Phani Tej Adidam, Ph.D., Receives System-Wide President's Excellence Award for Teaching

University of Nebraska Interim President Chris Kabourek announced the 2024 recipients of NU’s most prestigious faculty awards for teaching, research, engagement and commercialization.

The system-wide President’s Excellence Awards honor faculty whose work has had a significant impact on students, the university and the state.

“Great faculty are at the heart of the University of Nebraska’s work and mission. We are fortunate that our classrooms and research labs are led by people who care deeply about creating a strong future for students and our state,” Kabourek said. “I’m honored to have this opportunity to lift up the work of some of the University of Nebraska’s most outstanding faculty, and I thank them for all they do to change lives in Nebraska and around the world.”

Award recipients are selected by system-wide committees of faculty members and community members. Recipients each receive a $10,000 stipend. They will be honored at the Aug. 8 Board of Regents meeting.

The 2024 President’s Excellence Award recipients are:

Teaching

Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award (OTICA): Recognizes individual faculty members who have demonstrated meritorious and sustained records of excellence and creativity in teaching.

Phani Tej Adidam, Ph.D., professor and chair in the Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship, 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.

Research

Outstanding Research and Creative Activity (ORCA) Award: Recognizes individual faculty members for outstanding research or creative activity of national or international significance.

Jonathan Vennerstrom, Ph.D., 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., 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.

Engagement

Innovation, Development and Engagement Award (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., 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.

Commercialization

Faculty IP Innovation and Commercialization Award (FIPICA): Recognizes faculty members who have developed and nurtured significant new intellectual property from concept to licensing/startup business.

Carrick Detweiler, Ph.D., Susan J. Rosowski 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.