Kansas
State University achievements
2005
Arts and Sciences
*
Glenn Horton-Smith, a K-State assistant professor of physics,
has been named an Outstanding Junior Investigator by the U.S.
Department of Energy. The award is given to recognize exceptionally
talented new high energy physicists early in their careers and
to assist and facilitate the development of their research programs.
Awards made under this program help to maintain the vitality of
university research and assure continued excellence in the teaching
of physics. Horton-Smith was recognized for his work with neutrinos,
one of the fundamental particles which make up the universe. December
2005
*
Wayne Goins, associate professor of music and director of jazz
ensembles at K-State, was honored by the Black Liberated Arts
Center Inc. for his co-authored book, "Charlie Christian,
Jazz Guitar's King of Swing. Goins and co-author Craig McKinney
were presented inscribed awards recognizing their "outstanding
contributions made to BLAC Inc. and Oklahoma History," at
the center's 13th annual Recognition and Benefit Dinner, Oct.
29, in Oklahoma City. November 2005
*
Federal scholarship money distributed to the K-State Army ROTC
program has tripled since 2000. The Army scholarship program totaled
$120,862.93 at K-State in 2000. This year it is projected to be
$366,618.87. The increased scholarship funding can be attributed
to the increase in Army ROTC student enrollment at K-State, said
Lt. Col. Arthur DeGroat, professor and head of the department
of military science. November 2005
*A
K-State student has won first place for a paper presentation at
the recent Applied Geography Conference in Washington, D.C. Darci
Paull, graduate student in geography, Kanopolis, presented the
paper, "The Effectiveness of Rural Communities' Strategies
to Reverse Depopulation." November 2005
*A
team of K-State Army ROTC cadets placed fourth in the Cadet Command
11th Brigade Ranger Challenge, a military skills and leadership
competition, Saturday, Oct. 29, at Camp Dodge, Iowa. Fifteen teams
from nine colleges competed in the challenge. K-State's Team A
placed fourth in the competition. November 2005
*Three
K-State Army ROTC students have been selected by the Department
of the Army for education delays. The students will be able to
complete a two-year graduate program before being commissioned
to the Army. This is a highly competitive selection process. Among
272 schools that host Army ROTC pre-professional programs, K-State
ranks first with Boston University, Cornell University and John
Hopkins University for the most graduating officers selected for
advanced education and service this year. November 2005
*
Bharat Ratra was recently designated a Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. Each year the society
elects members whose "efforts on behalf of the advancement
of science or its applications are scientifically or socially
distinguished." Ratra was recognized by the association for
his contributions in cosmology, including the quantum mechanics
of inflation, the dynamical effective cosmological constant, and
the issue of cosmological space curvature and cosmic magnetic
fields.November 2005
*A
recent K-State graduate has received the Wildlife Disease Association's
Graduate Student Research Recognition Award. Tammi Johnson, a
May 2005 graduate with a master's in biology, Thermopolis, Wyo.,
received the award at the 54th annual meeting of the Wildlife
Disease Association in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Johnson
was recognized by the association for her presentation "Landscape
Predictors for the Spread of Disease in a Colonial Mammal: Sylvatic
Plague in Black-tailed Prairie Dogs." The award was given
to the student who had the best research project in the field
of wildlife disease based on written communication and scientific
achievement. November 2005.
*Kansas
State University geography students took second place in the GeoBowl
competition at the annual meeting of the Great Plains-Rocky Mountain
Division of the Association of American Geographers. Also winning
honors was Mitchel Stimers, a graduate student in geography, who
received the best poster award at the meeting. In addition, Stimers
and Sumanth Reddy, also a graduate student in geography, were
selected to represent the region in GeoBowl at the association's
national meeting. October 2005
*
K-State professor of sociology, anthropology and social work Harriet
J. Ottenheimer's documentary film "The Quorum," which
she made with Maurice M. Martinez, earned first place best documentary
at Cine Noir: A Festival of Black Film 2005, best documentary
at the Cape Fear Independent Film Network 2004 and was a finalist
for the Atlanta Independent Black Film Festival 2005. The film
documents a revolutionary New Orleans coffee house that sought
to change race relations -- and the world. September 2005
*
Randy Regier, a summa cum laude graduate of K-State in May 2003
with a bachelor's in fine arts, is among the 10 recipients of
a 2005 Jack Kent Gooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship for the
fine or performing arts. Regier will use the scholarship, worth
up to $50,000 ayear for up to six years, for his graduate studies
at the Maine College of Art. Regier staged a popular exhibition
at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art in fall 2003, "Everything
Must Go: The Toys of Randy Regier." July 2005
*
Faculty in economics and civil engineering have earned K-State
a ninth place ranking in the world in transportation research
productivity, according to an article in the Spring 2005 issue
of Transportation Journal.
The
article, "Affiliation of Authors in Transportation and Logistics
Academic Journals: A Reassessment," examined which university's
faculty are most productive based on the number of articles published
in academic journals which specialize in transportation, logistics,
and supply chain management. The authors examined authors' affiliations
during the 1999-2004 period of the eight internationally most
respected journals in these fields.The authors ranked K-State
ninth in the world in transportation research productivity, the
first time K-State transportation faculty have achieved a top
10 ranking since the rankings began in the late 1960s. K-State
was ranked higher than several highly respected transportation
programs including University of California at Berkeley, University
of British Columbia, National University of Singapore and Texas
A&M University.
Faculty
specializing in transportation in the departments of economics
and civil engineering contributed equally to K-State receiving
the top 10 world ranking. K-State faculty had more articles published
in the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum than any other
university in the world. July 2005
*
K-State students are excelling in mathematics competition. A team
of K-State students finished first in the 2005 Kansas Collegiate
Mathematics Competition during the Kansas Section meeting of the
Mathematical Association of America at the University of Kansas.
Another team of K-State students placed eighth in the world in
the 2005 Mathematical Contest in Modeling. A total of 869 teams
competed, including two teams from K-State. K-State's teams were
recognized with Meritorious and Successful awards. Only seven
teams in the world did better in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling
than K-State's Meritorious team. July 2005
*
The Federal Communication Commission has renewed the broadcast
license of K-State's student radio station, KSDB-FM. The current
license period lasts through 2012. KSDB was first licensed in
November 1948 and is one of the longest-operating educational
FM radio stations in the country. KSDB-FM, the Wildcat 91.9, is
K-State's student-run radio station. Since 1999, the station's
staff has been recognized with more than 120 awards by the Kansas
Association of Broadcasters for news, sports, creativity and performance.
The station is operated by the A. Q. Miller School of Journalism
and Mass Communications and partially funded by K-State Student
Privilege Fees. July 2005
*
K-State students swept the Kansas Association of Broadcasters
student awards competition, with 19 television production awards
and 28 awards in radio for student radio station KSDB-FM. On the
radio side, KSDB-FM won first place in all divisions but two.
April 2005
*
Student editors of K-State's student newspaper and yearbook, the
Collegian and Royal Purple, accepted Gold Crown awards for both
publications during the 27th annual College Media Advisers Convention,
sponsored by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association March 19
in New York City. The 2004 Royal Purple was one of only four college
yearbooks to take home a Gold Crown Award, an honor that followed
its first-place Best in Show award at College Media Advisers'
November convention in Nashville, Tenn. Both the fall 2003 and
spring 2004 Collegians received Gold Crown awards. K-State was
the only school in the nation to receive three Gold Crowns. This
was K-State's second year in a row to receive all three. April
2005
*
K-State graduate students in entomology earned awards at the 60th
Annual Entomological Society of America-North Central Branch Meeting
March 20-23.
Five
graduate students won awards for their research presentations
at the meeting, the highest number of any institution represented
at the meeting. April 2005
*
The National Ornamental Metal Museum, Memphis, Tenn., chose K-State
art professor Elliott Pujol as its 2005 Master Metalsmith. Each
year the Museum presents a one-person retrospective of the work
by an American metal artist who is an acknowledged master. The
museum will recognize Pujol in October during its annual Repair
Days fund-raiser, and a collection of his metal artistry will
be displayed from late September until early November. As the
2005 Master Metalsmith, Pujol will lecture and give a technical
talk. Pujol is best known for his artwork using copper. In recent
years, he has created large wall hangings and large copper vessels
lined with gold. Earlier he created woven metal vessels. Very
early in his career he created silver chalices and jewelry. April
2005
*
During spring break 10 Army ROTC cadets from K-State traveled
to White Sands Missile Range in the desert of Las Cruces, N.M.,
to compete in the Bataan Memorial Death March -- a challenging
26.2 mile military marathon. This year, K-State "Powercats"
Men's Heavy ROTC team, carrying 35 lb. rucksacks, took second
place among 19 teams. For the first time, K-State fielded a second
competitive team, K-State "Powercats" Military Coed
Light, military uniforms without rucksacks. This team placed fourth
among 23 teams. The competition, now in its 16th year, is conducted
annually to honor the heroic service members who defended the
Philippine Islands during World War II. This year there were more
than 3,500 competitors from across the United States and nine
different nations. April 2005
*
The K-State Forensics Team beat out 90 other teams to place seventh
in the 28th Annual American Forensics Association National Individual
Events Tournament April 1-4 at K-State. Twelve students from K-State
competed with more than 700 students from 97 colleges and universities
throughout the country. Of those 12 students, seven made it past
the initial rounds in their events. Four reached the quarter finals,
one reached the semi-finals, and two made it to the final rounds
and placed in their events. April 2005
*
K-State students swept the recent Kansas Associationof Broadcasters
student awards competition, with 19 television production awards
and 28 awards in radio for student radio station KSDB-FM. On the
radio side, KSDB-FM won in all but two categories, and placed
first in most of them. April 2005
*
K-State was the only school in the nation to receive three Gold
Crown awards at the 27th annual College Media Advisers Convention,
sponsored by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association March 19
in New York City. Both the fall 2003 and spring 2004 Collegians
received Gold Crown awards and the 2004 Royal Purple was one of
only four college yearbooks to take home a Gold Crown Award, an
honor that followed its first-place Best in Show award at College
Media Advisers' November convention in Nashville, Tenn. This was
K-State's second year in a row to receive all three Gold Crown
awards. April 2005
*
Kristan Corwin, a K-State assistant professor of physics, uses
a variety of innovative teaching methods in her classes. For these
innovative efforts in addition to an ambitious research plan,
Corwin has been named a recipient of the National Science Foundation's
CAREER Award. The Faculty Early Career Development Program is
a foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's
most prestigious awards for new faculty members. The program recognizes
and supports the early career-development activities of those
teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders
of the 21st century. Fellow K-State assistant professor of physics,
Sanjay Rebello, was a recipient of the award in 2002; Scott DeLoach,
an assistant professor of computing and information sciences,
received the award in 2004.
The
grant will also provide Corwin funding for the research she is
conducting to measure optical frequency with infrared pulsed lasers.
Corwin and a team of students and postdoctoral researchers at
K-State are currently working to create ultrafast stabilized lasers
for optical frequency metrology, with the goal of improving the
standards of the optical telecommunications industry. March 2005
*
A K-State graduate student has been awarded a $9,850 grant from
the National Science Foundation. Mary Dobbs, graduate student
in geography and native of Great Bend, received the grant to assist
with her doctoral dissertation research. Dobbs will look at the
economic impact of the Conservation Reserve Program on farm households.
March 2005
*
K-State hosted the 28th annual American Forensics Association
National Individual Events Tournament, which brought more than
800 students representing 94 colleges and universities from around
the country to Manhattan. This marks the second time K-State has
hosted the tournament, the first being in 1984. This event is
the premier individual events tournament in the nation, said Erika
Imbody, K-State instructor of speech. Students competing have
gone through extensive qualification procedures and represent
the very best in collegiate forensics from across the country.
Participants compete in 11 different individual events, including
platform speaking events and interpretation of literature events.
March 2005
*
Mark Smith, a K-State doctoral student in high-energy physics,
was selected to attend the 55th Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates
and Students June 26-July 1 in Lindau, Germany. Smith, Topeka,
was one of 60 outstanding graduate students in the United States
selected by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation
and the Oak Ridge Associated Universities to attend. His sponsor
was the Department of Energy's Office of Science, which will cover
all costs of his attending the meeting. The structure of the meeting
is such that the Nobel Laureates present lectures on a topic of
their choice related to chemistry, physics and medicine during
morning sessions, and laureates and students mix in the less formal
small-group discussions during afternoon and evening sessions.
Smith is in his third year of high-energy physics graduate education.
The winners of the Nobel Prize have met each year since 1951 in
Lindau, and in recent years, the three U.S. agencies have sponsored
a group of top young U.S. scientists to join the laureates for
weeklong discussions of sciences and medicine. March 2005
*
Michael Finnegan, K-State professor of anthropology, was named
a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences
Feb. 23 at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual business
meeting. He was recognized for exceptional service to the field
and the academy. Distinguished Fellow is a rare designation. Of
5,000 members, only about 35 are Distinguished Fellows. He is
the third person in physical anthropology to have received this
award. Finnegan was elected to the American Academy of Forensic
Sciences in 1976 and selected as a Fellow in 1978. He has served
the academy in numerous capacities, including section representative
on the board of directors and as vice president. March 2005
2004
Arts and Sciences
2003
Arts and Sciences
2002
Arts and Sciences
Achievements
index
K-State
College of Arts and Sciences
