Story by Carl Nathe and Deb Weis
photos courtesy of UKCED
front page image left to right: Bert Lynn, Mark Lovell, John Beran

CoPlex Therapeutics has signed an exclusive global license agreement with Hawthorn Pharmaceuticals to develop and commercialize hawAD14, a preclinical oral small molecule candidate for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

According to a released statement from Hawthorn Pharmaceuticals, a commercial-stage specialty drug company, research indicates hawAD14 significantly decreases production of amyloid beta (Aβ) the major component of senile plaques and alters proteins associated with hyperphosphorylation of tau which is

The lecture, "Sexualizing Black Female Bodies, Constructing Culture and Nation in the French Caribbean," is part of the African American and Africana Studies Program's Carter G. Woodson Lecture Series and will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, in Room 249 of the Student Center. Admission is free and open to UK students, staff, faculty and the public.

Jacqueline Couti, an assistant professor of 

On March 30 and 31, 2012, Tim Sundell and Stefan Bird-Pollan will convene an aesthetics conference at UK with four invited speakers, graduate student commentators, and a round table. The conference brings to a conclusion a year of aesthetics courses given by the two philosophy professors.

>>Listen to a podcast with Sundell and Bird-Pollan discuss the conference

The idea arose at a meeting of the undergraduate philosophy club in which, when asked about his area of research, Sundell’s discussion of the problem of aesthetic disagreement generated prolonged and enthusiastic questioning from the audience. Bird-Pollan, who also has an interest in aesthetics, recognized in Sundell’s presentation a version of Kant’s antinomy of taste

By Krystal Delfino
photos by Dana Rogers

When asked what his goals in life were growing up, Major Kris Morlen  says that he had always knew he wanted to serve in the military in some way, even when he was a young child. But, what would inspire such a strong desire in a little boy?

“I guess it was just the patriotic movies…A steady diet of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, and G.I. Joes. It just appealed to me.”

The good versus evil dynamic was something that spoke to Morlen’s noble senses, and so he joined the military in 1986. However, he did not realize from the beginning that this would become a lifelong passion for him.

“I figured it would just be another chapter of my life, and then I’d go on to do other things. Get my college education…”

In 1988, Morlen began attending college at Indiana University Southeast. Very early in his

Dean's Channel: Geography Professor Rich Schein discusses Community 101 from UK College of Arts & Sciences on Vimeo.

Community 101: Geography Professor Rich Schein discusses a new A&S course that connects students to Lexington through history, culture, modern issues, and most importantly, why all of this should matter to UK students.

By Rebekah Tilley

“Last summer I was in Budapest briefly locked in a gypsy’s apartment while she tried to extort more money from me, and had a great time…” said Joe Nickell, as if he were describing a weekend at the lake. He is a man with many interests – over 200 “personas” are listed on his personal website including folksinger, stage magician, and séance conductor. His current title is Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and investigative columnist for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. However, he identifies himself simply as a writer.

“Writer seemed the one thing that complimented my insatiable curiosity,” said the author, co-author or editor of over 30 books. “The reason through so many interests and activities that I’ve held it all together – I attribute that

by Colleen Glenn

Patience is a virtue. Just ask Ginny Carney. An alum of the English Department, Carney is now President of Leech Lake Tribal College in Minnesota. But she didn’t get there overnight.

Carney, who is Cherokee Indian, was raised in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. The oldest of five children, Carney grew up without electricity (no phone or TV), indoor plumbing, or transportation. “As achildgrowing up in an isolated mountain region of East Tennessee, I assumed that everyone shared our worldview,” she recalls.

But all of the time she spent not watching television led Carney to become a voracious reader, and the more she read, the more she soon learned about cultures other than her own.

Disturbed by the disparaging views many authors held of Appalachian people as well as the stereotypical beliefs regarding American Indians, she vowed

story by Jay Blanton
video by Kody Kiser

To many people, Matt Cutts, Arts and Sciences and Engineering, '95, is simply known as No. 71.

But in the high-tech world of Silicon Valley, that means he is much more than just a number.

As one of Google's first 100 employees ever, Cutts was on the ground floor of what is today the world's largest search engine. It's a company that operates each day under the premise that helping people access the information they need when they need it can literally change the world for the better.

And Cutts, a native of Morehead, Ky., gives much of the credit for his success at Google to the undergraduate education he received at the University of Kentucky.

"There's no reason you can't get as good of an education at UK as anywhere else in the world," said Cutts, a

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

Because the Russian Empire had 18 million men-in-arms, 5 million prisoners-of war and 2 million deaths during World War I, University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences history Professor and department Chair Karen Petrone

By Whitney Hale

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, University of Kentucky's School of Music and the Latin American Studies Program present "Latin America in Music: A concert of Latin American Music." This concert featuring UK faculty and students, as well as international guest artists, will take the stage at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, at the Worsham Theater, in the UK Student Center. The concert is free and open to the public.

If you are one of the many students still weighing graduate school or higher education options, you aren’t alone. Hispanic Studies graduate student Jeffrey Zamostny chose to complete a Graduate Certificate in Social Theory at UK because Social Theory encompasses more than one academic field and offers a broad spectrum of studies that he could tailor with a specialized dissertation.

“I was drawn to Social Theory because when you are in a Ph.D. program at UK, you are often with the same people, since you’re in a rather narrow field. Social Theory gives you the opportunity to meet many people in a wide range of departments. They approach the same topics, but from a variety of perspectives,” said Zamostny.

Zamostny discovered the Committee on Social Theory after taking a course in Gender and Women’s Studies. He liked many aspects of the class, but he wanted to combine

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

University of Kentucky students and alumni from throughout campus and the community received career counseling from the inside out this past summer in a new eight-week online course offered by the College of Arts & Sciences.

A&S 350, or "Personal Strengths and Your Career Development," is a three-credit-hour self-development course, according to A&S Director of Advising and Student Services 

Biology professor David Westneat from the University of Kentucky's College of Arts & Sciences has won a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), guaranteeing 10 weeks of research to 10 undergraduate students at UK's Ecological Research

In summer 2011, Arts & Sciences Video Production team member Natalie Baxter traveled to Whitesburg, Ky to help teach Appalshop interns how to create documentary style short films about the Appalachian region. The program, Appalachian Media Institute (AMI), has interns ages 14 to 21 that live in the surrounding Appalachian Kentucky counties.

Filmed by: Dana Rogers, Brian Connors Manke, and Noah Adler

Edited by: Dana Rogers

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The emotional suffering and clinical treatment associated with infertility is wide-ranging and ever-changing.

In the Middle Eastern world, many of the couples unable to have children suffer a social stigma as well, according to Marcia Inhorn, William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University.

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky continues on its international course with a visit from University of Haifa Rector (Provost) David Faraggi this week.  While here, Faraggi signed a memorandum of understanding, or a general cooperation agreement, with President Eli Capilouto Monday, Sept. 12.

“The University of Kentucky is excited about the opportunity to partner with the University of Haifa,” said Capilouto. “With the phenomenal advances in technology and industry, strategic collaborations between postsecondary institutions play an important role in a growing global economy.”

This past June, a UK delegation including public health professors Douglas Scutchfield and Jim Holsinger and Associate Provost for

Dean Mark Kornbluh continues his Dean's Channel series, sitting down with professor Gang Cao from the Department of Physics & Astronomy and Director of UK's Center for Advanced Materials.

They discuss the great benefit of UK housing its own helium liquefier as well as a number of other advances with materials research.

Dean Mark Kornbluh continues his Dean's Channel series, sitting down with professor Gang Cao from the Department of Physics & Astronomy and Director of UK's Center for Advanced Materials. 

They discuss the great benefit of UK housing its own helium liquefier as well as a number of other advances with materials research.

by Robin Roenker

What is the value of nature? Does it have intrinsic value of its own—or only as it relates to humans and our uses for it?

Does a conservationist perspective (which seeks to regulate human use) or a preservationist perspective (which aims to limit human use altogether) better foster an equitable stewardship of natural resources?

What isenvironmental sustainability—and how do we achieve it?

UK’s new philosophy class on Environmental Ethics, PHI 336, challenges students to consider complex questions like these—questions that, at their heart, delve into fundamental issues of mankind’s role as stewards of the environment, and the responsibilities that entails.

While efforts to launch an Environmental Ethics course within the Philosophy Department began years ago, the new course became reality in fall 2009,

UK Physics Professor Gang Cao talks about what makes the research at the Center for Advanced Materials unique. He leads up a team of graduate students who work dilegently on breaking new ground for the technology of electronic materials. The motivation for this, according to Cao is "that whoever controls materials, controls technologies and research."

Click here for a Dean's Channel Chat with Professor Cao and Mark Kornbluh, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.