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

Headlines

Contact: Joe Monaco, Office of Public Affairs, 785-864-7100, [email protected], @UnivOfKansas
KU to develop campus gateway that includes new multiuse space, re-imagined football facilities

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas is moving forward with a transformational development project to create a north gateway to campus that includes new multiple-use space and re-imagined Kansas Football facilities.

The project will transform the area near the intersection of 11th and Mississippi streets with new facilities that may include a mix of conference and entertainment space, retail and other functions that drive regional economic growth and generate revenue for academic programming.

The project includes major upgrades to David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium – one of the nation’s oldest football venues – to create a world-class experience for fans while providing Kansas Football the facilities it needs to compete at the highest level, as well as renovations to the Anderson Family Football Complex.

KU has chosen HNTB, a global leader in multipurpose entertainment venue design, as the lead architect, in partnership with Lawrence-based Multistudio. KU has also retained Nations Group, a national owner’s representative firm specializing in university athletics venues and mixed-use facilities. The firms will help KU develop more specific plans, timelines and cost estimates in the weeks ahead.

“The intersection near 11th and Mississippi streets is a primary campus entrance for prospective students, alumni and guests who are touring KU and visiting David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium,” Chancellor Douglas A. Girod said. “For these reasons, it’s the ideal location to develop a new gateway with multiuse facilities to better serve these audiences, generate revenue for academic programming, drive economic growth in the region and re-imagine our football facilities.”

The project will begin with renovations to Anderson Family Football Complex, as well as site preparation work related to stormwater, sanitation, Wi-Fi availability and electrical system upgrades, in the first half of 2023. KU will also select a construction manager in the weeks ahead.

The project will be funded primarily with private donations, economic development funds, premium seating sales in the stadium and future development opportunities that will be created on the site.

Revenue-generating potential and economic development
KU leaders in recent years have pursued strategies to generate revenue for academic programming and spur regional economic growth by hosting conferences and events on campus. Development of this project positions KU to pursue these goals in a way that benefits the university, the city of Lawrence and the broader region.

KU has commissioned an economic impact study to analyze the potential uses of mixed-use space that will be developed as part of the project. Additionally, the university will soon begin the process of selecting a project developer to help formulate a vision for how the mixed-use facilities in and around the re-imagined football stadium could be used.

Kansas Football
Goals for a re-imagined David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium include upgrades to the in-game experience such as seating bowl design with improved sightlines that increase fan comfort and bring fans closer to the field; expanded concessions, restrooms and accessible seating locations; improved concourse circulation; and new premium amenities such as club seats, loge seats and suites. Stadium design will include multiuse spaces to augment any convention and conference facilities that may be part of the project. Kansas Athletics is partnering with Elevate Sports Ventures to conduct fan focus groups to solicit feedback on what fans want in a re-imagined stadium. Additionally, Elevate recently completed a survey to understand what seating options and amenities are most important to fans.

“This project is unmatched in its vision to benefit a broad range of KU constituents while signaling a new era for Kansas Football,” said Travis Goff, director of athletics. “Once complete, this project will ensure our football program has the facilities it needs to compete at the highest level and provide the best-possible game day experience for student-athletes and fans. Moreover, we are thrilled this project goes beyond football to benefit the entire university and the regional economy.”

The university’s architecture and design partners will meet next week with Lance Leipold, football head coach, to discuss improvements to the Anderson Family Football Complex, which will focus on the student-athlete and recruitment experience.

“This project will have a profound impact on the future of Kansas Football and the entire community,” Leipold said. “It will specifically impact our current and future football players, who will now have a state-of-the-art facility to train in. With an up-to-date facility and a commitment to improve Anderson Family Football Complex, our day-to-day operation will be more efficient and effective. This is an exciting time for Kansas Football, and this certainly adds to it.”

Additional details about the project will be provided in the weeks ahead.

“Now, more than ever, college athletics – and certainly sustained success in the sport of football – are critical to the health and vibrancy of our entire university community,” Goff said. “There is tremendous excitement for this project among donors and partners who believe in KU’s mission, and in partnership with KU Endowment, we’ll be reaching out in earnest to our benefactors and supporters to ensure this ambitious vision becomes reality.”

-30-

————————————————————————

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

KPR’s Fall Membership Drive sets new record, raising $337,000
LAWRENCE – Kansas Public Radio listener-members came through for the public radio station during their fall membership drive, which took place Sept. 22-30 and raised more than $337,000 – the most successful fall campaign in KPR’s 70-year history. Members also provided more than $53,000 in challenge grants to encourage their fellow KPR fans to contribute to the station and match their gift during a certain timeframe.

New exhibition ‘The Heart Is a Fist’ opening Oct. 12 in Edgar Heap of Birds Gallery
LAWRENCE — An upcoming exhibition at the University of Kansas will feature recent works by artists from Haskell Indian Nations University and by KU alumnus Sydney Pursel, curator for public practice at the Spencer Museum of Art. “The Heart Is a Fist” runs from Oct. 12 through Nov. 4 at Edgar Heap of Birds Gallery. A reception is planned at 2 p.m. Oct. 23, with a panel discussion at 3 p.m.

KU project to responsibly maximize recovery from unconventional oil and gas reservoirs nominated for ‘Breakthrough Research of the Year’
LAWRENCE — A team led by a University of Kansas researcher is a finalist for one of the global energy industry’s most prestigious awards. Masoud Kalantari, associate professor of chemical & petroleum engineering at KU, and colleagues are developing a system to make hydraulic fracturing more efficient for energy producers. The project is one of three finalists for the 2022 “Breakthrough Research of the Year” awards at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC), which is set for next month and sponsored by the Society for Petroleum Engineers.

Full stories below.

————————————————————————

Contact: Joanna Fewins, Kansas Public Radio, 785-864-2468, [email protected], @kprnews
KPR’s Fall Membership Drive sets new record, raising $337,000
LAWRENCE – Kansas Public Radio listener-members came through for the public radio station during their fall membership drive, which took place Sept. 22-30 and raised more than $337,000 – the most successful fall campaign in KPR’s 70-year history. Members also provided more than $53,000 in challenge grants to encourage their fellow KPR fans to contribute to the station and match their gift during a certain timeframe.
The station relies on private support more than ever, as the majority of funds come from individuals who contribute to the station in order to ensure it can continue broadcasting and serving the community. Of the total raised, more than half now can be attributed to KPR Sustainers, or those who give monthly on an ongoing basis.
“Reflecting on the 70-year history of what is now known as Kansas Public Radio, it is clear that our public radio service is a labor of love. Like the state of Kansas motto, ‘Ad astra per aspera,’ KPR continues to reach for the stars even when faced with difficulty. In the past, KANU’s broadcast towers have fallen but rose again to continue providing service. Budget cuts have threatened to bring Kansas Public Radio down, but faithful listeners and underwriters have risen to the challenge to fill the gap and now provide more than 84% of our funding, and we couldn’t be more grateful,” said KPR Director Dan Skinner.
All donations during membership drives directly support KPR’s local and national programming, including news and talk shows from NPR, locally hosted music shows like classical music, “Trail Mix” and the “Retro Cocktail Hour,” and the equipment and technology that makes programs on KPR possible.
Although the drive has concluded, listeners can still show their support for KPR by donating online at kansaspublicradio.org.

-30-
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

Tweets by KUnews
————————————————————————

Contact: Jill Ensley, Department of Visual Art, [email protected]
New exhibition ‘The Heart Is a Fist’ opening Oct. 12 in Edgar Heap of Birds Gallery

LAWRENCE — An upcoming exhibition at the University of Kansas will feature recent works by artists from Haskell Indian Nations University and by KU alumnus Sydney Pursel, curator for public practice at the Spencer Museum of Art. “The Heart Is a Fist” runs from Oct. 12 through Nov. 4 at Edgar Heap of Birds Gallery. A reception is planned at 2 p.m. Oct. 23, with a panel discussion at 3 p.m.
The exhibition title comes from Joy Harjo’s poem “Break My Heart,” in which she wrote, “The heart is a fist / It pockets prayer or holds rage.” Accordingly, artworks in this exhibition “pocket prayer” and “hold rage,” some featuring the red hand of solidarity for missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW). The works also examine other issues that matter to Indigenous Americans, such as ancestral connections, boarding schools, Native stereotypes and humor.
“Let each work and the accompanying text lead the way into thoughtful meditation and remembrance of American histories that haunt as well as exalt us,” said David Titterington, instructor of art at Haskell Indian Nations University.
“The Heart Is a Fist” is sponsored by the Department of Visual Art and is the second show featuring Indigenous artists to be endowed by the Edgar Heap of Birds Family Exhibit Fund. The fund and gallery are named for Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne, Arapaho), a renowned artist and KU alumnus. The gallery, which located on the third floor of Chalmers Hall, is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Read more and see the full list of artists at the exhibition’s Facebook event site.

-30-
————————————————————————
Subscribe to KU Today, the campus newsletter,
for additional news about the University of Kansas.

http://www.news.ku.edu
————————————————————————

Contact: Cody Howard, School of Engineering, 785-864-2936, [email protected], @kuengineering
KU project to responsibly maximize recovery from unconventional oil and gas reservoirs nominated for ‘Breakthrough Research of the Year’
LAWRENCE — A team led by a University of Kansas researcher is a finalist for one of the global energy industry’s most prestigious awards.
Masoud Kalantari, associate professor of chemical & petroleum engineering at KU, is leading the group — which includes UCLA, MicroSilicon Inc. and EOG Resources Inc. — that is developing a system to make hydraulic fracturing more efficient for energy producers.
The project is one of three finalists for the 2022 “Breakthrough Research of the Year” awards at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC), which is set for next month and sponsored by the Society for Petroleum Engineers.
The recognition is “truly an honor,” Kalantari said.
There were more than 1,000 submissions to the conference’s awards, according to the KU researcher, and just 27 finalists across nine categories.
“This is kind of a significant achievement,” Kalantari said, “just to compete.”
He added that the recognition is also “a great opportunity for the KU as the lead institution for the project.
“It shows we’re promoting multidisciplinary research and that we are at the forefront of developing transformational technology that helps energy producers to maximize the recovery while achieving their net carbon zero goals,” he said.
Well-spacing optimization is one of the key challenges the energy industry is facing.
Developing unconventional resources requires a detailed understanding of the geometry and complexity of the generated hydraulic fractures. Drilling expensive and unnecessary wells not only affects the business significantly but also impacts the environment negatively in terms of footprints, contaminations, and emissions, Kalantari said.
Kalantari’s $3.49 million project funded by the Department of Energy has been underway since 2019. It involves developing and field-testing wireless, battery-less, fine size (as small as 250 micrometers, equal to 100 proppant size) smart microchip sensors coupled with a physics-informed, AI-based, iGeo-sensing platform that enables real-time, cost-efficient, continuous, high resolution and “direct” fracture diagnostics.
This transformational research and low-cost technology developments and field testing in partnership with EOG Resources will aid in transitioning technology to commercial deployment, Kalantari said.
“This is what is missing in our industry,” Kalantari said. The new technology will help companies “reduce the number of unnecessary wells or inefficient wells, and it helps the business in terms of return of investment. They maximize the recovery, they minimize the cost of operation, plus they contribute significantly to minimizing the environmental footprints and achieve net carbon-zero goals.”
A trial run of the technology is expected next year in the Permian Basin, which covers much of the southwest United States.
“The beauty of this project is we are partnering with oil and gas operators,” Kalantari said. “So if it goes through the trial process and if it becomes successful, we can move forward quickly with the commercialization phase.”
Kalantari’s project was chosen as a finalist for the Society of Petroleum Engineers ADIPEC award by a jury of experts that includes executives and professionals from major energy companies, academics and members of other energy industry organizations. The awards jury includes the ministers of energy and petroleum from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt — as well as the CEOs of several oil companies such as Occidental and Baker Hughes.
That’s a welcome opportunity to put KU’s brand and research before some of the world’s top energy company executives and producers, Kalantari said.
“Now the University of Kansas application is in front of those ministers plus top people of oil and gas companies,” Kalantari said. “Hopefully we get it and we bring the recognition back home.”
The award will be announced at the ADIPEC conference on Oct. 31 in the United Arab Emirates.

-30-
————————————————————————

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

Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
KU researcher gets at building blocks of language through speech prosody
LAWRENCE — Even the author admits that one of the main concepts of his new book is difficult to grasp: “Speech prosody, especially intonation, is something that is very elusive. You think you’re holding it back, controlling it, and all of a sudden it escapes,” said Antônio Roberto Monteiro Simões, University of Kansas professor of Spanish & Portuguese.
This perception that speech prosody is elusive is more easily related to learners of additional languages (or L2, in linguistic jargon), he said.
“I know linguists, native English speakers, who speak French or Spanish very well, who, given their training in linguistics, can understand intonation contours in detail, repeat perfectly what their language teachers tell them to repeat, but when they leave the classroom, their mastery of intonation in the classroom is gone,” Simões said.
That is one reason why Simões wrote a new book, “Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese Pronunciation: The Mainstream Pronunciation of Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, from Sound Segments to Speech Melodies” (Springer, 2022).
It is Simões’ explanation that speech prosody can be broken down into musical notes and offer new insights on how human languages and other forms of communication function. Prosody is a cover term for everything in speech that goes beyond the sound segment. Vowels and consonants are sound segments, while prosodies include rhythm, sentence intonation, intonation contours at the syllable level, syllable stress, sentence stress, sound quality, phonological rules and other elements that surface with the meaningful linking of segments.
Simões’ book presents the foundations of a new framework for the analysis of human communication that intends to use a modified version of the Western traditional musical notation to analyze any language. The initial data that he gathered came from Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and American English. One of the ideas is that words and sentences can be broken down into musical notes, mostly at the syllable level. Their prosody – perhaps the best single synonym for which is “musicality” – is an intrinsic part of their meaning. It’s the first step in exploring Simões’ unified linguistic theory intended for the analyses of the “melodies” of all human languages.
In Simões’ view, musical notation, but not necessarily traditional musical notation, is a powerful and universal means of analyzing human communication. Emotional states, for example, can be represented in musical notes, and human emotions are an area of ongoing research in Simões’ work. There are voluntary emotions reflected in speech, in facial and bodily expressions, and in involuntary emotions. In recent years, the study of involuntary emotions has become a new trend in the study of communication. Involuntary emotions like heartbeat and breathing are translatable into rhythmic patterns.
If the rhythmic patterns of involuntary emotions are successfully represented in some kind of musical notation, they will be more easily understood by many people, especially those who read music, and hopefully accessible to all in the future, Simões said.
Simões’ new book is full of charts, graphs, formulas and illustrations that help to explain his theories about sound segments, speech prosodies and speech melodies. Speech melodies are the equivalent term for speech prosodies. Speech prosody deals with spontaneous, daily speech. Speech melodies deal with speech in music, as in opera, for example, when singers talk in a singing-like conversation. In this context, the book illustrations cover such topics as the displacement of air, the duration of sounds, their relative volume, the position of the tongue in the mouth and more.
“It’s a very complex production because it deals with music, and I am not a musician,” Simões said, “so I had to learn quite a bit in the last couple of years. And the more I learned, the more I loved the whole project.”
Simões is also not a physicist, but he felt he had to learn some basic physics to write the chapter on “The Acoustics of Speech.”
“For a humanities-trained person, it takes some time to deal with physics,” he said.
Simões goes so far as to plot certain speech prosody on a musical staff. But the work, at its heart, is about language and not music, he said.
“We built all the existing achievements in phonetics and linguistics in general, from a background, from the roots, in music theory,” Simões said. “As I grappled with these ideas throughout my career, I said, ‘Why don’t we use musical notation to study prosody?’ Prosody, and sometimes intonation, are often called the melody of speech. Each language has its particular melody … its musicality.
“The big problem with the analysis of speech prosody today is that there is no unified framework for analyzing prosody. And generally, the entire existing framework focuses on intonation, not on the other prosodies. So we have major schools of language analysis in England, Holland, France, the United States, for example, and they are all different. These differences make it difficult to talk about the same thing. If we talk about it in terms of the U.S. framework, people here will relate to it. But if you talk about the French framework in the U.S., you may not be able to understand it. … But if music in the Western world is a universal way of representing speech prosody, well, why not put it that way?”
There are limitations with the use of musical notation, Simões said, but it’s all a matter of designing musical notation for speech.
“My idea is different from the historically existing attempts to transcribe speech into musical notation. I think I’ve gotten past the point where other researchers have tried. My proposal is to change the traditional features of music notation so that you can produce event scores in any type of communication. In the early developments of musical notation we find liturgical representations of speech melodies, i.e., recitative chant as in Gregorian chant, for example, through the use of neumes. Maybe we can call what I do a new neume.
“In other words, traditional music notation must remove some of its fixed divisions appropriate for music but not for speech, language and emotion. Bar lines need to be eliminated so that speech prosody, heartbeats, breathing and other involuntary signs of our emotional states flow in tempo-free and beat-free representations, that is, in a new notation that will allow flexible variations in tempo.”
-30-
————————————————————————

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

KU announces ExCEL Award winners, concludes 110th Homecoming
LAWRENCE — Students, student organizations and alumni were recognized during the University of Kansas-Iowa State football game Oct. 1, which concluded a week of activities for KU’s 110th Homecoming celebration. Three KU students were named winners of the 2022 Excellence in Community, Education and Leadership Awards, including one Kansan: Mikayla Leader, of Wichita (67212). Prairie Village residents Andrew and Lauren Wymore were honored with the Rich and Judy Billings Spirit of 1912 Award.

Five seniors, one alumnus to compete for Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell scholarships
LAWRENCE — Five current seniors and a recent graduate at the University of Kansas will compete for prestigious fellowships for study in the United Kingdom and Ireland this year with the support of KU’s Office of Fellowships. They include Kansans from Leawood, Pittsburg and Wichita (67205).

Full stories below.

————————————————————————

Contact: Paige Freeman, KU Alumni Association, 785-864-0953, [email protected], @kualumni
KU announces ExCEL Award winners, concludes 110th Homecoming
LAWRENCE — Three University of Kansas students were named winners of the 2022 Excellence in Community, Education and Leadership (ExCEL) Awards. Aylar Atadurdyyeva of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Miracle Emenuga of Lagos, Nigeria, and Mikayla Leader, of Wichita, were recognized during the KU-Iowa State football game Oct. 1 in David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, which concluded a week of activities for KU’s 110th Homecoming celebration.
Atadurdyyeva, a senior in global & international studies, microbiology, political science and Slavic studies with minors in German studies and psychology, is executive director of The Big Event and the Homecoming Steering Committee. She also directs finance and partnerships for Student Union Activities.
Emenuga, a senior in chemical engineering with a minor in biomedical engineering, is president of the KU chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and was formerly vice president of LEAD UP.
Leader, a senior in mathematics and STEMTeach, is executive director of Student Union Activities and an adviser for The Big Event.
ExCEL Award nominees were selected based on their leadership, communication skills, involvement at KU and in the Lawrence community, academic scholarship and ability to work with a variety of students and organizations. The ExCEL Award was first given in 1991, and this year’s awards were presented by Konica Minolta.
The KU Alumni Association also honored Thanh Tan Nguyen, a junior in business analytics and supply chain management from Phu Yen, Vietnam, with the Jennifer Alderdice Homecoming Award, which recognizes students who demonstrate outstanding loyalty and dedication to the University. Alderdice, of Lawrence, led student programs for the Alumni Association from 1999 to 2009 and earned her master’s degree in education from KU in 1999.
Other 2022 Homecoming award and competition winners:
Rich and Judy Billings Spirit of 1912 Award
Prairie Village residents Andrew and Lauren Wymore are members of the Williams Education Fund and the KU Alumni Association’s Presidents Club. Lauren Wymore is a 2006 graduate of the School of Education & Human Sciences. Andrew Wymore attended KU with the Class of 2004. He is a senior realtor with ReeceNichols and a corporate partner of the Alumni Association.
Student organization overall competition winners
Small group:
1. First place: Zeta Beta Tau and Sigma Kappa
2. Second place: KJHK 90.7 student radio station
3. Third place: Lambda Phi Epsilon
Large group:
1. First place: Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Alpha Tau Omega and Alpha Chi Omega
2. Second place: Theta Chi and Kappa Delta
3. Third place: Delta Tau Delta and Pi Beta Phi

Student organization individual event competition winners

Jayhawk Jingles
Small group:
1. First place: Zeta Beta Tau and Sigma Kappa
2. Second place: KJHK 90.7 student radio station
Large group:
1. First place: Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Alpha Tau Omega and Alpha Chi Omega
2. Second place: Theta Chi and Kappa Delta
3. Third place: Delta Chi, Alpha Sigma Phi and Delta Gamma

Chalk ’n’ Rock
Small group:
1. First place: Zeta Beta Tau and Sigma Kappa
2. Second place: Lambda Phi Epsilon
Large group:
1. First place: Theta Chi and Kappa Delta
2. Second place: Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Alpha Tau Omega and Alpha Chi Omega
3. Third place: Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Pi and Gamma Phi Beta

Sign competition
Small group:
1. First place: Zeta Beta Tau and Sigma Kappa
2. Second place: KJHK 90.7 student radio station
Large group:
1. First place: Kappa Sigma, Alpha Kappa Lambda and Kappa Alpha Theta
2. Second place: Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Alpha Tau Omega and Alpha Chi Omega
3. Third place: Delta Tau Delta and Pi Beta Phi
The theme for KU’s 110th Homecoming was “Home on the Hill,” and throughout the week students and alumni marked the occasion with various activities, including networking events, reunions and tailgates. KU’s Homecoming was sponsored by Best Western Plus-West Lawrence, Central Bank of the Midwest, Konica Minolta, the KU Bookstore and Pepsi Zero Sugar.
For more information about Homecoming, go to kualumni.org/homecoming.

-30-
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.

Tweets by KUnews
————————————————————————

Contact: Andy Hyland, Office of Public Affairs, 785-864-7100, [email protected], @UnivOfKansas
Five seniors, one alumnus to compete for Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell scholarships
LAWRENCE — Five current seniors and a recent graduate at the University of Kansas will compete for prestigious fellowships for study in the United Kingdom and Ireland this year with the support of KU’s Office of Fellowships.
Current seniors Virginia Hannahan and Ximena Ibarra have been endorsed for the Mitchell Scholarship, which provides funding for one year of study in Ireland. Hannahan and Ibarra are joined by seniors Christopher Kywe, Mary Sevart and recent graduate Joseph Hartung in being endorsed for the Marshall Scholarship, which provides funding for graduate study at any university in the United Kingdom. Aylar Atadurdyyeva, along with Hannahan, Ibarra, Kywe and Sevart, were endorsed for the Rhodes Scholarship, which provides expenses for one to three years of study at the University of Oxford in England.
Regional panels review applications for both the Rhodes and Marshall scholarship programs. The Mitchell Scholarship has a first-round video interview before finalist interviews in November. Finalists for the Rhodes and Marshall are invited to participate in interviews in November. Only U.S. citizens can apply for the Marshall and Mitchell scholarships, while the Rhodes Scholarship has 20 constituencies around the world, including the United States and Canada, and a new Global Rhodes Scholarship program.
The Office of Fellowships, a unit of Academic Success, coordinates KU’s endorsement process and supports candidates through the application process. Students interested in applying for these awards are encouraged to contact the office by email at [email protected]. Depending on other eligibility requirements, students may apply for these awards as graduating seniors or recent graduates.
KU students have previously won two Mitchell Scholarships, nine Marshall Scholarships and 27 Rhodes Scholarships.
Aylar Atadurdyyeva is the daughter of Abdyrahym Atadurdyyeva and Bagty Atadurdyyeva. She is a senior in microbiology, global & international studies, political science and Slavic studies with minors in German studies and psychology. An international student from Turkmenistan, Atadurdyyeva plans a career in global public health that both develops health research and applies it through education and policy interventions. Atadurdyyeva’s primary interests involve understanding and combating antimicrobial resistance, particularly in Central Asia and other regions in which health outcomes are impaired by social factors like policy and health access. She was selected as a Key into Public Service Scholar by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Since joining KU, Atadurdyyeva has won the RWJ Scholars Award, Mai Anh Do & David Nguyen Foundation Scholarship and Laird Essay Award, and her record of service to KU and the Lawrence community has been widely recognized by the KU Homecoming Steering Committee director, the International Student Association and the University Honors Program, which enrolled her as an ambassador and a seminar assistant. Atadurdyyeva is also the executive director of The Big Event and director of finance and partnerships of Student Union Activities. Among these accomplishments, she is being named the KU Student Employee of the Year as well as the State of Kansas Student Employee of the Year in 2022 for her work for the Office of Graduate Studies.

Virgina Hannahan, of Fairhope, Alabama, is majoring in philosophy with a certificate in logic and formal reasoning. She is the daughter of Tommy and Bridget Hannahan and a graduate of St. Michael Catholic High School. Hannahan is the founder and president of the Students for Personal and Academic Resources for Kids (SPARK) Project, which provides academic, artistic and athletic enrichment opportunities for students in East Lawrence. She also works for Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence at New York Elementary School, where she coordinates Project Learn, an afterschool academic enrichment program. Hannahan serves as the president of the Undergraduate Philosophy Club and Thomistic Institute, and she is an active parishioner at the St. Lawrence Catholic Student Center. In her free time, she enjoys listening to the “Advisory Opinions” podcast and watching KU basketball games.

Ximena Ibarra, of Pittsburg, is double majoring in political science and American studies with a minor in Spanish and is a graduate of Pittsburg High School. She is the daughter of Susana Quintana and Marco Ibarra. After graduation, Ibarra plans to earn a juris doctor focusing on law and social change. She is a member of the University Honors Program and was selected as a 2020-2021 University Scholar. Ibarra served as the chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee at KU, where she co-organized and moderated a town hall forum that provided students from underrepresented groups the opportunity to voice their concerns. She is also the vice president of the ACLU at KU, was the student representative for Kansas for Constitutional Freedom and is a founding member of Lawrence Freedgin Kansas community food pantry. Additionally, she was a student ambassador for the Center for Sexuality & Gender Diversity and formerly served as the founder and Campus Corps leader for Jayhawks for Bernie in 2020. Ibarra also participated in the Bench Builder Summer Internship Program within the Kansas Democratic Party during summer 2021 and served as an intern at the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration in Washington, D.C., throughout spring 2022.

Christopher Kywe, from Leawood, is the son of Myo Kywe and Ma Myat and is a senior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in molecular, cellular & developmental biology, with a minor in French. Kywe has been on the Dean’s List since his first semester at the university, was inducted to Phi Beta Kappa and has thrived as a member of the University Honors Program. His current research investigates what causes differences in innate immune response following bacterial infections. In fall 2021, he was awarded an Undergraduate Research Award to pursue this work, and in 2022, he received the Jenna Robinson Memorial Scholarship and the Del and Carol Shankel Biomedical Opportunity Award. In addition to his research endeavors, Kywe has a passion for community outreach and public service. He started the KU Chapter of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) and serves as KU Chemistry Club’s president. Outside of the institution, he has also served as a volunteer for the Crisis Text Line to assist individuals with mental health crises, as well as for Lawrence Memorial Hospital to help with patient transport and to assist nursing staff. He also organized a fundraiser to collect hospital supplies and provide free therapy and meals to families in the emergency room. Kywe hopes to become a research professor at an R1 institution to illuminate the role that genetic differences play in disease pathogenesis and use his position to inspire the next generation of scientists. To this end, he hopes to pursue a graduate degree in the United Kingdom, where he will use genomics to investigate cancer drug resistance and work on cancer prevention.

Mary Sevart, from Wichita, is the daughter of Eric and Karen Sevart and a graduate of Maize High School. Sevart is majoring in chemical engineering with plans to pursue a doctorate in the same field. Currently, Sevart serves as the testing lab manager for the KU Biodiesel Initiative and conducts undergraduate research under Susan Williams, Charles E. & Mary Jane Spahr Professor, with a focus on the valorization of hemp biomass to create a fuel source. She also is the co-president of KU’s Society of Women Engineers chapter and a KU School of Engineering ambassador. In spring of 2022, Sevart was named a Barry M. Goldwater scholar as well as Outstanding Junior of the Year in the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering. She was also selected as a university representative for the Kansas Undergraduate Research Days at the Capitol event. In fall 2021, Sevart won first place in the Society of Women Engineers national poster competition, and in spring 2021, she received the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship and an Undergraduate Research Award. Sevart worked at Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita in the summer of 2021 as a materials and processes engineering intern, and most recently during summer 2022, she interned at the National Weather Service in State College, Pennsylvania, as a hydrology intern, with a focus on improving the accuracy of river forecasting models.

Joseph Hartung, from St. Louis, is the son of John and Mary Hartung. A graduate of St. Louis University High School, he graduated with a double major in history and global & international studies and triple minored in African & African American studies, national security studies and political science. A member of the University Honors Program, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior. He was selected as a 2020 Boren Scholar and 2021 Phi Beta Kappa Key into Public Service Scholar. Hartung spent spring 2021 in Kenya as a researcher for the Horn International Institute for Strategic Studies. Hartung has also performed research for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, and the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office. A scholar in the Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence, Hartung has interned for Africa-focused sections of the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense. On campus, he was involved with the Kiswahili Program, the Sailing Club, KU Jazz Ensemble I and the All Scholarship Hall Council. He volunteered for the Countering Wildlife Trafficking Institute, Wale Kenya and Outreach International.

-30-
————————————————————————

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