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Dr. Woelfl thanked for “sticking around”


Student senate leaders presented retiring McGoogan Library of Medicine Director Nancy Woeffl, Ph.D., with an award during a farewell luncheon Thursday. From left, David Carver, Ph.D., Amanda Harlow, Dr. Woelfl, Jeremy Hosein and Caroline Jamison display the hockey stick Dr. Woelfl was given for “sticking around for so long.”




Two UNMC graduate students were among the seven recipients of 2013-14 Presidential Graduate Fellowships, announced this week by University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken. These prestigious fellowships honor a select group of NU graduate students each year on the basis of high scholastic performance and personal accomplishment. UNMCs two fellows are:









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    Tao Li
    Tao Li, of Tianjin, China, a Ph.D. student in health services research and administration. Li’s dissertation focuses on hospital cost shifting because of payment shortfalls by public programs. With previous grants, he has researched hospital cost shifting in Nebraska; racial/ethnic disparities in the return on investment in breast and cervical cancer screening services among low-income women; and implications of health care reform in the U.S. based on Taiwan’s internationally recognized national health insurance system. He has been published in scholarly journals and presented at national conferences. Li has volunteered at a clinic in Weeping Water, and is a student representative on the Graduate Committee of UNMC’s Department of Health Services Research and Administration.









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    Richard Nelson
    Richard Nelson, of Sturgis, S.D., a Ph.D. student in genetics and immunology. Last year, Nelson won the Excellent Graduate Student Award from the UNMC Department of Genetics, Cell Biology & Anatomy. He is a student lecturer for a Biology of Human Disease course offered jointly through UNMC and UNO and has served as a teacher’s aide and personal tutor in other courses at UNMC and Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. Nelson also has presented widely at conferences around the country. His research objective is to clarify the role that estrogen receptor-alpha signaling pathways in CD-4+ T-cells play in promoting the onset and maintenance of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Judith Christman, Ph.D., will be honored with a retirement tea from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, July 25. Dr. Christman is retiring from the department of biochemistry and molecular biology after 19 years with UNMC, including serving as the chair of the department from 1994 to 2009. The event will be held in Private Dining Rooms A and B of University Tower.