JOEL JORGENSEN
His career is for the birds — and few are better at it than Joel Jorgensen. A 1997 (BS) and 2007 (MS) UNO biology graduate, Jorgensen is the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission’s program manager of nongame birds, the 400 or so species that are not hunted, including the Whooping Crane, Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon. Jorgensen has been in the post for eight years, working on an array of monitoring, research, regulatory and conservation issues. But he’s been birding since he was a child, continuing that passion at UNO and turning a hobby into a career. In 2001 Jorgensen with former UNO biology professor Roger Sharpe and W. Ross Silcock co-wrote “Birds of Nebraska: Their Distribution and Temporal Occurrence.” The 520-page tome is a birder’s ”All You Ever Really Wanted to Know” anthology, chronicling the 450 species of birds known to have made an appearance in the state. Photo: Eric Francis Photography, 2004.