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KU researchers strengthen American dams, levees with technological innovation
LAWRENCE — A team of researchers at the University of Kansas School of Engineering has partnered with U.S. federal agencies in a push to reinforce American dams and levees nationwide using fiber-reinforced polymers, sensors, artificial intelligence and drones. The $7.7 million, five-year project is a partnership between KU, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Study: ‘Spreadsheet wherewithal,’ life cycle of data key to preparing journalists, communicators
LAWRENCE — In the age of big data, information is everywhere. But it takes a skilled data interpreter and communicator to help people understand what information means and why it is important. To help ensure future journalists and communicators know how to find, make sense of and share data — and counter misinformation — two University of Kansas researchers have proposed a “data project life cycle” approach to preparing students. The research was published in the journal Science Communication.

April Red Hot Research sessions to highlight graduate research, racial equity projects
LAWRENCE — The Red Hot Research series returns in April with two sessions focused on graduate student research and racial equity. Red Hot Graduate Research, which showcases graduate students across a range of disciplines, will take place at 4 p.m. April 7. Later that month, a Red Hot Research event featuring recipients of the 2021 KU Racial Equity Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity Awards will take place at 3:30 p.m. April 28.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Brendan Lynch, KU News Service, 785-864-8855, [email protected], @BrendanMLynch
KU researchers strengthen American dams, levees with technological innovation
LAWRENCE — A team of researchers at the University of Kansas School of Engineering has partnered with U.S. federal agencies in a push to reinforce American dams and levees nationwide using fiber-reinforced polymers, sensors, artificial intelligence and drones.
The $7.7 million, five-year project is a partnership between KU, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Work at KU is headed by Caroline Bennett, Dean R. and Florence W. Frisbie Associate Chair of Graduate Studies, Glenn L. Parker Faculty Fellow and professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering.
“The project focuses on developing repairs and retrofits for the inventory of concrete dams in the U.S., with an emphasis on efficient damage detection,” Bennett said. “In addition to repair methods, we’ll be using fiber-reinforced polymer materials, or FRPs, to address damage. Specifically, we’re targeting sliding at lift joints, restraining rocking between crest block and dam body during seismic loading, and damage on concrete spillways of dams. Our goal is to extend the usable lives of existing concrete dam infrastructure, which was mostly built in the 1930s and 1940s.”
These New Deal-era dams and levees aren’t just showing their age; several have experienced catastrophic failures in recent years due to disrepair. In 2005, New Orleans’ levees were breached with disastrous results during Hurricane Katrina, while levees in South Carolina were breached during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. A year later, relentless rain caused the Oroville Dam in California to fail. One recent assessment concluded the nation’s dams and levees need $93.6 billion in upgrades.
Before repairs are made, dams and levees must be assessed for repairs. KU researchers are developing new approaches for dam and levee damage-detection, which traditionally required people dangling from ropes. Their approach will rely on artificial intelligence, according to co-primary investigator Jian Li, Francis M. Thomas Chair’s Council Associate Professor of Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering at KU, who will lead much of that work.
“My main role is focused on using deep learning and computer vision to autonomously identify the location and severity of dam damage, such as concrete cracking and spalling, for which FRP repair is needed,” Li said. “Once the repair is done, these locations are no longer inspectable. Therefore, we’ll also develop self-sensing FRP repairs to enable continued monitoring of the repaired regions to ensure long-term safety. By leveraging emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, computer vision and advanced sensing, our research will greatly enhance timely repair, retrofit and maintenance of the nation’s large inventory of concrete dams.”
In the meantime, KU faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduate research assistants work to identify appropriate fiber-reinforced polymer materials for a unique application in concrete gravity dams. This materials characterization and large-scale testing work will take place in three different KU laboratories where enormous loads will be applied in flexible and direct-shear tests to measure the performance of the FRP repairs: the West Campus Structural Testing Facility, the Learned Hall Structural Engineering Testing Laboratory and the Lutz Fracture and Fatigue Laboratory.
Rémy Lequesne, associate professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering, will lead large-scale experimental testing of simulated joints in concrete dams, both with and without repairs.
“As America’s infrastructure ages, it’s important we become better at assessing whether structures can continue to serve safely and also develop improved methods to repair and extend the service-life of structures,” Lequesne said. “This project does just that. We’re developing more efficient methods for dam inspection and, through data collection and model development, providing tools that engineers can use to make decisions about whether and how to repair existing dams. Results will lead to recommendations and new modelling tools that engineers can use for assessment and design of repairs.”
Meantime, investigators at KU will conduct a scholarly review of all research into FRP materials, information that will guide their own testing of the promising materials. Carbon-fiber materials, lightweight and stronger than steel in strength-to-weight ratio, hold potential to address the enormity of repairing and retrofitting many of the 700-plus dams and related structures the USACE operates and maintains.
“These materials typically begin as fabric and are commonly made of a matrix of glass or carbon fiber, along with an epoxy or resin material,” Bennett said. “This unique matrix gives the material great strength-to-weight properties, resistance to corrosion and the ability to be formed into various geometries to match the substrate being worked with. As a result, FRP materials offer a cool opportunity to create overlays that follow the geometry of the structure while remaining strong and lightweight.”
According to Bennett, the goal of the work at KU is to boost American transportation and commerce, as well as safeguard nearby communities.
“Our systems of dams and levees is responsible for ensuring we have navigable waterways and that we have reliable water sources for drinking water as well,” she said. “This is hugely important infrastructure. We’re not really building new dams anymore, so it has become critical to maintain our existing inventory of dams from both a safety perspective, for drinking water, as well as navigability of our waterways. It’s very important to the safe functioning of our infrastructure, from a life-safety standpoint, but also from an economic and transportation standpoint.”
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Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
Study: ‘Spreadsheet wherewithal,’ life cycle of data key to preparing journalists, communicators
LAWRENCE — In the age of big data, information is everywhere. But it takes a skilled data interpreter and communicator to help people understand what information means and why it is important. To help ensure future journalists and communicators know how to find, make sense of and share data — and counter misinformation — two University of Kansas researchers have proposed a “data project life cycle” approach to preparing students.
Peter Bobkowski, Clyde M. Reed Professor of Journalism, and Christopher Etheridge, assistant professor of journalism & mass communications, conducted a study in which they interviewed 24 professionals in journalism and strategic communications about what kind of data skills students need to succeed in the disciplines. The findings show data literacy should guide efforts, and the authors present a model for instructors to ensure students have the necessary skills, such as what they call “spreadsheet wherewithal.” The piece was published in the journal Science Communication.
“The reality is for a lot of programs, the sub-fields like advertising, public relations, science communication and other areas are in classes together with journalism students,” Etheridge said. “Our premise is to take what data journalism is and apply it across disciplines, and then look at how we can help students apply those skills in the field.”
In science communication or in a project such as reporting on a school district’s budget, practitioners need to be able to look at numbers and tell an audience what they mean. The same is true for strategic communications disciplines, and the authors proposed a “data project life cycle” for educators to equip students with those skills. The model advances the idea that not every storyteller will be a computer coder, but all communicators need to be comfortable looking at data and pulling out the important information, or spreadsheet wherewithal. Educators should design courses that teach students to plan, then acquire, organize, analyze and interpret data in simple spreadsheets, then develop strategies to explain the data through text, audio, images and graphics. The “life cycle” approach is common in statistics but could be beneficial for communicators as well.
“Our research underscores the benefit of walking students through an entire data project cycle so that they establish connections between collecting data, arranging it in a dataset, analyzing it and communicating it,” Bobkowski said. “This is something statistics educators have emphasized for years. Perhaps our paper can prompt more instructors to consider the entirety of the data project cycle as they design data learning experiences for their students.”
The data project life cycle was developed based both on academic literature and input from professional journalists and communicators. The latter — people working in fields as diverse as public relations, marketing and strategic communications — told the researchers about the specific skills and levels of expertise graduates entering the field should have. Top among the skills discussed is spreadsheet wherewithal, or the ability to navigate features and components of spreadsheet software and how information therein can be analyzed and organized to yield useful results.
Practitioners also expressed the importance of software over coding, noting it was more important to have familiarity with commonly used programs than a knowledge of coding. Humanizing data and being able to tell a story with information was also high on the list, along with the importance of being able to relay it to both external and internal audiences. Finally, respondents indicated journalists and mass communicators need to know how and when to visualize data, or what programs to use to make visual presentations of data, and that they should possess a drive for lifelong and self-directed learning. In essence, being able to share data in an understandable way is as important as knowing where and how to find it.
“We wanted to ask people in the field if the things we were thinking of matched what they are looking for and how intensely these data skills are involved,” Etheridge said. “Our conversations with practitioners confirmed the data life cycle approach makes a lot of sense. The top line is that people who are hiring want spreadsheet wherewithal.”
While the importance of knowing how to use technologies to interpret data and relate it in understandable ways is vital for journalists and mass communicators, the authors wrote that those training future professionals should prepare them not only in how to use relevant tools but to be proficient in finding, understanding, interpreting and communicating data to ensure accurate data finds its way to wide audiences.
“This study underscores the central role of data literacy in today’s communication strategies across disciplines and content areas. Given the widespread use of scientific tactics and processes to advance business and societal goals, knowledge of the scientific method and statistical reasoning are critical for communication practitioners throughout varying fields and industries,” Bobkowski and Etheridge wrote. “As data is the fundamental building block of science, increased data literacy and understanding of the data life cycle can support greater scientific literacy among both communication practitioners and the publics they serve.”
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Contact: Emily Ryan, The Commons, 785-864-6293, [email protected], @TheCommonsKU
April Red Hot Research sessions to highlight graduate research, racial equity projects
LAWRENCE — The Red Hot Research series returns in April with two sessions focused on graduate student research and racial equity.
Red Hot Graduate Research, which showcases graduate students across a range of disciplines, will take place at 4 p.m. April 7. Later that month, a Red Hot Research event featuring recipients of the 2021 KU Racial Equity Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity Awards will take place at 3:30 p.m. April 28. Both events will take place at Jayhawk Ink on Level 2 of the Kansas Union. Drinks and snacks will be provided.
Red Hot Research is hosted by The Commons and features presenters from disciplines across the university sharing six-minute talks about their work as it intersects with core themes. The series opens new ways of understanding global and local challenges through discussion spanning methodological approaches and diverse perspectives.
The April 7 Red Hot Graduate Research session — curated and emceed by L Favicchia, a doctoral candidate in English — includes:
1. Jordan Cortesi, psychology
2. Darcy Sullivan, sociology
3. Camilah Hicks, social welfare
4. Kirsten Taylor, visual art
5. Sharif Tusuubira, ecology & evolutionary biology

The April 28 Red Hot Research session — curated by the Office of Research and emceed by Jennifer Ng, associate vice provost for faculty affairs — will feature a sampling of recipients of the 2021 Racial Equity Awards:

1. Yi-Yang Chen, music
2. Meagan Patterson, educational psychology
3. Jorge Soberón, ecology & evolutionary biology
4. Amy van de Riet, architecture
5. Maria Velasco, visual art
In keeping with the goals of this series, presenters are asked to consider how other disciplinary perspectives could contribute to their research, likely next steps for the research and challenges that they face in conducting the research. In turn, audience members are asked to offer insights, questions and ideas.

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KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

Extinction of steam locomotives derails assumptions about biological evolution
LAWRENCE — When the Kinks’ Ray Davies penned the tune “Last of the Steam-Powered Trains,” the vanishing locomotives stood as nostalgic symbols of a simpler English life. But for a paleontologist at the University of Kansas, the replacement of steam-powered trains with diesel and electric engines, as well as cars and trucks, might be a model of how some species in the fossil record died out.

Investment in information technology helps companies maximize innovation, study finds
LAWRENCE — A new study from a University of Kansas professor of business finds that firms with robust investments in IT produce more patents with greater value. Further, it finds such firms produce more patents that emphasize new knowledge. “Whether they’re managing the communication, the networking or the actual system in place, the knowledge of IT employees is very important in maximizing innovation output,” said Adi Masli, study co-author.

Four researchers named recipients of University Scholarly Achievement Award
LAWRENCE — Four midcareer faculty members at the University of Kansas — Erik Scott, Sandra Billinger, Timothy Jackson and Jeffrey Hall — will receive an award in recognition of their significant research or scholarly achievements in their field. The University Scholarly Achievement Award recipients will be honored, along with other university researchers, at the University Research Awards ceremony April 25.

KU pianist will perform world premiere of ‘Song of Spring Outing’
LAWRENCE — The Asian Classical Music Initiative and the University of Kansas Center for East Asian Studies will present the world premiere of “Song of Spring Outing,” a solo piano piece composed by Chen Yi, distinguished professor of composition at UMKC Conservatory. The performance, to take place at 7:30 p.m. March 30 at the Lied Center of Kansas Pavilion, will be performed by Yi-Yang Chen, assistant professor of piano at the KU School of Music.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Brendan Lynch, KU News Service, 785-864-8855, [email protected], @BrendanMLynch
Extinction of steam locomotives derails assumptions about biological evolution
LAWRENCE — When the Kinks’ Ray Davies penned the tune “Last of the Steam-Powered Trains,” the vanishing locomotives stood as nostalgic symbols of a simpler English life. But for a paleontologist at the University of Kansas, the replacement of steam-powered trains with diesel and electric engines, as well as cars and trucks, might be a model of how some species in the fossil record died out.
Bruce Lieberman, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology and senior curator of invertebrate paleontology at the KU Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum, sought to use steam-engine history to test the merits of “competitive exclusion,” a long-held idea in paleontology that species can drive other species to extinction through competition.
Working with former KU postdoctoral researcher Luke Strotz, now of Northwest University in Xi’an, China, Lieberman found the fossil record largely lacks the detailed data verifying competitive exclusion found in the history of steam engines: “It’s really hard to actually see any evidence that competition does play a big role in evolution,” Lieberman said.
Their findings have just been published in the paper “The end of the line: competitive exclusion and the extinction of historical entities” in the peer-reviewed journal Royal Society Open Science.
“There’s always been a bias to assume in the scientific community that competition is sort of the fundamental force that drives evolution and plays the biggest role on extinction,” Lieberman said. “That idea comes from a lot of different areas of research, including on the fossil record. But we, as paleontologists, have to dive down deeper into the data and analyze them.”
What would the ideal “fossil record” for steam trains look like? The researchers discovered a mother lode of data on steam engines, including their die-off, in Locobase, a steam locomotive database compiled and curated by Steve Llanso and accessible through steamlocomotive.com, a website run by Wes Barris.
“I’d always been fascinated by steam engines because they’re the technological equivalent of dinosaurs,” Lieberman said. “They’re gigantic. We infer dinosaurs made a lot of noise. We know that steam locomotives made a lot of noise, but they’re no longer with us.”
Lieberman and Strotz found the train database stood as an example of the sort of evidence necessary for paleontologists to conclude certain species died off due to competitive exclusion, or direct competition with other species.
“We’ve been thinking of trying to find a model from technology where we could say, ‘Aha! Here we have good evidence for competition playing the critical role,’” Lieberman said. “We’d know when certain new technologies appeared, like the mass production of the motor vehicle and the diesel locomotive. Maybe this is a case where we see what happened due to competition. Then, let’s look at the fossil record and try and use this technology as an example of what we need to see if we are going to, in fact, demonstrate competition played a role in extinction.”
The relevant train history for the KU researchers begins before steam-engine trains faced competition from emergent technologies that performed the same tasks. They focused on how much tractive effort was generated by steam engines versus the newer engines that would replace them.
“You start to see these new competitive challenges to the steam locomotive — first, the electrification of engines in the 1880s, and then the development of the automobile,” Lieberman said. “It was no longer efficient for railroads to use steam locomotives to pull things. Then they start to become more specialized and can only thrive in one or just a few areas pulling heavy things and maybe moving longer distances.”
Looking at the phase-out of steam locomotion, the researchers found evidence of “an immediate, directional response to the first appearance of a direct competitor, with subsequent competitors further reducing the realized niche of steam locomotives, until extinction was the inevitable outcome.”
But the study suggests extinction can be tied directly to competition between species only under specific circumstances “when niche overlap between an incumbent and its competitors is near absolute and where the incumbent is incapable of transitioning to a new adaptive zone.”
How might this work in the natural world? Lieberman cited three examples where paleontologists believed direct competition between species triggered extinction for some of the competitors. In some cases, the idea that competitive exclusion was at play has been debunked; in other examples, evidence of competitive exclusion falls far short compared with the meticulous data available on the demise of steam engines.
“One of the classic examples involved mammals and non-flying dinosaurs, where the traditional view was, ‘Hey, the mammals were smarter and quicker and they dropped these dinosaurs to extinction,’” he said. “Now we know that it was a giant rock that fell out of the sky that caused this tremendous environmental damage, and bigger things are more likely to be susceptible to that. The second famous example involves trilobites and crustaceans, and the last example is clams and brachiopods.”
The KU researcher said data on steam locomotives might cast doubt on the notion that adaptability in a species is a hallmark of evolutionary success. Rather, the study adds to evidence that species adapting to new roles and environments do so from desperation.
“For a time when there’s no competitors to steam-locomotive technology, we see them almost diversify and diffuse into no particular direction,” Lieberman said. “But when these new locomotives appear, we see a profound shift to really active natural selection and adaptation of the steam locomotive. Often, it’s thought that adaptation is a good sign for a group. But what we would argue is, in fact, when things start to adapt and shift directionally — traditionally in evolution that’s not a good time for a group. We’d argue it’s a sign the group may be experiencing duress or pressure from other things.”
By better understanding the causes, conditions and frequency of competitive exclusion, Lieberman said it might be possible to predict what species risk extinction in the years ahead, as human-driven climate change alters and reduces habitats for the world’s species.
“We wanted not just to look at the past, but to be able to predict competition,” Lieberman said. “Can we look at specific groups that are alive today that we might be able to project out into the future and say, ‘Hey, this thing is showing signs that it’s in this danger zone already.’ We can predict whether it’s going to go extinct.”
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Contact: Jon Niccum, KU News Service, 785-864-7633, [email protected]
Investment in information technology helps companies maximize innovation, study finds
LAWRENCE — Companies must innovate in order to sustain competitive advantage. But a new study reveals how integral information technology is to maintaining that advantage.
“What we find is investments in IT systems and in IT human resource is critical to maximize innovation across multiple categories,” said Adi Masli, a professor of business and Koch Foundation Fellow at the University of Kansas.
His article titled “Complementarity Between Investment in Information Technology (IT) and IT Human Resources: Implications for Different Types of Firm Innovation” finds that firms with robust investments in IT produce more patents with greater value. Further, it finds such firms produce more patents that emphasize new knowledge. It’s published in Information Systems Research.
Co-written by Feng Guo of Iowa State University and Yijun Li of Erasmus University Rotterdam (who both earned doctorates in accounting from KU) and Likoebe Maruping of Georgia State University, the study analyzes four types of innovation: incremental, radical, non-IT related and IT-related.
“There is a complementarity piece to investments in IT,” Masli said.
“Not only do you need to invest in tangible IT systems — software, hardware, networks and others — you also need to invest in the workplace environment for IT employees within the company. The complementarity of those two IT factors maximizes your innovation output.”
Masli’s impetus for the research began when he read an issue of Computerworld magazine that published an annual list of the “Best Places to Work in IT.”
He said, “It’s difficult to get that type of data about the workplace environment. There’s no mandatory requirement in financial reports suggesting companies have to determine and disclose how good or bad their workplace environment is. So when I came across this publication, it sparked that idea. Now we had a measure of how to assess the investments in workplace quality for IT employees in organizations.”
Using a sample involving 36,812 firm-year observations, Masli’s team analyzed various factors that play into a healthy workplace environment, including aspects such as work/life balance, opportunity for promotion and diversity.
Originally, he expected such investment would only help IT innovation output. However, the research team found it had a beneficial impact on non-IT innovation output as well. Similarly, the research looked at incremental innovation (the kind based on existing knowledge) versus radical innovation (the kind that creates new knowledge).
“We were expecting this complementarity to affect only one of these types, but we found it was pretty pervasive,” he said. “IT investment impacts all these different types of innovation.”
Innovation was traced through the amount of patents issued. But it wasn’t just the quantity which proved important; Masli was also interested in evaluating the quality. His team determined the “market value” of these innovations by gauging the change in total stock market capitalization in a three-day window in response to the issuing of a new patent.
Masli joined KU in 2011, where he continues his research in three key areas: the impact of IT in financial reporting quality and business performance; assurance and auditing of companies; and the labor market for executive teams. His past work concerning IT issues includes “Prioritizing IT Management Issues and Business Performance” for the Journal of Information Systems.
“Prior research has focused on how much money companies spent on tangible IT investments. What we’ve found is why companies shouldn’t overlook that the IT department itself serves as a critical support mechanism for innovation programs and departments,” Masli said.
“Whether they’re managing the communication, the networking or the actual system in place, the knowledge of IT employees is very important in maximizing innovation output. We can’t forget about the human element.”
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Contact: Joe Monaco, Office of Public Affairs, 785-864-7100, [email protected], @UnivOfKansas
Four researchers named recipients of University Scholarly Achievement Award
LAWRENCE — Four midcareer faculty members at the University of Kansas will receive an award in recognition of their significant research or scholarly achievements in their field.
The University Scholarly Achievement Award recognizes truly outstanding scholarly or research contributions, with one award given each year in each of four categories: arts and humanities; medicine and clinical sciences; science, technology and mathematics; and social science and professional programs.
This year’s winners in each category are as follows:
1. Erik Scott, Department of History (arts & humanities)
2. Sandra Billinger, Department of Neurology (medicine and clinical science)
3. Timothy Jackson, Department of Chemistry (science, technology and mathematics)
4. Jeffrey Hall, Department of Communication Studies (social science and professional programs)
“These four scholars have all helped to elevate our university through their work, and I look forward to helping them celebrate their successes,” said Chancellor Douglas A. Girod. “Taken together, these faculty members and their inspiring achievements demonstrate the breadth and depth of the contributions to society that are possible through the work of one of America’s leading research universities.”
A panel chaired by Karrie Shogren, the Ross and Marianna Beach Distinguished Professor of Special Education in the KU School of Education & Human Sciences, reviewed the nominations from colleagues at KU and across the nation.
These four winners — along with the winners of other annual research awards — will be honored at the University Research Awards ceremony April 25. The event will be hosted by the chancellor, and all faculty and staff are invited to attend to help celebrate the university’s top researchers from both the Lawrence and KU Medical Center campuses.
Additional information about each of this year’s recipients and their work from the nomination materials is below.
Erik Scott
Erik Scott, associate professor of history, is one of the most accomplished and original historians of Russia of his generation. His first book, titled “Familiar Strangers,” focused on the experience of Georgians living outside their homeland. Despite its narrow focus — or perhaps because of it — “Familiar Strangers” has become a key text for historians working to understand how people adapt to different ethno-territorial environments.
His second book, to be published by Oxford University Press in June 2023, is titled “World Without Exit: Soviet Cold War Defectors and the Borders of Globalization.” Telling the story of the Cold War through the personal stories of those who defected, it is both a brilliant rethinking of the Cold War and the first-ever history of defectors.
Sandra Billinger
Billinger is an internationally recognized pioneer and research leader in post-stroke clinical exercise testing and prescription. Her work has changed clinical practice paradigms at KU Medical Center and internationally, including substantial work in Singapore.
Billinger was recognized by the World Stroke Organization as one of 30 women globally as part of their Women in Stroke leadership recognition initiative. She is the only American physical therapist invited as a writing group member for the Canadian guidelines for exercise post-stroke in 2011 and updated in 2019. She was recently included in a newly formed physical activity workgroup within the International Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Alliance with a goal of codifying the first global, stroke-specific guidelines for physical activity and exercise after stroke, and she is working with colleagues in Singapore and their Ministry of Health to implement aerobic guidelines post-stroke nationally.
She has over 100 publications; two of these publications have over 1,000 citations each. Her letter writers describe her as “one of the five most accomplished PT-PhDs in the world” and a “force of nature.”
Timothy Jackson
Timothy Jackson is an outstanding, internationally recognized scholar who works in biomimetic transition metal chemistry. Jackson’s research has made a significant impact at the interface of chemical catalysis and chemical biology, utilizing metalloenzymes (nature’s highly refined catalysts) as biomimics for small molecule catalysts to harness environmentally taxing industrial chemical processes in an energy efficient and atom-economical fashion. His research synergistically uses synthetic, spectroscopic and computational approaches to advance biomimetic chemistry, ultimately addressing the critical challenges of finding new-generation catalysts for the synthesis of a variety of industrially and pharmaceutically important chemicals. In addition to his strong funding track record and significant scientific contributions, his continuous dedication to teaching and mentoring excellence is noteworthy.
Jeffrey Hall
Hall’s research focuses on interpersonal communication and human communication and technology, including the role of communication in creating, managing and enhancing relationships and the implications of technology-mediated communication on human society. One of his nominators described his scholarship as opening “an entirely new research trajectory for the field of communication.” Another noted that his work is prolific, impactful and is “shaping the way researchers and practitioners study interpersonal communication.”
He has written or co-written over 80 articles and book chapters and written two books. His work has been cited over 1,400 times and has been referenced by multiple media outlets. His most recent book, “Relating Through Technology,” has been described as one of the most important books in the area. His work has been funded through internal grants at KU, and he has received multiple awards for his publications from national and international professional organizations. He is also the founding editor-in-chief of the Human Communication & Technology journal.

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Contact: Elaine Huang, School of Music, [email protected]
KU pianist will perform world premiere of ‘Song of Spring Outing’
LAWRENCE — The Asian Classical Music Initiative (ACMI) and the University of Kansas Center for East Asian Studies will present the world premiere of “Song of Spring Outing,” a solo piano piece composed by Chen Yi, a distinguished professor of composition at UMKC Conservatory. The performance, to take place at 7:30 p.m. March 30 at the Lied Center of Kansas Pavilion, will be performed by Yi-Yang Chen, assistant professor of piano at the KU School of Music.
“Song of Spring Outing” is a part of the collaborative research project “Prelude,” funded by KU’s Racial Equity Research Grant. This project is a partnership between the KU Center for East Asian Studies and the KU School of Music. The performance will be preceded by the winners’ concert of the Orbifold Global Music Competition, starting at 5:30 p.m. This concert is also sponsored by the KU Student DEIB fund.
Yi is a highly acclaimed composer who blends Chinese and Western musical traditions, transcending cultural and stylistic boundaries. She was a 2006 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Since 1998, she has held a distinguished professorship at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Founded by Zhengyingyue (Elaine) Huang, the KU Asian Classical Music Initiative aims to create a platform for the recognition and celebration of the contributions made by Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander classical music composers This organization is focused on presenting diverse musical styles and traditions, including both classical and contemporary genres, to promote a greater understanding and appreciation of the rich and varied cultural heritage of the Asian and Pacific Islander communities.
Since its founding in the summer of 2021, KU ACMI has already produced several concerts and hosted an international conference, which brought together scholars, composers, performers and music enthusiasts from around the world to share their insights and perspectives on AAAPI classical music. The initiative is also engaged in outreach efforts to raise awareness of AAAPI music and provide educational opportunities for musicians and students who are interested in exploring this genre. Through its various activities, the KU Asian Classical Music Initiative seeks to build bridges between cultures and communities and to foster greater understanding and appreciation of the unique artistic expressions of the AAAPI communities.
For more information, please visit kuacmi.com.

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‘Garden City’ film shows what makes pluralism work, what threatens it
LAWRENCE — Screening March 29 at Kansas City FilmFest International, “Garden City, Kansas” touches on the thwarted 2016 domestic terror plot to attack Somali immigrants in the area. Yet the heart of the film is about what it takes to make pluralism work and what it takes to keep communities alive, according to director Robert Hurst, associate director of film & media studies at the University of Kansas.

KU Law to honor 3 distinguished alumni
LAWRENCE – Three University of Kansas School of Law alumni will receive the law school’s highest alumni honor, the Distinguished Alumni Award, this year. The award celebrates graduates for their professional achievements, contributions to the legal field and service to their community and the university. David Elkouri, Janet Justus and U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran will receive the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award at a private dinner April 1 in Lawrence.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
‘Garden City’ film shows what makes pluralism work, what threatens it

LAWRENCE – Garden City is something of a misnomer, sitting as it does on the parched high plains of southwest Kansas. But as the title of the new documentary by Robert Hurst, “Garden City, Kansas” serves as a metaphor.
“Garden City is a metaphor for … a common goal. That’s what pluralism is,” said Hurst, associate professor of film & media studies at the University of Kansas. “You have differences, but you find commonalities to work toward. And if somebody has a different religion or a different diet, it’s not a threat to you.”
A fine sentiment. But it was a threat to that way of life — a conspiracy by a handful of would-be domestic terrorists to attack and kill Somali immigrants — that set Hurst’s film in motion, and it’s an inextricable part of an otherwise upbeat film, said the director.

When news broke that the plot by an offshoot of a so-called “Three Percenter” militia group had been thwarted by federal law enforcement agents in October 2016, Hurst started sniffing around the story.
“There have been other stories, smaller films, made about Garden City, but none of them really had a national reach,” Hurst said. “So there were a lot of elements we took into consideration before we decided that we had something.
“Garden City is kind of unique as far as its size, its relative isolation and that it’s a majority minority … non-European-descent community,” Hurst said of the city of 25,000. “There are Mexicans and Somalis and their descendants from the Horn of Africa, Eritreans, Sudanese, people from Burma, Thailand, Vietnam. And then, you know, Central America, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and people from Cameroon. We met people from Haiti, from Cuba, from the subcontinent of India and Europeans, too.”
The attraction for all the immigrants — including some from other parts of Kansas — is the Tyson beef-packing plant that employs about 4,500 people. Hurst toured it and found some archival footage of inside to show the grueling work done by the almost exclusively immigrant workforce.
And yet some, like the Three Percenters, resent the immigrants, going so far — long before the bomb plot — as to spy on them in hopes of ferreting out some nefarious deeds like drug dealing or human trafficking.
“It’s sort of like they want to attract people but then reserve the right to belittle them and mock their religions and suspect them for not being the same,” Hurst said.
And while the explication of the bomb plot takes up only a minority of the film, Hurst said it was necessary for the film’s dramatic arc.
At its heart, he said, the film is about what it takes to make pluralism work and what it takes to keep communities alive.
“It’s about the dynamic of immigration and how it’s not perfect,” Hurst said. “How do the people who are already there treat the people who are arriving in the city? What does it take to make their own lives work? To make the city work?”
Hurst said COVID-19 lockdowns threw a monkey wrench into the film’s development. But now it’s hitting the film festival circuit, starting with the Kansas City FilmFest International on March 29 and including Lawrence’s Free State Festival in June-July. See here for KC FilmFest tickets and other details.
“We were a little concerned that its relevance would fade if we got too far away from the event, but that doesn’t seem to be the case,” Hurst said. “Unfortunately, I think it’s still really relevant. Three of the conspirators were deeply into alternative news sources and alternative facts and conspiracy theories. And that’s sort of mainstream at this point.”
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Contact: Emma Herrman, School of Law, [email protected], @kulawschool
KU Law to honor 3 distinguished alumni
LAWRENCE – Three University of Kansas School of Law alumni will receive the law school’s highest alumni honor, the Distinguished Alumni Award, this year. The award celebrates graduates for their professional achievements, contributions to the legal field and service to their community and the university.
David Elkouri, Janet Justus and U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran will receive the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award at a private dinner April 1 in Lawrence.
David Elkouri, L’78, has spent the last 12 years of his career serving as executive vice president and general counsel of two Houston-based, publicly traded corporations, Petrohawk Energy Corporation (Petrohawk) and Battalion Oil Corporation (formerly Halcon Resources Corporation). As one of the key members of the executive management team of Petrohawk, he was instrumental in growing the company from an initial investment of $60 million in 2004 into a company with a $15 billion enterprise value before it was sold in an all-cash transaction to BHP Billiton in 2011. Elkouri has been listed numerous times by “Best Lawyers in America” and has consistently been named a “Super Lawyer” in the areas of mergers, acquisitions and corporate governance. He has been a frequent speaker on topics involving corporate law and complex transactions. Elkouri served several terms on the Law School board of governors and taught a course on business transactions at KU Law. He served on the Wichita Airport Authority for eight years and was president for three years. He has been active in numerous other charitable and public boards over the years on the local, national and international levels.

Janet Justus, L’81, has more than 25 years of experience in sports law and higher education as an NCAA national office senior administrator, law firm counsel, consultant and university athletics administrator. During her 15 years with the NCAA, Justus held several leadership positions, including director of eligibility where she was the first woman director on the enforcement staff. She was the director of education outreach and produced the inaugural NCAA Achieving Gender-Equity Guide. Justus also served as the national spokesperson for the NCAA on Title IX and gender equity issues. Justus directed the development and growth of several NCAA program areas including Title IX education and advocacy, the National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills Program and student-athlete eligibility appeals. Her leadership within the national office and respect among NCAA member institutions influenced policies and legislation that made the association more gender-equitable and student-athlete centered. Justus received the Alumni Achievement Award from KU, was named the NACWAA (now Women Leaders in College Sports) National Administrator of the Year, was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the United States Sports Academy, was named the WIN for KC/Greater Kansas City Sports Commission Mentor of the Year and received the Kansas City Harmony Humanitarian of the Year award.

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, L’82, has served Kansans in the U.S. Senate since 2011. He represented Kansas’ 1st Congressional District for seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served eight years in the Kansas State Senate – spending the last two years as a majority leader. In addition to his 14 years practicing law, Moran has served as the state special assistant attorney general of Kansas, the deputy county attorney of Rooks County and assistant county attorney for Ellis County. He also served as an adjunct professor of political science at Fort Hays State University. Moran is admitted to practice law in the state and federal courts of Kansas and the United States. In the U.S. Senate, Moran is currently a senior member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations; the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He serves as the ranking member of one full committee and two subcommittees – the most of any member in the Senate. He is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs; the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; and the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations and Innovation.

Previous Distinguished Alumni Award recipients are listed on the law school’s website.
The law school will also recognize James Woods Green Medallion honorees and members of the Dean’s Club. Named after the school’s first dean, the medallion recognizes the school’s major financial supporters. This year’s honorees include:
1. Colleen Andreas
2. Michael Blumenthal, L’92, and Julie Blumenthal
3. Edmund Gross, L’80, and Michiko Miyamori Gross
4. Shane Hamilton and Rachel St. John
5. Judith Watson Waugh
6. Robert Werner, L’83, Rebecca Winterscheidt, L’83
7. Mark White, L’85.

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