Kudos – Spring 2016

‘Highest Research’ University

The University of Mississippi is included in the elite group of R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest Research Activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the definitive list for the top doctoral research universities in the United States. UM is among a distinguished group of 115 institutions including Harvard, MIT and Johns Hopkins in the “highest research,” or R-1 category. This group represents the top 2.5 percent of institutions of higher education.

Great News

University of Mississippi students won top awards at the annual Southeast Journalism Conference, including College Journalist of the Year and Grand Championship Team for on-site competitions, as well as seven other first-place honors.

More Great News

For the third time in seven years, the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi has won an annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award. UM’s depth reporting class won in the college category for “Land of Broken Promises.” The exposé examines the impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the Mississippi Delta 50 years later.

Pour It On

The James Beard Foundation has honored “Gravy” as the nation’s best podcast. “Gravy” is produced by the Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. In 2015, the foundation named Gravy, the SFA’s quarterly print journal and podcast, as its Publication of the Year. Gravy shares stories of the changing American South through the foods everyone eats.

Teacher Corps Success Story

Just ask University of Mississippi alumni Derek and Kelly King about their students in the North Panola School District in Sardis, Mississippi, and the husband and wife team light up with excitement. As the instructional coach for North Panola High School (Kelly) and the assistant principal at North Panola Middle School (Derek), the Kings can personally name more than 710 students between their two schools this year. They are UM’s inaugural recipients of the Andrew P. Mullins Jr. MTC Alumni Scholarship, which supports Mississippi Teacher Corps alumni who wish to pursue advanced graduate study.

Distinguished Researcher

External recognition is always appreciated, but being honored internally by peers is better. So says Ikhlas A. Khan, who received the University of Mississippi’s 2016 Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award on May 14. The UM research professor of pharmacognosy and associate director of the National Center for Natural Products Research was presented the prestigious honor, which includes $7,500 and a personal plaque, during the university’s annual Commencement ceremonies in the Grove. Among his accomplishments, Khan has authored or co-authored more than 600 refereed journal articles, served on dissertation committees for 29 graduate students and trained more than 100 postdoctoral associates and visiting scholars.