Three professors from Kansas University and one from Kansas State University have been honored for groundbreaking research with Higuchi/KU Endowment Association Research Achievement Awards.

The late Takeru Higuchi, a distinguished professor at KU from 1967 to 1983, and his wife, Aya, established the program to honor outstanding research accomplishments of faculty from Kansas Board of Regents institutions. The individual awards are named after four men who served in leadership roles at KU Endowment.

This year’s winners:

¢ Ann Turnbull, professor of special education at KU, has won the Balfour Jeffrey Award in Humanities and Social Sciences. Turnbull, who is a co-founder of the Beach Center on Disability, focuses her research primarily on families of children and adults with disabilities.

¢ A. Townsend Peterson, distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and curator in the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute, has won the Olin Petefish Award in Basic Science. Peterson works in species distribution, biodiversity informatics and disease geography.

¢ Charles D. Little, professor of anatomy and cell biology at KU Medical Center, has received the Dolph Simons Award in Biomedical Sciences. Little studies the physical forces that shape embryos.

¢ Paul A. Seib, a professor of grain science and industry at Kansas State University, earned the Irvin Youngberg Award for Applied Sciences. Seib’s research focuses on cereal carbohydrates, wheat-based foods and stable forms of vitamin C.

The 2007 Higuchi Award winners will be recognized later this year. Recipients may use their $10,000 awards for research materials, summer salaries, fellowship matching funds, research assistance or other research-related support.