K-State Current - May 29, 2019

K-State Current is a weekly news update for the Kansas Board of Regents to apprise the Regents on a few of the many successes and achievements made by K-State faculty, staff and students.

K-State News

Kansas State University names Thomas Lane as new vice president for student life and dean of students

Thomas Lane, a highly experienced student affairs administrator, will become Kansas State University's new vice president for student life and dean of students.

Kansas State University President Richard Myers announced the appointment of Lane, who currently serves as associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Missouri State University. His appointment follows a national search to replace Pat Bosco, who is retiring after nearly 50 years of service in student life administration at the university.

Lane will join Kansas State University on July 14 and brings more than 25 years of experience in student life administration to his new job.

"We are excited to have found someone of Dr. Lane's caliber for this vital position at K-State," Myers said. "His broad experience in student life administration will serve him well as the top advocate for Kansas State University students while he plays a key role in ensuring and enriching their development and success."

Lane will provide executive-level leadership, strategic planning, oversight and coordination of all units in the Division of Student Life, which include the Office of Student Life, Housing and Dining Services, Recreational Services, K-State Student Union, Career Center, Lafene Health Center, Counseling Services and many other key services and programs essential to student success. He also will provide leadership for the development and implementation of high-quality and student-centered approaches to support student success in nonacademic dimensions of student university experiences, and he will respond to student crises and issues and concerns, among many other duties.

"I am truly humbled and excited to be joining the K-State family," Lane said. "During my time on campus, it was clear to me the university is deeply committed to students' personal and academic success. I am greatly looking forward to working with students, faculty, staff, administration and alumni in ensuring a Wildcat student experience that is welcoming, inclusive and changes lives for the better."

Lane has been in his current position at Missouri State University since June 2015. He joined the university in 2005, serving as assistant dean of students and director of the student union. He was promoted to assistant to the vice president for student affairs in 2008 and became the assistant vice president for student affairs in 2011, serving until his appointment as associate vice president for student affairs. Before joining Missouri State, Lane served as associate director of the student union and activities at Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he initially was assistant director of operations. He also has been a coordinator of Visitor and Information Services at Illinois State University.

Lane earned a bachelor's degree in communications in 1991 and a master's degree in educational administration in 1995, both from Illinois State University. He earned a doctorate in educational leadership and analysis in 2010 from the University of Missouri, where he serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the educational leadership cooperative doctoral program.

"I want to thank the members of the search committee for their outstanding work," Myers said.

Kansas State University zoonotic disease research fights viruses in the hot zone A new federal report shows Kansas State University researchers are tackling the zoonotic diseases of most concern in the U.S.

The report, "8 Zoonotic Diseases Shared Between Animals and People of Most Concern in the U.S.," is a collaboration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is the first report to list the top-priority zoonoses for the nation. Zoonotic diseases are those that spread between animals and people and according to the report, sicken tens of thousands of Americans each year.

Kansas State University researchers are actively working on six of the eight diseases named in the federal report: zoonotic influenza, salmonellosis, West Nile virus, emerging coronaviruses, rabies and Lyme disease. University researchers also are addressing other zoonotic diseases of worldwide concern, including headline-makers like Rift Valley fever, Japanese encephalitis, Zika and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli.

The report underscores why the zoonotic disease research, programs and facilities at Kansas State University are critical to national biodefense efforts, said Peter Dorhout, university vice president for research.

"K-State research is crucial to national security and public health," Dorhout said. "We study several diseases — including zoonotic — that are priorities for the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility, and as we do this work, we are training the workforce needed to provide future biodefense."

Just like the real-life story of university alumni Nancy and Jerry Jaax, featured in the upcoming National Geographic limited series THE HOT ZONE about the arrival of the zoonotic disease Ebola to the U.S., Kansas State University researchers depend on specially equipped biosafety labs where work on deadly zoonotic diseases can be conducted safely.

The National Bio and Agro-defense Facility, or NBAF, is being built by the Department of Homeland Security adjacent to the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan and will be the nation's foremost animal disease facility with biosafety level-4 laboratories. The university also is home to the Biosecurity Research Institute, or BRI, in Pat Roberts Hall, which allows comprehensive infectious disease research on threats to human, animal and plant health in biosafety level-3 labs.

"The BRI is like no other facility anywhere else in the world," said Stephen Higgs, the institute's research director and university associate vice president for research. "Collaborative research, education and training activities encompass pathogens of livestock, humans, plants and food. Some of the animal and plant disease research can be done at no other universities in the U.S."

For example, Higgs noted that because of the BRI, researchers with Kansas State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service recently found that white-tailed deer are highly susceptible to the Rift Valley fever virus, and that university researchers were able to conduct the first Japanese encephalitis swine research in the U.S.

"Both of these zoonotic viruses are threats to the U.S. and are listed as priorities for NBAF," Higgs said.

The following is a list of Kansas State University researchers, who in teams or individually, have active projects battling the nation's top zoonotic diseases of concern:

• Zoonotic influenza — Gary Anderson, Jianfa Bia, Sally Davis, Ying Fang, Jamie Henningson, Yanhua Li, Xuming Liu, Wenjun Ma, Lalitha Peddireddi, Jürgen Richt and Bob Rowland.

• Salmonellosis — Greg Aldrich, Natalia Cernicchiaro, Steve Dritz, Sara Gragg, Terry Houser, Cassandra Jones, Travis O'Quinn, Randy Phebus, Valentina Trinetta, Jessie Vipham, Jason Woodworth and Weiping Zhang.

• West Nile virus — Yan-Jang Huang and Dana Vanlandingham.

• Emerging coronaviruses — Kyeong-Ok Chang, Yunjeong Kim and Jürgen Richt.

• Rabies — Jamie Henningson and Susan Moore.

• Lyme disease — Brandon Garcia.

Learn and read more about other zoonotic disease research at Kansas State University at k-state.edu/seek/fall-2018/zoonotic/.

K-State Faculty Highlights

Kansas State University honors 2018 inventors

Novel ceramic composites and nanomaterials, vaccines, adjuvants, and diagnostic tests to fight animal diseases, virus-resistant plants, animal models for human disease, radiation source detectors, and a wireless power transfer system were some of the inventions for which K-State faculty, students and staff members received patents in 2018. Improved wheat and winter canola varieties were also officially recognized last year.

Provost and Executive Vice President Charles Taber and Vice President for Research Peter Dorhout hosted a reception on April 22 to recognize and honor the 2018 patent and plant variety protection certificate recipients. The honorees received a patent plaque and first time inventors received a certificate and lapel pin from the National Academy of Inventors. Professor Susan Sun of grain science and industry was recognized for her induction as a National Academy of Inventors fellow.

The inventors recognized at this event join a distinguished group of K-Staters who have worked with the Kansas State University Research Foundation, which facilitates and manages technology transfer for the university.

"We have the pleasure to work with K-State's most innovative minds," said K-State Research Foundation President Chris Brandt. "It's an honor to celebrate these inventors and recognize their accomplishments and hard work."

In 2018, U.S. patents were issued to the individuals listed below. Inventors who achieved patents in 2018 but have since left the university are not listed here.

• M.M. Chengappa, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology.
• T.G. Nagaraja, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology.
• Jessica Rupp, plant pathology, new NAI member.
• Harold Trick, plant pathology.
• Gurpreet Singh, mechanical and nuclear engineering.
• Jishu Shi, anatomy and physiology, new NAI member.
• Xiuzhi "Susan" Sun, grain science and industry.
• Steven Bellinger, mechanical and nuclear engineering.
• Douglas McGregor, mechanical and nuclear engineering.
• John Shultis, mechanical and nuclear engineering.
• Robert DeLong, anatomy and physiology, new NAI member.
• Saeed Khan, school of integrated studies, new NAI member.
• Nathan Maresch, applied aviation research center, new NAI member.
• Stefan Bossmann, chemistry.
• Duane Davis, animal science and industry.
• Deryl Troyer, anatomy and physiology.
• Kyeong-Ok Chang, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology.
• Richard Hesse, veterinary diagnostic lab, new NAI member.
• Yunjeong Kim, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology.
• Rolan Davis, veterinary diagnostic lab, new NAI member.
• Michael Moore, veterinary diagnostic lab, new NAI member.

2018 plant variety protection certificates were awarded to the following individuals at the university:

• Scott Dooley, agronomy.
• Michael Stamm, agronomy.
• Jeffrey Ackerman, agricultural research center, Hays.
• Allan Fritz, agronomy.
• Rebecca Regan, grain science and industry.
• Kenneth Rohleder, agricultural research center, Hays.
• Clayton Seaman, agricultural research center, Hays.
• Guorong Zhang, agricultural research center, Hays.

View a list of K-State patents awarded since 2009 or find K-State technologies that are available for licensing. For more information, contact the K-State Research Foundation at Tech.Transfer@k-state.edu or 785-532-5720 or visit a website that explains the commercialization process.

K-State Student News

Pospisil named winner of Sullivan Poetry Award

Madelyn Pospisil, graduate from the master's in English program, has been named the winner of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Sullivan Poetry Award for her submission, "Niels Bohr dips his aebleskivers in honey."

The poem was partially inspired by an article discussing other tiny, fleeting dimensions opening up around us, and how some scientists believe we just don't notice these.

"It was also inspired by my family traditions," Pospisil said, "and by a resemblance between Niels Bohr and my grandpa, Niels Martin Graverholt."

The weaving together of the motifs of family and physics is one element that made Pospisil's poem stand out as excellent.

Pospisil traveled to Fermilab, the national particle physics and accelerator laboratory, in early 2019 to tour the facilities and speak to physicists at Fermilab as well as those working with CERN in Geneva and DUNE in South Dakota. Brett DePaola, department head in physics, also gave Pospisil a tour of the J.R. Macdonald Laboratory in Cardwell Hall.

"Getting to visit new places and see particle accelerators close up was incredibly useful to my writing process," Pospisil said. "It gave me access to all the senses and added a physicality to my poems."

Pospisil's master's project is a collection of poems titled "Broken Symmetry."

"The poems take the language and metaphor of particle physics, but they are also about relationships, mice and secrets," Pospisil said.

To read Pospisil's poem, "Niels Bohr dips his aebleskivers in honey," visit the College of Arts and Sciences' S ullivan Poetry Award page.

APDesign students earn honors in Regnier video competition

Students in Kansas State University's College of Architecture, Planning & Design, or APDesign, were invited to participate in the college's second video competition, with three students earning special recognition for their efforts.

The purpose of the APDesign Student Video Design Awards is to encourage and inspire the next generation of designers. This year's theme, "da Vinci," celebrates the 500th anniversary of the birth of Leonardo da Vinci.

The awards were open to current APDesign students. APDesign coordinated this competition as part of its mission to get people excited about the history of design to encourage students to study at APDesign.

The theme for the competition was kept open but students were asked that it be about the impact da Vinci had on design and where you would find those influences at APDesign. Categories that were awarded special recognition included videos that were two minutes or less and videos that were 30 seconds or less.

First place in the two-minute category went to Alejandro Dowling for "Man, Myth, or Legend" and first place in the 30-second category went to the team of Gaurav Neupane and Somnath Mukherjee for "Celebrating 500 years of da Vinci."

"These lighthearted videos celebrate how far the art of design has come since the birth of architect, engineer, and artist Leonardo da Vinci," said Tim de Noble, fellow of the American Institute of Architects and dean of the college. "We should all be inspired and challenged to create a better world through design and take heart that the legacy of Leonardo is alive and thriving within the walls of APDesign."

"Man, Myth, or Legend" by Alejandro Dowling

"Celebrating 500 years of da Vinci" by Gaurav Nupane and Somnath Mukherjee

The competition was underwritten by Victor Regnier, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, or FAIA, and a 1971 architecture and architectural engineering bachelor's graduate of K-State, to showcase the embedded talents and creativity of APDesign students.

K-State Current archive