Summary: Two faculty members in the University of South Dakota College of Arts & Sciences received funding totaling $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Funding for Accelerated, Inclusive Research (FAIR) initiative. USD’s faculty, Dongming Mei, Ph.D., and Vijayalakshmi Saravanan, Ph.D., are the only recipients from South Dakota who received this highly competitive grant.

Summary: The University of South Dakota’s Department of Nursing will mark a milestone on Aug. 26—the first students will graduate from its Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program and will be recognized at a hooding ceremony.

Summary: Earlier this month, Tamara Nash '13 was appointed as the chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Young Lawyers Division during its annual assembly. Nash was elected to serve as the secretary in August 2021, ultimately ascending to the chair position this year.

Summary: Two faculty in the University of South Dakota's Missouri River Institute – Jacob Kerby, Ph.D., biology professor and department chair, and David Swanson, Ph.D., biology professor – received a grant from the National Park Service to study settlement patterns of invasive zebra mussels along the Missouri National Recreational River (MNRR), a 59-mile section of the Missouri River between Gavins Point Dam and Ponca State Park.