PLAUDITS
TWO K-STATE PROFESSORS AMONG HIGUCHI WINNERS
Two K-State professors received 2009 Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Awards.
The awards honor outstanding research by faculty members at the Kansas Board of Regents institutions.
Charles Rice, university distinguished professor of agronomy, received the Irvin Youngberg Award for Applied Sciences. Rice has conducted long-term research on soil organic dynamics, nitrogen transformations and microbial ecology. Rice’s research has been supported by more than $15 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and others. He is director of the Consortium for Agricultural Soils Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases. Rice served on the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to author a report on Climate Change, and was among the scientists recognized when that work won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He has authored more than 100 publications.
Duy Hua, university distinguished professor of chemistry was awarded the Olin Petefish Award in Basic Science. Hua's research interests include natural product synthesis; the development of new methodology for chiral induction; studies of bio-based polymers; and the synthesis of bioactive molecules, including anti-cancer, anti-malarial and anti-Alzheimer's agents. He has been the lead investigator or co-leader on extramural research grants exceeding $5 million. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific articles and he and his colleagues have been awarded five U.S. patents.
The awards program was established by Takeru Higuchi, a distinguished professor at the University of Kansas from 1967 to 1983, and his late widow, Aya.
SKABELUND RECOGNIZED FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE IN THE CREATION OF LOCAL RAIN AND ROOF GARDENS
K-State's chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students has presented Lee Skabelund, assistant professor of landscape architecture, with the 2009 Community Service Award.
The award was given to Skabelund because of his collaboration on several creative garden projects, including the rain gardens at K-State's International Student Center and Manhattan's Sunset Zoo, and the green roof project atop a third-floor breezeway in the west wing of Seaton Hall (pictured left).
Samantha Smith, a fourth-year architecture student and president of K-State's chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students, said that those nominated for the Community Service Award demonstrate dedication to the community and to students.
"Using design, Lee Skabelund has had made a significant and positive difference in the quality of the built environment on the K-State campus and in Manhattan," Smith said. "He is teaching students about sustainable practices in the classroom and showing students how those ideas can be implemented in our own designs, as well as our own homes and gardens."