Psychology professor Deb Hope elected President of leading professional organization

Deb Hope, Professor of Psychology, has been elected as President of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) for the 2010-2011 term.  

ABCT is the leading professional association for empirically-based mental health researchers and providers, primarily psychologists.

This is a tremendous honor for Deb, and the Psychology department and College of Arts and Sciences congratulate her!

Founded in 1966 under the name Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, ABCT has long served as a professional home for many outstanding researchers in behavioral health.  Most of its members follow a scientist-practitioner model, meaning that they integrate clinical practice with cutting edge research. Any list of the most influential and best funded psychologists in the last 40 years will include many ABCT members.  ABCT publishes two well-respected journals, Behavior Therapy and Cognitive and Behavioral Practice.

The annual ABCT convention attracts over 3,000 attendees, both students and professionals from across the globe.  The convention is noted for both its outstanding scientific presentations as well as workshops and other clinical training opportunities for practitioners. 

Increasingly ABCT is furthering its impact through the its web site, http://www.abct.org.  The site includes resources for faculty teaching courses in cognitive-behavior therapy, a referral service for potential clients to find a therapist and up-to-date information on behavioral health.

The UNL Clinical Psychology Training Program has been very active in ABCT in the last 20 years.  Each year most of the clinical faculty and approximately 25 doctoral students present their research at the annual convention.  Various faculty members alumni have held a number of important committee and editorial positions within the organization.

Chemistry department research on self-cleaning objects and water-striding robots featured

Self-cleaning walls, counter tops, fabrics, even micro-robots that can walk on water -- all those things and more could be closer to reality because of research recently completed by scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and at Japan's RIKEN institute.

Self-cleaning Objects And Water-striding Robots in California Science and Technology News

Research Gives Clues for Self-cleaning Materials, Water-striding Robots in National Science Foundation news.

Research gives clues for self-cleaning materials, water-striding robots in e! Science News.

Walk on Water - How Do Bugs Do It? in Science 360 news

Self-cleaning materials, water-striding robots hydrophobic waxy made super hydrophobic with microscopic hair-like structures on The News Pointer.

News release on unl.edu

Distinguished chemist, lawyer, mathematician to address graduates

Chemist Eugene “Gene” Cordes will address the baccalaureate ceremony and receive an honorary doctor of science degree.

Theodore C. “Ted” Sorensen, former special counsel and adviser to President John F. Kennedy, will address the 121 graduates.

Judy L. Walker, professor of mathematics and graduate chair in mathematics at UNL, will address the May 8 postgraduate ceremony.

Read more in the Scarlet, and find out more on the 2009 Commencement page.

Political Science professor Michael Wagner on President Obama's first 100 days

President Barack Obama’s solid approval ratings on his 100th day in office could help empower him to get big things done.

But the clock is ticking, Michael Wagner says.

“It’s fun to make a lot of the first 100 days, but he really has 250 to 300 days” before the inevitable slippage in support is likely to begin, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln political scientist says.

Read more in the Lincoln Journal Star article.

Professor Emeritus Thompson Stout passed away

Thompson Mylan Stout 94, Lincoln, died Tuesday (4/21/09). He was born August 16, 1914, at Big Springs, Neb. to Granville L. and Lena A. (Thompson) Stout. Mylan married Eunice Earhart on September 8, 1940, at the University of Nebraska Chapel. Mylan and Eunice were on the first transatlantic voyage of the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1969 and crossed the Atlantic Ocean aboard her several more times. She preceded him in death on April 5, 1999. 

Mylan grew up in western Nebraska near the historic Ash Hollow. He began collecting fossils in this area and in northwest Missouri where he attended high school and his first year of college at Wentworth Military Academy, which named him as The Honor Graduate for having achieved the highest GPA by any student in the school's 43-year history. 

Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Geology, University of Nebraska, and Curator Emeritus, University of Nebraska State Museum. Joined State Museum staff 1933, Bachelors 1936, Masters 1937 at University of Nebraska. Started teaching at University of Nebraska 1938, Ph.D. Candidate, Columbia University 1945. Retired from teaching in 1980. UNL Department of Geosciences Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient 1987. 

Research Associate, Frick Laboratory, American Museum of Natural History, New York City, N.Y., since 1938. Traveled and researched extensively in the United States, Western and Central Europe, Morocco, New Zealand and China. Developed a new branch of geologic science, Comparative Stratigraphy. 

Member, American Association of Quaternary Studies, Geological Society of America, Paleontological Society, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Society for the Study of Evolution, American Society of Mammalogists (Life Member), Sigma Xi (Life Member), New York Academy of Sciences, Yorkshire Geological Society (Life Member), Nebraska Academy of Sciences (Life Member and past President), Nebraska Geological Society (Life Member and past President), American Geological Institute, American Association of University Professors, University Faculty Emeriti (past President), delegate to 3 International Geological Congresses, delegate to International Zoological Congress, delegate to 4 International Association for the Study of the Quaternary. Correspondent of the Instituto Ialiano di Paleontologia Umana (Italian Institute of Humane Paleontology, Rome). member, Honorary Board of Editors of "Quantornaria." Correspondent of the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle (National Museum of Natural History, Paris). 

Mylan was associated with the University of Nebraska for over 77 years. His support of the University will continue through his and his wife's generous funding of The T.M. and E.E. Stout Chair of Stratigraphy, T. Mylan Stout Lecture Series, T.M. Stout Geology Museum New Research Library and Archives, T.M. Stout Geology Scholarship Fund, Eunice Stout Scholarship Fun, T.M. & Eunice Stout Endowed Fund and other University of Nebraska Foundation scholarships. 

He is survived by his sister and husband, Earla May and Sam Jimenez; nephew, Terry Annable & his late wife, Myra; nephews and wives, John and Diane Annable, all of Ogallala; Daniel Craig and Velida Annable, Tucson, Ariz.; nieces and husbands, Kathy and James Sizer, Ogallala; Peggy and Richard Huffman, Grand Island; grandnieces and grandnephews. 

Memorial Service 2 p.m. Saturday (4/25/09) at Lincoln Memorial Funeral Home, 6800 S. 14th St. Ministers Fritz Hudson and Charles S. Stephens, Jr. Entombment: Lincoln Memorial Park Mausoleum. No visitation. Memorials to University of Nebraska Foundation Scholarship Fund

Department of Mathematics wins 2009 AMS award

The Department of Mathematics is the winner of the American Mathematical Society's 2009 Award for an Exemplary Program or Achievement in Mathematics.

The news is featured on the AMS homepage here and the write up is here.

This is also announced on the department's website here.

Nebraska Department wins exemplary program award by Allyn Jackson

2009 Award for an exemplary program or achievement in a Mathematics department

All-University Celebration and Salute to Alumni Achievement on Friday, May 8

Here are the graduates and current students of the College of Arts and Sciences who are being honored at our All-University Celebration and Salute to Alumni Achievement on Friday, May 8:

• Roy and Catherine Yaley Student Leadership Award – Kori Underwood, Psychology major
  
• Vann Student Leadership Award – Kyle Kellet, History major
  
• Shane Osborn Student Leadership Award – Mary Jacobson, English major
  
• Cather Circle Collegian of the Year – Michelle Lee, Political Science major
  
• Alumni Achievement Award:  Don Patterson, ’47
  
• Alumni Achievement Award:  John Pekas, ’91 – Political Science
  

In addition, the Cather Circle Alumna of the Year, Marilyn Koehn, was a Fine Arts major in the ‘60s when it was part of Arts and Sciences.

Writer in residence Naomi Shihab Nye gives readings and tutorials

Left to right: UNL poet and Presidential Professor Ted Kooser, English major Jess Schwager, Writer in Residence Naomi Shihab Nye, and Erin Parker a Secondary Education major with endorsements in English and Theatre.

Naomi Shihab Nye is a Writer-in-Residence (2 weeks).  She gave a spectacular reading to a standing room-only crowd in the Great Plains Art Museum  last Thursday; she's been working with our undergraduate and graduate students in large and small tutorials, and today will spend a couple hours with 100 Park Middle School students.

"The lunch with Naomi and Ted was spectacular for the students (and me too!)! Naomi is so open and asks the questions that drew them out.  A big hit. Naomi offered to read several of their poems and get back to them by email! They were on cloud nine (or ten)."

Chemistry professor Gerard Harbison challenges theory about terrorists and explosives

UNL chemistry professor Gerard Harbison was a featured presenter at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Salt Lake City where he spoke at a news conference about UNL research about computer simulations to analyze potential peroxide-based explosives.

The ACS chooses news to feature for national media at the convention, and his virtual news conference was watched live and repeated worldwide, and hundreds of news stories resulted from the chemical society's publicity.

In his presentation Harbison challenged the theory that terrorists could produce a new and dangerous form of the explosive responsible for airport security screening of passengers' shoes and restrictions on carry-on liquids. 

He and colleagues investigated the structure of a claimed explosive, tetracetone tetraperoxide, and determined that the material would be unlikely, because it is too unstable for a practical synthesis, and too sensitive to be used as weapons.

"The good news is basically this (TeATeP) is something we don't have to worry about. The internet myths are nothing more than that," Harbison told the ACS.

The UNL research group did computer simulations to analyze a variety of potential peroxide-based explosives in the same class as triacetone triperoxide, the powerful, easy-to-make explosive used by "shoe bomber" Richard Reid in his failed attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight in 2001, and by suicide bombers.

The story is in Science Daily here.

The American Chemical Society has more than 154,000 members and is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research.

Psychology professor Rick Bevins receives award

David Hansen, Chair of the Psychology Department, let us know that Dr. Rick Bevins received the UNL Chapter of Sigma Xi's 2009 Outstanding Scientist Award!