Medical student selected for NFL's initiative for aspiring sports medicine physicians

Elizabeth Holmes, a fourth-year medical student at KU School of Medicine, joined the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs at training camp this year. Holmes participated in the NFL Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative, created by the National Football League, the NFL Physicians Society (NFLPS) and the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society (PFATS). Students matched with NFL clubs across the league for one-month clinical rotations focused on the fundamentals of care provided to players from an orthopedic, primary care sports medicine and athletic training perspective. Launched in 2022, the program’s goal is to increase and diversify the pipeline of students interested in pursuing careers in sports medicine.

Jayhawks well represented at Paris Olympics

The Kansas Jayhawks were represented in several sports at the 2024 Paris Olympics with Michael Joseph, Yoveinny Mota, Sharon Lokedi, Bryce Hoppel, Hussain Al-Hizam and Alexandra Emilianov joining head coach Stanley Redwine and event manager Tim Weaver in track and field. Joel Embiid competed in men’s basketball, and Liana Salazar was a member of Colombia’s women’s soccer team. Joseph, the standout sprinter and only current student-athlete, was the flag bearer for his home country of Saint Lucia during the opening ceremony. Embiid helped Team USA win gold, Hoppel broke the American record in the men’s 800-meter and finished fourth overall; and Lokedi was fourth in the women’s marathon.

Theatre design students excel at national contest

Two gifted theatrical designers represented KU at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival national competition in Washington, D.C. Edmund Ludlum, a 2024 graduate with dual degrees in theatre design and history of art, won a first-place national award in costume design for “Cabaret,” the University Theatre’s 2022-23 season finale. Hana Rose North was a finalist in sound design for work on “Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties,” KU Theatre’s 2023-24 season opener. KU Theatre celebrated 100 years in 2023.

Journalism professor chosen as a juror for Pulitzer Prize

Patricia Weems Gaston, Lacy C. Haynes Professor of Journalism at the University of Kansas, served as a juror for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in the international reporting category. The Pulitzer Prizes are considered the highest national honor for outstanding work in journalism and the arts. The jury nominated three to the Pulitzer Board, which selected the winner. It was a full circle moment for Gaston, who co-edited a winning project that explored the universality of violence against women in 1994 while working at the Dallas Morning News. A 1981 journalism school graduate, Gaston returned to KU in 2018 after a long and successful career at The Washington Post.

KU Law's Moot Court program continues success

According to rankings published by the University of Houston Law Center, the University of Kansas School of Law’s moot court program is 25th in the nation. It is the sixth consecutive year KU has been one of the top 25 programs in the country. This is also the fourth year in a row KU Law has won the National Native American Law Student Association (NNALSA) Moot Court Competition. The winning team of 2024 graduates Jade Kearney and Justin Schock appreciated the guidance of faculty coaches and KU Law alumni including three-time NNALSA winner Emily DePew, who lent her support and expertise to the competition.

Team of paleontologists continue final excavation of rare fossil

David Burnham, preparator of vertebrate paleontology at the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, and a team of students and volunteers were back in Montana this summer for the final excavation of a rare dinosaur fossil — a juvenile tyrannosaur. The group first discovered the specimen in 2016 and returned to the dig site, which is in the Hell Creek Formation, in search of additional fossils. The discovery of a juvenile tyrannosaur fossil is extremely unusual, but what makes the KU specimen even more special is the excellent preservation of its teeth, according to researchers. The team will publish their findings about the tyrannosaur later this year.

KU Cancer Center receives $50 million in federal investments

This summer, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas announced $20 million in federal investments for The University of Kansas Cancer Center and The University of Kansas Health System. The KU Cancer Center will receive $10 million for its new building, and the health system will use $10 million for advanced cardiac technology used for patient care. Roy A. Jensen, vice chancellor and director of The University of Kansas Cancer Center, expressed gratitude, noting Moran’s steadfast support of ongoing funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is critical to everything being done at the center.