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About K-State

2014 All-University Achievements

• National excellence: The Kansas State University Marching Band wins the Sudler Trophy, one of the nation's highest honors for collegiate marching bands.

• Penchant for invention: K-State's vice president for research named fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

• Nutrient-protecting "peanut brittle" for cattle and synthetic compounds that could help cells fight cancer are just two of the 13 U.S. patents awarded to K-State researchers this year.

• Design excellence: Programs offered by College of Architecture, Planning & Design continue to rank among the nation's best.

• Stating their CASE: K-State Communications and Marketing and K-State Alumni Association recognized for advancement efforts.

• National scholar: Nathan Nordstedt, junior in horticultural sciences at K-State, is university's latest recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship.

• International accolade: Physics professor Uwe Thumm recognized for accomplishments with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award.

• Tops in sales: Marketing student wins national sales competition.

• Six in a row: K-State Crops Judging Team best in the nation.

• Making a difference: Stephen Higgs, director of the Biosecurity Research Institute, associate vice president for research, university distinguished professor and Virginia and Perry Peine biosecurity chair, was recognized with a Sanofi Pasteur Award for his outstanding contribution to research and development of the company's dengue vaccine.

• Patented success: K-State researchers have earned U.S. patent for a novel jelly-like substance and for microscopic, genetics-based technology that can help safely kill mosquitos and other insect pests.

• High recognition: K-State's C. Michael Smith, professor of entomology, and Christopher Sorensen, Cortelyou-Rust distinguished professor of physics and university distinguished teaching scholar, have been named 2014 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

• Going the distance: U.S. News & World Report ranks K-State among the best global universities.

• Hitting the right notes: School of Music, Theatre, and Dance earns All-Steinway School designation.

• Programming offered by the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art to get children involved in the visual arts receives prestigious honor.

• In the Top 10: The umanned aerial systems program at Kansas State University Salina named is one of the nation's best.

• K-State is committed to diversity and is being recognized nationally for excellence.

• Most ever: University's fall 2014 enrollment sets records for student numbers, diversity and international enrollment.

• K-State will be home to the 102nd Confucius Institute in the U.S.

• Through a $50 million grant, K-State is establishing the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Sustainable Intensification, which will lead efforts to increase food production with limited resources and reduced stress on the environment.

• One of a select few: K-State named partner in commemorating Vietnam War's 50th anniversary.

• Green and we mean it: SaveOnEnergy.com ranks K-State in top 25 schools for sustainability (and for having a good football team, too).

K-State student life rocks: According to the Princeton Review's 2015 edition of "Best 379 Colleges," K-State ranks No. 3 in best quality of life; No. 5 for great campus and community relations; No. 5 for athletic schools; No. 7 for happiest students; No. 11 for best career services and for students who pack the stadium; and No. 14 for best-run colleges.

• Purple pride: K-State donors set a record with $211 million in philanthropic gifts.

• Best new research: A K-State engineering team earns a 2014 R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine for developing one of the year's 100 most significant high-technology new products: a lithium-based neutron detector.

• On the A list: K-State earns a lot of A's in the 2015 Niche college ratings. Areas earning the top grade include campus quality, campus housing, campus food, Greek life, athletics and more.

• Earning a big salute: The College of Education receives a 2014 LTG (Ret) H.G. "Pete" Taylor Partnership of Excellence Award for higher education by the Military Child Education Coalition.

• Award-winning: The Association for Continuing Higher Education selects K-State's Global Campus academic advising programs for the 2014 Distinguished Program Award in the credit program category.

• The Robotics Team is again the winner of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers' annual student robotics design. In fact, since the competition began in 2007, the Kansas State University team has claimed the championship each year.

• Great Value Colleges names K-State a great value college in the Midwest.

• Simply the best: Six K-State faculty and students received awards for teaching excellence from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture.

• Phi Kappa Phi recognizes new graduate Jenny Barriga with prestigious fellowship.

• Two K-State students are 2014-2015 Fulbright U.S. Student Award winners.

• K-State's Kylie Hardman and Sierra Lekie are 2014 Cargill Global Scholars.

• Meet the university's newest Gilman scholar, who is using the scholarship to further her plans to one day teach English in Japan.

• A two-person team from K-State won Best Overall Project and Employees Choice Video awards at the national Student Infrared Imaging Competition in Melbourne, Florida, June 27-28.

• Karen Burg, the university's new vice president for research, has been named one of seven new American Association for the Advancement of Science-Lemelson Invention Ambassadors.

K-State gets high marks from Down Under as one of the Top 20 campuses in the U.S.

• A K-State sesquicentennial book, "Teatime to Tailgates: 150 Years at the K-State Table," by Jane P. Marshall, is a 2014 Notable Book selection of the State Library of Kansas.

• The university's Center for Information and Systems Assurance has been redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense Research.


• For the 16th time in the last 17 years, K-State's quarter-scale tractor team has won or finished in the top three at the International Quarter-Scale Tractor Student Design Competition.

• Challenge conquered: Interdisciplinary teams of students and faculty help K-State earn first place and honorable mention in the EPA's Campus RainWorks Challenge.

• Topflight: The K-State Salina Flight Team earns prestigious Loening Trophy, given to the most outstanding all-around aviation program in the country.

• Sold! For the third consecutive year, the National Strategic Selling Institute at K-State's College of Business Administration named one of the top sales programs in the country.

Ross Allen, junior in economics and philosophy, is the university's newest Harry S. Truman Scholarship recipient. K-State is a leader among state-supported universities in recipients of the national scholarship.

• Two K-State students earn the 2014 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, bringing K-State's total recipients of the prestigious scholarship to 71.

• From the Konza Prairie Biological Station to the Chapman Center for Rural Studies, Kansas State University is a "Friend of the Flint Hills."

• For the 18th year in a row, K-State ranks No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference for the percentage of graduates who are members of their respective alumni associations.
 
• K-State is joining the Institute of International Education's Generation Study Abroad commitment to double the number of U.S. students studying abroad by the end of the decade.

• Lucky seven: K-State's Black Student Union is best in the Big 12 for seventh time in last nine years.

• The more than 23,200 students enrolled at K-State for the spring 2014 semester are more diverse than ever before, pushing spring enrollment to a record high.
 
• A new K-State patent is for a system that controls the airflow to pistons in reciprocating internal combustion engines — engines powered by pistons.
 
• For the second year in a row, a K-State wheat named Everest is the leading variety in Kansas. Everest was developed by Allan Fritz, K-State Research and Extension wheat breeder in Manhattan.

• K-State is the winner of the 2014 Sweepstakes Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, or CASE, Mid-America District XI, for various publications, news releases and more prepared by the Division of Communications and Marketing, K-State Alumni Association and the KSU Foundation. The university received 24 awards, accumulating the most points for any school in the division for colleges and universities with enrollments of 7,500 or more students. It's the fourth time in the last nine years that the university has won the sweepstakes award. The top title also was claimed in 2006, 2009 and 2012.

• The College of Business Administration's bachelor's degree and master's degree programs received continued accreditation from the board of directors of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

• K-State is the lead institution for $2.5 million, five-year grant award from the prestigious Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation, or LSAMP, program of the National Science Foundation. The grant creates the Pathways to STEM program, which will help increase the number of underrepresented students in Kansas earning bachelor's degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

• U.S. News & World Report recognizes K-State as a great place to earn an online graduate degree in education and engineering, moving both programs up in its latest ranking.

• K-State is among the happiest schools in the nation, according to the Daily Beast.

GraduatePrograms.com, a student-rated guide, ranks the College of Arts and Sciences' sociology graduate program No. 20 and the political science graduate program No. 23 in the nation.

• 'Tree'mendous honor to K-State, earning 2013 Tree Campus USA® recognition.