UNL

Confirmed Speakers

• Lindsay Hastings
  
• Matan Gill
  As a freshman at UNL, Matan Gill led the effort to create the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska’s (ASUN) Environmental Sustainability Committee (ESC) that sought to increase student input on environmental issues on campus and strengthen the level of environmental stewardship of the University community. As the ESC’s chairman he developed education programs, university policy recommendations, and long term visioning to reduce UNL’s impact on the environment today and in the future. In 2011 Matan was a recipient of an Undergraduate Research grant to pursue his interest in energy management of commercial buildings. As a young teenager Matan immigrated from Israel along with his family. He grew up enjoying sailing, windsurfing, and scuba diving in the Red Sea, through which he gained his sense of environmental consciousness. Matan serves as the Senator for the College of Engineering and is the President of Sigma Lambda Chi Construction Honor Society. Matan will graduate in May with a degree in Construction Management.
• Jeff Thompson
  Jeff Thompson is an artist, musician, curator, and educator. He has exhibited and performed his work internationally, most recently at the Sheldon Museum of Art, the Taubman Museum of Art, SITE Santa Fe, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and the Jersey City Museum. His visual and written projects have been published by Ugly Duckling Presse, the Parsons Journal for Information Mapping, and Leonardo Electronic Almanac. In addition to his studio practice, Thompson is co-curator as part of the collaborative Drift Station, a gallery that regularly mounts international, experimental exhibitions in Lincoln, Nebraska and online.
• Sally Mackenzie
  Sally Mackenzie the Ralph and Alice Raikes Professor of Plant Science at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A native Californian, Sally received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from University of California, Davis, and her PhD training from the University of Florida in Gainesville. Her laboratory focuses on the influence of mitochondria and chloroplasts, the two energy centers of the cell, on plant environmental sensing.
• Matt Waite
  Matt Waite is a professor of journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, founder of the Drone Journalism Lab and co-founder of Hot Type Consulting LLC, a web development firm. From 2007-2011, he was a programmer/journalist for the St. Petersburg Times where he developed the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact. Before that, he was an award-winning investigative reporter for the Times and co-author of Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss.
• Steve Goddard
  Steve Goddard is a John E. Olsson Professor of Engineering and Chair of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering. He received the B.A. degree in computer science and mathematics from the University of Minnesota (1985). He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1995, 1998). Dr. Goddard worked in the computer industry for 13 years, including president of his own company for 9 years, prior to joining the UNL faculty in 1998. Dr. Goddard's research and teaching interests are primarily in the areas of embedded and distributed systems, but he has been doing multi-disciplinary research since 1999.
• Adam Morfeld
  
• Beth Burkstrand-Reid
  Beth Burkstrand-Reid is an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law. Her areas of expertise are sexuality and gender and the law.
• Garth Britzman
  Garth Britzman, of Brookings, South Dakota, is a senior Architecture major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He serves on the Executive Committee of the American Institute of Architecture Students. Britzman's service on the Environmental Sustainability Committee furthers his interests in sustainability and environmental conservation. Britzman believes that creativity in design inspires innovation.
• Chris Eberhardt
  Chris Eberhardt, a twenty-five year educator, is currently the assistant principal at Grand Island Northwest High School. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in Kearney (UNK) with a B.A. in Education and a M.A. in Secondary School Counseling, and subsequently from Doane college with a M.A. in Educational Leadership. Chris's twenty-five years in education include twelve years as a high school social studies instructor, ten years as the developer and director of the Northwest High School alternative education program, sixteen years as a high school athletics coach, and three years as a high school assistant principal. Chris and his wife, Jody, have two sons: Carter, a junior at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, who is majoring in Construction Management, and Connor who is a senior at Northwest High School.
• Ronnie Green
  Ronnie Green is the NU Vice President and Harlan Vice Chancellor in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. A native of southwestern Virginia, Ronnie most recently was with Pfizer Animal Health where he oversaw global technical services for animal genetics. Ronnie and his wife Jane are proud parents of Justin who works in Washington DC, Nate & Kelli, both studying at UNL, and Regan, who is a junior at Lincoln Christian.