Graduate Student Awards and Honors
Students can receive awards from a variety of sources. These range from merit-based scholarships given by the university or the School of Natural Resources to scholarships or other awards given by outside organizations. Sometimes the awards are non-monetary but reflect academic or extracurricular commitment. Occasionally a student receives recognition for a paper or poster presented at a professional meeting. You can also see a listing of our undergraduate student awards and honors.
- Graduate Students 2008-2009
- Graduate Students 2007-2008
- Graduate Students 2006-2007
- Graduate Students 2005-2006
- Graduate Students 2004-2005
- Graduate Students 2003-2004
- Graduate Students 2002-2003
2009 Meritorious Graduate Student Award
Congratulations to Saadia Bihmidine and John Quinn who received the School of Natural Resources 2009 Meritorious Graduate Student Award.
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Saadia Bihmidine also was the First Place winner of the 2009 Department of Agronomy and Horticulture Graduate Student Poster Symposium. Saadia Bihmidine is a PhD student in the School of Natural Resources who is co-advised by Drs. Tala Awada in the School of Natural Resources and Tom Clemente in Agronomy and Horticulture. Saadia is involved in several interdisciplinary research projects with researchers and experts from different fields (including Dr. Julie Stone, Dr. James Specht, Dr. Donald Weeks, Dr. Jim Van Etten, and Dr. David Dunigan). She is interested in understanding how plants respond to abiotic stresses (mainly drought) at both the physiological and molecular levels. The poster title was: Expression of a viral aquaglyceroporin gene (AQPV1) from Chlorella virus MT325s in tobacco and its effect in mitigating drought
- John Quinn is a PhD student in the School of Natural Resources specializing in Applied Ecology. John is co-advised by Drs. Jim Brandle and Ron Johnson and involved in the UNL Organic Working Group. John’s current research focuses on means to assess and communicate how land-use and land-cover patterns on working farms influence biodiversity conservation, provisioning of ecosystem services, and farm profit.
2009 SNR Graduate Student Association Recognition of Exemplary Service Award
- SNR Graduate Student Association presented John Quinn with the Recognition of Exemplary Service Award in recognition of his contributions to the association since 2006. While a graduate student in SNR, John has served as co-chair, outreach chair, and SNRGSA representative to the SNR Graduate Committee. John has also co-lead the Graduate Students Association award winning elementary school science outreach program since 2007.
2007 Nebraska Statewide Arboretum Graduate Student Research Award
- Ariana Jones has won the 2008 NSA Graduate Student Research Award. The award recognizes outstanding graduate student work in woody plant research in Nebraska.
2008 SNR Graduate Student Association Recognition of Exemplary Service Award
- The SNR Graduate Student Association presented their first Recognition of Exemplary Service Award. The 2008 award went to Kimberly Payne and Max Post van der Burg, in recognition of their many contributions to the association. Both award recipients have held several leadership roles in the organization. For example, Kim is a former chair, and Max is past SNRGSA representative to the SNR Graduate Committee.
2007 Nebraska Statewide Arboretum Graduate Student Research Award
- John Quinn has won the 2007 NSA Graduate Student Research Award. The award recognizes outstanding graduate student work in woody plant research in Nebraska. John is pursuing a PhD degree in Applied Ecology. The objective of his research is the development of a healthy farm index for organic producers, demonstrated in part by how the use of trees in the agricultural landscapes influences bird diversity and how inclusion of trees improves the health of the farm. In addition to his demanding graduate studies, Quinn has been active in the science enrichment program of a local elementary school.
2007 Joe Gabig Award
- Zach Cunningham, SNR graduate student, was awarded the first annual Joe Gabig Award at the Nebraska Chapter of the Wildlife Society's annual meeting in Grand Island, NE on Oct. 11, 2007. Zach is currently pursuing a MS degree at UNL, specializing in wildlife ecology. His research focuses on waterfowl productivity in the Sandhills of Nebraska. Zach's co-advisors are Larkin Powell (SNR) and Mark Vrtiska (Nebraska Game and Parks Commission). Zach received his BS in Fisheries and Wildlife from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Milton E. Mohr and Center for Great Plains Studies Grants-in-Aid Fellowships
- Saadia Bihmidine, SNR PhD student working with Dr. T. Awada and J. Stone, was recently selected to receive the Milton E. Mohr 2007-2008 Fellowship Award ($1000), and the Center for Great Plains Studies Grants-in-Aid Fellowship ($600).
2007 Nebraska GIS/LIS Symposium Best Poster
- Amy Zoller, SNR Masters student, was recently selected as Best Poster at the 2007 Nebraska GIS/LIS Symposium held April 3-5, 2007 in Omaha, NE. The poster, entitled “Benefits and Limitations of Using County-scaled Soil Geographic (SSURGO) Data for Statewide Analysis,” was co-authored with Steve Peaslee, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), National Soil Survey Center. Amy is a Research Assistant with the Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies (CALMIT) and is co-advised by Jim Merchant and John Holz. The award-winning poster can be viewed in the hallway outside of room 223 Hardin Hall.
North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Graduate Student Teaching Award of Merit Certificate
- Justin Hoffman, SNR Masters student, was selected to receive the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Graduate Student Teaching Award of Merit Certificate. Justin will be recognized for this distinction at the Fellowship Luncheon in Fall 2007. Patricia Freeman is Justin's advisor.
Nebraska Statewide Arboretum's Graduate Student Research Award
- Marcy Pummill, an SNR master’s student, received this award which “recognizes outstanding graduate student work in woody plant research in Nebraska.” Her research assesses the willingness of landowners to adopt “bird friendly” practices in the management of windbreaks and other woody habitats in Nebraska. It is part of a larger, ongoing study in the School of Natural Resources to determine the role of woody plants in the agricultural landscape.
Widaman Trust Distinguished Graduate Student Award
- Wes Moses, a CALMIT graduate student, was awarded this for his work on the development of remote sensing techniques for retrieval of phytoplankton chlorophyll concentrations in productive turbid waters from satellites and aircraft.
Nebraska Chapter of the Wildlife Society scholarship
- Aaron Lotz, SNR doctoral student working with Fish and Wildlife Coop Unit leader Craig Allen, to attend the First Annual Western Wetland Conference in Golden, Colorado, October 2005 and present his poster, "Monitoring of Amphibians within the Rainwater Basin Sub-Ecoregion: Diversity and Observer Error." It won third place in the poster competition at the annual meeting of the Nebraska chapter of the Wildlife Society.
Nebraska Wildlife Society Student Poster Competition
- January Jones, SNR graduate student in wildlife ecology, for a poster showing preliminary results from her two-year mater's research along the Niobrara River.
32nd Annual Natural Areas Association Conference Poster Contest
- Donna Woudenberg won the runner-up prize for her poster titled "Perception of Drought on the Great Plains and Related Sociological Impacts." She was the first author and SNR climatologist Don Wilhite was second author. The theme of the conference was "Changing Natural Areas: Ecological and Human Dimensions."
NASA Graduate Student Fellowship
- Giorgio Dall'Olmo, graduate student, for "Using MODIS and SeaWiFSDATA for Estimating Chlorophyll Concentration in Turbid Productive Waters.
- Kirsten de Beurs, for her proposal: Climate Change or Institutional Change? On Changes in Land Surface Phenologies in Central and Northern Eurasia.
Student Honorable Mention award, Ocean Optics XVII Conference,
- Giorgio Dall’Olmo, a CALMIT graduate student, for his extended abstract: "Estimation of Chlorophyll Concentration in Case-2 Productive Waters using SeaWifs, MODIS and MERIS: Calibration, Validation and Radiometric Considerations." Coauthors were SNR geoscientists Anatoly Gitelson and Donald Rundquist.
Franklin Orinda Johnson Fellowship
- Andres Vina, Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies (CALMIT) graduate student. Awarded at the recommendation of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate fellowship committee in recognition of scholastic performance and accomplishments as a graduate student scholar.
Shear Mills Fellowship
- Kathy Eggemeyr, master’s student working with SNR plant ecophysiologist Tala Awada. She is studying the functional characteristics of invasive trees and native warm-season grasses in the Nebraska Sandhills.
Nebraska Statewide Arboretum Graduate Student Research Award
- Kathy Eggemeyr (see study above)
Center for Great Plains Studies Graduate Student Grant-in-Aid
- Kathy Eggemeyr (see study above)
Graduate Women in Science Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement in Science
- Leah J. Bomberger
- Delia Buerstetta
- Erin Garrison
- Tamara Tietmeyer
- Brenda Woodward
- Lynne Klawer
