KU, Kansas State faculty receive Higuchi-KU Endowment research achievement awards

LAWRENCE — Four faculty members at two Kansas universities were named recipients of the Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Awards, the state higher education system’s most prestigious recognition for scholarly excellence. 

The annual awards are given in four categories of scholarly and creative achievement. This year’s honorees: 

• Dave Tell, professor of communication studies and co-director of the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities, KU, recipient of the Balfour Jeffrey Award in Humanities & Social Sciences.        
• Walter Dodds, University Distinguished Professor and Edwin G. & Lillian J. Brychta Chair of Biology, Kansas State University, recipient of the Olin Petefish Award in Basic Sciences.
• Johann (Hans) Coetzee, University Distinguished Professor of anatomy & physiology and interim vice president for research, Kansas State University, recipient of the Irvin Youngberg Award in Applied Sciences. 
• Hartmut Jaeschke, University Distinguished Professor of pharmacology, toxicology & therapeutics, KU Medical Center, recipient of the Dolph Simons Award in Biomedical Sciences.

The four will be recognized at a ceremony this spring along with recipients of other major KU research awards. 

This is the 43rd annual presentation of the Higuchi awards, established in 1981 by Takeru Higuchi, a distinguished professor at the University of Kansas from 1967 to 1983, his wife, Aya, and the KU Endowment Association. The awards recognize exceptional long-term research accomplishments by faculty at Kansas Board of Regents universities. Each honoree receives $10,000 for their ongoing research.   

The awards are named for former leaders of KU Endowment who helped recruit Higuchi to KU.

Balfour Jeffrey Award in Humanities & Social Sciences

Dave Tell is a professor of communication studies and co-director of the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities. His scholarship focuses on one of the most notorious hate crimes in American history.

Tell is the author of "Remembering Emmett Till," a book that lays out the history of efforts to memorialize Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who was killed for whistling at a white woman in a rural Mississippi store. Till’s mother, Mamie, held an open-casket funeral in Chicago, which sparked a national conversation around lynching and catalyzed the American Civil Rights Movement. Efforts to remember Till’s life and murder have been met with opposition. Signs commemorating the murder have been stolen and shot multiple times and defaced with acid. In 2019, a group of college students posted a photo of themselves carrying guns next to the sign.

In response to the vandalism, Tell wrote a New York Times editorial calling for the vandalized Till signs to be placed in a museum. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History responded, creating an exhibit based largely on Tell’s research.

Tell has partnered with the family of Emmett Till to launch the Emmett Till Memory Project, a website and mobile app that lets users visit relevant sites, access archival documents and learn civil rights history on a 21st century digital platform. Tell’s work has been recognized in multiple international publications, and he attended the White House event launching the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Park.

Tell received a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California, and a doctorate in communication arts and sciences from Pennsylvania State University.

Olin Petefish Award in Basic Sciences

Walter Dodds is a University Distinguished Professor and Edwin G. & Lillian J. Brychta Chair of Biology at Kansas State University. He evaluates how nutrients flow through freshwater ecosystems, including nutrient pollution, nuisance algal growth and water quality.

Dodds was the lead organizer behind the Stream Experimental and Observational Network, a group of aquatic scientists from across North America who proposed a continent-scale network of sensors that collects data of rivers and streams. This group shaped the design of the National Ecological Observatory Network, which among other things now includes 20 sites that will monitor freshwater sources in the United States for a planned 30 years. The data collected so far has already resulted in hundreds of scientific publications.

This work is both local and global. Dodds’ efforts assess the water quality and biogeochemistry of Kansas freshwater ecosystems, using the pristine Konza Prairie as a baseline. Better understanding these ecosystems can shed light on the effectiveness of conservation efforts essential to protecting the planet. Dodds is recognized among the top 2% of researchers worldwide, according to an analysis by Stanford University.

Dodds received a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry from the University of Denver and a doctorate in biology from the University of Oregon.

Irvin Youngberg Award in Applied Sciences

Hans Coetzee is a University Distinguished Professor of anatomy & physiology and interim vice president for research at Kansas State University. His research involves the study and mitigation of pain in livestock.

Coetzee grew up around animals on his family’s dairy farm in South Africa. There he noticed that there were no standards for minimizing pain and discomfort in farm animals. While some livestock producers in America use human pain medicine off-label for animals, approval for livestock-specific drugs requires ways of assessing their effectiveness. This is especially challenging since many farm animals evolved to conceal signs of pain to evade predation. Coetzee and his team employed innovative methods — such as pressure mats to assess if animals are limping and thermography to measure skin temperature variations linked to pain-related changes in blood flow — to standardize pain detection.

These tests led to the approval of the first livestock analgesic drug (pain medication) that improved the welfare of millions of animals. Coetzee holds two U.S. patents and is recognized in the top 2% of researchers in his field worldwide by a Stanford University analysis of publications. In recognition of his research contributions, he was recently named the 2025 recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences.

Coetzee received a bachelor’s degree in veterinary science (DVM equivalent) from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and a doctorate in veterinary microbiology from Iowa State University.

Dolph Simons Award in Biomedical Sciences

Hartmut Jaeschke is a University Distinguished Professor of pharmacology, toxicology & therapeutics at KU Medical Center. He studies drug-induced liver disease from one of the most commonly used medications.

Acetaminophen is an important over-the-counter medication that provides pain relief to millions of people, but when taken excessively it can cause liver damage. Jaeschke and his research group look at liver cells to assess treatment options. His work helped identify fomepizole, an existing drug, as a new antidote against acetaminophen toxicity. Jaeschke is working on repurposing other drugs for the same purpose.

For some patients, the damage done from acetaminophen requires a liver transplant. Jaeschke and his team have discovered a biomarker that could help clinicians more quickly determine when a liver transplant is needed. With the patent now granted, Jaeschke’s work can go from bench to bedside to help save lives.

Jaeschke received a master’s degree in biochemistry and a doctorate degree in toxicology, both from the University of Tübingen, Germany.

About KU Endowment

KU Endowment is the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment was the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.