Rich Ring, librarian, and Richard “Skip” Kay, emeritus professor of history, have edited The Proceedings of the Pseudo Society, First Series 1986-1993, published by the Medieval Institute at Western Michigan University. Ring’s paper, “Lost Letters of Charlemagne’s First Wife,” is included in the volume. Ring and Kay also are editing the second series.

John T. “Jay” Alexander recently published “Catherine the Great and the Rats,” an essay in the collection Adventures in Russian Historical Research, edited by Samuel Baron and Cathy Frierson, published by M.E. Sharpe, New York. His contribution details the genesis of his book, Bubonic Plague in Early Modern Russia (Johns Hopkins, 1980), reissued by Oxford University Press this year.

Brenda Gray, director of university relations at the KU School of Medicine-Wichita, has been elected to a second term as secretary of the Sunflower Foundation Health Care for Kansans board of directors.

David Cateforis, associate professor of art history, has published an interview with the Chinese avant-garde artist Wenda Gu in the catalog Wenda Gu: Art from Middle Kingdom to Biological Millennium (MIT Press, 2003). The catalog accompanies an exhibition of Gu’s work currently on view at the H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Mo.

Richard C. Morrell, Mary Vandeventer and Melodie Hough, all of the Office of the University Registrar, presented a session titled “Eligibility Certification Best Practices” on July 11 at the Big 12 Conference Summer Rules Workshop in Kansas City, Mo.

Karl Koob, clinical assistant professor of health information management, will serve on the American Health Information Management Association’s standards development task force for electronic health information management.

Richard Guthrie, the first chair of pediatrics at the KU School of Medicine, has received the Outstanding Physician Clinician in Diabetes Award from the American Diabetes Association.

Jared James Grantham, distinguished professor of nephrology and director of the Kidney Institute at the KU Medical Center, was at the Stanton County Public Library on Aug. 9 for a book-signing of his first children’s book, Ashley and the Mooncorn People.

The School of Allied Health recently received the Best Web-Based Course Design Award for its Hematology III class (CLS 646) on behalf of Assistant Professor Venus J. Ward and Clinical Instructor Jennifer Jones, as part of the first Exemplary Kansas Course Competition awards, presented at the Kansas Virtual Learning Symposium in Wichita.

Paul Laird, associate professor of musicology, was in charge of local arrangements for the annual meeting of the College Music Society Great Plains Chapter at KU March 15 and 16. On March 22 and 23, Laird was in southern California for pre-concert lectures for the Hutchins Consort in Irvine and Encinitas, and on March 23 he made a joint presentation with the Hutchins Consort on the life and work of acoustician and luthier Carleen Maley Hutchins for the southern California chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. On April 4, Laird gave lectures on the Spanish villancico and Leonard Bernstein’s Mass at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Kansas Public Radio’s Trail Mix host, Bob McWilliams, recently helped choose the winners of coveted showcase slots at the prestigious Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in the Berkshire Mountains of New York. McWilliams and two other judges waded through 402 entries to narrow the field to 22 performers, who performed at this year’s festival, held July 24 through 27 in Hillsdale, N.Y.

Janet Murguia, executive vice chancellor for university relations, received the 2003 Ana Riojas Leadership Award at the Midwest Latina Conference Aug. 15 in Kansas City, Mo. The annual award is presented to a businessperson who has exhibited exemplary leadership skills in her professional, business and community involvement.

Ann P. Turnbull, co-director of the Beach Center on Disability and special education professor, assumed the national presidency of the American Association on Mental Retardation on May 23 at the organization’s annual meeting in Chicago.