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

Headlines

New principles for biological fieldwork will build equity for researchers and local communities
LAWRENCE — A new paper appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences lays out a set of principles for biological fieldwork designed to lessen inequities between researchers and local populations, as well as internally among research teams themselves. Many “best practices” in the paper are adapted from procedures for permitting and licensing developed over years at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum.

2022 KU Engineering graduate awarded $35,000 Phi Kappa Phi fellowship
LAWRENCE — Amanda Hertel, a 2022 University of Kansas graduate in chemical engineering from Shawnee, is the recipient of the 1897 Fellowship by the honor society of Phi Kappa Phi — the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. The prestigious $35,000 fellowship recognizes the top-scoring applicant in a STEM discipline. As the 1897 Fellow, Hertel will pursue a Doctor of Medicine at the KU School of Medicine.

Kansas Geological Survey scientist receives early career award
LAWRENCE — Sam Zipper, assistant scientist and geohydrologist at the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas, is the 2022 recipient of the Kohout Early Career Award from the Hydrogeology Division of the Geological Society of America, nominated for his work to help understand and improve water resources in agricultural, urban and natural environments.

Nine KU students receive Undergraduate Research Awards for fall
LAWRENCE — This fall, nine University of Kansas students will receive an Undergraduate Research Award (UGRA). UGRA recipients are awarded a $1,000 scholarship as they work on mentored research and creative projects. The fall 2022 recipients include Kansans from Lawrence, Overland Park and Topeka.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Brendan Lynch, KU News Service, 785-864-8855, [email protected], @BrendanMLynch
New principles for biological fieldwork will build equity for researchers and local communities
LAWRENCE — For hundreds of years, teams of biologists have carried out fieldwork around the globe, often trekking to remote places to collect specimens and data about our natural world. Today, such work can demand collaboration between large international teams of biologists, extensive permitting with authorities, interaction with local communities and research plans often led by one or two senior investigators.
Too often, these factors can result in power imbalances between researchers and local communities where fieldwork takes place. Moreover, inequities based on race, gender, sexual orientation and seniority can develop within the teams of researchers themselves.
Now, a new paper appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences lays out a set of principles for biological fieldwork designed to lessen inequities between researchers and local populations, as well as internally among research teams themselves. Many “best practices” in the paper are adapted from procedures for permitting and licensing developed over years at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum.
“When I was invited by colleagues at Berkeley to be part of this conversation, I was really happy to contribute,” said co-author Rafe Brown, curator-in-charge of the Herpetology Division at KU’s Biodiversity Institute. “After more than 30 years of working in the Philippines, I had lots of experience in managing groups of people working together in the field. I’d seen a lot of things work out well, and a lot of things work out so-so, where we needed some improvement in the way we interact, as groups of people, working often in remote and stressful field conditions. I’ve seen some real trainwrecks of group psychology during fieldwork — and things that just struck me as potentially dangerous. I never had any real disasters myself, but I saw some risky and even scary behavior, and heard a lot of stories over the years, in my early career, and in grad school.”
KU’s Biodiversity Institute is seen as a leader in collaborating with local authorities and populations to make sure biological fieldwork is ethical, legal and safe — in part because of its extensive checklists and procedures for permitting and licensing. Supplemental documents to the PNAS paper — a Field Safety Plan Template and a Scientific Permit Checklist – are adapted in part from KU’s procedures.
“I’d like to see these shared widely and adopted by institutions around the world as a foundation for fieldwork planning,” said Lori Schlenker, assistant director of collections and facilities at the Biodiversity Institute. “We’re committed to participating in safe and legal fieldwork and training the next generation of students to be able to lead their own programs and mentor their own students in these practices when they graduate from KU. We’ve been building on our experiences — good and bad — and have developed procedures so that prior to departure, permits are in place and researchers have considered how they will collect, export and import research specimens safely, legally and ethically. This ensures that resources are not expended on specimens that we cannot legally accession into our collections. Most importantly, the safety of all field team members is critical. Applying the experience of our BI researchers, and with guidance from KU, emphasis is placed on communication and transparency as part of the fieldwork planning process.”
Much of this to hone the way KU biologists tackle permitting and interacting with local authorities and communities has taken place in the Philippines, where Biodiversity Institute personnel strive for locally inclusive fieldwork.
“Our 15-year, multi-institutional collaboration with KU has resulted the traditional products and outputs — like students trained, papers published, grants obtained — but it has also profited from many deep discussions and steps taken, to correct the past landscape of exclusively foreigner-led, expeditionary fieldwork,” said co-author Tess Sanguila of Father Saturnino Urios University in the Philippines. “Additionally, here within the country, our own scientific community often only considers and prioritizes the contributions and inputs from the so-called experts in the capital city over those of the researchers from the provinces in the southern Philippines, who are stereotyped as being of inferior expertise. This paper provides a simplified and practical starting point, from which we hope to establish a solution to this whole imbalanced culture, and from which we fundamentally advocate to ‘support local’ for more inclusive and invigorated long-term collaborations of the future.”
The PNAS paper advocates four main principles for fieldwork to promote “equity, reciprocity, access, benefit-sharing and safety”:
1. Be collaborative: We embrace collaborative science and fieldwork practices with our partners, field teams and the communities with whom we work.
2. Be respectful: We prioritize local sovereignty and long-term benefits for the community, and we invest time and effort in learning about and respecting local history and cultures.
3. Be legal: We commit to obtaining all necessary permits, authorizations, and land permissions, and to following all legal guidelines and requirements.
4. Be safe: We work proactively to promote a safe physical and emotional environment for all members of research teams and local communities with clear guidance and communications.
Lead author Valeria Ramírez Castañeda, doctoral student in integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, said her own time conducting biological fieldwork in the Amazon inspired her work on the paper.
“My own personal experience comes from the Global South,” Castañeda said. “I’m Colombian, and my focus was in particular on how we interact with local communities when conducting fieldwork. My research in biology takes place in the Colombian Amazon, where I work with predator-prey interactions between snakes and frogs. The local community — biologists, drivers, field assistants, among others — sustain and inform my work there. However, are we scientists reciprocal when it comes to thinking about benefits and acknowledgments for the community? I’ve been trying to change or at least acknowledge practices that exclude the local communities from research. I was born in the biggest city in Colombia — Bogotá — so I was an uninvited guest in the Amazon territory. I’ve been trying to get to know the community where I work, ask for consent for every procedure, explain my research, collaborate with biologists and field assistants from indigenous and local communities, and participate in community-science projects.”
In addition to working with local populations and authorities, the new paper offers recommendations to alleviate power asymmetries that can plague fieldwork teams internally.
“With all the recent civil unrest in the U.S. and the existing inequities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, it’s a good time to reevaluate how we do things in our profession because people are listening and reflecting,” said Rebecca Tarvin, assistant professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. “Personally, I’ve wanted to think more deeply about field biology for some time. I didn’t receive any formal training on how to do collaborative science involving fieldwork and I think this is largely true for others in field biology. The way people conduct fieldwork thus often depends on the norms and culture of their lab and on the default approaches to doing science. However, doing equitable science takes intentional planning, and many default approaches are not equitable. That’s why we wanted to provide some general guidelines that can help anyone proactively plan more equitable research programs.”
Tarvin added that data show diverse teams can produce more innovative and robust research.
“Having diverse groups doing fieldwork in a way that is fair, open and collaborative with the people living where we work has the further benefit of including everyone in conducting, communicating and benefiting from science,” she said.
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Contact: Cody Howard, School of Engineering, 785-864-2936, [email protected], @kuengineering
2022 KU Engineering graduate awarded $35,000 Phi Kappa Phi fellowship
LAWRENCE — Amanda Hertel, a 2022 University of Kansas graduate in chemical engineering from Shawnee, is the recipient of the 1897 Fellowship by the honor society of Phi Kappa Phi — the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. The prestigious $35,000 fellowship recognizes the top-scoring applicant in a STEM discipline. As the 1897 Fellow, Hertel will pursue a Doctor of Medicine at the KU School of Medicine.
“Amanda is a truly superb student with both great talent and a strong interest in the well-being of others. There is no doubt that she will be an outstanding physician,” said Dave Darwin, professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering.
Hertel was nominated for the fellowship after being selected this spring by the KU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi as the winner of James Blackiston Memorial Graduate Fellowship.
Hertel received multiple additional honors while at KU, including a Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society Scholarship, Undergraduate Research Awards in spring 2021, fall 2021 and spring 2022, the Fred Kurata Thermodynamics Award and the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Performance Award in Chemical Engineering.
Since its creation in 1932, the Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship Program has become one of the society’s most visible and financially well-supported endeavors, allocating $649,000 annually to outstanding students for first-year graduate or professional study. This year’s program awarded two awards at $35,000 each, the 1897 Fellowship and the Sherrill Carlson Fellowship; six $20,000 Marcus L. Urann Fellowships, named for the society’s founder; and 54 fellowships of $8,500 each.
The selection process for a fellowship is based on the applicant’s evidence of graduate potential, undergraduate academic achievement, service and leadership experience, letters of recommendation, personal statement of educational perspective and career goals, and acceptance in an approved graduate or professional program.
To see the complete list of 2022 Phi Kappa Phi Fellows and learn more about the program, visit www.PhiKappaPhi.org/2022Fellowships.

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Contact: Sam Zipper, Kansas Geological Survey, 785-864-0364, [email protected], @ksgeology
Kansas Geological Survey scientist receives early career award
LAWRENCE — Sam Zipper, assistant scientist and geohydrologist at the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas, is the 2022 recipient of the Kohout Early Career Award from the Hydrogeology Division of the Geological Society of America, nominated for his work to help understand and improve water resources in agricultural, urban and natural environments.
The award, given annually to a scientist age 35 or younger or within five years of receiving their highest degree, recognizes the recipient’s contributions to the hydrogeologic profession through original research and service as well as a demonstrated potential for continued excellence throughout their career.
At the KGS, Zipper leads the HydroEcology of Anthropogenic Landscapes (HEAL@KGS) research group and, with KGS assistant scientist Erin Seybold, leads the survey’s geohydrology internship program. Much of his research focuses on how water and land management decisions affect the people, economy and environment of the Great Plains.
“His work wrestles with one of the thorniest societal problems of our day — how do we sustainably manage our land and water resources to support human life and livelihood, ensure food and clean water for a growing population, and preserve natural ecosystems both now and for future generations?” said Steven Loheide, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was Zipper’s doctoral adviser and nominated him for the award.
Zipper’s research includes examining the relationships between intermittent and ephemeral streams and playas and other ecological systems, studying the effects of irrigator-driven groundwater conservation programs on water resources and developing easy-to-use tools to estimate streamflow depletion caused by groundwater pumping.
“I think Sam’s contributions have been particularly important because they transcend disciplinary boundaries, using a range of field methods, numerical modeling, analytical and statistical techniques, and social science to address societally relevant grand challenges,” Loheide said.
Zipper’s current research on water resources in Kansas is funded in part through several large grants from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Geological Survey and NASA.
“The KGS and KU have been a wonderfully supportive place to build a career focused on water issues that affect residents of Kansas and the Great Plains and that matter to people around the world,” Zipper said. “It is really heartening to know that the research I am doing has made an impact. Working through COVID, it was challenging to connect with other members of both the state water management and global water research communities, and sometimes working on research felt like releasing things into the void. This award is an encouraging indication that people paid attention to and valued what I have been doing the past couple of years.”
Zipper has been a member of the KGS since 2019 and is the author or co-author of 58 scientific publications with more than 250 co-authors from more than 150 institutions.
“Sam is a truly deserving recipient of the Kohout Early Career Award,” said Scott Ishman, associate director for research at the KGS. “His research is highly relevant to the state of Kansas and globally, addressing water resource availability, use, access and sustainability. The Kansas Geological Survey is fortunate to have such an accomplished early career scientist who shares his love and excitement for his research with his colleagues and students.”
Membership in the Geological Society of America consists of more than 20,000 earth scientists worldwide. Its Hydrogeology Division, established in 1959, promotes research and discussion within the branch of the geological sciences focused on water resources. The Kohout Early Career Award is named for Francis Kohout, an early pioneer in the study of geothermal saltwater convection in carbonate platforms. Zipper will receive the award during GSA’s annual meeting in October.
The Kansas Geological Survey is a nonregulatory research and service division of the University of Kansas. KGS researchers study and provide information about the state’s geologic resources and hazards, including groundwater, oil and natural gas, rocks and minerals, and earthquakes.
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Contact: Matt Downen, Center for Undergraduate Research, [email protected], @ugresearchKU
Nine KU students receive Undergraduate Research Awards for fall
LAWRENCE — This fall, nine University of Kansas students will receive an Undergraduate Research Award (UGRA). UGRA recipients are awarded a $1,000 scholarship as they work on mentored research and creative projects.
Students apply for UGRAs by writing a four-page research proposal under the guidance of a mentor. Faculty reviewers evaluate the applications based on the merit of the applicant’s proposal and a recommendation from the mentor.
“Students continue to make meaningful contributions to their fields in all disciplines across campus,” said Alison Olcott, director of the Center for Undergraduate Research. “These students are learning to use the tools of their disciplines in the process of research.”
This fall, the competition for Spring 2023 UGRAs will open. Online guidance and individual advising appointments are available to help students prepare strong applications. More information can be found here: http://ugresearch.ku.edu/student/fund/ugra.
Students receiving awards for fall 2022 are listed below in alphabetical order along with year in school, hometown, project title, mentor and mentor’s department:
1. Eleazar Abraham, a junior from Tangerang, Indonesia, “Optimization of BBB Modulators (BBBM) for Drug Delivery to the Brain,” mentored by Teruna Siahaan, Aya and Takeru Higuchi Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
2. Jaydin Chase, a senior from Ankeny, Iowa, “Reading Intervention in Autistic Adults: Comparing Past Teachings to Current Perspectives,” mentored by Meghan Davidson, assistant professor of speech-language-hearing.
3. Joey Craft, a senior from Lawrence, “Exploring the Creation of Refugia and Improved Water Quality by Changing North American Freshwater Mussel Bed Densities and Configurations,” mentored by Amy Hansen, Diane M. Darwin Chair’s Council Assistant Professor of Engineering.
4. Vichie Hou, a senior from Washington, D.C., “Social Networks and Spatial Ecology of the Little Scrub Island Ground Lizard,” mentored by David Mai, assistant teaching professor of film & media studies.
5. Elizabeth Lee, a senior from Blue Springs, Missouri, “Measuring Sustainability and Resilience Tradeoffs for Tornado-Resistant Design Approaches for Single-Family Residential Buildings,” mentored by Elaina Sutley, associate professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering.
6. Hannah Min, a senior from Lawrence, “Exploring the Creation of Refugia and Improved Water Quality by Changing North American Freshwater Mussel Bed Densities and Configurations,” mentored by Amy Hansen, Diane M. Darwin Chair’s Council Assistant Professor of Engineering.
7. Raina Peter, a junior from Topeka, “Barking or Biting: When and Why Does ‘Tough on China’ Legislation Have Economic Teeth?,” mentored by Jack Zhang, assistant professor of political science.
8. Danielle Pulido, a senior from St. Joseph, Missouri, “Determining the Feasibility of Using Eye-Tracking Technology to Examine Listening Comprehension,” mentored by Meghan Davidson, assistant professor of speech-language-hearing.
9. Tomas Rascati, a senior from Overland Park, “Mundo-19,” mentored by Elise Kirk, assistant professor of photography.

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Headlines

KU area studies centers win $8 million in Title VI funding
LAWRENCE — Four international area studies centers at the University of Kansas — the Kansas African Studies Center, Center for East Asian Studies, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies and Center for Russian, Eastern European & Eurasian Studies — have been awarded more than $8 million in grant funding under the U.S. Department of Education’s competitive Title VI program. As one of 13 universities in the country to have four or more centers receive the highly sought-after Title VI grants, KU’s success expands upon its reputation as a hub for international activity in the Midwest.

English scholar serving as interim leader of Hall Center for Humanities following director’s retirement
LAWRENCE — Richard Godbeer, director of the Hall Center for the Humanities, has retired from the University of Kansas. He led the intellectual hub for humanities scholars and its robust public outreach program for three years. Giselle Anatol, professor of English and director of KU’s Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction, is serving as interim director of the Hall Center.

Eight faculty recognized as winners of distinguished teaching awards
LAWRENCE — Eight faculty members at the University of Kansas are being recognized as winners of annual distinguished teaching awards. The award recipients, who represent the Lawrence and Medical Center campuses, will be honored Aug. 18 at the KU Teaching Summit.

Two KU Law professors elected to prestigious American Law Institute
LAWRENCE – Two professors at the University of Kansas School of Law — Uma Outka and Andrew Torrance — are among 60 newly elected members of the American Law Institute, an independent national organization that produces scholarly work to clarify, modernize and otherwise improve the law. There are now nine active KU Law faculty who are members of the institute.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Jill Hummels, Office of the Provost, 785-864-6577, [email protected], @KUProvost
KU area studies centers win $8 million in Title VI funding
LAWRENCE — Four international area studies centers at the University of Kansas have been awarded more than $8 million in grant funding under the U.S. Department of Education’s competitive Title VI program.
As one of 13 universities in the country to have four or more centers receive the highly sought-after Title VI grants, KU’s success expands upon its reputation as a hub for international activity in the Midwest.
The Title VI National Resource Centers program provides grants to establish, strengthen and operate centers throughout the United States that teach modern foreign languages, as well as provide instruction about the history and cultures of the region where the languages are used.
“This news confirms KU is a critical resource for the region as our civic and industry leaders strive to establish and expand international partnerships,” said Barbara A. Bichelmeyer, provost and executive vice chancellor. “We are helping ensure our research and scholarship have global impact and that we prepare students and other stakeholders to contribute in the global environment.”
As part of the grant application process, KU faculty and staff labored for months to create nationally competitive proposals for interdisciplinary programs of research, teaching and outreach.
“The selection of these proposals as winners in a very elite national competition, and the awarding of the national resource center designation, is a testament to the very high quality of international scholarship at the University of Kansas,” said Melissa Birch, director of the KU Institute for International & Global Engagement. “That all four centers won this designation is a tremendous boost to KU’s AAU (Association of American Universities) status.”
The four area studies centers to receive Title VI National Resource Centers designation:
1. Kansas African Studies Center (KASC)
2. Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS)
3. Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (CLACS)
4. Center for Russian, Eastern European & Eurasian Studies (CREES)
As a National Resource Center, these units will receive $3.8 million over the next four years. Additionally, the centers will receive an additional $4.3 million over four years to provide scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students through Foreign Language and Area Studies grants.
The National Resource Center grants will allow for new faculty hires, instruction in less commonly taught languages, course development, expanded study abroad opportunities, innovative events and workshops, and new partnerships with community colleges and minority-serving institutions.
The success in receiving the Title VI grants reaffirms KU’s long-standing commitment to international education and leadership in area studies. The awards bolster KU’s efforts to incorporate comprehensive institutional internationalization as a foundational principle in the Jayhawks Rising strategic plan.
“We are defining the future of the international research university here at KU, and I could not be more excited about the direction we are heading in,” said Charles Bankart, KU senior internationalization officer. “We have unprecedented support across KU’s leadership team, and as these federal grants attest, we not only have an extraordinary faculty at KU and group of center directors, but the full support of the federal government for our vision and plans moving forward.”
The federal grants follow several new initiatives at KU to better foster international engagement. Since the start of 2022, the Office of the Provost has:
1. Launched the Institute for International & Global Engagement (KU-IIGE) as a new institutional umbrella for the area studies centers and as a platform for strategic community engagement and announced Melissa Birch as its director.
2. Appointed Megan Greene, professor of history, as provost fellow to focus on internationalization through faculty engagement in teaching and research.
3. Charles Bankart was named senior internationalization officer and will partner with academic and administrative leadership, KU-IIGE and the provost fellow to fully integrate internationalization into KU’s strategic planning efforts.
Among the KU-IIGE’s aims is improved alignment among KU’s area studies centers, and its creation was touted in the centers’ application for funding.

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Contact: Mindie Paget, Office of Research, 785-864-0013, [email protected], @ResearchAtKU
English scholar serving as interim leader of Hall Center for Humanities following director’s retirement
LAWRENCE — Richard Godbeer, director of the Hall Center for the Humanities, has retired from the University of Kansas. He led the intellectual hub for humanities scholars and its robust public outreach program for three years.
Giselle Anatol, professor of English and director of KU’s Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction, is serving as interim director of the Hall Center.
“I’m grateful to Richard for advancing a compelling vision for the Hall Center as a place for humanists to engage with one another and with community on the most difficult questions of our day,” said Simon Atkinson, vice chancellor for research. “He made sure that work continued — and even broadened its reach — as the pandemic forced activities online.”
The Hall Center is a focus of intellectual life for scholars in the humanities, arts and humanistic social sciences at KU and for members of the surrounding community. It is one of 12 designated research centers that fall under the KU Office of Research. During Godbeer’s tenure, the Hall Center expanded research support for faculty and students, launched a new speaker series featuring recently published work by KU humanities scholars, and built partnerships with other institutions, most recently becoming a sponsor of the National Humanities Center. During the pandemic, the center leveraged online platforms to reach new audiences far beyond Lawrence with a broad range of public programming. In 2021, the Hall Center partnered with KU’s Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities to secure a major grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a digital storytelling project that brings together more than 40 community and KU-based partners.
The center also collaborated with the Office of Research to launch the KU Racial Equity Research, Scholarship & Creative Activity Awards and joined both the Office of Research and the Center for Faculty Development & Mentoring to support the Public Scholars Group. Now in its second year, the group prepares KU scholars to use mechanisms such as op-eds and podcasts to foster informed, constructive dialogue with the broader public.
“Serving as director of this remarkable center, benefiting from the creativity and hard work of all those who preceded me, working with the Hall Center’s amazing staff to sustain our mission during the pandemic, and having the opportunity to imagine the Hall Center’s future has been a highlight of my career,” Godbeer said. “As I step away from my responsibilities, I feel deep gratitude and wish the humanities community across and beyond KU all the very best.”
In addition to directing the Hall Center, Godbeer served as the Charles W. Battey Distinguished Professor in the Department of History. His research focuses on witchcraft, religious culture, gender and sexuality in colonial and revolutionary North America — topics that have fueled his authorship of six books. Before joining KU in 2019, Godbeer had been the founding director of the Humanities Research Center at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Giselle Anatol joined KU in 1998. Her research interests include Caribbean literature and folklore, U.S. African American literature, speculative fiction by authors of the African diaspora, and representations of race, ethnicity and gender in writing for youth. She has written “The Things That Fly in the Night: Female Vampires in Literature of the Circum-Caribbean and African Diaspora,” a book published in 2015 by Rutgers University Press, and a number of book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles. She has also fostered scholarly collaboration by editing three collections of essays on children’s and young adult literature.
Anatol has been recognized repeatedly for teaching and research excellence at KU, receiving the Frances L. Stiefel Teaching Professorship in English, the Ned Fleming Award for Excellence in Teaching, a Conger-Gabel Teaching Professorship, and the English graduate student organization’s Mabel S. Fry Teaching Award. She was named one of KU’s Women of Distinction in 2013 and was selected for the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Scholar-in-Residence fellowship program in 2012.
“I am grateful to Dr. Anatol for agreeing to lead the Hall Center through this interim period,” Atkinson said. “The Hall Center plays a critical role in KU’s continuing excellence in humanistic inquiry and interdisciplinary scholarship — helping us understand what it means to be human throughout time and across cultures. I am confident Giselle will sustain the momentum and relationships that Richard cultivated during his time at the university.”

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Contact: Joe Monaco, Office of Public Affairs, 785-864-7100, [email protected], @UnivOfKansas
Eight faculty recognized as winners of distinguished teaching awards
LAWRENCE — Eight faculty members at the University of Kansas are being recognized as winners of annual distinguished teaching awards.
The award recipients will be honored Aug. 18 at the KU Teaching Summit.
This year’s winners are as follows:
Tsvetan Tsvetanov, associate professor in the Department of Economics, will receive the Byron T. Shutz Award. Established in 1978, the award alternates between recognizing excellent teaching in business and economics in even-numbered years and outstanding teaching in any discipline in odd-numbered years.

Paulyn Cartwright, professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, will receive the Ned N. Fleming Trust Award. This award, established in 1990, recognizes outstanding teaching.

Three individuals are recipients of this year’s Bob & Kathie Taylor Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes nontenure track faculty. The three winners are Victor Gonzalez Betancourt, assistant teaching professor in the Undergraduate Biology Program; Stephen Johnson, senior lecturer in English; and Tamara Coder Mikinski, multi-term lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology.

Four faculty members at KU Medical Center will receive the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Awards, selected by a committee of Medical Center faculty and students. The recipients of these awards are Dr. Lore Nelson, clinical associate professor of pediatrics; Dr. Vanessa Williams, assistant professor of radiology; Lisa Trujillo, clinical associate professor of respiratory care; and Dr. Laurel Witt, associate professor of family medicine & community health.

The KU Teaching Summit takes place each August and is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching Excellence, Office of the Provost and KU Medical Center. The conference is designed for faculty and instructional staff from the Lawrence, Edwards and Medical Center campuses. Those interested in registering to attend may do so online.

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Contact: Margaret Hair, School of Law, 785-864-9205, [email protected], @kulawschool
Two KU Law professors elected to prestigious American Law Institute
LAWRENCE – Two professors at the University of Kansas School of Law have been elected as new members of the American Law Institute.
Uma Outka and Andrew Torrance are among 60 newly elected members of the American Law Institute, an independent national organization that produces scholarly work to clarify, modernize and otherwise improve the law. There are now nine active KU Law faculty who are members of the institute.
The institute – composed of lawyers, judges and law professors – drafts, discusses, revises and publishes Restatements of the Law, model statutes and principles of law that are influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education.
Outka joined the KU Law faculty in 2011, served as associate dean for faculty from 2019-2022, and she was named the William R. Scott Law Professor in 2019. Outka is an affiliate faculty member of KU’s Environmental Studies Program, Center for Environmental Policy and Institute for Policy & Social Research.
Outka works at the intersection of energy law and environmental law. Her scholarship explores the legal context for energy transition, with particular interests in energy and environmental justice, renewable energy, electricity regulation and decarbonization of the electric grid. Outka is a co-principal investigator on a multi-institutional project to give communities a voice in policy guiding the transition to renewable energy, supported by a $500,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
“I’m honored by the nomination and election to join the American Law Institute and look forward to contributing to ALI’s work, especially equity-centered legal reforms,” Outka said.
Torrance joined the KU Law faculty in 2005 and was named the Paul E. Wilson Distinguished Professor of Law in 2019. Torrance serves as associate dean for international and comparative law. He won a 2015 University Scholarly Achievement Award at KU, has been recognized as a Docking Faculty Scholar and is a former Earl B. Shurtz Research Professor. He received the Dean Frederick T. Moreau Teaching and Mentoring Award at KU Law in 2018.
Torrance teaches and conducts research in patent law, intellectual property, innovation, food and drug regulation, biotechnology law, biodiversity law, biolaw, and empirical, experimental and big data approaches to the law. Torrance has been a visiting scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management since 2012 and a fellow of the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research since 2010. Among his invited presentations have been an invited Google Tech Talk, a keynote at Genome Canada and a TEDx Talk. He is also a co-founder of both the Patent Conference and Biolawllapalooza. Torrance led the intellectual property department at the Eli and Edythe Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard from August 2019 to July 2021.
“I’m deeply honored to be elected to the ALI. I look forward to contributing to its mission of improving the quality of law and justice for all,” Torrance said.
New members to the American Law Institute are selected from nominations submitted by ALI members. Michael Hoeflich, John H. & John M. Kane Distinguished Professor of Law at KU, led the nomination effort for Outka and Torrance.
“Membership in the ALI is the law school equivalent of National Academy designations in other academic disciplines. It is among the highest honors a member of our faculty can receive,” said Stephen Mazza, dean of the KU School of Law. “Compared with other law schools in our region, KU Law has a high percentage of faculty in the ALI. It is great to see our membership group expand further.”
Other KU Law faculty who are members of the American Law Institute are listed online.
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