Emma Russin, engineering graduate student at the University of Kansas, won not one but two awards this spring: one for her book collection and one for her research.
Emma won First Place and a $600 prize in the Graduate Division for the Snyder Book Collecting Contest. The KU Libraries honored Emma and eight other finalists for their book collecting passion at their April 30 award ceremony at Watson Library. This is the contest’s 66th year, after launching in 1957 by libraries donor Elizabeth Snyder.
Emma’s winning book collection is titled, “Me, My Books, and Mother Earth.” It will be available to view at the Union until May 16, 2024. It will also be submit the national competition.
Emma describes her book collection as “works of fiction and non-fiction that evaluate humanity’s impact on the natural world. As a species, we have an obligation to protect the world around us, but we have failed to do so time and time again. Through this collection, I hope to better understand the damage we have caused but also find solutions to start the healing process. To stay true to the theme of this collection, all the books in this collection have been found at secondhand stores or collected through book exchanges.”
Emma’s research honor came March 25th at the Missouri American Waterworks Association conference in Osage Beach, Missouri, when she won 2nd place in the student poster competition. Her poster, “Synthesizing drinking water distribution systems based on readily available data,” relates to her research on the ARISE project.
