The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and its people appeared in more than 50 news stories in the regional, national and international media during March.
Research involving the Large Hadron Collider at Switzerland’s CERN Laboratory, workplace personality traits and climate change were among topics that led to stories in major news outlets. UNL and the Bureau of Business Research were highlighted in a pair of National Public Radio stories on Lincoln’s economic vitalilty and growing entrepreneurship community. This year’s survey of Nebraska land values was reported widely across the region.
Highlights of March’s national coverage:
Aaron Dominguez, physics, spoke with Wired.com for a March 24 report that the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland had returned to working to full capacity after seven years. “It’s like having a new accelerator,” Dominguez said. Dominguez and physics and math student Seth Kurfman also were featured in a March 31 Science 360 video about UNL’s role in the Large Hadron Collider upgrade.
Eric Thompson, Bureau of Business Research, was quoted prominently in a March 2 National Public Radio piece about Lincoln’s recent economic successes. UNL also figured in a subsequent NPR story about tech startups that are creating a “Silicon Prairie” in and around Lincoln.
The Washington Post’s Morning Mix blog on March 5 wrote about a study that found men tend to be more narcissistic than women. Peter Harms, management, was a co-author of the study led by his frequent collaborator, Emily Grijalva of the University at Buffalo School of Management. The study also was covered by the Science 2.0 blog site.
Grist.com published a lengthy article quoting Daniel Brooks, UNL alumnus and senior research fellow with the H.W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology about his recent article linking climate change with vector-borne disease. The article was posted March 26.
The latest UNL farmland survey, which showed Nebraska farmland values slipped 3 percent from 2014 was covered March 4 by AgWeb and The Associated Press. The survey was performed by Jim Jansen, extension educator, and Roger Wilson, agriculture economics.
The Bathtub Dogs, a UNL men’s a cappella singing group, was a prominent part of a March 2 USA Today story about the rise of a cappella music on campus.
A recent study about sibling bullying, conducted by Eve Brank, Lori Hoetger and Katherine Hazen, psychology, originally reported in February, continued to receive coverage in March. Deseret News produced a piece that was syndicated among its affiliate publications.
While pondering why some people are politically conservative while others are not, Chris Jepson, a columnist for the Seminole Voice in Florida, turned to research by UNL political scientists John Hibbing and Kevin Smith for a March 25 piece. Reno Gazette columnist Cory Farley also discussed the research in a March 24 column, while the San Francisco Sentinel posted a past article by former Mother Jones Reporter Chris Mooney on March 24.
GalleyCat, an Adweek blog about the publishing industry, posted a March 10 article about digital research by Matthew Jockers, English, that demonstrates novels follow one of six or seven basic plot shapes. Jockers’ work also was mentioned in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet March 28 and in Italy’s RAI News March 11.
Carrick Detweiler and Sebastian Elbaum, computer science & engineering, and graduate student John-Paul Ore were featured in a March 17 Science 360 video report about their water sampling drones. Science 360 is the news site for the National Science Foundation.
Science 360 also posted a March 10 video report on research by Xu Li, civil engineering, on the interaction of antibiotics and bacteria in the environment.
UNL alumnus and DailyER founder Carson Vaughan told the history of UNL’s satirical student newspaper and protested proposed budget cuts in a March 23 op-ed published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Nebraska baseball coach Darin Erstad’s return to college as coach and student was covered by the Chicago Tribune March 1.
Several news outlets in the area surrounding the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia reported that a UNL student experiment would be among those to be conducted on a suborbital rocket to be launched by NASA March 27. They included the Virginian-Pilot and Delmarva Now, a Gannett publication.
John Stansbury, civil engineering, was among experts quoted in a March 29 Toledo Blade report on the environmental risks of the Keystone XL pipeline project. Stansbury is associated with the pipeline opposition group Bold Nebraska.
Harvest Public Media included Steve Taylor, food science, among experts quoted in a March 24 article about the fragmented food safety inspection system in the U.S. The story was carried by numerous National Public Radio outlets nationwide.
The Farmer’s Exchange – “Michiana’s Popular Farm Paper since 1926” – mentioned the role of Joseph Turner and Anastasia Desyatova, engineering, in a new study about how plant cells grow. Working with Purdue University plant scientists, Turner and Desyatova designed a computational model of a thin-walled pressurized cell to help analyze how plant cells develop.
Matthew Waite, founder of UNL’s drone journalism laboratory, appeared on Global News Canada March 31 to discus Amazon’s tests of delivery drones being conducted in British Columbia. Waite also was quoted by the Bismarck Tribune March 3 in article about federal rules to govern the use of drones in agriculture.
The Associated Press reported March 16 that former Agriculture Secretary and UNL alumnus Clayton Yeutter was donating $2.5 million to establish an international trade and finance institute at UNL. The AP also posted a March 31 report that trees cleared for construction of the Nebraska Innovation Campus were being reused to make furniture for the public-private research campus.
This is a monthly column featuring UNL faculty, administrators and staff in the national news. National media often work with University Communications to identify and connect with UNL sources for the purpose of including the university’s research, expertise and programming in published or broadcasted work.
Faculty, administration, student and staff appearances in the national media are logged at http://newsroom.unl.edu/inthenews/ . If you have additions to this list or suggestions for national news stories, contact Leslie Reed at lreed5@unl.edu or 402-472-2059.
