Randall Wells, Ph.D., vice president of marine mammal conservation and director of Chicago Zoological Society’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, received the Kenneth S. Norris Lifetime Achievement Award from the international Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM) during a virtual members meeting in February.
The award, which is named after the SMM’s founding president, acknowledges individuals for their exemplary lifetime contributions to science and society through research, teaching, and service in marine mammalogy.
It is awarded every two years and is the highest honor bestowed on members of the world’s leading professional society for marine mammal science and conservation.
“As someone who was a Norris doctoral student; who worked with him for 12 years, including a stint as his dolphin lab manager at Santa Cruz; and who had the opportunity to see his incredibly insightful mind at work time and time again, unraveling dolphin mysteries, this award has particular meaning to me,” said Wells in a press release.
In addition to being the director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, Wells co-founded the program in 1970, making it the world’s longest-running study of a wild dolphin population.
The team also helps rescue entangled or injured dolphins, and has trained more than 400 researchers and students from more than 30 countries in dolphin research and conservation techniques that are now being applied to protect species around the globe.
Wells is the author or co-author of several books, more than 290 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and more than 100 technical reports. Additionally, he has been a presenter or co-author of more than 700 presentations at professional meetings as well as invited public and university lectures.
On campus
Tommy Hennelly, of Riverside, was among the students at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, receiving degrees at the school’s December commencement ceremony. Hennelly graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish.
Davonte Mikell, of Brookfield, was named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at Rockford (Illinois) University for earning a semester grade-point average of at least 3.5 on a 4-point scale.
Riverside resident Caroline Waddell was named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at Ohio University in Athens for earning a semester GPA of at least 3.5.
Brookfield residents Lina Alamayreh (elementary education), Margarita Correa-Martinez (special/elementary education), Kathleen Harney (elementary education), Jane McLaren (secondary education), James Mizura (aviation administration) and Michal Tyka (computer science) and North Riverside resident Margaret Justus (criminal justice and psychology) were named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at Lewis University in Romeoville for achieving a GPA of at least 3.5 for the semester.
Roberth Flores, of North Riverside, was named to the 2021 fall semester dean’s list at Ripon (Wisconsin) College for achieving a GPA of at least 3.4.
Three Brookfield residents were among the members of the Lyons Township High School Business Professionals of America Club to win awards at the BPA statewide competition.
Senior Adam Almuhtaseb placed fifth in Fundamental Word Processing and eighth in Java Programming, junior Bazil Bednar placed seventh in Human Resource Management and eighth in Extemporaneous Speech and senior Anthony Traverso was part of the Small Business Management Team that placed ninth.
Lyons Township High School freshman Paulius Mugenis and junior Sophia Villareal, both of Brookfield, will compete at the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas in May after they and their Team 23880D Axolotls teammates won the VRC High School Poster Design Online Challenge during the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation competition in February. The team also won a $500 VEX Robotics gift card.
Grace Leavitt, a Brookfield resident who is a junior at Lyons Township High School, earned an honorable mention award in the WaltMarie Contest at the 2022 Highland Park Poetry Contest.
WaltMarie is a poem which must be 10 lines, with every other line two syllables. The short lines form their own little poem. Leavitt’s poem will be published in the Muses’ Gallery at highlandparkpoerty.org throughout April and May.
