By Whitney Harder

(Aug. 31, 2015) — Have you ever wondered if your vote actually counts? Is a drone or a dog more useful in a combat zone? How long has there actually been a war on Christmas? And why is it taking so long to elect a female president? Two University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences doctoral students want to answer these questions by talking with UK historians. The catch: they have to be brief.

"Long Story Short: A Brief History of History," a podcast produced by Department of History doctoral students Cody Foster and Dara Vance, premiered last week on the college's SoundCloud. In the first episode, Foster and Vance talk with history

By Whitney Harder

(Aug. 31, 2015) — The University of Kentucky Sustainability Challenge Grant Program is funding sustainability projects on campus for the second year and with double the funds. This year, $200,000 is available to interdisciplinary teams working on sustainability-driven projects.

The program is designed to engage multidisciplinary teams from the university community in the creation and implementation of ideas that will simultaneously advance economic vitality, ecological integrity and social equity, now and into the future.  

"The campus response to the Sustainability Challenge Grant Program was tremendous last year with outstanding proposals from nearly two dozen interdisciplinary teams and seven funded projects that utilized our

By Guy Spriggs

Because of incomplete or partial data, it can be hard to calculate accurate approximations important to scientific work such as medical research. When human subjects quit clinical trials, what do researchers and statisticians do with incomplete results when trying to estimate survival probability?

Statistics professor Mai Zhou’s new book, “Empirical Likelihood Method in Survival Analysis,” aims to answer these questions by applying a new principle to data approximation dealing with duration.

“Empirical likelihood is a relatively new method. I’ve been fascinated by this method since the terminology was invented in 2001,” Zhou explained. Since then, he has been on leave twice to collaborate with partners and been awarded two research grants from the National Science Foundation for work leading toward his book.

As Zhou explains, likelihood is

By Whitney Hale

(Aug. 27, 2015) — Kathleen Driskell, the Kentucky poet behind the new collection, "Next Door to the Dead," and award-winning poet Angela Ball are among the featured presenters at this year's Kentucky Women Writers Conference being held Sept. 11-12, in Lexington. A limited number of spaces still remain for workshops with Driskell and Bell at the celebrated literary festival.

Kathleen Driskell’s newest collection "Next Door to the Dead," published by University Press of Kentucky, was just released this month. In the book, the poet found

Kent Ratajeski, a geologist and professor of earth and environmental science at the University of Kentucky, was mentioned in an article on earthmagazine.com. Alongside another geologist, Ratajeski created the map, “The United States According to Geologists.” To view the full story, visit http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/hazardous-living-maps-according-geologists. 

By Jenny Wells

(Aug. 26, 2015) — The University of Kentucky Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence honored its newest class of Chellgren Fellows Sunday, Aug. 23. Five Chellgren Endowed Professorships were also announced. 

The Chellgren Fellows Program is for students with exceptional academic potential and aspirations, who are eager to participate in a special learning community designed to cultivate extraordinary achievement. Outstanding faculty members from across campus serve as individual mentors for the Fellows.

The students selected as 2015-16 Chellgren Fellows include:

•  Sloan Ander, a

By Whitney Hale

(Aug. 25, 2015) — Legendary 81-year-old poet Sonia Sanchez will return to the upcoming Kentucky Women Writers Conference on the 10th anniversary of the founding of the conference series named for her. The Sonia Sanchez Series, which brings a major thinker in multicultural and human rights issues to Lexington to speak throughout the community, will this year present the nation's fourth screening of "BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez: a new documentary," on the life and work of the celebrated writer, at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center.

For Sonia Sanchez, writing is

By Carl Nathe

(Aug. 26, 2015) — "For a chapter which did not even exist six-and-a-half years ago, we're doing pretty well."

That quote about the University of Kentucky Phi Kappa Phi (PKP) Chapter from chapter President  Frank Ettensohn, professor of earth and environmental sciences and Jefferson Science Fellow, is best described as an understatement. Chartered in April 2009, the UK chapter of the nation's oldest, largest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines is doing more than 'pretty well.'

In its brief history, UK's PKP chapter has been selected as a 'Chapter of Excellence' by national headquarters in two separate years

By Amanda Nelson

(Aug. 24, 2015) – The University of Kentucky Department of STEM Education, under the direction of Molly Fisher (PI), associate professor and director of graduate studies, and Jennifer Wilhelm (co-PI), professor and chair, is welcoming a new cohort of undergraduate students in the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.

As an REU site, the STEM Education Department hosts a cohort of undergraduates who work in its research programs.

Each student is associated with a specific research project, where he/she works closely with the faculty and other researchers.

Students are granted stipends and technology funds in order to carry out their

By Rachel Lorch

The roots of black cohosh, a plant native to the Appalachian region, has served a large variety of needs throughout its history. Progressing from its roles as an acne treatment and insect repellent, black cohosh root is often used today as an herbal supplement.

Gabrielle Miles, a former graduate student in the University of Kentucky’s Department of Statistics, studied black cohosh roots during her time at UK. The project on the plant was a continuation of work she completed as an undergraduate summer field intern with Dr. Jim Chamberlain, Research Forest Products Technologist at the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station.

Miles’ interest in statistics and its application to ecology stems from the requirements of an

By Eli Capilouto

At 3 p.m. today, Tuesday August 18th, we will welcome members of our campus and community to tour three new residence halls on our campus, Woodland Glen III, IV and V. The projects surround Woodland Glen I and II, which we opened last year, and mark the completion of the new Woodland Glen community - a major milestone in our campus transformation.

Our priorities are guided by a single principle - to provide the best environment for the UK family to live, learn, create and heal. We've made extraordinary progress across campus, and there is still more work to do.

At 2 p.m. on Wednesday, August 19th, we will unveil the new Lyman T. Johnson Hall. Joined by members of the Johnson family and several university leaders, we are naming Central 1 Residence Hall

By Whitney Harder

(Aug. 17, 2015) — A $6 million National Science Foundation grant will allow researchers at the University of Kentucky, Oklahoma State University, University of Oklahoma, and University of Nebraska to develop unmanned aircraft systems, otherwise known as drone systems, to study atmospheric physics for improved precision agriculture and weather forecasting.

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are currently used in search and rescue, infrastructure inspection and in many other ways to gather information via cameras and specialty sensors. The four-university interdisciplinary team will develop small, affordable systems to measure wind, atmospheric chemistry, soil moisture, and thermodynamic parameters. Doing so will provide meteorologists with data needed to build better forecasting models.

The project, called CLOUD MAP for "

By Whitney Hale, Mack McCormick

(Aug. 17, 2015) — From the earliest moments of Kentucky’s recorded history, the lives of African-Americans have been intricately woven into the fabric of the state.

The slave and bodyguard of pioneer Nathaniel Hart, often referred to as Captain Jack Hart, first entered what would become the Bluegrass State in 1774. Little is known of the life of one the first African-Americans to explore Kentucky’s frontier, though he was present the following year at the signing of the Sycamore Shoals Treaty in Tennessee, which resulted in the purchase of "Kaintucke" from the Cherokees. The sparse records that do exist indicate that Jack Hart played a central role in Daniel Boone’s early exploration of the state during the mid-1770s serving as the pioneer’s "pilot," or guide.

However, black settlers like Jack Hart did not migrate

University of Kentucky psychologist, Richard Smith, was featured in a recent article in The New Yorker which looks at the differences between envy and admiration. Along with other psychologists featured in the article, Smith, who has been studying envy for over three decades, looks closely at the relation between envy and admiration in today’s society. The full article titled “Can Envy Be Good For You” can be found here.

By Blair Hoover

(Aug. 13, 2015) — Safety is always a priority at the University of Kentucky. Especially now, when thousands of new students are transitioning to campus at a time when vehicle and pedestrian traffic are heavy and streets are re-routed. UK Police will be out in full force to assist with Move-In, and everyone is urged to be patient and travel safely.

Move-In is an exciting time for our campus community and an important time to begin fostering student success — our top priority at all levels in everything that we do.

This year, we will welcome students and their families during four major Move-In days over the next week:

·      Saturday, Aug. 15

·      Wednesday, Aug. 19

·      Friday, Aug

By Whitney Harder

(Aug. 12, 2015) — Sung S. Ambrose Seo, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Kentucky, has received the prestigious five-year National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award totaling $672,981.

The CAREER award is given in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of the university.

Funds from the award will allow Seo to investigate iridium oxides and unveil exotic collective phenomena, such as nontrivial topological states that are latent in bulk crystals, but emerge in

We are delighted to have three new faculty members joining the Department as Lecturers this fall. All three are exceptional individuals with diverse scientific interests and great enthusiasm for teaching. Dr. Lisa Blue earned her Ph.D. from UK (Atwood) and spent time in industry before returning. She will teach primarily within the General Chemistry program and also has experience in analytical chemistry.  Dr. Joshua Owen is also a UK Ph.D graduate (Butterfield) and will teach in multiple parts of the academic program, from general chemistry to organic chemistry to biochemistry. Dr. Ashley Steelman recently earned her Ph.D. at the University of Alabama (Bonizzoni) working on dendrimer synthesis, characterization, and applications. Like her other colleagues, her

By Whitney Hale

(Aug. 11, 2015) — Legendary 81-year-old poet Sonia Sanchez will return to the upcoming Kentucky Women Writers Conference on the 10th anniversary of the founding of the conference series named for her. The Sonia Sanchez Series, which brings a major thinker in multicultural and human rights issues to Lexington to speak throughout the community, will this year include a free public screening of "BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez: a new documentary," on the life and work of the celebrated writer, at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center.

For Sonia Sanchez, writing is both a personal

By Alicia Gregory, Whitney Harder

(Aug. 10, 2015) — Computer science and the St. Chad Gospels. Physics and Spanish. Math and international studies. The combination of these don't seem to make a lot of sense, but it is these interests that have shaped the undergraduate career of one UK senior.

Stephen Parsons, a computer science and international studies major, with minors in physics, Spanish and mathematics, has thrived in a range of studies during his time at UK.

He has also worked in research that merged the fields of computer science and humanities. Parsons, who is a