By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Sierra Heimel has an award-winning passion for hanging out in low places: caves.  

“I enjoy this sub-field of geology for the fieldwork,” she said. “Caves are like visiting another planet, and if you're lucky, you can discover a place or a thing that literally no other human has seen before. Caves are not only a great natural laboratory; they are also an explorer's dream.” 

Heimel, a master’s student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences, recently received the John W. Hess Research Award in karst studies from the Geological Society of America.  The award supports graduate student research into cave and karst studies; karst is a 

By Ryan Girves

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 8, 2021) — Firsts can be scary. The first time riding a bike or learning how to drive, or a first job — all scary. Being the first in your family to do something — even scarier. 

Austin Huff, a first-generation University of Kentucky senior from Topmost, a small town in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, knows this all too well.  

With a dream of making a change in his small town, Huff came to UK to make his dreams reality, despite his hesitations.

“My hometown has some of the highest poverty rates in the nation, and some of the worst health conditions in the nation,” Huff said. “My inspiration for coming to college was making a change for the place I call home. After graduation, I want to attend law school and I want to return to my

By Lindsey Piercy, Alicia Gregory, and Ben Corwin

It’s the signature on a bourbon barrel — it's the ancient footprints in Mammoth Cave.

Heritage science is all around us and has deep roots in the Commonwealth.

Kentucky’s story begins in prehistoric times, when mammoths roamed the Ohio River Valley at Big Bone Lick.

Now, thanks to a $14 million infrastructure grant from the National Science Foundation, the University of Kentucky is poised to tell that story in new, groundbreaking ways through the lens of heritage science.

“We are at a turning point,” Brent Seales, UK Alumni Professor in the Department of Computer Science, said. “Science and technology

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 2, 2021) — Robyn Lewis Brown, associate professor in the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, has been awarded a Switzer Fellowship from the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research.

She is one of only four recipients nationwide to receive the prestigious fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year.

“It is a privilege and honor to receive this award," Brown said. "And I look forward to the research it will allow me to pursue."

Brown will use the funding to expand on her research concerning the effects of the

By Danielle Donham

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 29, 2021) — The 40th annual Kentucky Book Festival returns to Lexington with a mix of virtual and in-person events scheduled from Monday, Nov. 1, to Saturday, Nov. 6. This year’s celebration features 140 authors, culminating in a daylong celebration at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on Saturday, Nov. 6. The weekdays events are a mix of in-person and ticketed events available at http://kybookfestival.org/2021-events. 

These signings, conversations, trivia, meals, presentations and activities serve to celebrate the literary heritage within the Commonwealth. The University of Kentucky is the Main Stage sponsor of the festival on Nov. 6.

By Jesi Jones-Bowman

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 28, 2021) — The University of Kentucky Office of Undergraduate Research has announced the fourth annual 5-Minute Fast Track student research competition finalists. These undergraduates competed in the competition’s two preliminary rounds and were selected as Top 10 finalists to present their research during the final round on Thursday, Oct. 28, in the Gatton Student Center Worsham Cinema.

Finalists will present their research in five minutes in front of a panel of five judges and a live audience using only a single static slide. This challenges students to develop their academic, presentation and research communication skills while also allowing them to showcase their research in a captivating way.

The

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 26, 2021) — This Saturday, the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center and the Sunup Initiative will present a virtual panel titled “Advocacy in Southeastern Kentucky.” The event is in recognition of the anniversary of the 1919 expulsion in Corbin, Kentucky.

Advocates from various locations around the Corbin region will gather to share tips and discuss the challenges and successes of being an effective advocate.

The panelists include Sherry Tinsley from Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, Venus Evans from Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission, John Stewart

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A volume co-edited by University of Kentucky sociology professor Thomas Janoski has received the International Lean Six Sigma Institute’s Best Book Award for 2021. The book was recognized at the group’s October conference. 

“The Cambridge International Handbook of Lean Production,” was published in May. Janoski and his co-editor, Darina Lepadatu of Kennesaw State University, feature a series of essays that explore both the business advantages and human costs of lean production. The management theory stresses eliminating waste, synchronizing delivery of parts to be “just-in-time” for use, rotating workers through a series of jobs and productivity – also known as the Toyota system. Janoski contrasts lean production with “Fordism,” as in Henry Ford, which features assembly-line mass

By Haley Evans

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 22, 2021) — Four University of Kentucky faculty members have been named Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program Fellows during the 2021-22 academic year. They represent the 13th cohort of SEC ALDP Fellows.

Established in 2008-09, the program seeks to identify, prepare and advance academic leaders for roles within SEC institutions and beyond. Main features of the program include a university-level development program designed by each institution for its own fellows and two SEC-wide three-day workshops held on specified campuses for all program participants.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, members of cohort 13 will participate in virtual sessions and in-person workshops. The University of Georgia hosted a virtual

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 25, 2021) — The University of Kentucky will welcome Emily Hudson, community activist and founder of the Southeast Kentucky African American Museum and Cultural Center, to campus next week as part of the Appalachian Forum series.

The lecture, titled “Yes, You Can Come Home Again,” will take place 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1, in the William T. Young Library UK Athletics Auditorium, and on Zoom. The presentation is sponsored by the UK Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program, African American and Africana Studies (AAAS), and the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies (CIBS) at UK.

Hudson will share excerpts from her book, “Soul Miner,” and discuss her journey in search of her identity as an Appalachian and an African American. She will

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. –Julie Pendergast, assistant professor of biology in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences, has received a five-year CAREER award for junior faculty researchers from the National Science Foundation. The award is for $875,000. Pendergast’s project, "Deciphering the nueral network orchestrating sex differences in metabolic circadian rhythms“, will help scientists gauge how daily patterns affect obesity. 

CAREER awards are the NSF’s most prestigious awards for early career faculty “who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.” The grants contain both a research and an educational component to supplement the recipients’ teaching duties. 

“The circadian

By Haley Evans and Pedro Fernandes

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 19, 2021) — Two international students were awarded the 2021 Viji Jeganathan Scholarship for Cross-Cultural Understanding during the Global Impacts Awards Ceremony, recognizing their leadership and ability to bridge cultural differences and promote communication between diverse nationalities at the University of Kentucky.

The $1,000 scholarship is awarded annually in memory of former UK student Viji Jeganathan who lost her battle with cancer while attending the university. Originally from Sri Lanka, Jeganathan’s family created the scholarship with funding raised by the community.

Two students were selected as the 2021 recipients:

Alvaro Gonzalez

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 18, 2021) — Three alumni and one faculty member were inducted into the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame at a ceremony on campus Oct. 15. 

Now in its 22nd year, the hall of fame recognizes College of Arts and Sciences alumni and faculty who have made meaningful contributions to the university, the Commonwealth and the nation in their respective fields. 

“The Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame honorees’ life stories reflect the power, the breadth, the longevity and the purposefulness of a liberal arts education," said Christian Brady, interim dean of the college. "This year’s inductees’ lives have enriched our community and our nation, and it was

By Julie Wrinn

As a high school student in Lexington, John Bell had two thoughts about college: he wanted to go out of state, and he wanted to study architecture. For a variety of reasons, neither wish came true.

“Having grown up in Lexington, I wasn’t enamored with the idea of being at home to go to college, but it was what I could do,” Bell said. “Then once I started at UK, I began to realize that college is what you make of it.”

As a shining example of making a virtue of necessity, Bell enrolled as a history major at UK and nurtured a passion for German language and culture that led to a 26-year career in the CIA.

“I remember watching war movies as a kid, thinking, ‘I really want to understand what the Germans are saying,’” he said.

Gerhard Mayrwieser, a German teacher at Bell’s high school, was a native of Munich and sparked Bell’s curiosity

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Three assistant professors in the University of Kentucky’s Mathematics Department in the College of Arts & Sciences have received National Science Foundation grants, demonstrating how the College’s junior faculty are pursuing research and outside funding. The professors are Khrystyna Serhiyenko, Duc Nguyen and Ding Lu. 

 “Congratulations to Khrystyna Serhiyenko, Duc Nguyen and Ding Lu on these wonderful achievements,” said Uwe Nagel, chair of the Mathematics Department. “Every institution of higher education has a department of mathematics. As a consequence, competition for external funding is very, very intense. These NSF awards are a wonderful recognition of the innovative ideas of and the 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 8, 2021) — The Visiting Writers Series, hosted by the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, kicks off Wednesday, Oct. 1,3 with Academy Award winner Kevin Willmott.

The VWS began in the spring of 2014 with a reading by poet Roger Reeves. Each year, the Department of English continues to bring nationally renowned authors to UK.

"This series is a

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 6, 2021) — From routine disruption to social isolation, the COVID-19 pandemic has and continues to affect children in various ways.

Added stress can change a child’s ability to stay focused, as well as negatively impact their appetite and quality of sleep. As a parent, it’s normal to worry about your child's well-being. But how can you lend support in a positive way? 

In the Q&A session below, Michelle Martel, a psychology professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, shares her expertise and offers

Dr. Donald E. Sands, professor and administrator at the University of Kentucky for 37 years, died Sept. 22, 2021, at the age of 92. During his final months he amused himself, as he had all his life, by solving different types of difficult puzzles. Recently he had told people close to him that he had had a very good life.

Dr. Sands was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, in 1929 and did his undergraduate work at nearby Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He then went on to Cornell University, where he completed a Ph.D. in 1955 after having worked in chemical crystallography under the direction of J. Lynn Hoard. One of his papers with Hoard, “The Structure of Tetragonal Boron,” became a classic; a few months later, Linus Pauling wrote to Hoard saying:

I have just been reading, for the second time, your paper on tetragonal boron and I am writing primarily to tell you my

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 4, 2021) — This weekend, the University of Kentucky inducted 27 new members into its esteemed Hall of Distinguished Alumni. The 2020 class of inductees returned to their alma mater on Friday to be honored for their meaningful contributions to the Commonwealth, nation and the world. 

The prestigious event, held every five years, was postponed last year due to pandemic restrictions. 

“The 2020 class is diverse in its range of accolades and achievements, but they each share a common characteristic: they make us proud to call them UK alumni,” said UK President Eli Capilouto.

The inductees are:

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky – Academy Award-winner Kevin Willmott, the director of “The 24th,” will speak at an event featuring the film at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13. The event will be offered both in person at the Chad Perry III Grand Court Room in the J. David Rosenberg School of Law on the University of Kentucky campus and online. People may register for the online event here.  

The Visiting Writers Series, part of UK’s Department of English in the College of Arts & Sciences, is cosponsoring the event.  

“The 24th” (2020) tells the story of an all-Black regiment of the U.S