Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs.
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- Sierra Bostwick, an undergraduate student majoring in politics and international affairs, earned an honorable mention in the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity’s 2025 Prize in Ethics essay contest for her submission, “Haunting.” Students who submit essays are encouraged to explore the ethics of a problem, question or issue of their choice. For her piece, Bostwick drew from her experiences growing up in Xinjiang, China, to discuss the genocides committed against the Uyghur people.
- After joining the Arizona Housing Analytics Collaborative (AzHAC) as a co-private investigator in March 2025, Department of Mathematics and Statistics assistant professor Ben Lucas and his AzHAC team were awarded $250,000 to continue their research into homelessness. Their initiative aims to predict which individuals are most likely to become homeless based on requests for financial assistance and phone calls to emergency lines.
- NAU alumnus Geordie Beamish won gold in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sept. 15. Beamish claimed the world title by only 0.07 seconds, beating defending champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist Soufiane El Bakkali.
- NAU women’s soccer forward Micala Boex was recognized as the Big Sky Co-Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 16. Boex leads the team in goals, assists and points, and she has scored at least one point in five of the nine matches played so far this season.
- NAU quarterback Ty Pennington earned a second consecutive Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week recognition on Sept. 22. Following a career-high passing touchdown performance against Southern Utah University, Pennington matched his record against the University of the Incarnate Word on Saturday. He led NAU to its ninth consecutive win in the Skydome.
- Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science undergraduate student Yves Wood, alumnus Hunter Brooks and lecturer Jasmine Garani co-authored the paper “High Proper Motion Object Discoveries from the Backyard Worlds: Cool Neighbors Citizen Science Project,” published in Research Notes of the AAS. The paper details the discovery of 11 star and brown dwarf candidates using the archival Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer data set and crowdsourced volunteers.