By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The portmanteau “DiaspoRicans” describes a demographic to which Karrieann Soto Vega belongs: people who come from or who trace their roots to Puerto Rico and don’t reside there. As part of her scholarship at the University of Kentucky, Soto Vega explores what it means to be part of Puerto Rico, especially in how artists and activists express their views on their relationship to the rest of the United States. 

 "I'm interested in part in popular culture and how activist rhetoric seeps into the work of reggaetón artists like Bad Bunny,” said Soto Vega, assistant professor of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies in UK’s

By Tatum Armstrong Monday

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 2, 2023) — The University of Kentucky Martin Luther King (MLK) Center, Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Lewis Honors College, College of Arts and Sciences, and Department of Hispanic Studies are hosting “Cafecito con Chavez: An Evening with Eduardo Chavez.” 

The event will take place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5., in the Gatton Student Center’s Harris Ballroom. 

Chavez, the grandson of activist Cesar Chavez, is notable for his work as a

By Dave Melanson 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A multi-institutional collaboration led by University of Kentucky researchers Chad Risko and John Anthony was one of 37 teams to receive National Science Foundation funding as part of that organization’s Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future  program.

The program is a $72.5 million investment from NSF to drive the design, discovery and development of advanced materials needed to address major societal challenges. The program brings together a wide range of disciplines, including materials research, engineering, mathematics, computer science, chemistry and physics, to achieve outcomes not

By Meredith Weber 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 27, 2023) — Nearly 40 University of Kentucky alumni and students will be honored during the 32nd annual Lyman T. Johnson Awards Luncheon 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 13, in the Gatton Student Center Grand Ballroom on UK’s campus.   

UK’s academic colleges and units select at least one Black alumnus whose faith, hard work and determination has positively affected the lives of people on the UK campus, the city, state or nation. These individuals receive the Lyman T. Johnson Torch of Excellence award. At least one Black student who displays outstanding academic achievement and the ability to impact the lives of others is

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Katherine Thompson remembers Dr. Arnold Stromberg, former chair of the University of Kentucky’s Dr. Bing Zhang Department of Statistics and David M. Allen-Richard L. Anderson Endowed Professor, as a leader who was always ready to help students and faculty with a quick analysis.  

“I knew people he had touched, but I didn't realize how many people he had impacted in his career,” said Thompson, associate professor of statistics in UK’s College of Arts & Sciences. “It wasn’t just the students. He helped assistant professors from other colleges working toward tenure by providing statistical support on manuscripts so they could be published. If he got that e-mail, he was up at midnight doing their analysis, no problem. He helped people who didn't have another source; not because he needed to

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 22, 2023) — Theodore Schatzki, professor of geography, philosophy and sociology at the University of Kentucky, is serving as the 2023-24 College of Arts and Sciences’ Distinguished Professor and will deliver the

By A Fish  

LEXINGTON, Ky – Carlos Verea Zacarias sees his position as president of the University of Kentucky Latino Student Union as one that facilitates recovery — he’s making sure his home on campus continues to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic and is set to help its members in their college careers and beyond. 

“The last couple of presidents were focused on making sure our organization stayed active during COVID,” Verea Zacarias said. “My job is making sure that my students find a home at UK and that they connect with one another and rely upon each other. My job is to regrow that community and make sure that everything stays in check both with administrative work and with the well-being of the students.” 

Healing is part of Verea Zacarias’ future. The pre-med biology major was named an

By A Fish

LEXINGTON; Ky. — Each spring, the Dr. Bing Zhang Department of Statistics in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences holds a data science competition. This event is a great way for first-year graduate students to get experience analyzing real datasets.

Tori Stanton is a statistics Ph.D. student and senior research assistant in the Predictive Analytics and Data Science Hub, where she collaborates with researchers from the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Stanton has been involved with the competition since her first year at University of Kentucky. She has risen from participant to organizer.

“For many students this is one of the first experiences they have with a real dataset,” Stanton said. “Many datasets used in class are picked to demonstrate a

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Sarah Tishkoff, the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, will deliver the annual Thomas Hunt Morgan Lectures at the University of Kentucky. 

The first lecture, “African Integrative Genomics: Implications for Health and Disease,” will be at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, in room 116 at the Thomas Hunt Morgan Biological Sciences Building on the UK campus. The second, “Human Evolution and Adaptation in Africa,” will be at 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 6, in the W.T. Young Library Auditorium. The events are free and open to the public.  

In addition, a reception for alumni will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, at the Thomas Hunt Morgan House, 210 N. Broadway in Lexington.

By Ja'Mahl McDaniel 

For more than 30 years, the United States has recognized Sept. 15 as the start of Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month. 

Enacted in 1988 by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month, which takes place from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, allows the country to come together to celebrate the long and diverse history of Latin American identity, cultures, languages and vast contributions.   

At the University of Kentucky, we have seen a significant increase in the number of Latinx and Hispanic-identifying students, faculty and staff. On campus, we have departments, clubs and organizations that foster opportunities for community building, educational awareness 

By Stacey Gish 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 14, 2023) — The UK Alumni Association announced the selection of 33 students who will serve as Alumni Ambassadors for the 2023-2024 academic year. As official student hosts of the University of Kentucky, Alumni Ambassadors promote the university at numerous events in partnership between the Office of the President, Office of Philanthropy and the UK Alumni Association.  

Alumni Ambassadors represent the best and brightest of UK students, demonstrating high achievement in their collegiate careers and a dedication to the advancement of the university. Students must maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher and represent diverse backgrounds, cultures and areas of campus involvement.  

Alumni Ambassadors for 2023-2024, including class,

By Tatum Armstrong

The Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative (KBWC) and the University of Kentucky's 91.3 WUKY will host "SAY IT LOUD: STAND UP," featuring prominent and emerging Black writers. The event will take place 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, located at 251 West 2nd St.

Readings by Jude “JC” McPherson, Frank X Walker, Dwayne Parker and Shawn Pryor will take place throughout the event, and recordings of the presentations will be published here. Admission is free to the public and set to encourage attendees to nurture their development while removing financial obstacles for as long as needed.

"SAY IT LOUD: STAND UP" is sponsored by

By Jesi Jones-Bowman 

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) at the University of Kentucky has selected 26 outstanding undergraduates for the 2023-24 Undergraduate Research Ambassador program.

The program’s mission is to increase awareness and create opportunities for students to actively engage in research. Ambassadors must demonstrate academic excellence, leadership potential and be involved in mentored research. This year's ambassadors represent six colleges, 21 disciplines and 18 research areas.

The student leaders’ goal is to make undergraduate research more accessible. Ambassadors will promote undergraduate research involvement and opportunities through student outreach and program

LEXINGTON, KY -- Two University of Kentucky Department of Chemistry professors in the College of Arts & Sciences. several current UK graduate students and a former grad student  contributed to an article reporting a major advance in increasing the stability of perovskite solar cells, which was published recently in the journal Science.

Co-authors at UK are Kenneth Graham, associate professor of chemistry; Chad Risko, John C. Hubbard Professor of Chemistry; and graduate students Harindi R. Atapattu, Keerthan R. Rao, and Zhuoyun Cai. An article on the discovery issued by the University of Toronto can be found here.

Currently, perovskite solar cells show power conversion efficiencies that are on par with commercially available

By C. Lynn Hiler 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 25, 2023) — The Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence recently named 34 new fellows, five endowed professorships and three faculty fellows.

The Chellgren Student Fellows Program is open to all majors and takes place during the student’s second year at UK. During this time, students receive help understanding the process of research within their discipline, a research mentor to oversee a spring research project and assistance in preparing for the next phase of their career. Student Fellows also benefit from a variety of extracurricular events designed to broaden cultural and intellectual horizons. Among them are: 

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Kevin Alejandrez, who recently earned his doctorate in sociology from the University in Kentucky, is one of 18 American Council of Learned Societies Leading Edge Fellows for 2023. 

This community-engaged humanities initiative demonstrates the capacity of humanistic knowledge and methods to help advance justice and equity in society. The program is made possible by a grant from the Mellon Foundation. 

The council’s Leading Edge Fellowship Program supports outstanding early career Ph.D.’s in the humanities and interpretive social sciences as they work with social justice organizations in the United States.  

Alejandrez will fill a two-year position with the Center for Cultural Power as a Learning and Impact Manager to co-create and implement culturally responsive

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Ellen Riggle, professor of political science and gender and women's studies in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences, has received the Harriett A. Rose Legacies prize from the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington. 

The prize goes to writers 55 and older who submit poems, stories, essays or memoirs drawn from the writer’s personal history.   

Readings by contest winners will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22, at the Carnegie Center, 251 W Secod St.  

Riggle received first place for a series of five poems. They are titled: “The LADIES Room,” “The Ladies ROOM,” “Law: …sex as assigned on a person’s birth certificate," “Queer” and “Hyper-Vigilance.”    

“The poems

By Richard LeComte 

A recent initiative in the University of Kentucky Department of Linguistics delves into the many ways language is spoken and heard on a diverse college campus — “This is What a Wildcat Sounds Like.” The video creates a mosaic of what UK community members sound like when communicating and how that enriches the experience for all stakeholders on campus.  

"The project began as an attempt to raise awareness of dialect diversity on this campus," said Allison Burkette, chair of the Linguistics Department in the UK College of Arts and Sciences. “I have seen a couple of other videos from other schools, and I thought it was important because there's been at least one dissertation and several articles written about it.” 

Leon Sachs, associate professor of French and Francophone Studies in The University of Kentucky's College of Arts & Sciences, has written an opinion piece in Inside Higher Ed titled "What If the Campus Speech Crisis Is a Hoax …and we create a better university for nothing? Leon Sachs argues there’s no harm — and much benefit — in taking concerns about the campus speech climate seriously."

"We should think about campus speech debates the way my hometown political cartoonist, Joel Pett, suggested we think about climate change. Some years ago, Pett published a political cartoon satirizing climate change denial: A speaker onstage at a climate summit is explaining the many benefits of greener environmental policies. In the crowd, a

By Jenny Wells-Hosley and Tracy Marc 

A group of faculty, postdoctoral scholars and students from the University of Kentucky Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), are part of an international collaboration of scientists exploring uncharted territory in search of new physics.

The team has contributed to