KU Kudos, September 2022: Read about recent faculty, staff achievements


LAWRENCE — It's time to celebrate Jayhawk colleagues' achievements: KU News Service accepted submissions and combed websites, social media and newsletters for recent external honors and awards for current faculty and staff at the Lawrence, Edwards and Medical Center campuses and affiliates. Have something to share? Submit by Oct. 1 for the next edition. Self-nominations are encouraged, with more information available here.

Letycia Nuñez Argote, clinical assistant professor of clinical laboratory sciences, has been selected as Top Five among the American Society for Clinical Pathology's 40 Under Forty distinction for 2022. It recognizes their achievements and leadership qualities that are making an impact on pathology and laboratory medicine.

Gloria Arratia, research associate with KU Ichthyology, was awarded the Joseph S. Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award in Ichthyology at the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists annual conference earlier this summer. Arratia studies aspects of the origin, relationships, and patterns of diversity of teleosts, the largest group among vertebrates. 

Several School of Pharmacy faculty members presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy in Grapevine, Texas. Among the presenters were Tiffany Shin, clinical assistant professor; Kristin Villa, clinical assistant professor; and Karen Moeller, clinical professor.

Teri Finneman, associate professor of journalism, and co-authors won a national award from the Oral History Association for their multimedia oral history project examining the effect of COVID-19 on rural newsrooms in seven states in middle America during the initial months of the pandemic. The project is featured on the Poynter website

School of Business lecturer and research associate Midam Kim’s paper with Edmund P. Learned Professor Vince Barker titled “Think Leader, Think Deep Voice? CEO Voice Pitch and Gender" was nominated for the Phillips and Nadkarni Award for Outstanding Paper on Diversity and Cognition at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (Managerial and Organizational Cognition Division).

Beth McKenzie, Kansas Audio-Reader development director, was recently awarded the prestigious Melvin Jones Fellowship Award from the Lions Club International Foundation. This award is the highest form of recognition and embodies humanitarian ideas consistent with the purpose of Lionism. McKenzie received this award for her efforts leading and growing the Lawrence Lions Chapter during the pandemic. 

A paper co-written by Lisa Mische Lawson, professor of occupational therapy education, and Mildred Oligbo, clinical assistant professor of physical therapy, rehabilitation science & athletic training, was recognized as the 2022 Scholarly Manuscript Award by the National Academy of Recreational Therapists. Titled "Feasibility of Children's Health Questionnaire for Measuring Outcomes of Recreational Therapy Interventions in Autism Populations," it originally appeared in the Therapeutic Recreation Journal. 

Matt Mosconi, interim associate director and senior scientist at the KU Life Span Institute, has been selected to help lead the scientific program for the International Society for Autism Research, or INSAR, over the next two years.

Austin Myers, KU Center on Developmental Disabilities communications specialist, created artwork that was selected for the conference program cover art for the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities 146th Annual Conference. 

Christophe Royon, Foundation Distinguished Professor of Physics, was awarded the 2022 gold medal of the Mexican Physical Society, Division of Particle and Fields "for his leadership in the discovery of odd-gluon state odderon from elastic proton-proton and proton-antipotron collisions at TOTEM and D0 detectors, his contributions to QCD and physics beyond the Standard Model, and for his support to the Mexican High Energy Physics community."

Tarun Sabarwal, professor of economics, was invited to organize and chair "Collective Decisions, Complementarity, and Contagion" at the 21st annual Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory conference held in July at Australian National University, Canberra. This is the largest conference in the world dedicated to economic theory and its applications. He was also a conference presenter at the 33rd Stony Brook International Conference on Game Theory.

Hyunjin Seo’s National Science Foundation-funded project offering technology education for marginalized women has been selected as one of four finalists for the University Economic Development Association’s 2022 Awards of Excellence in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion category. The interdisciplinary team led by Seo, Oscar Stauffer Professor of Journalism, is invited to give a presentation at this year’s UEDA Summit in October where the winner in each category will be announced. 

Joan Sereno, professor of linguistics, has been selected as division director to lead the National Science Foundation’s Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) Division. The Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences supports basic research in the psychological, linguistic, anthropological and geographical sciences.

Katie Siengsukon, associate professor of physical therapy, rehabilitation science & athletic training, was selected as the 2022 Outstanding Behavioral Sleep Medicine Advocate by the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine. She will be honored at an awards ceremony in November. 

Pamela Tran, associate professor in the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, and Frances Yang, research associate professor in the School of Nursing, have been selected for the Central Exchange's STEMMy Awards. Tran will receive the Rising Trendsetter Award, and Yang will receive the WiSTEMM Educator Award at a ceremony in October. 

Aaron Treator, assistant professor of chemistry, recently received the Non-Tenured Faculty Award from the 3M Corporation.

James Yékú, assistant professor of African & African-American studies, has received the Pius Adesanmi Early Career Research Excellence Award from the Canadian Association of African Studies.

Recent news:

Nisha Fernando, associate professor and director of interior architecture, is the recipient of the 2022 Environmental Design Research Association service award, given in recognition for contributions of services that advance the field of environmental design research.

Brittany Hall, a finance administrator at the KU Life Span Institute and enrolled member of the Shawnee Tribe, has been elected president of the National Board of Regents of Haskell Indian Nations University. She will serve a two-year term that began in May 2022.

Uma Outka, William R. Scott Law Professor, and Andrew Torrance, Paul E. Wilson Distinguished Professor of Law, are among 60 newly elected members of the American Law Institute, a prestigious and independent national organization that produces scholarly work to clarify, modernize and otherwise improve the law.

Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, professor of mathematics and courtesy professor of aerospace engineering and electrical engineering & computer science, has been honored by the International Federation of Automatic Control with a lifetime achievement award as well as the first IFAC Foundation Diversity and Inclusion Award. 

Sam Zipper, assistant scientist and geohydrologist at the Kansas Geological Survey, is the 2022 recipient of the Kohout Early Career Award from the Hydrogeology Division of the Geological Society of America.
 

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