Graduate Studies presents 12 awards

A dozen awards for outstanding graduate education were presented during the Office of Graduate Studies' Graduate Studies Awards Reception on Feb. 13.

UNL faculty Kimberly Tyler and Yan Xia were among those honored.

Award winners were:

Kimberly Tyler, Dean’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Education

Tyler is a professor in sociology. She has published 26 peer-reviewed journal articles and 15 of these papers have had a graduate student co-author. In five of the papers, her students are the lead-author. She has taken on leadership roles in the department and mentored numerous students. Tyler has done all of it while sustaining a strong publication record and acquiring external funding from national sources. Her work has appeared in the top journals in her field, such as Social Science Research, Journal of Research on Adolescence, and Social Science and Medicine.

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Yan Xia, Dean’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Education

Xia is an associate professor in child, youth and family studies. She is the catalyst and a founding member of the Global Consortium for Education in Family Studies, which links six countries and institutions for the benefit of students and faculty. Xia has been a critical member of a team that has, in the last decade, developed international family studies as a new field and turned it into an online graduate program. She has more than 29 journal articles in publications that include Journal of Adolescence, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Asian Pacific Journal of Social Work, and International Journal of Sociology of the Family. She also provides opportunities for her graduate students to review research manuscripts so that they may see and learn the peer review process and publishing.

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Juan Colón, Lowe R. and Mavis M. Folsom Distinguished Dissertation Award

Colón completed his doctoral degree in electrical engineering under professors Jerry Hudgins and Peter Dowden. His dissertation is titled “The Role of Rare Earth Dopants in Semiconducting Host System for Spin Electronic Devices.” He is from San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico.

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Christopher Goodrich, Lowe R. and Mavis M. Folsom Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award

Goodrich completed his doctoral degree in mathematics under professor Allan Peterson. His dissertation is titled “An Analysis of Nonlocal Boundary Value Problems of Fractional and Integer Order.” He is from Omaha.

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Amy Colgrove, Lowe R. and Mavis M. Folsom Distinguished Master's Thesis Award

Colgrove received her master’s in child, youth and family studies under assistant professor Soo-Young Hong and professor Helen Raikes. Colgrove’s thesis is “Approaches to Teaching Young Children Science Concepts and Vocabulary, and Scientific Problem-Solving Skills and Role of Classroom Environment.” She is from ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬Naperville, Ill.

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Kaci Nash, Lowe R. and Mavis M. Folsom Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award

Nash received her master’s in history under professor William Thomas. Nash’s thesis is “On Our Way to the Sunny South, Land of Chivalry: Northern Imperial Attitudes in the Civil War South.” She is from Omaha.

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Elizabeth Straley, Lowe R. and Mavis M. Folsom Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award

Straley received her master’s in sociology under professor Julia McQuillan. Straley’s thesis is “Abortion and Distress: The Role of State-Level Restrictive Laws Regarding Reproduction.” She is from Omaha.

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Tyler Wortman, Lowe R. and Mavis M. Folsom Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award

Wortman received his master’s in mechanical engineering under professor Shane Farritor. Wortman’s thesis is "Design, Analysis, and Testing of In Vivo Surgical Robots." He is from Grand Island.

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Jill Allen, Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award

Allen is a doctoral student in psychology working as a research assistant with assistant professor Sarah Gervais. She is from Dysart, Iowa.

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Haidong Lu, Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award

Lu is a doctoral student in physics and astronomy working as a research assistant with professor Alexei Grouverman. He is from Haining, Zhejiang, China.

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Bobbi Jo Olson, Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award

Olson is a doctoral student in English working as a teaching assistant under the supervision of associate professor Frances Condon. She is from Madison, S.D.

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Ted Paterson, Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award

Paterson, of Gardnerville, Nevada, is a doctoral student in management and is a teaching assistant under the supervision of professor Peter Harms. He is from Gardnerville, Nev.