Happy Friday! Hopefully we will reach that high sooner that later (i.e. look above at the weather high).

Here is are a few things that the Daily didn’t touch on, but are University of Minnesota-related news. Things you might be curious about or interested in.

Professor gets prestigious award

University of Minnesota geology and geophysics professor R. Lawrence Edwards received the 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship. He was chosen from a group of 3,000 applicants, according to a press release.

Police stop search for missing St. Thomas student

St. Thomas University student Dan Zamlen, who went missing early Sunday, has yet to be found, Star Tribune reports. Though his father and friends said they will continue searching for the first-year student, police have relinquished their active search. If he is alive, he turned 19 years old on Wednesday. Read the Daily story from earlier this week on the search for the student here. Zamlen went missing after leaving a party and is a diebetic.

U part of degree pilot program

Three different states, including Minnesota, are starting pilot programs that establish what students must learn and not defining the degrees based on courses, according to the New York Times. The University of Minnesota is one of the schools piloting the program that was announced Wednesday and is referenced in the article:

• In each state, the project includes education officials and faculty members and students from a wide variety of institutions. Minnesota’s team, for example, includes such disparate institutions as the University of Minnesota; Carleton College, an elite liberal-arts college; and North Hennepin Community College. One goal of the tuning process is to make it easier for students with associate’s degrees to get full credit as they continue on to bachelor’s and master’s degrees.