University Daily Kansan / Friday, September 19, 1986
KU zoologist wins honor
Collins named 'Conservationist of the Year'
By TONY BALANDRAN
When Joseph Collins returned home Monday from a "working vacation" at Reefloot Lake in northwest Tennessee, he found a letter he wasn't expecting on his office desk.
Staff writer
The letter informed Collins, a zoologist for KU's Museum of Natural History, that the Kansas Wildlife Federation had named him the 1986 recipient of the Conservationist of the Year award.
"I got calls congratulating me before I found out that I won," said Collins. "I was surprised to learn when I got back from vacation."
Collins, 47, said his interest in resource and wildlife conservation, which existed "since day one", had led him to spend one and a half years co-writing and editing his latest book, "Natural Kansas." He credits the book with getting him the award.
The highest honor bestowed annually by the KWF, Conservationist of the Year recognizes the achievements of the individual considered to have made the most significant contribution to the cause of conservation of natural resources of Kansas.
Collins, along with seven other recipients of different awards from the KWF, will be honored at an annual banquet at 7 p.m. Oct.11 in Topeka.
Collins, who earned a two-year
degree in zoology from the University of Cincinnati, is also editor for all the publications written by the KU museum. He is originally from Cincinnati.
Collins' book and his past endeavors qualified him for the award, said George Pisani, director of undergraduate biology laboratories.
Collins wrote three of the 11 chapters in "Natural Kansas" and said he informed other authors as to what needed to be included in the text, he said.
Part of the research required for the book called for Collins to explore Kansas in detail.
And that is exactly what he did when he visited each of the 105 counties in the state.
"I've photographed in them. I've chased wildlife in them and I've camped out in them." Collins said.
"Natural Kansas' is the culmination of his conservation efforts," said Pisani, one of several people who nominated Collins for the award. "Its aim is not directed to the technical world because the biologist is not in need of having his awareness raised."
Collins also said he was grateful that the KWF recognized his interest in conservation.
"This is probably the only conservationist award you can get in the state." he said.
His interest in conservation began at age 19, when he and three other teenagers began the Ohio
Herpetological Society, with a membership of 25, said Collins. They also produced a journal under the same name.
By 1967, most of their members lived outside of Ohio, so they changed the name to the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. By 1978, it was the largest international society in that profession with 2,600 members representing 20 countries.
Pisani joined the society in 1962, but did not meet Collins until 1970.
"I saw him do many things in a low-key fashion to foster conservation awareness," Pisani said.
Collinis was president of the Kansas Association of Biology Teachers in 1980 and has been chairman of the State Fish and Game Department's Herpetology Committee since 1975.
In 1979, he was named KU's Classified Employee of the Year and in 1984 received the University's Certificate of Appreciation from Chancellor Gene A. Budig.
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Collins has written six other books, including four field guides to Kansas animals. He also is a wildlife photographer, whose photographs have appeared in Audubon Society field guides and other books worldwide.
He has written more than 100 articles for publications ranging from technical journals to popular magazines.
A2 Friday, September 19, 1986
Costa returns to KU after judging Moscow competition
Staff write.
By ATLE BJORGE
His Murphy Hall studio boasts the bare necessities — two grand pianos, some concert posters and a photograph of the Italian pianist Michelangelo looking sternly down from the wall.
Sequeira Costa, Cordella Brown Murphy distinguished professor of piano, pointed toward the photograph that Mr. Cordella had been a great influence on him.
"This place is ideal for my concentration," he said.
Chris Feeley/KANSAN
Sequeira Costa, Cordella Brown Murphy distinguished professor of piano, contemplates his experiences in Moscow. Costa was a juror in the Tchaikovsky piano competition there this summer.
Costa wouldn't have much time for interior decorating even if he wanted it.
This summer he was one of 23 jurors in the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow. Monday he came back from giving concerts and masterclasses in Germany to teach at KU, and in October he is leaving again for a series of concerts in Japan.
"I don't like holidays," he said. "If I stay two to three days without practicing I get nervous."
Stanley Shumway, chairman of the department of music and dance, said he thought having Costa as a faculty member would be for or the reputation of the department.
"He has a wonderful record of recordings and performances. The Tchaikovsky competition is simply the most outstanding institution in the world," Shumway said.
The competition is run every year, but in only one of four different categories — violin, voice, cello or piano.
Costa said he had been on the Tchaikovsky jury six times since 1958, when American pianist Van Cliburn won the competition.
'It's one of the best competitions because they have a lot of money, and they're well organized and
prestigious." Costa said.
This year 120 pianists played in the competition and the jurors had to listen to each of them at least once, he said. The jurors were listening to performances every day from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, with only a short break for lunch.
"I can disconnect and think of something else if someone doesn't"
play well enough," he said.
But he don't do that very much.
The best young pianists from the West are often reluctant to go to the Tchaikovsky competition because they don't think they can compete with the Soviets, Costa said.
Barry Douglas, won this year.
The Soviets are better prepared and get much more financial support.
Douglas received the third prize in the Van Cliburn competition in Fort Worth, Texas, only a few months before, Costa said, and that might indicate that standards are higher in the West.
About two-thirds of this year's jury came from Eastern European countries, he said, and politics might
figure into their decisions. "The voting was kind of . . . slanted."
The situation almost became scandalous when Soviet pianists initially were selected for 11 out of 12 possible places in the final round, he said. But later reduced to four, but Soviets won the second, third and fifth prizes.
Costa's career was launched when he won the first prize in the 1951 Marguerite Long and Jacques duval competition in Paris, he said.
He was practicing and playing concerts in Paris during the 1950s, he said.
The chairman of the Tchaikovsky competition at that time heard Costa play and asked him to serve on the jury of the competition.
Later, Costa said, he got a letter from the Soviet composer Dimitri Shostakovich asking him to become a jury member for the competition, and Costa met Shostakovich in Moscow in 1958. Shostakovich, who died in 1957, was the leading figure in Soviet music for most of this century.
"I felt I was in the presence of a great and extremely brilliant man. Can
When Costa decided to come to KU, he had also been offered jobs at music schools in Berlin, Rochester, N.Y., and Bloomington, Ind., but he said he wanted to go somewhere quiet.
"The states offer so many opportunities for an artist to become well known," he said, "Portugal is nice, but very small," he said.
He recently made a recording of Schumann's Concerto in A minor that received good reviews from New York and has his concert schedule is full until 1988.
"I have quite good students here," he said. "Time is the only problem I face."
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