Today’s News from the University of Kansas
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Research push will examine how plants and microbes interact and adapt during drought
LAWRENCE — With a three-year, $720,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers from the University of Kansas and the University of Nottingham plan to investigate interactions between plants and the microbes on which they depend. In work that could inform agricultural practices around the world, the team will focus on how the relationship between plants and microbes respond to drought conditions.
Endowed professorship to honor legend in environmental engineering
LAWRENCE — A longtime environmental engineering professor at the University of Kansas is being honored with an endowed professorship in his name. The friends and family of Ross McKinney, who developed and directed the university’s environmental engineering program during a tenure that lasted more than three decades (1960-1993), raised the funds to honor McKinney’s career and legacy.
School of Social Welfare announces new associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion
LAWRENCE – The School of Social Welfare has announced the appointment of Kim Warren, associate professor in history, as the new associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion. Warren will be joining the school in an administrative and research capacity to expand the school’s footprint in DEI-related work.
Design students receive American Advertising Federation of Kansas City scholarships
LAWRENCE — Five University of Kansas visual communication design students have received 2020 American Advertising Federation of Kansas City (AAF-KC) Foundation Scholarships. They include students from Prairie Village and Wichita (67230) and from Kansas City, Missouri.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Brendan Lynch, KU News Service, 785-864-8855, [email protected], @BrendanMLynch
Research push will examine how plants and microbes interact and adapt during drought
LAWRENCE — Just below ground, an ancient and poorly understood relationship plays out between plants and microbes that infuse the soil.
Now, with a three-year, $720,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers from the University of Kansas and the University of Nottingham plan to investigate interactions between plants and the microbes on which they depend. In work that could inform agricultural practices around the world, the team will focus on how the relationship between plants and microbes respond to drought conditions.
“Microbes that live in the soil colonize the roots of the plants, and they can have big effects on plant growth and health,” said Maggie Wagner, assistant scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey and assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at KU, who is primary investigator of the new grant. “We’re trying to figure out the effect of drought on that interaction. When you have plants that have to tolerate drought and soil microbes that have to tolerate drought — when those two partners come together, what’s the impact?”
Some microbes do require plant hosts, but researchers think the majority of plant-associated microbes also live free in the soil. Yet, plants are never without microbes. So Wagner will sequence the DNA of plants and plant microbes, and also “free living” soil microbiomes at various levels of drought stress. Her aim is to better pinpoint and understand genetic changes in a microbial community triggered by a shortage of water in the soil, as well as illuminate “genetic, physiological and ecological interdependencies” between microbes and plants.
“We’re going to actually force these microbes to evolve and adapt to drought in the lab using an experimental evolution set up, then we’re going to sequence them before and after the adaptations to figure out which microbial genes are involved in adaptation to drought stress,” Wagner said. “Then we’re going to take those microbial communities and give them to plants to try to measure what effect the communities have on the plants’ structure and metabolic activity and other traits that are important for surviving drought.”
While drought places stress on microbial communities in the soil, the KU researcher said sudden downpours can also tax microbes — conditions she hopes to replicate in her experiments.
“We’re planning to give the microbial communities about four months to adapt to their drought treatments, which is many, many microbial generations,” Wagner said. “We’re going to give the drought-treated microbes water every two weeks. The reason we give them water occasionally is because a lack of water is stressful — but once they’re in dry conditions and there’s a sudden rainfall event that introduces a lot of water, it also can be stressful to the microbes. It forces them to regulate their salt content and other things. So, we’re hitting them with water limitation and then suddenly rewetting to try to simulate what it’s like in nature.”
In addition to lab work, Wagner and her team will sample microbes and plants from across the state of Kansas, focusing on microbes’ interaction with corn, because corn is such a vital cash crop to the U.S. and the world.
“It’s convenient here in Kansas because our state has this natural precipitation gradient from east to west, which allows us to quickly access soil microbial communities that are adapted to various levels of drought,” Wagner said. “Part of the DNA sequencing is going to actually be done on-site at the farm and field sites where we’re going to be collecting these soil samples. There’s new sequencing technology that’s portable and can be hooked up to a laptop. We can actually take soil right there on the farm and get our sequences right then and there, which is pretty cool.”
Meanwhile, co-primary investigator Gabriel Castrillo of the University of Nottingham will perform scans of the root systems of corn plants and their microbiomes.
“He’ll be doing a variety of physiological scanning procedures, including CT scanning and laser ablation tomography,” Wagner said. “All of these are going to give us some really in-depth data about what these plants look like when they’re grown in microbial communities that are or are not adapted to drought. We’re trying to understand when a microbial community in the soil adapts to drought, what are the functional consequences for the plants and the plants’ ability to potentially withstand drought as well.”
Under the grant at KU, graduate research assistant Ceyda Kural will receive training in the lab and gene sequencing techniques used to analyze the soil microbes. The funds will also support employment for a full-time postdoctoral researcher.
Wagner said she wanted her results to benefit farmers and the agricultural industry as climate change hastens more frequent and severe droughts across the U.S. and the rest of the world.
“We definitely hope that our data will be useful for the folks who are very specifically trying to develop new technologies that could be used in agriculture to mitigate droughts,” she said. “Droughts are already a major problem for agriculture, and it’s expected to get a lot worse with climate change. Our projects are going to generate a lot of molecular data — for example, sequence data on both plants’ gene expression and microbial gene expression. We’ll be able to provide really detailed information about how plants and microbes interact with each other at the molecular level in the context of drought stress.”
Additionally, funds from the NSF grant will help enhance a mobile exhibition called “Microbes on the Move,” intended to educate the public about the diversity of microorganisms and their importance to ecosystems of all kinds.
“It’s a pop-up exhibit from the KU Natural History Museum that has been around for a few years,” Wagner said. “It’s all about microbes and the microbes in humans in particular, and various activities related to microbial ecology. So, the point of these activities is to introduce members of the public to the idea that microbes are all around us, they do all kinds of things, they’re very diverse — and not all microbes are bad. This museum exhibit is portable so we can reach members of the public who are farther away from museum exhibits like this. We can go into any town and set up in a community center or a public library and reach a lot of people we wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise. So, part of this grant is going to be expanding that project, specifically by translating the materials into Spanish. Ceyda is a Spanish speaker, and she’ll spearhead this effort to translate the materials, which will allow us to bring the exhibit to communities in southwestern and western Kansas that are predominantly Latino communities.”
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Contact: Cody Howard, School of Engineering, 785-864-2936, [email protected], @kuengineering
Endowed professorship to honor legend in environmental engineering
LAWRENCE — A longtime environmental engineering professor at the University of Kansas is being honored with an endowed professorship in his name.
The friends and family of Ross McKinney, who developed and directed the university’s environmental engineering program during a tenure that lasted more than three decades (1960-1993), raised the funds to honor McKinney’s career and legacy.
“Professor McKinney is extremely deserving of this recognition. He has left an indelible mark at the KU School of Engineering and in his field. A named professorship in his honor helps elevate the stature of KU Engineering, and I thank the alumni who took the initiative to make this a reality,” said Arvin Agah, dean of engineering.
After a recent trip to meet McKinney in North Carolina, Agah remains “deeply impressed by Professor McKinney’s professional and academic accomplishments, as well as his warm and generous nature.”
McKinney came to KU to develop the Environmental Engineering Graduate Program, which grew into an internationally recognized graduate-level environmental degree program. The program integrated science and engineering — a “multidisciplinary” approach decades before such cross-disciplinary practices were common.
“He is a legend — well-liked, well-loved by his students and many professors on the campus,” said Murli Tolaney, a former student of McKinney who — along with fellow classmate Bob Agnew — led efforts to raise funds for the professorship. “We should have done this many years ago.”
McKinney’s research focused on the biological treatment method for industrial and municipal wastewater treatment known as “activated sludge,” and he helped the profession move from more of a trial-and-error method of sizing wastewater treatment facilities to a method that produced consistent and repeatable optimized results. Those results led international technical journals to name him the “Father of Activated Sludge.”
He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Association for Advancement of Sciences
“If you had to pick five people as legends in the environmental engineering field, he would be one of them,” said Tolaney, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental and civil engineering at KU. “He invented a lot of things in the environmental engineering field.”
Among students and faculty at KU, he was also known for his humor and mentorship of young engineers. In 1992, he was recognized for his career contributions to KU when he was awarded the Chancellor’s Club Career Teaching Award. In 2016, he received a Distinguished Engineering Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by the engineering school.
“The way he taught his students molded them. Many of his students went on to be environmental directors, CEOs, chief operating officers, all kinds of things,” Tolaney said. “At times, he was tough and opinionated. We would laugh and challenge him, but it was a good way to learn.”
“My dad’s life work was focused on his curiosity to learn new information as it pertained to environmental engineering,” said Margo McKinney-Kane. “He loved nothing more than encouraging his students to push their boundaries to explore new ideas. He liked applying these ideas to real-world solutions. And it was the University of Kansas that provided him the opportunity to carry out his dreams. Our family still feels rooted in Lawrence, we love our Jayhawks.”
The endowed professorship is intended to permanently raise the profile and ensure the long-term stability of the environmental engineering program at KU. The endowment will cover a salary supplement and discretionary funds for a full professor in environmental engineering, and the position’s focus is intended to be on water quality.
McKinney’s family also contributed funds to the endowment.
“My mother always liked to give anonymously, but she said in this case that it was key for others to understand how important this endowment is for our future. Engineering plays a valuable role in taking care of the environment, and this ensures that KU students will have access to groundbreaking science,” McKinney-Kane said.
Teaching and research professorships are supported by endowed funds established by donors to KU Endowment.
KU Endowment is the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU.
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Contact: Valerie Hawley, School of Social Welfare, 785-864-3804, [email protected], @KUSocialWelfare
School of Social Welfare announces new associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion
LAWRENCE – The School of Social Welfare has announced the appointment of Kim Warren, associate professor in history, as the new associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion beginning July 1. Warren will be joining the school in an administrative and research capacity.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion are top guiding principles for our school and are central to our mission,” said Michelle Mohr Carney, dean of the social welfare school. “Finding a leader who supports and honors these values was crucial, and we are confident that we have found in Kim an associate dean that will partner with our DEI coordinator and our DEI council to enhance and advance this important work. Her leadership, experience and humanities perspective will bring a needed element that will only enhance and strengthen the school’s diversity efforts. We are extremely pleased Kim has chosen to join us and excited to see her lead and further our diversity efforts.”
In this newly created position, Warren will help expand the school’s footprint in DEI-related research by contributing her own scholarly research and by supporting current DEI-related work the school is already producing. She will work with the social work community to create networks of support, especially during times of upheaval as the world is currently experiencing. She will also partner with other leaders in the school and across KU to help students and community members make significant strides in dismantling systematic inequality.
Her tenure home will remain in the Department of History, as will her teaching responsibilities.
“I am honored to join a team of faculty, staff and students committed to making sustainable change in our local and global communities,” Warren said. “Diversity, equity and inclusion are at the heart of everything that is positive and just in higher education. My role as associate dean is to help deepen the efforts that are already foundational to the study and work of social welfare. As a historian with a broad background in community engagement, I hope to bring a perspective to the associate dean position that is rooted in an understanding of both daily and institutionalized systems of change.”
Warren is a longtime KU faculty member, and as a native Kansas Citian, she and her family are embedded in the Kansas and Kansas City metropolitan areas. While at KU, Warren has held joint appointments with the departments of History and the Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies. She is a specialist in U.S. women’s history, has held the positions of director of undergraduate studies and director of graduate studies in two departments, and has been a faculty fellow in the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Prior to joining KU in 2004, Warren served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Slovak Republic, was a field coordinator of AmeriCorps Members in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, and she was the director of the Center for Service Learning at Rockhurst University. She received her bachelor’s degree in American studies from Yale University and her master’s degree and doctorate in history from Stanford University.
Warren conducts research and teaching in the areas of African diasporas, Native American studies and feminist studies. She held post-doctoral fellowships and research fellowships through the Spencer Foundation/National Academy for Education, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, American Philosophical Society, National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture, U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History and U.S. Department of State Fulbright Scholars Program. She is the author of “The Quest for Citizenship: African American and Native American Education in Kansas, 1880–1935,” and she is the co-editor of “Transforming the University of Kansas: A History, 1965-2015,” with John Rury, KU professor of education.
Warren will collaborate with the school’s DEI Council through close communications and planning with Megan Paceley, assistant professor of social welfare and DEI coordinator.
“When I heard Dean Carney refer to social workers as ‘social justice warriors,’ my heart and mind filled beyond measure,” Warren said. “I will use my role as associate dean to help KU’s School of Social Welfare continue to lead the way in training new generations of social workers who anchor their thoughts and actions in justice and growth models. KU’s School of Social Welfare is already on the national map as a leader in the field. And right now, the world needs universities to build more visible and more sustainable pathways to equality and inclusion through our teaching, research, and training. The world needs more social justice warriors, now more than ever.”
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Contact: Dan Rolf, School of Architecture & Design, 785-864-3027, [email protected], @ArcD_KU
Design students receive American Advertising Federation of Kansas City scholarships
LAWRENCE — Five University of Kansas visual communication design students have received 2020 American Advertising Federation of Kansas City (AAF-KC) Foundation Scholarships.
According to their website, the AAF-KC Foundation “awards annual scholarships to college students who show a passion in advertising, marketing and graphic arts studies.”
Students receiving awards:
- Erin Bugee, St. Louis
- Sara DeNoyelles, Wichita (67230)
- Adam Freese, Kansas City, Missouri
- Bhroovi Gupta, Mumbai, India
- Callie McPhail, Prairie Village
Freese was awarded the inaugural Dale Wittenborn Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded to the most outstanding design student. Wittenborn, who died in 2017, was a leading advertising executive and mentor to young professionals in the Kansas City advertising community for decades. Created by Wittenborn’s longtime business partner at Kuhn & Wittenborn Advertising and KU alumna, Whitney Kuhn, the award was established to honor Wittenborn’s professional and personal contributions.
Each student will receive $750 per semester during the 2020-21 academic year, a professional mentor in the student’s chosen area of business, free membership in AAF-KC and free admission to most AAF-KC events.
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