UNL Graduate Studies honors top students, educators

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Office of Graduate Studies presented eight awards for outstanding graduate education at its annual Graduate Studies Awards Reception Feb. 4. Award winners were:

Lowe R. and Mavis M. Folsom Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award -- David Miller of Bellevue, who completed his doctoral degree in biomedical engineering under Professor Carl Nelson. His dissertation is "An Intelligent Modular Tool for Minimally Invasive Surgery."

Lowe R. and Mavis M. Folsom Distinguished Master's Thesis Award -- Curtis Wray of Scotia, who earned his master's in chemistry under Professor Wonyoung Choe. Wray's thesis is "Rational Design of Porphyrin Paddlewheel Frameworks."

2009 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award -- Tamy Burnett of Columbus and Jennifer Green of Creighton. Burnett is a doctoral student in English and has been a teaching assistant under the supervision of several faculty members including Kwakiutl Dreher, Susan Wortmann, Joy Ritchie and Margaret Jacobs. Green is a doctoral student in statistics and has been a teaching assistant under the supervision of Erin Blankenship.

2009 Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award -- Anton Turanov of Pushchino, Russia, and Jamie Wilkinson of Grand Island. Turanov earned his doctoral degree in biochemistry after working as a research assistant under the supervision of Vadim Gladyshev. Wilkinson is a doctoral student in psychology and is a research assistant under the supervision of Rick Bevins.

2009 Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate Education -- Rick Bevins, professor of psychology, and Sebastian Elbaum, associate professor of computer science and engineering.

Five of Bevins' students have published with him and have been successful at receiving awards and grants, including four who have received National Research Service Awards from the National Institutes of Health, a Society of Research Subjects grant, an American Psychological Association dissertation award and a Psi Chi National Honor Society in Psychology dissertation grant.

In the last three years Elbaum advised nine graduate students who obtained their degrees at UNL and co-authored papers with all of them. He has published multiple papers with PhD students, which have resulted in a total of 19 peer-reviewed conference papers and four journal papers.