Claudio Eduardo Pinto, instructor in Spanish and adviser to A-State's chapter of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, is co-recipient of the Minaya Álvar Fáñez Award, granted to Sigma Delta Pi's chapter adviser of the year. He was instrumental in reactivating A-State's chapter in the fall of 2014 and assisting with earning SDP's national Phoenix Award for the chapter's exceptional activities in 2014-15.

Best wishes to Elaine Poynter, director of annual giving, who is leaving A-State after more than 21 years of service. Under her leadership, the Torchbearers giving club for faculty and staff, both current and retired, has been highly successful. Torchbearer giving totaled $444,111 to the donor's choice of department or academic program in fiscal 2015. University Advancement is hosting a retirement party in her honor, 3-5 p.m. today at Cooper Alumni Center.

The Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association (APA), based in Washington, D.C., has elected Dr. Loretta N. McGregor, professor of psychology, to a three-year term on the APA Board of Educational Affairs. Election to the board is considered a major service to APA. The board recommends educational policy, program changes and operational priorities to the APA Board of Directors and Council of Representatives.

Dr. David Gilmore, associate professor of environmental biology, was featured in a recent news report on KAIT. The station was following up on a social media story in which culturing bacteria from beards revealed bacteria best described as "fecal bacteria." For the report, Gilmore inoculated several samples from bearded A-State students on various culture media. Fortunately, he found no fecal bacteria, just normal skin bacteria.

Dr. Edward Salo, assistant professor of history, prepared the historic context for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination of Ewa Plain Battlefield in Hawaii. A portion of the battlefield was determined eligible for the NRHP at the national level of significance under Criteria A and D. The Battle of Ewa Plain in 1941 was part of the Imperial Japanese Navy's surprise attack on U. S. military forces stationed at Pearl Harbor.