Nelson, dean of NU's Agricultural Research Division, said Heng-Moss will be awarded the $2,000 fellowship to supplement her graduate assistantship. The entomology department will receive $1,000 of operational support for the research program.

The Hardin fellowship has been awarded since 1984. It is made possible though an endowment to the University of Nebraska Foundation for agricultural research by Clifford Hardin, former UNL chancellor. Income earned by the fund supports research in plant physiology with emphasis on genetic mechanisms influencing plant responses to stress conditions.

Heng-Moss earned her bachelor's in horticulture and master's in entomology from UNL. She received a University of Nebraska Fellowship for 1999, the John W. McDonald Fellowship for 1998, the Maude Hammond Fling Fellowship for 1998, the Mabel Reichenbach Fellowship for 1997 and numerous scholarships.

Grange To Germany On Fulbright

William Grange, an associate professor of theater arts and dance, has been awarded a Fulbright grant to teach and conduct research at the University of Cologne in Germany.

Grange is one of about 2,000 grant recipients nationwide who will travel abroad during the 1999-2000 academic year.

Grange says the research trip will contribute to the completion of his third book, titled Hitler Laughing: Comedy in the Third Reich.