By Ronica Stromberg
Mark Vrtiska's win of the 2025 Early Career Faculty Award in the School of Natural Resources may be one for the record books.
"It is early career in terms of what I'm doing now, but I sent Larkin Powell [director of the school] an email saying, 'I've got to be the oldest individual to ever receive this award,' so I think I'll have a longstanding record from that standpoint," Vrtiska said.
At 61, the professor of practice recently finished his fifth year at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln but had almost a lifetime of career experience before starting teaching in the School of Natural Resources.
He had worked at the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission the prior 21 years, Ducks Unlimited for three years before that and various waterfowl jobs throughout college and the year between his undergraduate studies at Nebraska and graduate studies at Eastern Kentucky University and Mississippi State University.
He now regularly instructs the Natural Resources Orientation for freshmen, three classes on wildlife management techniques and a Waterfowl Ecology and Management class. He also coordinates the Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership to protect interior least terns and piping plovers. These birds historically laid their eggs on sandbars on the Platte River but with reduced habitat, they began laying their eggs on sand near the Platte. The birds became endangered or threatened as they lost more eggs to predation or trampling.
Vrtiska, two technicians and a graduate student search sandy lands near the Platte for the eggs and flag nesting areas. This helps private landowners, developers and sand and gravel operations in the partnership avoid running over the eggs and incurring fines.
Read the rest of the story and see more images of Mark at https://snr.unl.edu/aboutus/what/newstory.aspx?fid=1269