By Elizabeth Chapin

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 21, 2021) — Each summer, the University of Kentucky College of Medicine hosts an intensive, graduate-level research program that sets undergraduates aspiring to become health care providers and scientists on a path to success. 

The Summer Training in Environmental Health and Pharmacological Sciences (STEPS) program was launched five years ago by UK faculty trustee and pharmacology and nutritional sciences Professor Hollie Swanson, Ph.D., as a way to further incorporate her passion for mentorship into her role at UK.

“After nearly 20 years as a

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky, -- Three University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences professors are combining their research with outreach to the community in a quest to understand mental health and bring their findings to bear on treatment. 

Founded in the fall of 2019, the Clinic for Emotional Health, part of UK’s Department of Psychology, unites faculty members and graduate students to execute three goals: 1) to conduct research on the nature of emotional disorders and their treatment; 2) to provide the highest quality care to community members who

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 20, 2021) — Six of the University of Kentucky's passionate and accomplished educators were surprised earlier this spring by student nominators and the UK Alumni Association as 2021 Great Teacher Award recipients.

Chris Crawford, professor of physics and astronomy in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, is one of this year’s Great Teacher Award recipients.

“All my effort and energy at UK is directed towards the student research and teaching, and so to see recognition from the people that I'm working hardest for, and care the most about, it adds great fulfillment to my job,” Crawford said.

Crawford is a leading researcher of fundamental symmetries in nuclear physics, which is

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 12, 2021) — An international team of researchers have discovered a galaxy cluster acting like a passenger on what astronomers are calling an "intergalactic highway."

The cluster is known as the "Northern Clump" and is located about 690 million light years from Earth. Previously, scientists discovered an enormous filament, a thin strip of very hot gas, that stretched for at least 50 million light years. This new study found evidence that the Northern Clump is traveling along this filament, similar to how a car moves along the interstate.

A variety of telescopic images allowed the researchers to observe the galaxy cluster and its movement. Yuanyuan Su, an assistant professor in the University of Kentucky Department

By University Press of Kentucky, UK Libraries and Danielle Donham

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 9, 2021) —  Thanks to University Press of Kentucky and librarians from the UK Libraries, here's a short list to of summer reading tips from University of Kentucky faculty members, alumni and local community members.

With topics ranging from food and beverages, history and geography to fiction and sports — there’s something for every reader and every interest. 

Athletics and Sports

“

By Hillary Smith

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 30, 2021) — The University of Kentucky’s Neuroscience Research Priority Area supports a "collaborative matrix," bringing together diverse groups of investigators, trainees and research groups from nine different colleges across the University of Kentucky campus.

“The key underlying strategy of the NRPA is to provide broad-based support for basic, translational and clinical neuroscience-related research across campus,” said NRPA Co-Director Dr. Larry Goldstein, Ruth Louise Works Endowed professor and chairman of UK College of Medicine’s Department

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 29, 2021) — Pandemic restrictions are beginning to ease as the state, and country, returns to “normal.”

For nearly a year, we relied on masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Now, many are removing the facial coverings, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy to shed the anxiety that accompanies a global pandemic.

If you’re having difficulty coping with this added stress, psychology experts at the University of Kentucky say you’re not alone.

Shannon Sauer-Zavala is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and

By Danielle Donham

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 26, 2021) — Two University of Kentucky faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences are recipients of The Graduate School’s distinguished annual awards for exemplary research in the last four years and outstanding contributions to graduate student mentoring and graduate education.

Michael D. Bardo, professor of psychology in the Department of Psychology, is the 2021 recipient of the Albert D. Kirwan Memorial Prize. The prize is bestowed each year to a faculty member in recognition of their outstanding contributions to original research or scholarship, with an emphasis on work produced four years prior to the award.

In additon, 

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences named 1,852 students to the Dean's List for Spring 2021. For the complete list of students on the Dean's List, check out the database for the University here. 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Each year, the University of Kentucky Alumni Association recognizes six professors with the great Teacher Award and honors them with a plaque and a cash award at a recognition luncheon or dinner.. In 2021, the association recognized two College of Arts & Sciences professors. They are:

The six recipients of the award are announced at a luncheon or dinner, attended by students, other faculty and past recipients of the award.

Since 1961, when the program was started, 308 faculty members have been honored. Recipients are selected by a committee appointed by the UK Alumni Association's Board of Directors and representatives of the student

By Meghan Arrell

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 11, 2021) — In June, the University of Kentucky Lewis Honors College held its Spring 2021 Medal Ceremony in two physically distant ceremonies in the Gatton Student Center. As is tradition, all of the Lewis Honors College graduation awards were announced at the ceremony.

The Evans Scholar Award is given to a senior majoring in humanities or a related field. The 2021 finalists were Nicole Blackstone, Michael Di Girolamo, Kristen Karem, Michaela Lansdale, Chelsea Russell, Kayla Stroud and Anna Wagner. The winner was Michael Di Girolamo. 

Di Girolamo double majored in foreign language and international economics with a focus in Chinese and international studies, with a concentration on comparative politics and societies. He also minored in Italian and Spanish.

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 10, 2021) — In theoretical physics, a significant outstanding challenge is the mathematical description of the collective motion of electrons in synthetic materials. Despite nearly a century of research, the subtle laws of quantum mechanics in this regime remain poorly understood.

But a University of Kentucky alumna is leading the field in the right direction.

Nisheeta Desai, a 2020 UK graduate and now postdoctoral fellow at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, in collaboration with her mentor, Ribhu Kaul, in the UK Department of Physics and Astronomy, has developed a theory that sheds new light on these mysteries. Their work, which recently published

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 7, 2021) — Crystal Wilkinson is an associate professor of English at the University of Kentucky and an award-winning author. Her novel, "The Birds of Opulence," was the winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. She is also the author of "Water Street" and "Blackberries, Blackberries." She also has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in Oxford American and Southern Cultures. 

Most recently, she was named the state’s poet laureate for 2021-2022, the first time a Black woman has been appointed to the prestigious post.

In this episode of "Behind the Blue," Wilkinson

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 7, 2021) — The U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board have named Eduardo Santillan-Jimenez at the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) a recipient of the Fulbright Specialist Program award. As part of the program, Santillan-Jimenez will complete a project at the University of Burgundy Franche-Comté in France. The project aims to exchange knowledge and establish partnerships benefiting participants, institutions and communities both in the U.S. and overseas through a variety of educational and training activities within engineering education.

”While a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship has given UK the chance to develop novel interdisciplinary

By Lindsey Piercy May 24, 2021

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 24, 2021) — It's a question that is critical to families and communities across the Commonwealth — how do we tackle the opioid epidemic?

The University of Kentucky is helping to organize and host the second annual Edward Kremers Seminar in the History of Pharmacy & Drugs in hopes of continuing the conversation surrounding addiction and recovery.

The 2021 “Kreminar” will feature virtual seminars about the history and contemporary status of opiates, opioids and addiction.

“The Cooperative for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) is pleased to co-sponsor these events because it is important to understand that drug use and

By Jennifer T. Allen

M. Cristina Alcalde, who has served as the University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences’ Associate Dean of Inclusion and Internationalization, has announced she will be leaving UK on June 30 to become the Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion at Miami University of Ohio. She will also hold a tenured appointment as full professor in the Department of Global and Intercultural Studies.

Alcalde has been instrumental in leading diversity and internationalization efforts as the first associate dean in the role which was created in the College of Arts & Sciences in January 2018. In this role, Alcalde developed a College-wide DEI Strategic Plan; designed and ran initiatives focused on inclusivity and under-represented faculty, staff and students;

By Trey Conatser

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 3, 2021) — Of its many effects, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about rapid innovations in teaching. Courses were redesigned for a range of delivery modes to in-person and remote students (often at the same time) and the conversation about active learning, class community and belonging took on new urgency as the challenges of the pandemic amplified the barriers — systemic and discrete — to student engagement, motivation and success.

Cohort members include Ruth Brown, senior lecturer Hispanic Studies; Anushka Karkelanova, lecturer, Statistics; Katherine Paullin, lecturer Mathematics; Elizabeth Williams, assistant professor, Gender and Women’s Studies; and Heather Worne, assistant professor, Anthropology. 

Innovation, of course, is a long-term project whose

By Emily Sallee

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 13, 2021) — The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that Kayden Jenson has received a 2021 Boren Fellowship to study Turkish. Jenson is pursuing joint degrees in law and diplomacy and international commerce through the Rosenberg College of Law and the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce.

The Boren Awards fund up to $25,000 for undergraduates and graduate students to support language study, research and study abroad in world regions critical to U.S. interests. Jenson’s award is part of

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Judge Advocate General’s Corp: The name makes people think about the film “A Few Good Men” or the long-running CBS procedural series. 

But it’s a real service, and one that presents a terrific career opportunity for Daniel Mullen who plans to graduate with a degree from the University of Kentucky’s J. David Rosenberg College of Law in 2022 and earned his bachelor’s in the College of Arts & Sciences’ Political Science Department.  

He’s entering JAG through the U.S. Marine Corps:  He’ll be going to officer training in

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Carrigan Wasilchenko was adopted from China through Holt International and grew up as an Asian American in Powell County, Kentucky. Thanks to the opportunity to pursue a liberal arts education at the University of Kentucky – and to take part in a new class that looks at the history of Asian Americans – she was able to see how her story fit into the mosaic that is the United States.  

“Growing up, I always tried to fade into the whiteness of my community, and I was just kind of afraid because I didn't know, first of all, what it meant to be Asian,” said Wasilchenko, who recently graduated from the College of Health Sciences and will enter UK Medical School in the fall. “In your teen years, everyone has an identity crisis: ‘Who am I? What do I stand