Adam Houston, professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences, was among scientists and weather experts consulted for the summer blockbuster “Twisters.” He is a principal investigator with Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells (TORUS), a long-term research project that flies fixed-wing drones into storm clouds to gather data. Stories on Houston’s contributions appeared in at least six Nebraska media outlets, as well as the Daily Mail, Dronelife and Houston Chronicle.
A first-of-its-kind study from Liang Chen, Earth and atmospheric sciences, has projected decreases in both severe wind and extreme snowfall — the two elements that team up to produce blizzards. Stories on the research appeared in KGFW, KNOP, KOLN/KGIN, Rural Radio Network, the Des Moines Register, Newsweek and PreventionWeb.
New research from a large survey study, co-authored by Husker political scientists Kevin Smith, Kyle Hull and Clarisse Warren, demonstrates the willingness of people to bend their morals — even behave unethically — when engaging in the political realm. Results also suggest that hostility toward outgroups is the driving factor for the moral ambiguity exercised when respondents switch from the personal to the political arena. The research was featured in Fast Company, PsyPost and Skeptic Society Magazine.
After two months of challenging field research in a northern Mississippi forest, Noori Choi has created a proof-of-concept for documenting the vibroscape: the ground-bound realm of vibrations that spiders, insects and an estimated quintillion other arthropods employ to court mates, hunt prey and escape predators. Choi was a doctoral student in biological sciences at Nebraska at the time of the research. Popular Science published an April 2 article on the research.
A novel study from the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior at Nebraska and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has identified a specific nutrient profile in study participants who performed better cognitively. The profile is correlated with nutrients found in the Mediterranean diet, which research has previously associated with healthy brain aging. The research team was led by Aron Barbey, CB3 director, with Jisheng Wu, a doctoral student at Nebraska, and Christopher Zwilling, research scientist at UIUC. Stories on the study appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, BBC Science Focus, The Independent, Inverse, New Atlas, NBC’s “Today” and 150-plus other media outlets.
Husker researchers Seunghee Kim, civil and environmental engineering; Karrie Weber, biological sciences and Earth and atmospheric sciences; and Hyun-Seob Song, biological systems engineering and food science and technology, are studying the Midcontinent Rift — which runs from beneath Lake Superior through parts of Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas — to determine how best to access a potential store of natural hydrogen that could yield vast amounts of clean energy. Interesting Engineering ran an Oct. 17 article on the research.
With many media outlets focused on the November election, the university’s political science faculty were busy with interviews throughout the year. Popular topics included the possible importance of Nebraska’s 2nd District in the presidential race; the surprisingly tight U.S. Senate race in Nebraska between incumbent Deb Fischer and challenger Dan Osborn; the importance of Latino voters; civility (or the lack thereof) in modern politics; and how to cope with election stress. Faculty members Dona-Gene Barton, Pierce Ekstrom, John Hibbing (emeritus), Kevin Smith, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse and Sergio Wals were featured in ABC News, The Associated Press, Deseret News, the “FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast,” The Guardian, The Hill (1, 2), The Independent, Inside Higher Ed, Midwest Newsroom, The National News Desk, Nature, The New York Times, Politico, Radio MD’s “HER” podcast, Reuters, the San Francisco Chronicle, the “Speaking of Psychology” podcast, Telemundo Nebraska, Time, USA Today (1, 2), U.S. News and World Report, The Wall Street Journal and Vox.
Eve Brank, Aaron Douglas Professor of psychology and director of the Center on Children, Families and the Law, was interviewed by at least four national media outlets — Al Jazeera, BBC News, Reuters and WBUR’s “On Point” — on whether holding parents criminally responsible for their children’s actions could curb gun violence in the United States. She told BBC News that she thinks the emerging concept reflects broader frustration around U.S. gun violence and, in the absence of regulatory reform, the inability to curb the country’s firearms incidents. She told Reuters that it’s a tactic that could, at least in theory, extend to non-firearm cases. “A car in the hands of someone under the influence” could also be deadly, she said. “Continuing this trend could mean more opportunities to charge parents with a variety of offenses when their children commit crimes.”
Richard Graham, professor of University Libraries and courtesy professor of English, was featured in a Jan. 8 Fast Company article on government comic books. He has collected the unique comics since childhood and is the author of a collection titled “Government Issue: Comics for the People 1940s-2000s.” Graham recalled his father explaining the Army’s strategy of making comics to train the troops. “There’s a diversity of literacy rates (in the military) …” he said. “So the government learned early on that visual communication, coupled with an economy of text, is a good way to deliver a message.” Graham said his collection is still growing as new government comics are released, and he continues to learn about older ones.
Kelsy Burke, sociology, January in The 19th and July in BBC, states passing age verification laws for people to access pornography online; February in NPR, popularity of online masturbation abstinence groups; March in The New York Times, coarsening of evangelical mores.
Peter J. Capuano, English, February in USA Today, resurgence in popularity of “Frankenstein” movies.
Joy Castro, English and ethnic studies, August on South Florida’s WLRN, first English-Spanish version of “Lagrimas y Flores,” a poetry collection written by her grandfather, Feliciano Castro.
Bedross Der Matossian, history, September in The Christian Post and The Times of Israel, guest column on Armenia’s long history in the Holy Land.
Scott Gardner, biological sciences, curator of Manter Laboratory of Parasitology, May on CNN’s “OutFront with Erin Burnett and in The New York Times (1, 2) and Time, brain parasites.
Gardner and Gábor Racz, collections manager of Manter Lab, July in Smithsonian Magazine, efforts to inspire students to become parasitologists.
Allison Johnson, biological sciences, August in ABC Australia, the splendid fairy-wren (Malurus splendens).
Jody Koenig Kellas, communication studies, March in Deseret News, potential of using family history to improve youth mental health.
Lisa Kort-Butler, sociology, April in Big Think, perceptions of crime in United States.
Kate Lyons, biological sciences, June in Science, study suggesting that climate change and human hunting caused extinction of woolly rhinoceros; July in Phys.org, study she co-authored with doctoral graduate Alex Shupinski tracking changes to mammalian ecosystems and species diversity on North American continent.
Laura K. Muñoz, history and ethnic studies, August on Phoenix’s KJZZ, how best to teach English to bilingual students.
Mario Scalora, University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, September in Christian Science Monitor, school districts’ efforts to prevent school shootings; September on RFD-TV’s “Rural Health Matters,” his work with federal, state and local agencies on threat management and counterterrorism issues.
53 CAS faculty were among 180 Huskers included in the Stanford/Elsevier Top 2% Scientists List, a comprehensive analysis of peer-reviewed papers across scientific disciplines that measures the significance of research.
The university set a record for NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program awards — also known as CAREER awards — with nine Husker researchers earning the recognition. Yinsheng Guo and Ashley Votruba were part of this group. This brought $6.2 million in funding to their collective research efforts.
David Berkowitz, Willa Cather Professor of chemistry, was the first Husker named a fellow of the American Chemical Society.
Rick Bevins, Mildred Francis Thompson University Professor of psychology; and Thomas Powers, professor of plant pathology, were selected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Thomas C. Gannon, associate professor of English, earned the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize for his book “Birding While Indian: A Mixed-Blood Memoir.”
Meteorology graduate students visited middle schools during Severe Weather Awareness Week in March, teaching students about how meteorologists track storms and offering an up-close look at the vehicles used to study storms.
Parks Coble, James L. Sellers Professor of history, retired after a 48-year career in the university’s classrooms.
