By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky, -- The University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences is presenting three SkyTalks in the upcoming weeks courtesy of the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the MacAdam Student Observatory.

SkyTalks feature UK faculty members delivering a 40-minute presentation followed by a chance to visit the MacAdam observatory, depending on the weather.

Here are three upcoming events: 

7 p.m. Thursday, March 13, Chem-Phys Room 287: “Wham, Bamb, Earth in a Jam? Near Earth Asteroids and a Close Shave for 2032," presented by Tom Troland, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. 

A recently discovered asteroid will make a close passage by Earth on December 22, 2032. Will it hit Earth? Very likely not, but it will be a close shave. This chunk of solar system debris,

By Meredith Weber and Steve Shaffer 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 5, 2025) — Through nominations and testimonials, the UK Alumni Association’s Great Teacher Award honors educators who inspire, challenge and support their students. 

Established in 1961, the Great Teacher Award is UK’s longest-running award recognizing teaching. To receive the award, educators must first be nominated by a student with final selections made by the UK Alumni Association Great Teacher Award Committee in collaboration with the student organization Omicron Delta Kappa. This year, six exceptional educators have been

By Meredith Weber and Steve Shaffer

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 5, 2025) — At the heart of every great university is great teaching. At the University of Kentucky, students play a vital role in recognizing faculty who make a lasting impact in their lives. Through nominations and testimonials, the UK Alumni Association’s Great Teacher Award honors educators who inspire, challenge and support their students.

Established in 1961, the Great Teacher Award is UK’s longest-running award recognizing teaching. To receive the award, educators must first be nominated by a student, with final selections made by the UK Alumni

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tom Marksbury, professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, co-directed a documentary that was honored in 2024 at the San Francisco Docfest. 

The film will have its Lexington premiere at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 16, at the Kentucky Theatre. The event will be a fund-raiser for the Faulkner Morgan Archive. The Writing Rhetoric, and Digital Studies Department is presenting the event. 

The documentary, “Bob Morgan's Just Going to Tell Some Stories,” received the Grand Jury Prize for Excellence in Profiles. Co-directed by Grayson Tyler Johnson, “Stories” profiles

By Shawntaye Hopkins

Denis Fleming Jr., a 1983 graduate of the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law, has published a new book titled, "Thomas Jefferson and the Kentucky Constitution." He plans to donate all royalties from the book, with a matching gift, to the college for a scholarship fund.

A Louisville native, Fleming received his bachelor’s degree with distinction from the UK College of Arts and Sciences and then stayed at UK for law school. He said an undergraduate course in constitutional law taught by Professor Emeritus Bradley Canon in the College of Arts and Sciences helped ignite his interest in law school. 

In the book, Fleming examines Thomas Jefferson's connection to Kentucky’s constitution. The author uses firsthand accounts from Jefferson, John Breckinridge, and the papers of George Nicholas, who was a key figure behind

By Francis Von Mann and Avery Schanbacher

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 27, 2025) — For Alyssah Robinson, history is more than a major — it’s a calling. 

As a history major and African American and Africana Studies minor at the College of Arts and Sciences at University of Kentucky, Robinson is dedicated to uncovering and preserving Black history, particularly through digital research and theater. She combines her love for storytelling with historical preservation, ensuring that the voices of the past continue to

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 24, 2024) — University of Kentucky researchers have developed a new class of gold-based compounds that show promise in fighting various types of cancer.

The study, led by UK Markey Cancer Center researcher Samuel Awuah, Ph.D., and published in Dalton Transactions, showed that the compounds could kill cancer cells by disrupting their energy production.

The new compounds work by targeting and shutting down mitochondria, which

By Cassady Brockman 

LEXINGTON, Ky. —  The 30th Annual University of Kentucky  Black Women’s Conference presents “We are the Culture: A Symposium on Black Girls & Girlhood.”  

The conference is hosted by the UK College of Arts and Sciences along with the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies, which will function as a two-day retreat from Friday, March 7, to Saturday, March 8, at the Campbell House. The conference is free for the UK community with registration.  

The conference includes keynotes from Black girlhood scholars, a film screening, workshops and editorial sessions. According to Aria Halliday, Ph.D,   Marie Rich Endowed Professor in Arts and Sciences and

By Jennifer T. Allen 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 24, 2025) — Plamedi Nsensele feels called to help others navigating their new life in the United States. 

“As an international student at the University of Kentucky, I see it as a blessing to pursue my education without the fear of needing help,” said Nsensele, a neuroscience and biology major from The Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Now, through the Step-Up Program, I’ve had the opportunity to work with immigrants from the same country as me, but with different circumstances.” 

Step-Up is an innovative service-learning program supporting high school students from immigrant and refugee families. The program helps them integrate into the United States. The program was recently awarded a Provost Impact Award for the 2024-25 academic year.

By Meredith Weber 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 19, 2025) — The University of Kentucky Women & Philanthropy Network has awarded $232,878.16 to six academic initiatives at UK. These programs were selected as the top proposals receiving votes from members at the recent symposium. Thes awards bring the network’s lifetime grant funding to more than $3.3 million.

The College of Arts and Sciences received $50,000 to enhance its First Generation Trailblazers program, which provides mentorship and scholarship support to first-generation college students. The program pairs 25 upper-

By Cassady Brockman 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Large-scale tourism can benefit a region economically but have many negative effects on the destination’s people and environment.  

University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences student Abbey McNely is researching the impact on tourism in Bali, Indonesia, with Betsy Beymer-Farris, Ph.D., assistant professor of geography at UK, and Jeffrey Seay, Ph.D, professor of chemical engineering at UK’s Paducah campus. This project began two years ago and pushed her into the world of research.  

“Essentially what I’m doing is examining the economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism in Bali, Indonesia, and examining ways you can mitigate the disparities that tourism causes in indigenous populations,” McNely said.  

McNely, a Lexington native,

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- “Hydrocarbon Biofuels” will not top the New York Times’ best-seller list for nonfiction books, but for Great C. Umenweke, it’s quite an opportunity, and one that could help humans turn waste into renewable energy. 

Umenweke, a doctoral candidate in chemistry in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, has published the primer along with his adviser, Eduardo Santillan-Jimenez, Ph.D., adjunct assistant professor of chemistry and associate director of UK’s Center for Applied Energy Research. The e-book is published by the American Chemical Society (ACS) as part of its In Focus series of digital primers.  

By Ariel Arthur 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 11, 2025) — The University of Kentucky’s Students Participating as Ambassadors for Research in Kentucky (SPARK) Program has named its 2025 cohort.

Now in its sixth year, the SPARK program trains undergraduate students from a broad range of backgrounds, experiences and communities to conduct research on health disparities.

Students interested in the joining the program go through a rigorous application process. Accepted students complete a semester-long health disparities research course.

SPARK has supported 23 students since its inception. The 2025 students are: 

By Haven L. Patrick 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 10, 2025) — Thirteen University of Kentucky undergraduate researchers will present their work at the 23rd annual Posters-at-the-Capitol on March 6. The event will feature research topics including community health, agricultural sustainability, renewable energy and public health and safety.

Posters-at-the-Capitol is hosted collaboratively by the University of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, University of Louisville and Western Kentucky University to showcase the experience of undergraduate students engaged in research through high-quality poster

By Beckman Foundation 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 10, 2025) — Before Hena Kachroo had enrolled at the University of Kentucky, she had a model for what it meant to feel valued in a community. Growing up, she’d attended cultural events among the Indian community in Lexington, where her family’s culture, traditions and classical dance had created in her a sense of belonging and network of support.

The primary contributors to Kachroo’s decision to apply to the Beckman Scholars Program, which provides 15-month mentored research experiences to exceptional students in

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 7, 2025) — Anastasia Todd, assistant professor of gender and women’s studies in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, will give the inaugural Gaines Lecture for Outstanding Research in the Humanities. 

The Gaines Lecture for Outstanding Research in the Humanities spotlights groundbreaking work related to the Gaines Center’s annual theme, which for 2024-2025 is Health and the Humanities. 

“There’s so much amazing research happening in the humanities at UK and we wanted to recognize these achievements,” said Michelle Sizemore, Ph.D., director of the Gaines Center. “The lecture provides an important opportunity to showcase this work and to

By Allison Jones 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 5, 2025) — The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center is showcasing work of student and faculty researchers through its Sharing Work on Appalachia in Progress (SWAP) series.

Many of the presenters are recipients of the 2024 James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on Appalachia and the UK Appalachian Center Eller & Billings Student Research Award.

The series will also highlight other scholars and students sharing their research. The presenters range from students at UK to international researchers.

The presentations will be noon-1:30

By Tom Musgrave 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 5, 2025) — Olivia Walton, a junior from Bardstown, Kentucky, has received an English-Speaking Union Scholarship.

The English-Speaking Union of the United States is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, educational service organization that promotes scholarship  through the effective use of English in an expanding global community. The Kentucky branch of the English-Speaking Union awards scholarships for juniors to take summer courses offered at three institutions in the United Kingdom: Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh universities.

The scholarship covers all

By Allison Jones

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 3, 2025) — The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center will continue AppalachiaCorps, a student internship program, for Summer 2025.

AppalachiaCorps pairs students with experiential learning experiences in Eastern Kentucky and the greater Appalachian region. The internship offers students the opportunity to network and prepare for future careers.

The internship covers up to 16 hours a week for up to 16 weeks during the summer, with flexible duration and hours. Students can also complete academic credit with the internship.

The program is currently accepting student inquiries

By Cassady Brockman 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- On certain afternoons, Alani Moore, a University of Kentucky sophomore neuroscience major from Atlanta, can be seen playing the grand piano in the atrium at the UK HealthCare Pavilion A through the Arts in HealthCare program.  

Moore, a Lunsford Scholar, once was a music performance minor. Despite dropping the minor, she is still passionate about music, and through UK Arts she gets to combine her interests in music and science by playing the piano for patients and visitors.  

“I’ve been playing (piano) for as long as I can remember,” she said. “I grew up playing in my church, so I definitely knew that (music) was something I wanted to take with me to college. The UK