Awards

Our scientists, including students, are routinely recognized for outstanding work. The list below covers selected awards received in calendar year 2021.

• Amy Burgin, associate scientist and associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB), was selected for a KU Keeler Family Intra-University Professorship for spring 2022. This faculty development program for tenured faculty at mid-career provides one semester free of departmental responsibilities for interaction with faculty members in another discipline to result in development or expansion of ongoing interdisciplinary research and teaching collaboration.
  
   
• Sharon Billings and Kelly Kindscher each received a 2021 Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Award, the state higher education system’s most prestigious recognition for scholarly excellence. They were two of four recipients. Each received $10,000 for their ongoing research. Bilings is a senior scientist and Dean's Professor of EEB. Kindscher is a senior scientist and a professor in the Environmental Studies Program.
  
   
• Rondy Malik, postdoctoral researcher in the Bever/Schultz Lab, was named a “Rising Star” on a list of “1,000 inspiring Black scientists in America” published by Cell Mentor at the end of December. KU published a profile of Malik in KU Today.
  
   
• Daniel Reuman, senior scientist and professor of EEB, continued as a James S. McDonnell Foundation Complex Systems Scholar, an award funded by the James S. McDonnell Foundation, Scholarship/Research, (2016-2021).
  
   
• Camille Delavaux, doctoral student the Bever/Schultz Lab who graduated in March 2021, was awarded the Argersinger Dissertation Award, which is given for the best dissertation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and the best dissertation in social science, education, humanities and the arts. Her dissertation is “Biogeographic plant-microbe patterns and process: natural and anthropogenic impacts across three spatial scales.” (Rachel Bowes of the Thorp Lab received the Argersinger Award in 2017.)
  
   
• Ceyda Kural, doctoral student in the lab of Maggie Wagner, won a Richard H. Himes Graduate Teaching Award for her work as a GTA in Ben Sikes’s Biology of Fungi class during the spring 2021 semester. Wagner is an assistant scientists and assistant professor of EEB; Sikes is an  associate scientist and associate professor of EEB.
  
   
• Laura Phillips, a senior from Perry, Kansas, mentored by Maggie Wagner, was one of 41 students selected for a 2021 KU Undergraduate Research Award. Each recipient receives a $1,000 scholarship. Phillips’s research proposal is titled: “Drought Tolerance on B73 Maize in Response to Microbiome Inoculations.”