Joy Ward, Kansas University assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is the first recipient of KU’s Thelma and Edward Wohlgemuth Faculty Scholar Award. The award provides research and salary assistance to nontenured faculty members who are recognized as some of KU’s brightest young professors.

Dorothy Wohlgemuth Lynch, of Olathe, contributed $300,000 to the KU Endowment Association in honor of her parents, Thelma and Edward, in 2000. The grant is intended to help retain promising young faculty members.

Ward’s research seeks to understand how global factors influence plant growth, physiology and development. She analyzes factors ranging from molecular levels to evolutionary levels, and her main focus is on the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide on plants.