UNL's Joe Dauer and Tomas Helikar have received a $2.3 million National Science Foundation grant to update life sciences education. The goal of the initiative is to transform Life Sciences 120 and 121 teaching into fluid classrooms where groups work together and students get more interaction with instructors. Lab sessions would also be taught differently, adding simulations and immersion into systems thinking.
For more than 20 years, Alexandra Basolo has been a willing teacher and mentor to hundreds of students, and her efforts were recognized when she earned the 2014 Distinguished Teaching Award from the Animal Behavior Society. She received the career honor in August.
An $8 million renovation has converted UNL's 107-year-old Brace Laboratory into a facility dedicated to using innovative teaching methods to further undergraduate education.
A UNL research team led by evolutionary geneticist Jay Storz has received a $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for continued research into mechanisms of protein evolution.
A research team led by UNL's Scott Gardner has identified four new species of Ctenomys, a genus of gopher-like mammal found throughout much of South America. All four of the new species were found in the lowlands and central valleys of Bolivia.
Using a genetically modified form of the HIV virus, a team of UNL scientists has developed a promising new approach that could someday lead to a more effective HIV vaccine. The team has received a $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to further the project toward animal trials.