This Week, May 16 - 20, 2011
Water for Food Institute Finalist Visits Set
University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken has announced five finalists for the position of founding executive director of the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska. Each candidate will participate in interviews and will make a public presentation as part of his visit to Nebraska. University of Nebraska faculty, staff and students are invited to attend or view presentations by all candidates for this critical position. All presentations will be available in person or via live web stream on the Water For Food website.
Roberto Lenton will visit UNL from May 19-20, with a presentation on May 19 at 4 p.m. at the Van Brunt Visitors Center, 313 N. 13th St., Lincoln. Lenton is chairperson of the World Bank's Inspection Panel, an independent entity that reports to the World Bank executive board. He has been a panel member since 2007. In 2009, he was elected chair; his term runs through January 2012. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in hydrology and water resources systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Buenos Aires. Lenton's experience includes serving as director of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Division for the United Nations Development Programme; director general of the International Water Management Institute; chair of the Global Water Partnership technical committee; several roles with Columbia University's Earth Institute; and program officer in the Rural Poverty and Resources Program for the Ford Foundation. Read more...
Students conduct a dye tracer test in the Popo Agie River near Lander, Wyo., to determine stream discharge and travel time. Courtesy School of Natural Resources.
Hydrogeology at UNL Among Top Programs in North America
UNL's hydrogeology program in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences has been selected as one of the top 100 higher education hydrogeology programs in North America. The selection was announced in January by the National Ground Water Association, the largest groundwater association in the world.
More than 400 programs were considered for the list. The NGWA list is designed to give students interested in groundwater studies a jumping-off point for their search for higher education. Factors considered include the length/strength of the program and faculty. Read the full story on Today@UNL.
Lectures
SCOTT ENGINEERING CENTER ROOM 237, FRI 1:30PMNebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience Seminar - "Investigations on nanostructured magnetoelectric multiferroics"
Dr. Ivan Naumov, Hewlett-Packard Information and Quantum Systems Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA
Laura Roost
Doctoral Candidate Laura Roost Awarded Fulbright to Rwanda
University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science doctoral candidate Laura Roost of San Diego, Calif., will travel to Rwanda to conduct research on a Fulbright Scholarship. She will research the role of women's non-governmental organizations in the country's post-genocide recovery.
Roost will leave for Rwanda in October and spend 10 months conducting interviews to determine the impact of these organizations. She wants to see how women's concerns were incorporated into recovery efforts and examine the status of women in a post-conflict society. Read more...
Red Mate, Blue Mate: Study Says Married Couples Select on Basis of Politics
Presidential nominees carefully pick their running mates so that their ticket is in solid agreement on the issues. But what about the average married couple? A new study of U.S. spouses shows they partake in very little political vetting, but nevertheless tend to walk in political lockstep throughout their relationship. In an article to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Politics, researchers examined physical and behavioral traits in thousands of spouse pairs in the United States. They found that political attitudes were among the strongest shared traits -- stronger, even, than qualities like personality or looks.
That's because spouses in the study appeared to be "sorting" on the basis of politics -- instinctively selecting a partner who happened to have similar social and political views. People "placed more emphasis on finding a mate who is a kindred spirit with regard to politics, religion and social activity than they (did) on locating similar mates in terms of physique or personality," according to the article. Read more...
