The College of Arts & Sciences is very pleased to announce that the recipients of the 2013-14 A&S Outstanding Teaching Awards are Drs. Shannon Bell (sociology), Jacqueline Couti (MCL), Stephen Testa (chemistry), and Kim Woodrum (chemistry).  The College wants to thank the selection committee—Yanira Paz (chair), Christia Brown, Juliana MacDonald, and Bradley Plaster—for their hard work and fine judgment.

Dr. Shannon Bell of the Sociology Department is recognized for her efforts in engaged learning and public sociology.  Since joining her Department in 2010, she has been committed to guiding students' learning about real-world social issues through research, activism, and their combination.  In her course in environmental sociology, for

By Alicia Gregory.

Schyler Nunziata is a first-year Ph.D. student in biology at the University of Kentucky, and she’s the first success story highlighted in a new video series.

Nunziata is a young scientist who can testify to the impact of Kentucky's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, known as Kentucky EPSCoR. Two grants from the National Science Foundation through EPSCoR kept Nunziata in science and in Kentucky. The first $5,000 grant, while she was a masters student at Eastern Kentucky University, funded her entire thesis project, which involved collecting two lined salamanders, developing genetic markers, and genotyping the salamanders. The second grant, as a Ph.D. student at the University of Kentucky, allowed her to prepare a pilot study.

"EPSCoR helps get students into

By Sarah Geegan

English professor Erik Reece and Biology professor James Krupa recently released a book that brings to life the history and ecology of one of Kentucky's most important natural landscapes —the Robinson Forest in eastern Kentucky.

"The Embattled Wilderness" depicts the fourteen thousand acres of diverse forest region-- a haven of biological richness-- as endangered by the ever-expanding desert created by mountaintop removal mining. The authors, alternating chapters that focus on the natural and cultural history of the forest, combine their professional knowledge of the area to persuasively appeal for its protection.

Erik Reece, an environmental writer,

By Whitney Hale, Mack McCormick

University Press of Kentucky author James C. Nicholson, an alumnus and part-time history instructor at the University of Kentucky, has been named as the recipient of the Southern Kentucky Book Fest’s Kentucky Literary Award for his book The Kentucky Derby: How the Run for the Roses Became America’s Premier Sporting Event. First awarded in 2003, the Kentucky Literary Award is a celebration of Kentucky literature.

Eligible books for the Kentucky Literary Award include those written by Kentuckians or books with a substantial Kentucky theme. The award

By Breanna Shelton, Mack McCormick, Whitney Hale

The Bluegrass State has long been touted as the Thoroughbred capital of the world, but that was not always the case. The once English-dominated horse racing industry was taken by storm in the 1950s, when a Kentucky-bred longshot with a curious connection to a myriad of famed figures won England’s premier horse racing event. For centuries, American Thoroughbreds were mocked as vastly inferior to European runners, but that was changing. Horse racing would forever be impacted by Never Say Die, a horse that made history across the pond and opened the door to Kentucky becoming the international epicenter of Thoroughbred breeding and sales.

In Never Say Die: A Kentucky Colt, the Epsom Derby, and the Rise of the Modern Thoroughbred

By Sarah Geegan

Per University of Kentucky tradition, a student speaker will represent his or her class at both undergraduate Commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 5. The speakers for the 146th UK Commencement Ceremonies are Mercedes Rosado and Luke Glaser.

Mercedes Rosado, from Marquette, Mich., is graduating with a degree in kinesiology from the College of Education. A pilot candidate in Air Force ROTC, she will be commissioned after graduation and begin pilot training in February at Columbus Air Force base in Mississippi. She will deliver the Commencement address at the 1 p.m. ceremony.

Rosado joined the Air Force ROTC program at UK partly because of her father'

By Kelley Bozeman, Jay Blanton, Kody Kiser, Amy Jones.

From early childhood on, Alan Lowe thought he would be a doctor.

A few days on the University of Kentucky campus – and a little time in Chemistry 101 -- in the 1980s quickly taught him otherwise.

“But that’s where I step back and think about ‘What do you really like?’ Step back and really look at yourself,” Lowe says. “What I really liked was politics and history, that type of thing. So, I ran for the History Department. They were very welcoming and I absolutely loved it there.”

After bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history, the Bourbon County native went to work for UK Libraries, where he worked for about 18 months before getting a call one day from organizers of the

By Whitney Hale

In celebration of the University of Kentucky's upcoming sesquicentennial in 2015, the 54th of 150 weekly installments remembers the life of the legendary stallion, Storm Cat, who is the subject of a popular piece of art at the university.

The William T. Young Library is full of treasures. Among those is the tapestry of William T. Young and his stallion, Storm Cat, on Overbrook Farm. In the fall of 1999, architect Michael McKinnell approached Helena Hernmarck to design and weave a tapestry for the library. The tapestry was woven on a

By Kendra Sanders

All it takes is one seed to be planted in order to grow something great.

First year, graduate student Luis Sordo Vieira likely received that seed from his grandfather who demonstrated math tricks that fascinated him at a young age.

Now, at the age of 22, Luis has won a prestigious fellowship from the National Science Foundation for his impressive achievement and research proposal in mathematics.

Luis grew up in Venezuela, and later moved to Michigan at the age of 13. “It was rough at first,” explained Luis, “I barely knew how to speak English, so it took me some time in to get used to the language.”

He attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan for undergraduate study, and originally expected to pursue physics. He admitted, “I was a little interested in math from my grandpa

By Jenny Wells. Video by Reveal Research Media.

The UK Office of Undergraduate Research, along with SPUR (the Society for the Promotion of Undergraduate Research), and the UK Student Government Association, will host the eighth annual Showcase for Undergraduate Scholars 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, in the ballrooms of the UK Student Center. 

Each year, the showcase brings together undergraduates from all disciplines, their faculty mentors, and members of the community to learn about the various types of research being done by undergraduate students at UK. This occasion provides these students the opportunity to demonstrate and discuss their specific projects and the professional advancements the projects helped

By Whitney Hale, Kayla Powell

In conjunction with the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky exhibition Curves in Math, Waves in Glass, Origami and Glass Works, father-son team, Martin Demaine and Erik Demaine, will discuss the relationship of art and mathematics in a lecture scheduled April 24. The exhibition, which opened April 21, runs through May 26. 

Martin Demaine and Erik Demaine will present Algorithms Meet Art, Puzzles and Magic at 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, at the Worsham Theater in the

By Sarah Geegan, Seth Riker

UK students Anil Erol, Holly Poore and Heidi Vollrath will conduct research that takes them across the globe this summer.

Education Abroad at UK (EA) and the Office of Undergraduate Research (UGR) awarded the three UK students with an Undergraduate Research Abroad Scholarship (UGRAS) to support their international independent research projects during the summer session. The scholarships are the result of a new collaboration between EA and UGR to support experienced undergraduate researchers as they explore their academic interests abroad ­– with the support of their UK faculty mentors. 

“

By Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections will highlight the projects of its first full cohort of Learning Lab interns with an undergraduate panel presentation, exhibition and reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, in the Margaret I. King Building. The events and exhibition are free and open to the public.

Currently in its inaugural year, the Special Collections Learning Lab (SCLL) is a center of primary research, experiential learning, and training. Targeting undergraduate students in the humanities, social sciences and arts, the SCLL promotes undergraduate research, scholarship and

By President Eli Capilouto

Last year, I had the opportunity to travel to China with a delegation from the University of Kentucky to advance several partnerships growing between UK's colleges and departments and universities and industries in a country growing in economic importance.

One such partnership is between UK's Center for Applied Energy Research and the world's largest power company. During a meeting with industry representatives, we shared our exciting work in the development of clean coal technology and discussed partnerships, the exchange of students, and faculty collaboration as part of the US-China Clean Energy Research Center.

As we met, they described several multi-billion dollar research and development investments in their country’s energy sector. In comparison, the proposed

By Sarah Geegan

Students from Shanghai University (SHU) will get a taste of the bluegrass this week as the UK American Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences will host a summit for SHU students on Monday, April 22.

Shanghai University is home to one of approximately 10 American Studies Centers in China. Funded by a grant from the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and pioneered through a joint-venture agreement between SHU and UK, the center began operation in 2011.

Since then the facility has served to emphasize the diversity of American culture and experience, to broaden Chinese

By Dean Mark Lawrence Kornbluh

 

The College of Arts & Sciences is very pleased to announce that Dr. Frank Ettensohn of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences has been named the 2013-14 Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor.  Dr. Ettensohn’s thirty plus year career at the University of Kentucky is remarkable for its breadth and depth across all the roles expected of a university professor.  He has become an internationally recognized and widely published expert in sedimentary geology and paleontology, excelled in both undergraduate and graduate education, and compiled a truly distinguished record of service to the University, the Department, the science education community of central Kentucky, and the

By Sarah Geegan

by Sarah Geegan

By Guy Spriggs