The University’s most prestigious awards—The President's Excellence Awards—recognize especially meritorious research, teaching, and innovative efforts by individual faculty and academic departments or units.
Faculty IP Innovation and Commercialization (FIPICA) Award Recipient:
FIPICA recognizes faculty members who have developed and nurtured significant new intellectual property from concept to licensing/startup business.
Carrick Detweiler, Ph.D.
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Dr. Carrick Detweiler is the Susan J. Rosowki Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln; faculty fellow of the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute; faculty fellow of the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center; and co-director of the NIMBUS lab.
Detweiler’s research is focused on developing systems and software to enable interactions of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with water, fire and crops.
As co-founder of Drone Amplified, he has successfully transferred his innovative and transdisciplinary work to the market and is helping to save lives and the environment. The company’s signature product is IGNIS, a drone-based system that allows firefighters to remotely ignite backburns and prescribed burns while staying out of harm’s way.
These burns effectively eliminate the fuel wildfires rely on to spread out of control and are critical tools for federal, state and local agencies charged with reducing fire danger. Over 150 IGNIS systems have been sold and used by public and private entities.
Drone Amplified is also growing the innovation economy, employing a number of university graduates including several who moved to Nebraska specifically to work for the company, and expanding high-wage, high-skill jobs in the state.
Outstanding Research and Creative Activity (ORCA) Award Recipients:
ORCA recognizes individual faculty members for outstanding research or creative activity of national or international significance.
Jonathan Vennerstrom, Ph.D.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Dr. Johnathan Vennerstrom is a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Vennerstrom is internationally recognized for his work developing anti-malarial drugs. He is widely published and cited in both the scientific literature and mainstream media for his work, particularly for the “single-shot antimalarial” technology he developed that has the potential for significant worldwide impact.
Vennerstrom has been successful in acquiring funding to support his research, with more than $20 million in grants secured during his time at UNMC. In addition, he has authored 31 patents for technologies he has developed.
Vennerstrom was also involved in the development of a nutritional supplement, creatine ethyl ester, that increases athletes' strength, endurance and muscle recovery. The supplement was pivotal in the creation of a Plattsmouth company called Vireo Resources.
Kristen Olson, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Dr. Kristen Olson is the Leland J. and Dorothy H. Olson Professor in the Department of Sociology and director of the Bureau of Sociological Research at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Olson’s research focuses on survey methodology, a field with broad real-world impacts in academia, government, marketing, public policy, public health, program evaluation, and nonprofit and for-profit enterprises around the world. Her work seeks to understand and improve survey data quality through the reduction of coverage, sampling, nonresponse, measurement and adjustment errors.
Olson is widely published, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Society and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has served on a number of national task forces and panels related to survey methodology and public opinion research. Her work shapes data collection at the highest levels and has put UNL on the map in the field.
Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award (OTICA) Recipient:
OTICA recognizes individual faculty members who have demonstrated meritorious and sustained records of excellence and creativity in teaching.
Phani Tej Adidam, Ph.D.
Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Dr. Phani Tej Adidam is a professor and chair in the Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Always on the lookout for new and innovative teaching techniques, Adidam has worked tirelessly to elevate the quality of business education throughout his 27-plus years at UNO.
Undergraduate business students have several concentration opportunities that were unavailable before Adidam joined the faculty, including a concentration in international business, because he recognized opportunities that would be valuable to students and voluntarily stepped up to make the changes happen.
He also played a key role in redesigning the MBA and Executive MBA curricula. Adidam is a past recipient of UNO’s Excellence in Teaching Award and the UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award, among other honors, and he has published more than 40 research papers in distinguished peer-reviewed journals.
Innovation, Development and Engagement Award (IDEA) Recipient:
IDEA recognizes faculty members who have extended their academic expertise beyond the boundaries of the university in ways that have enriched the broader community.
Benson Edagwa, Ph.D.
Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Dr. Benson Edagwa is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
In only 10 ½ years at UNMC, Edagwa has become one of the most productive and innovative faculty members who work with UNeMed, the tech transfer arm of UNMC and UNO. He has played a pivotal role in the development of several inventions to treat chronic viral and other infectious diseases, including hepatitis B and mycobacterial tuberculosis.
While at UNMC, Edagwa has been listed as an inventor on 19 unique New Invention Notifications which have led to 84 patent and patent applications. He is also listed as an inventor on 45 pending patent applications and 11 issued patents. Those numbers put Edagwa in the top 1 percent of all innovative faculty at UNMC.
He has also formed significant collaborations with industry, having co-founded Exavir Therapeutics, a startup company created to develop the long-acting antiretroviral technology he created in the lab.
Inclusive Excellence Collaboration Award (IECA) Recipient:
IECA honors sustained, outstanding contributions in diversity and inclusion between two or more University of Nebraska academic and/or administrative units or campuses that move the university system toward inclusive excellence.
THE DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY COLLABORATION
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
The Digital Accessibility Collaboration at the University of Nebraska is a pioneering initiative focused on enhancing digital accessibility and implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) across campus. The mission of the Digital Accessibility Collaboration is multifaceted: it aims to create institutional dialogue about accessibility, providing training and resources to promote the creation of accessible digital media and foster a campus culture where accessibility is integral to all activities. This approach ensures that all students have equal opportunities to interact, learn, and succeed, regardless of ability.
The Digital Accessibility Collaboration was established by three members of the Center for Transformative Teaching in January 2020 as a response to faculty inquiries on how to make courses more accessible and meet accommodations for students with disabilities. Additional campus units joined the Collaboration as the need for a larger, more unified university response became apparent. Since its inception, the Collaboration has involved 21 people from seven units across UNL and the NU System.
Now, the Collaboration is conducting a longitudinal, multimethod research study examining the impact of accessibility training on instructors, course materials, and students. This research will allow the Collaboration to continue to improve trainings and contribute to the larger research on increasing digital accessibility in higher education institutions.
University-wide Departmental Teaching Award (UDTA) Recipient:
UDTA recognizes departments or units within the university that have made unique and significant contributions to NU’s teaching efforts and that have demonstrated outstanding commitment to the education of students at the undergraduate, graduate or professional levels.
Physical Therapy Department
University of Nebraska Medical Center
The University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Department of Physical Therapy, within UNMC’s College of Allied Health Professions, has educated Nebraskans and numerous others for over 50 years, filling crucial workforce needs throughout our state and beyond. Its mission is to advance health for all by optimizing movement through high-quality and accessible educational programs for physical therapy, creating contemporary clinical and educational scholarship, and engaging in professional service at the local, state, national, and international levels. It brings this mission directly to Nebraskans.
More than 60% of recent graduates are employed within the state, nearly half in rural and underrepresented areas. Recent graduates work in Brown, Thurston, Dundy, Jefferson, and Phelps counties, to name a few. UNMC PT grads also currently practice throughout the U.S., from Alaska to Florida.
Its three-year professional curriculum, which enrolls approximately 200 students annually and leads to a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree, is the only public program in Nebraska for the professional education of physical therapists. One of the first nationally to adopt the doctoral degree, the department celebrated 20 years of DPT graduates in 2024.
The department is at the forefront nationally in using teamwork and technology in teaching, and a dozen faculty have earned national recognition for instruction and education from the American Physical Therapy Association. Innovative methods include simulation experiences that allow students to practice in realistic, hands-on clinical scenarios.
U.S. News & World Report ranks UNMC’s Department of Physical Therapy No. 33 among 279 accredited programs.