{"id":78095,"date":"2026-06-02T15:09:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T22:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=78095"},"modified":"2026-06-23T11:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:30:19","slug":"in-the-spotlights-june-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/in-the-spotlights-june-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Spotlight: June 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In the Spotlight: June 2026<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Kudos to these faculty,\u202fstaff\u202fand programs.\u202f<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?\u202f<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">E-mail\u00a0your announcements to\u202f<\/span><a href=\"mailto:Inside@nau.edu\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Inside@nau.edu<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">,\u202for use\u202four\u202f<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/news-tip\/#.YEjwNWhKg2w\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">online submission form<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u202f<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\">Recent\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">philosophy,\u00a0politics\u00a0and law graduate\u00a0<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Ethan Ward\u00a0<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"none\">was awarded\u00a0a\u00a0Fulbright to study security and diplomacy at Tel Aviv University. Before graduating this spring, Ward was a peer mentor in\u00a0the Honors\u00a0College and an Honors Ambassador. He was the president of Mock Trial club and the founder of the Pickleball Club at NAU.\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/elevate.foundationnau.org\/stories-of-impact\/access-for-students\/ethan-wards-pursuit-of-justice\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Read more about his time at NAU and his career aspirations on the NAU Foundation website<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Bridget Smith-Konter<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, associate professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability, collaborated in the study \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1029\/2025JB033213\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Cajon Pass and the Southern San Andreas Fault System: Earthquake Cycle Stress Accumulation and Present-Day Loading,<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201d which suggests the San Andreas fault is currently experiencing its highest levels of accumulated tectonic stress in over 1000 years, based on the\u00a0paleoseismic\u00a0earthquake record.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>NAU<\/strong> ranked in the top 3.9% of institutions worldwide by the Center for World University Ranking (CWUR) and was included in their list of the top 2,000 global institutions. <span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><strong>NAU\u2019s Center for International Education<\/strong> received the prestigious IDEAS microgrant to support the NAU in Malawi faculty-led program. The grant from the U.S. Department of State&#8217;s Educational and Cultural Affairs and World Learning supports efforts to expand opportunities for more American students to study abroad and gain skills that are critical to U.S. national security and economic prosperity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><strong>NAU\u2019s Center for International Education<\/strong> was named 2026 Campus Partner of the Year for Public Health by the Department of Health Sciences for its initiatives, collaborations and commitment to the success of NAU students and the advancement of their shared mission.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\">Alumnus <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">George Kusche<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"none\">, who graduated with a master\u2019s in statistics in 2023, won the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/marathonhandbook.com\/george-kusche-smashes-18-year-old-comrades-up-run-record-on-his-second-attempt\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Comrades Ultramarathon<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\"> in South Africa (86 km \/ 53.3 miles uphill this year) on June 14, setting a new record time of 5:15:56 and beating the old record by nearly nine minutes. Kusche was a member of the NAU national championship cross country team in 2022.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\">In the latest <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/education\/best-global-universities\/northern-arizona-university-105330#rankings\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">U.S. News and World Report Best Global Universities rankings<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">, <strong>NAU<\/strong> was recognized as a top university for ecology. NAU was ranked 52<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">nd<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> globally and 15<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">th<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> in the United States, highlighting the university\u2019s strength in ecological research.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">NAU&#8217;s Ecological Restoration Institute<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0received the Interactive Ingenuity award at the 2026 Esri Federal GIS Conference, a national recognition for TWIG, a wildfire mapping tool developed\u00a0in\u00a0partnership with NAU\u2019s sister institutes in Colorado and New Mexico.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">David Trilling<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, chair of the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science,\u00a0co-authored the\u00a0article\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/PSJ\/ae5b69\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u201cTaxonomic Distribution of the Small Near-Earth Asteroid Population\u201d<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0recently published\u00a0in\u00a0The Planetary Science Journal.\u00a0His other\u00a0publication,\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2605.06913\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u201cYou Only Stack Once (YOSO): A Motion-Filtered, Deep-Learning Framework for Detecting Faint Moving Sources\u201d<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0was accepted by the Astronomical Society Journal.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Gerard van Belle<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, research professor in the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science,\u00a0participated\u00a0in the Flagstaff Leadership Program\u2019s\u00a0Science Leadership Education Day\u00a0hosted by USGS, presenting to groups on\u00a0the\u00a0business of\u00a0science for the fourth consecutive year.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240,&quot;335559991&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\">The article\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2605.28636\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u201cTriaxial shapes and densities of G!k\u00fan||&#8217;h\u00f2md\u00edm\u00e0, Haumea, and Varda from stellar occultations\u201d<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0by\u00a0<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Will Grundy<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"none\">, research professor in the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, was accepted for publication by the Astronomical Society Journal.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:false,&quot;134233118&quot;:false,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:0,&quot;335551620&quot;:0,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559737&quot;:0,&quot;335559738&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240,&quot;335559991&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"search-results-excerpt-link\" href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/in-the-spotlights-june-2026\/\">In the Spotlight: June 2026\u00a0 Kudos to these faculty,\u202fstaff\u202fand programs.\u202f\u00a0 Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?\u202f\u00a0 E-mail\u00a0your announcements to\u202fInside@nau.edu,\u202for use\u202four\u202fonline submission form.\u202f\u00a0 Recent\u00a0philosophy,\u00a0politics\u00a0and law graduate\u00a0Ethan Ward\u00a0was awarded\u00a0a\u00a0Fulbright to study security and diplomacy at Tel Aviv University. Before graduating this spring, Ward was a peer mentor in\u00a0the Honors\u00a0College and an&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78239,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78095\/revisions\/78239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}