Arrington Writing Award Winner Selected
Utah State University engineering student Chad Nielsen is the winner of the 2014 Arrington Writing Award and the recipient of its $1,000 prize.
The winner of the 2014 Arrington Writing Award, a competition held in conjunction with the Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture at Utah State University, was announced at the Friends of Merrill-Cazier Library spring lecture March 5. This year’s award went to Chad Nielsen and comes with a $1,000 cash prize.
The writing competition is open to university students studying at any of the region’s universities. After the reviewing the 2014 submissions, competition judges decided to award only one prize. Students entering the competition submitted an essay written after attending the Arrington Mormon History Lecture. This year’s lecture was held in fall 2014 and featured a lecture titled “Heroes and Hero Worship: Brigham Young and the Utah War” by Ronald Walker. The completed essays responded to and expanded upon the lecture.
The title of Nielsen’s winning essay is “Hero Worship and Persecution: Zerah Pulsipher and the Utah War.”
“Chad’s essay was well crafted, utilized extra sources and was a wonderful reply to Ron Walker’s lecture,” said Brad Cole, director of USU’s Special Collections and Archives and interim dean of University Libraries. “The judges were impressed with his work.”
Nielsen grew up in the Ogden, Utah, area and studies biological engineering at USU with minors in chemistry and crop biotechnology. He works as a research assistant intern with Ron Sims in the USU biofuel and bioproducts production from microalgae project and with the biological phosphorus removal, combined with bioenergy production, research at the City of Logan lagoons. He is a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society and has contributed to work published in the academic journal Algae Research.
Outside his interest in science and engineering, his hobbies include ringing with the Westminster English Handbell Choir in Logan, Utah, spending time with his wife, family and friends, gardening and reading about LDS history and theology. With his research and writing interests, Nielsen maintains three blogs largely dedicated to Mormon history and doctrine and a website dedicated to one of his pioneer ancestors. He also pursues freelance research projects.
Nielsen was a previous award recipient in the Arrington Writing Competition. He was a second-place winner in the 2013 competition.
Nielsen’s winning essay will be available on the University Libraries Digital Commons site. It, along with previous winning essays, can be found by searching “Arrington” from the University Library’s Digital Commons tab.
Related links:
USU Special Collections and Archives
Contact: Brad Cole (435) 797-8268, brad.cole@usu.edu
Writer: Patrick Williams (435) 797-1354, patrick.williams@usu.edu
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