Points of Distinction

The William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications is one of the 10 best journalism schools in the United States, according to CollegeMagazine.com.

The site based its selections on admission requirements, distinguished faculty, rankings of campus media outlets, internship opportunities, and use of technology.

KU student Kelsey Murrell, an English literature and creative writing major, has become the 26th KU student to win a prestigious Rhodes scholarship.

She will receive funding to attend the University of Oxford for one or two years, where she will pursue graduate degrees in migration studies and refugee and forced migration studies.

Murrell will graduate from the University Honors Program and with highest distinction from KU in May 2012.

The Center for Design Research at the University of Kansas earned an Acknowledgement Prize by the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. Designed by the Studio 804 class of 2011, the Center for Design Research is a response to the emerging culture and support of sustainability at KU.

More than 6,000 submissions for projects located in 146 countries entered the Holcim Awards, and the North America region awards were presented to 10 diverse and innovative projects from Canada and the USA. The jury acknowledged the project for “its particular educative concept and the engagement with issues of sustainable construction illustrated in the program.”

KJHK, the University of Kansas student-operated radio station, received recognition from The Washington Post in its listing of “10 Great College Radio Stations” published online by the Post on Oct. 13. The station was listed second within a list of 10 outstanding student-run FM radio stations that both remain on the FM airwaves and remain entirely student-run.

The Washington Post’s recognition of KJHK comes on the heels of an August 2011 Princeton Review release that ranked KJHK as the 15th-best college radio station in the nation.

KU tied for fifth in the nation for the number of doctorates earned by American Indians during the years 2005-09, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Fifteen American Indians earned doctorates at KU during that time.

In a Sept. 25, 2011, special report on diversity in academia, the Chronicle based its rankings on figures from the federal government's Survey of Earned Doctorates.

A team of four students won the 2011 Nurture Collegiate Healthcare Design Competition with its proposal on how to improve the environment in waiting rooms at neonatal intensive care units. The team beat 46 entries from around the world.

Skye Leedahl, doctoral student in social welfare from Minot, N.D., is one of two students in the nation to receive the John A. Hartford Dissertation Fellows Award for her research of the social world of older adults in nursing homes. 

The two-year award, administered by the Gerontological Society of America, provides up to $50,000 for Leedahl’s research, which is focused on 30 nursing facilities in a 15-county region of northeast Kansas. Leedahl’s goal is to use her findings to help improve the quality of life for seniors in nursing homes.

A student from the University of Kansas has been chosen to participate in 2011 Student Freedom Ride.

William Dale, a freshman from Topeka majoring in English and American studies, was one of 40 students from around the country selected from 1,000 applicants to participate in the ride, which is being organized by the PBS series "American Experience."

Studio 804, the internationally acclaimed design-build studio at the University of Kansas, has achieved Passive House Certification for its Prescott Passive House in Kansas City, Kan.

The Prescott Passive House is the first new building in Kansas and one of only a few nationwide to secure Passive House Certification.

Four KU students received awards for their research presentations at the national conference of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

Eugene Cody, a senior in math from Phoenix, Ariz.; Rodolfo Torres Gavosto, a junior in chemistry from Lawrence; Kelsy Kinderknecht, a senior in math and French from Ellis; and Diana Restrepo, a senior in molecular biosciences from Overland Park, received the awards.

The Arbor Day Foundation has selected a University of Kansas senior’s artwork for a national contest called “Root for Your Home Team.” The college with the most students pledging to be tree planters wins a prize of $2,500 in trees to plant next spring.

Lauren Schroer, a graphic design major from Overland Park, originally envisioned the promotional poster for a visual communication class taught in fall 2009 by Patrick Dooley, professor of graphic design. The class, “Designer as Author,” is a research-based examination of nontraditional and expressive uses of typography.

An innovative, energy-efficient design for a hospital expansion earned high honors in an international competition for a team of students from the School of Engineering.

The team of four architectural engineering students earned second place in the integrated sustainable design category of the 2010 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers student project competition.

Teams were challenged to design a 15-story addition to an Orlando, Fla., hospital that approaches net-zero energy use — meaning the facility creates onsite as much energy as it consumes. The KU team’s solution incorporated a number of unique features that saved, reused or generated energy.

Angela Ndhuya Oguna, a junior studying electrical engineering from Nairobi, Kenya, is the first University of Kansas student to win a prestigious Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship. The $10,000 scholarships were awarded to 32 exceptional female undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and related technical fields.

University of Kansas graduate student Laura Peterson is one of only seven students in the nation to receive a prestigious predoctoral fellowship from the American Chemical Society’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry.

Peterson, a fourth-year doctoral student from Colorado Springs, Colo., will receive a $24,000 stipend with the award. She was recognized for her work in the lab of Brian Blagg, professor of medicinal chemistry.

“Our lab focuses on heat shot protein 90,” Peterson said. “We investigate small molecules that have the potential for the treatment of several diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. We are interested in how these compounds interact with Hsp90 and what biological effects result from this interaction.”

Hsp90 is a protein necessary for cancer cells to proliferate. Peterson and Blagg take natural and synthetic compounds, modify them and investigate their ability to prevent the growth of cancer cells with the goal of discovering new drugs to treat cancer.

Eight students from the University of Kansas have won prestigious Fulbright grants and one student received a German Academic Exchange Service Study Scholarship for study and research abroad for the 2010-11 academic year.

The Fulbright program is the leading international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and people of other countries. Fulbright grant recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. Fulbright grants provide funding for roundtrip travel, maintenance for one academic year, health and accident insurance and, where relevant, tuition.

Since the program’s inception in 1946, 421 KU students, including this year’s awardees, have received Fulbright grants.

A University of Kansas doctoral student in chemical and petroleum engineering is one of only two scientists in the nation to receive the American Chemical Society's prestigious Kenneth G. Hancock Memorial Award, presented by the society's Green Chemistry Institute.

Mahdav Ghanta was recognized for his research at the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis, where he and team members  developed a nature-friendly way to make the industrial chemical ethylene oxide that at could significantly reduce the carbon footprint of antifreeze, plastic bottles, sports gear, detergents, and paints.

Ghanta received the honor June 21 at the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Alison Donnelly, a doctoral student in medicinal chemistry from Grand Island, N.Y., is one of 11 students nationally to receive a $26,000 fellowship from the American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry. The fellowship supports her graduate study.

Donnelly's research studies ways of disrupting cancer growth by inhibiting a type of protein known as Hsp90.

Aerospace engineering students won first and second place team awards and individual honors in an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics competition. 

Students and teams from the KU aerospace engineering department have taken first, second, or third place more than 50 times since the beginning of the contest in 1968.