Executive Director Candidates Announced for NU Daugherty Water for Food Institute

University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken has announced five finalists for the position of founding executive director of the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska. Each candidate will participate in interviews and will make a public presentation as part of his visit.

University of Nebraska faculty, staff and students are invited to attend or view presentations by all candidates for this critical position. All presentations will be available in person at the locations listed below or via live web stream (login available at http://waterforfood.nebraska.edu). Presentations will also be archived on the same website.

The executive director will play a pivotal role in establishing the Water for Food Institute as a global leader in the international water and food communities by developing national and international partnerships with the public and private sectors and pursuing collaborative opportunities. This is a unique opportunity to develop a premier institute that has global impact. The director will provide leadership, strategic direction and oversight for the institute's three primary missions of research, education and outreach, and policy analysis.

The candidates and dates and locations for their University visits and presentations are:

Roberto Lenton: University of Nebraska visit, May 19-20; presentation, May 19, 4 p.m. at the Van Brunt Visitors Center, 313 N. 13th St., Lincoln.
Lenton is chairperson of the World Bank's Inspection Panel, an independent entity that reports to the World Bank executive board. He has been a panel member since 2007. In 2009, he was elected chair; his term runs through January 2012. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in hydrology and water resources systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Buenos Aires. Lenton's experience includes serving as director of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Division for the United Nations Development Programme; director general of the International Water Management Institute; chair of the Global Water Partnership technical committee; several roles with Columbia University's Earth Institute; and program officer in the Rural Poverty and Resources Program for the Ford Foundation.

Nicolaas (Nick) van de Giesen: University of Nebraska visit, May 25-26; presentation, May 25, 3 p.m. at the Van Brunt Visitors Center, 313 N. 13th St., Lincoln.
van de Giesen is chair in water resources management in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, chair of the Department of Water Management and chair of the Research Initiative in the Environment, all at the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, where he is a professor in civil engineering and geosciences. He is a member of a Dutch national government commission examining innovations in water. He earned a doctorate in soil and water engineering from Cornell University, and master's and bachelor's degrees in land and water management from the Agricultural University of Wageningen, Netherlands. Earlier, he was senior scientist with the Center for Development Research at Bonn University, Germany, where he also was project leader for the Global Change in the Hydrological Cycle, a multidisciplinary project in West Africa.

Marty Matlock: University of Nebraska visit, June 2-3; presentation June 2, 10 a.m. in the Nebraska Union, 14th and S Streets, Lincoln.
Matlock is professor of ecological engineering at the University of Arkansas and area director for ecosystems services in the Center for Agricultural and Rural Sustainability in the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. He also chairs the Cherokee Nation Environmental Protection Commission, is an invited delegate to the United Nations CEO Mandate on Water, and serves on the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Sustainable Animal Agriculture and Sustainable Crop Production committees. He holds a doctorate in biosystems engineering, a master's degree in plant physiology and a bachelor's degree in soil chemistry, all from Oklahoma State University. Earlier, Matlock was an agricultural engineering faculty member at Texas A&M University where he directed the Water Quality Research Laboratory and was a senior research fellow in the Bush School of Government.
 
Michael (Mike) Young: University of Nebraska visit, June 10-13; presentation, June 13, 3 p.m. in the Nebraska Union, 14th and S Streets, Lincoln.
Young is executive director of the Environment Institute at the University of Adelaide, Australia, where he holds a research chair in Water Economics and Management in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He earned his master's degree in agricultural sciences and bachelor's degrees in economics and in agricultural sciences from the University of Adelaide. He worked in several roles for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's national science agency, including chief research scientist and director of the Policy and Economic Research Unit. He is a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and serves on the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. He serves on the International Advisory Board for Alberta Ingenuity Water Research Centre and as a consultant for Environment Canada.

Olcay Ünver: University of Nebraska visit, June 15-16; presentation, June 16, 3 p.m. at the Van Brunt Visitors Center, 313 N. 13th St., Lincoln.
Ünver is coordinator of the United Nations World Water Assessment Program (WWAP) and director of UNESCO's Global Water Assessment Program Office in Perugia, Italy.  WWAP's primary product is the triennial UN World Water Development Report, issued in conjunction with the World Water Forum. He earned a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Texas and his master's and bachelor's degrees in civil engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey. Earlier, Ünver was a visiting distinguished professor of water resources at Kent State University; president of the Turkish government's Southeastern Anatolia Project; a water resources specialist, deputy director and regional director of Turkey's GAP Management Unit; water resources engineer for the Lower Colorado River Authority; and project engineer for the City of Ankara, Turkey.

Everyone is encouraged to attend the candidates' presentations. For more information, please contact UNLresearch@unl.edu.

Criss Library to Host Reception for John Reidelbach

John Reidelbach, Criss Library electronic resource licensing librarian, will retire on Thursday, June 30, after 31 years of service to UNO.

The Criss Library will host a retirement reception for Reidelbach on Wednesday, May 25, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Criss Library Faculty Club.

Light refreshments will be served. For more information, contact the Library Administrative Office at (402) 554.2640.

Campus Rec Group Ex Introduces Summer Fit Series This Week

This event has been designated a UNO Mav-Rec Wellness event.

The Summer Fit Series is a pilot program geared toward people wanting to increase their fitness level by being pushed a little harder than a normal group fitness class.

The session starts this week, and lasts six weeks. There will be a class offered Monday through Friday that focuses on different areas such as, cardio, core and flexibility. Each class will be offered twice daily to accommodate participants' schedules.

There is no charge for this session of Summer Fit Series, but all participants must be UNO students or Campus Rec members.

To sign up, email Angie Helseth at ahelseth@unomaha.edu or stop by the HPER Control Desk. More info is online at http://www.unomaha.edu/wwwocr/health/aerobics.php

The mission of Mav-Rec Wellness, UNO's health promotion program, is to create a culture of health and wellness among all faculty, staff and students. Health goals are encouraged through programming and initiatives that celebrate healthier lifestyle practices within the UNO community. For more information, visit http://www.unomaha.edu/wwwocr/health/wellness.php.

Malcolm X Mural Ready for Unveiling at Tomorrow's Event

The UNO Service-Learning Academy brought together Meredith Bacon's UNO Minority Politicsclass and Gabrielle Gaines-Liwaru's art students from Beveridge Magnet Middle School for Global Studies and the Arts, a program designed to create a mural for the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation (MXMF).

Sharif Liwaru, MXMF president, was active in guiding the UNO students, as well as the Beveridge art students, as they researched and sketched their ideas. Representatives of Beveridge's art majors and art club visited the UNO campus in April for a presentation by UNO's Minority Politicsclass to learn about Malcolm X beyond his highly publicized image. Students heard about his values for equality, justice and education, and used these as inspirations in collaborating to create the mural that portrays the accurate and honorable life story of this Omaha native.

The project's culminating event will be held at 6 p.m. this Thursday, May 19, at the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation, 3448 Evans St. Read more.

Upcoming Fidelity Counseling Sessions

Fidelity representative Jason Cronick will be in Omaha this summer for individual counseling sessions from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on several days.

Available dates are:

- May 24

- June 8

- June 29

- July 13

- July 28

To make an appointment with Cronick, call 1.800.642.7131.

UNO Bookstore Summer Hours

The current regular summer Bookstore hours are:
Monday through Tuesday, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Regular fall hours will resume Tuesday, Aug. 23.

Exceptions:
The UNO Bookstore will be closed the following dates: May 24-27, May 30 and July 4

June 22-23 and Aug. 10-11, open until 6 p.m. for Textbook Buyback

Aug. 15-19 open 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Aug. 20-21 (Saturday and Sunday), open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

HPER Pool Closed For Maintenance

The Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) Pool is closed and will remain closed for the month of May for routine maintenance and cleaning.

During the closure, all Campus Rec members and Masters Swimmers will have access to the Brownell-Talbot School Pool for free. All swimmers must show their MavCard to gain access. The dates and times can be found at: http://www.unomaha.edu/wwwocr/aquatics/poolhours.php

Fall 2011 Parking Services Changes Announced

Parking Services announces several changes effective at the start of the fall 2011 semester.

These include parking permit prices, parking violation fines, appeal procedures and use of MavCard for garage access. Fall 2011 permits sales will begin on July 1, 2011.

For more information on these changes visit http://ww.unomaha.edu/parking/changes.php

All parking permits and parking violations are paid online at http://www.unomaha.edu/parking.

If you have any questions, call the Parking Services Office at .402.554.PARK (7275).

Green Tip of the Week

Make it a Green Commute

Participate in the Bicycle Commuter Challenge sponsored by Activate Omaha (http://www.activateomaha.org). The annual challenge started May 1 and ends Oct. 1.  Anyone interested in joining or who has questions about Team UNO can contact John Noble at johnnoble@unomaha.edu or Angie Eikenberry at aeikenberry@unomaha.edu.

The GreenUNO Task Force provides these tips. For more information, visit http://www.unomaha.edu/green/.