Purple Praise
Celebrations of faculty, staff and students
From scholarships and awards to research discoveries and creative achievements, K-State's talented faculty, staff and students continue to advance the university's culture of excellence by providing and participating in hands-on, world-class experiences.
Purple Praise highlights notable accomplishments both on and off campus, including awards and honors; fellowships; performances; elections to regional and national boards or committees in professional organizations; conference presentations; and unique learning and engagement opportunities.
Student achievements
College of Health and Human Sciences names student ambassadors
The College of Health and Human Sciences has selected student ambassadors for the 2026- 2027 academic year. Student ambassadors work on- and off-campus to promote the college to alumni, friends, prospective students, families and current K-State students. Read the full list of ambassadors here.
Collegian Media Group breaks program award record
Collegian Media Group, or CMG, journalists have earned 30 national awards, including finalists and winners, across three scholastic press association contests.
In July, four Collegian editors traveled to the Associated Collegiate Press, or ACP, Mega Workshop in Minneapolis. CMG had the most Best of Show winners out of any group in attendance, including Best of Show awards for the 2026 Royal Purple Yearbook and Collegian newsletter.
Also from the ACP, Merideth McClalmon was a finalist for Four-Year Journalist of the Year and Breaking News Journalist of the Year, and CMG earned four first-place awards during the ACP Clips and Clicks contest.
In total, CMG student journalists and creators have earned over 125 state and national awards in the past 12 months, a program record for the 501(c)(3) nonprofit student media group on campus.
Cooper and Rogers compete in concrete masonry competition
Patrick Rogers and Landon Cooper — students in the Department of Architecture — received an honorable mention for their submission to the 2026 Concrete Masonry Student Competition, sponsored by the Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association and administered by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
Rogers and Cooper's project, "Barcelona Welcome Center," was designed to sit in front of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya on Montjuïc in Barcelona, Spain. Rather than following the site's formal, symmetrical axis, the students deliberately offset their design, creating a sequence of plazas, gardens, play areas and gathering spaces that come together into a terrace at the top of the site.
The competition jury praised the K-State project for its material expression and relationship to place, noting that its use of white concrete masonry blended effectively with the surrounding context. Jurors also highlighted the project's front rendering to establish a memorable community presence and strengthen the design's connection to Barcelona's cultural identity.
Okonye, Salehi and Soni awarded 2026 graduate fellowship
Doctoral students Ify Okonye, geography and geospatial sciences; Sorour Salehi, chemistry; and Menard Soni, biological and agricultural engineering, have been awarded fall 2026 graduate fellowships by the natural resources and environmental sciences, or NRES, secondary major.
The NRES Graduate Fellowship program recognizes students and postdoctoral researchers with exceptional teaching and research achievements who seek additional experience in interdisciplinary teaching and research mentoring.
"On behalf of our governing board, I'm pleased to welcome these new fellows to our team of research mentors who will share their passion for collaborative environmental problem-solving with students in our capstone course," said Shawn Hutchinson, professor of geography and geospatial sciences and director of the NRES secondary major.
Fellows receive an award of $1,500 for mentoring research conducted by small multidisciplinary teams of senior undergraduates enrolled in the BAE/DAS/GENAG 582 NRES capstone class. Recipients are also eligible to apply for a $500 NRES Travel Award.
Zaidi presents artificial intelligence research in France
Ahsan Zaidi, doctoral student in computer science, recently presented his research at the 2026 International Conference on Pattern Recognition, or ICPR, in Lyon, France.
ICPR is a major international conference on pattern recognition, computer vision and artificial intelligence, bringing together researchers from around the world to present advances in these areas. Zaidi presented his paper, "ViTs for Action Classification in Videos: An Approach to Risky Tackle Detection in American Football Practice Videos," at the ICPR main conference, exploring the use of computer vision and machine learning to identify risky tackling mechanics from football practice videos.
The research is designed to support a more objective analysis of tackling technique. It also aims to provide useful feedback to coaches and researchers working to improve athlete safety.
Zaidi presented companion research at the Reproducible Research in Pattern Recognition (RRPR) workshop held in conjunction with ICPR. His paper, "Reproducing Vision Transformer-Based Risky Tackle Detection in American Football Practice Videos: A Companion Study," was selected for an oral presentation. It was also accepted for publication in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science post-proceedings.
Participating in ICPR gave Zaidi the opportunity to represent K-State within the international pattern recognition and computer vision research community and to exchange ideas with researchers working in artificial intelligence, video analysis and related areas.
Goldammer receives Merck Animal Health scholarship
Derrick Goldammer, a third-year veterinary student from Mitchell, South Dakota, was recently awarded the $10,000 Merck Animal Health Bovine Veterinary Student Recognition Award scholarship. The scholarships are awarded to students who demonstrate commitment and skills needed to make a difference in the cattle industry and veterinary profession.
"Being one of the recipients of the Merck Scholarship aligns with my future goals of being a Large Animal Practitioner in South Dakota,” Goldammer said. “It will allow me to have less financial stress and be able to focus on my education, which in turn will make me a better practitioner for my clientele."
Making moves in Italy to learn about food safety, public health and aquatic and terrestrial animal health
In June 2026, Justin Kastner and Ellyn Mulcahy gathered six students from Kansas State University as a cohort of the International Mobility of Veterinary Students and Food Biotechnologists, or iMOVES & FB, program, coordinated through the University of Padova in Italy. This specialized and intensive summer course focuses on a variety of topics that fall under the One Health umbrella including food safety, aquatic and terrestrial animal welfare and public health. View more photos from their immersive experience abroad.
Faculty achievements
Sharda named Pierre C. Robert Senior Scientist
Ajay Sharda, university outstanding scholar and professor of biological and agricultural engineering, was recently named the winner of the 2026 Pierre C. Robert Senior Scientist award by the International Society of Precision Agriculture, or ISPA, at its annual conference.
The award honors a pair of individuals who have made significant contributions to precision agriculture science and technology and who are presenting an oral or poster paper at the conference. To be eligible for the Senior Scientist award, nominees must have 20 or more years of experience, with the majority of that time working in precision agriculture.
At K-State, Sharda serves as co-director of research for the Institute of Digital Agriculture and Advanced Analytics. His research focuses on the development, analysis and experimental validation of control systems for agricultural machinery systems with a variety of emphases.
Bunce receives 2026 J.W. Pepper Editor’s Choice
Jamie Bunce, associate director of choral studies, has been honored with a J.W. Pepper 2026 Editor’s Choice designation for her arrangement of "Katy Cruel," published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Inc. An Editors’ Choice represents the very best new music for every ensemble. The J.W. Pepper staff reviews hundreds of selections from a broad range of publishers, awarding only the highest-quality titles its signature red check mark.
Singh named Royal Society of Chemistry fellow
Gurpreet Singh, Harold O. and Jane C. Massey Neff Professor in the Alan Levin Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, has been named a Royal Society of Chemistry fellow.
At K-State, Singh leads the Nanoscience and Engineering Lab, which focuses on the processing, structure and property characterization of two-dimensional materials and molecular precursor-derived ceramics for energy-based devices. A highly recognized scholar with over 200 scholarly publications, Singh is also a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Singh joins an influential network of leaders driving progress and innovation. The Royal Society of Chemistry is the oldest chemical society in the world, with more than 175 years of history and a mission to advance excellence in the chemical sciences.
Two K-State faculty receive $7,500 Iman Awards for teaching and research
Two Kansas State University faculty members, one from the College of Agriculture and one from the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering, will each receive a $7,500 award in recognition of their outstanding teaching and research during a ceremony at the K-State Alumni Center. Read the full article from the K-State Alumni Association.
Shwartz publishes book examining Sonoran Desert architecture
Chad Schwartz, professor of architecture, has published "Constructing Arizona: Embracing an Architecture of Place in the Sonoran Desert through Routledge." The book is the first to comprehensively examine the architecture of Arizona's Sonoran Desert region, drawing on more than 50 interviews with members of the architectural community and Schwartz's first-hand analysis of significant built work.
Organized around 10 characteristics — light, heat, water, ground, air, flora and fauna, tradition, spirit, construction and materiality — the book explores how architects respond to the environmental, cultural and material conditions that define a place.
Schwartz began formal research for the book in 2020, building on his experience living, studying and practicing architecture in the Phoenix area. The project received support through his appointment as the Regnier Distinguished Faculty Chair and through K-State's University Small Research Grant program, which, in turn, provided research opportunities for graduate students in the College of Architecture, Planning and Design, or APDesign. Schwartz's book offers architects, designers, educators and students a framework for considering how architecture can respond meaningfully to climate, landscape and culture.
Wytko releases new album
Anna Marie Wytko, university distinguished professor of saxophone, has released her new internationally acclaimed album, "Muddle." The album, which blends the malleable nature of the saxophone with that of the human voice and electronics, is released in 24-bit uncompressed audio, a top-tier sound resolution.
Community engagement
English Language Program hosts international Fulbright scholars
From July 25 to Aug. 15, the English Language Program, or ELP, hosted 27 graduate Fulbright scholars from 19 countries for a Fulbright Pre-academic Program, administered by the Institute of International Education.
The three-week program focuses on helping participants learn higher-level English and promote intercultural relations through the exchange of skills and knowledge between countries. Scholars attended classes taught by ELP to improve their academic English writing and speaking skills, learned about American educational culture and heard from K-State experts through presentations and group discussions. This is the seventh pre-academic program the ELP has hosted. Participants also interacted with Fulbright scholars currently studying at K-State through a panel discussion and other cultural activities.
Participants also experienced K-State, Manhattan and Kansas culture by attending a wide variety of events and visiting historic locations, including the Riley County Fair, Crown B. Bison Ranch, the Kansas State Capitol, the Brown v. Board of Education Museum, the Kansas Museum of History and the Eisenhower Museum. After completing the program, scholars traveled to universities across the country to begin their graduate studies.
Anthropod Ecology Lab provides prairie-centered internship
Ellen Welti and faculty members in the Welti Arthropod Ecology Lab welcomed Judith Gomez — a sophomore in biology at Stanford — to the Konza Prairie Biological Station this summer for an internship focused on studying community evolution through the lens of grasshoppers.
Through her Kansas State Grassland Insect Community Ecology Internship, Gomez worked with Welti as her main mentor, gaining access to impactful learning experiences through a variety of field studies and lab work.