Jacob Thompson (Communication Studies) was awarded The George Ziegelmueller Coaching Excellence Award by the Board of Trustees of the National Debate Tournament at this year's national championship tournament for policy debate. He is the director of UNLV's top-five nationally ranked debate team, the Sanford I. Berman Debate Forum.

The award is named for former Wayne State University debate coach George Ziegelmueller. It is presented to a faculty member who has distinguished himself or herself in the communication profession while coaching teams to competitive success at the NDT.  Thompson said receiving the award was particularly meaningful to him because Ziegelmueller was his coach when he was an undergraduate student debating at Wayne State.