By Amy Jones-Timoney

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 16, 2025) — A new faculty trustee and a new staff trustee have been elected following the University Community Election of Faculty and Staff Representatives to the Board of Trustees. On April 25 the election cycle opened to fill one faculty seat and one staff seat for three-year terms starting July 1. Nomination submissions closed May 4, and voting took place May 8 through May 14.

Karen Petrone, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Sciences and co-director of the UK-Jewish Heritage Fund Holocaust Education Initiative, has been elected to serve as a faculty trustee. The faculty trustees 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 15, 2025) — In celebration of University of Kentucky alumnus Bill Roark’s retirement, Starfish Holdings is investing in future scientists with a $50,000 gift to establish an endowed scholarship in his name.

The Bill Roark Endowed Science Scholarship will support students pursuing degrees in scientific disciplines — students, like Roark, who are driven by curiosity, perseverance and purpose. The endowment will be housed in 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 15, 2025) — Frank X Walker, professor of English and African American and Africana Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, has been awarded the 2025 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry for his compelling collection, “Load in Nine Times: Poems.”

The award winners were announced live at the PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony May 8 at The Town Hall in New York City, hosted by Emmy Award-winning journalist Tamron Hall.

The 2025

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 15, 2025) — A new study by University of Kentucky researchers is helping change how scientists understand and control magnetic energy and could lead to faster, more efficient electronic devices.

Led by Ambrose Seo, Ph.D., a professor in the University of Kentucky Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, the study recently was published in Nature Communications. Seo is also the principal investigator

By Haven L. Patrick 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 14, 2025) — The University of Kentucky’s Office of Undergraduate Research has selected a cohort of Undergraduate Research Ambassadors — a group of outstanding students who serve as advocates for undergraduate research and creative scholarship at UK.

This year, the office awarded four students as Excellent Undergraduate Research Ambassadors in recognition of their outstanding contributions, achievements, dedication to promoting undergraduate research and creative opportunities across UK’s campus and fostering

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 9, 2025) — Last fall, the University of Kentucky Office of the Provost announced the second cohort of the Institutional Multidisciplinary Paradigm to Accelerate Collaboration and Transformation (IMPACT) Awards winners. 

The IMPACT Awards initiative, an internal funding program from the Office of the Provost, launched in 2023 to support innovation and transformation within UK’s colleges. The UK Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) Hub connects and trains AI/ML consumers, practitioners and developers across

By Lindsey Piercy 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 9, 2025) — Last fall, the University of Kentucky Office of the Provost announced the second cohort of the Institutional Multidisciplinary Paradigm to Accelerate Collaboration and Transformation Awards winners. 

The IMPACT Awards initiative, an internal funding program from the Office of the Provost, launched in 2023 to support innovation and transformation within UK’s colleges.

“Fostering Bioelectronics and Nanomedicine Innovation” explores how interdisciplinary collaboration and student-led research can accelerate the development of cutting-edge technologies to

By Avery Schanbacher and Francis Von Mann

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 9, 2025) -- Diksha Satish has always been a problem solver with a passion for helping people. That passion led her to pursue dual degrees in mathematics and biology at the University of Kentucky, combining analytical thinking with a desire to improve lives through science.

This Friday, Satish will graduate from the UK College of Arts and Sciences with dual degrees. Her academic journey has been shaped as much by research as by coursework.

During her first year at UK, Satish joined Dr. Lance Johnson’s neuroscience lab in the College of Medicine Department of

By Alexis Baker

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 7, 2025) — Anna Cox never planned to pursue a career in medicine.

After graduating from the University of Kentucky in 2017 with a degree in mathematical economics in the College of Arts and Sciences, she began working as a logistics broker. Less than two years later, Cox said her life changed when she was rushed to the UK Albert B. Chandler Emergency Department with severe abdominal pain.

At 23, Cox said she had never been seriously ill and had no primary care doctor.

Her arrival at the emergency department set off a whirlwind of care. Within hours, she had

By Ben Branscum, Tom Musgrave and Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 6, 2025) — When Asa O’Neal arrived at the University of Kentucky in 2021, he didn’t have a clear plan, but he knew he was in the right place to figure it out.

“My mother and grandmother went here, so UK felt a little like home,” said O'Neal, a West Liberty native. “But at the end of the day, it was about what [UK] had to offer. It was a huge university where I could do anything I wanted.”

Originally a chemical engineering major, O’Neal, also a member of the

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Beth Guiton’s talents and interests range from growing nanomaterials inside small environments to singing big choral works at Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington. Her range of expertise shows just how multi-faceted faculty members in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences can be.  

First the science. Guiton, Ph.D., is professor of chemistry and Frank J. Derbyshire Professor of Materials Science in the Department of Chemistry as well as the director of undergraduate studies for chemistry. A lot of her work involves solid-state, or inorganic, chemistry. She and her fellow researchers manipulate wire-like objects at the nanometer scale — about one billionth of a meter. Guiton sees a myriad applications for her research.  

"There's a really wide range

By Ryan Girves 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 5, 2025) — The University of Kentucky recognized exceptional faculty and teaching assistants with the Outstanding Teaching Awards during the 2025 UK Faculty Awards Ceremony held Thursday, May 1.

The Graduate School also recognized the Albert D. and Elizabeth H. Kirwan Memorial Prize winner and the William B. Sturgill award winners during the ceremony. Ellen D. Riggle, Ph.D., in the College of Arts and Sciences received the Kirwan Memorial Prize. 

The Kirwan Memorial Prize was established in 1995 and recognizes its namesake's collaborative research efforts, as well as Albert Kirwan's endeavors in creating an environment at UK that promotes high-quality research and

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 5, 2025) —  University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto has selected four graduating students to represent the Class of 2025 as speakers at UK’s May Commencement Ceremonies. The ceremonies take place Friday, May 9, and Saturday, May 10.

The students are Julianna Boulden, Ethan Morgan, Nigel Taylor and Tyler Chapman. 

Julianna Boulden

Boulden, from Richmond, Kentucky, is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in music education from the UK College of Fine Arts. She will deliver the student address at the 9 a.m. Friday, May 9, ceremony.

During her time at UK, Boulden has been an active member of the campus music community, performing with the Wildcat Marching Band and Pep Band (as piccolo section leader), Wind Symphony, Symphony Band and Symphony Orchestra. She also served as a College of

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 5, 2025) — Last fall, the University of Kentucky Office of the Provost announced the second cohort of the Institutional Multidisciplinary Paradigm to Accelerate Collaboration and Transformation Awards winners. 

The IMPACT Awards initiative, an internal funding program from the Office of the Provost, launched in 2023 to support innovation and transformation within UK’s college. Fifteen colleges, including UK Libraries and the Graduate School, are working collectively to break new ground on ways to advance Kentucky. Among the

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 1, 2025) — Last fall, the University of Kentucky Office of the Provost announced the second cohort of the Institutional Multidisciplinary Paradigm to Accelerate Collaboration and Transformation awards winners. 

The IMPACT Awards initiative, an internal funding program from the Office of the Provost, launched in 2023 to support innovation and transformation within UK’s colleges. Fifteen colleges, including UK Libraries and The Graduate School, are working collectively to break new ground on ways to advance Kentucky. 

One of the  2024-25 IMPACT Award projects is  “Synthetically Tunable Organic Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductors for Printed Bioelectronics.” Organic mixed

By Harper Propst 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 29, 2025) — As National Internship Awareness Month wraps up, the University of Kentucky Graduate School will feature sociology Ph.D. student Jimmy Robinson. 

Robinson chose UK because he was inspired by his program’s emphasis on rural sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences and strong faculty mentorship. What he didn’t expect was how quickly he’d be able to turn classroom theory into community impact through the Kentucky Graduate Internship Scholarship.

This past summer, Robinson partnered with Fayette Alliance, a nonprofit

By Alicia Gregory 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 29, 2025) — On April 25, the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approved 18 University Research Professors for the 2025-26 academic year. Established by the Board of Trustees in 1976, the professorships program recognizes excellence across the full spectrum of research at UK.

“It is our privilege each year to recognize distinguished experts who have made significant contributions across the breadth of research fields at the University of Kentucky,” said Ilhem Messaoudi, UK’s acting vice president for research. “Our next

By Lindsey Piercy 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 28, 2025) — From prehistoric footprints in Mammoth Cave to distinct signatures on bourbon barrels, Kentucky’s rich cultural heritage has shaped our past.

And now — thanks to the University of Kentucky’s new EduceLab — it’s helping to shape the future.

Made possible by a $14 million infrastructure grant from the National Science Foundation, EduceLab is the university’s opportunity for next-generation heritage science.

The lab was unveiled

By Francis Von Mann and Avery Schanbacher

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 28, 2025) -- The first stories Goretti Ntuba ever told weren’t written for an audience. They were scribbled in the pages of a schoolgirl’s diary, reflections on home, school and the everyday rhythms of life in Cameroon.

This spring, she’s about to graduate from the University of Kentucky with a degree in English and a minor in studio art with stories still waiting to be told.

Ntuba’s journey, like her writing, is stitched together with the textures of two countries. A Cameroonian American writer and artist, she grew up in Cameroon before moving to the United States for college. She began her academic career at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she majored in

By Cassady Brockman 

LEXINGTON, Ky – Andrew Chan has taken the topic of civil rights in the United States and focused his attention on the interaction between two minoritized groups: Black Americans and Asian-Americans. 

“We’re trying to reconceptualize a lot of connections between African Americans and Asian Americans,” said Chan, who’s a history major in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences. 

According to Chan, this newly developed intersectional field “relies on the idea that there’s a lot of overlap between African American History and Asian American history.”  

The intersectionality Chan studies led him to present at the 64th annual meeting of the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies at UK