By Ellie Wnek

(L to r) SPS students Kris Andrew, Joseph Feliciano, Alston Croley, Lillie Cole, Dany Waller, Tom Shelton and Alex Blose.

The University of Kentucky Society of Physics Students (SPS) chapter has won an Outstanding Chapter Award and a Chapter Research Award from the SPS National Office. The Chapter Research Award is a competitive financial grant for a yearlong research project.

With the Outstanding Chapter Award, SPS chapters are recognized for high levels of interaction with the campus community, the professional physics community, the public and with SPS national programs. The outstanding chapter designation is given to less than 10 percent of all SPS chapters in the United States and internationally. Although this is the second time the UK chapter has received this award, it has

By Ellie Wnek

The "Conversations with Gurney" speaker series will host Robert Gipe, author and illustrator of two critically acclaimed novels, "Trampoline" and "Weedeater," that focus on the people and hardships of the Appalachian region. Photo by Meaghan Evans.

The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center's "Conversations with Gurney" program will welcome esteemed author and Appalachian advocate Robert Gipe for a book reading and discussion this Thursday. The free, public event will be held 5-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, in the James F. Hardymon Theater in the Davis Marksbury Building. 

Gurney Norman, scholar-in-residence at the UK Appalachian Center, said, "It's so good for this community

By Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky juniors Shania Goble, of Inez, Kentucky, and Katie Huffman, of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, have been awarded English-Speaking Union (ESU) Scholarships presented by the English-Speaking Union Kentucky Branch. The scholarships will cover Goble and Huffman's expenses for summer study at Oxford University.

The Kentucky Branch of the English-Speaking Union awards a limited number of scholarships to qualified Kentucky college students for courses offered at institutions in the United Kingdom. Scholarship awards include tuition, lodging and meals for three-week courses at the recipient's chosen institution. Scholarships also include one week of lodging in London and a cash allowance. 

By Lindsey Piercy

Gurney Norman and Ed McClanahan. Photo by Guy Mendes.

Two prolific writers and educators, with ties to the University of Kentucky, will soon add another title to their impressive resumes. The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning has chosen Gurney Norman and Ed McClanahan as this year’s living inductees into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. In addition, former UK Department of English professor Jane Gentry Vance will be inducted posthumously. 

Though accomplished in their own rights — Norman and McClanahan, who are longtime friends, both have literary careers focused on autobiographical fiction, and they both draw inspiration

By Jenny Wells

Olivia Prosper and team's mathematical framework would be adaptable to different disease systems and inform strategies to reduce the threat of resistant pathogens to global health.

A collaborative project led by a University of Kentucky professor is exploring how math can be used to better understand the spread of drug-resistant diseases.

Olivia Prosper, assistant professor of mathematics in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, is lead principal investigator of the $550,000 project funded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Mathematical Sciences. The study addresses the growing worldwide concerns over drugs becoming less effective as pathogens become more resistant.

The more people take certain drugs, such as

By Ellie Wnek

The Center for Equality and Social Justice will be distributing free copies of the book "So You Want to Talk About Race" by author Ijeoma Oluo beginning Wednesday, Jan. 30.

The University of Kentucky Center for Equality and Social Justice will be distributing free copies of the book "So You Want to Talk About Race" by author Ijeoma Oluo beginning Wednesday, Jan. 30. Students can pick up their copy of the book at the CESJ office in Patterson Office Tower Room 351 and the Martin Luther King Center in Gatton Student Center Suite A230.

Christia Spears Brown, director of the CESJ, said "I hope this book will give students of all races a different perspective, give everyone a common

By Chris Crumrine, Amy Jones-Timoney, Kody Kiser, and Brad Nally

“To actually be in Washington, D.C. is unlike anything that you can experience in a classroom or here in Kentucky,” says Hayley Leach. “The hands-on experience is unlike anything you can get.”

That is the primary goal of the University of Kentucky’s WilDCats at the Capitol program — to provide students with unique opportunities in the nation’s capital; support them through organized housing, academic credit and financial aid; and provide a rewarding and professional experience that will serve them beyond graduation.

Over the last year, more than 40 UK students from multiple disciplines have walked the halls of Congress alongside elected officials and policymakers, gaining a dynamic academic and professional

By Laura Wright

Regeneration is one of the most enticing areas of biological research. How are some animals able to regrow body parts? Is it possible that humans could do the same? If scientists could unlock the secrets that confer those animals with this remarkable ability, the knowledge could have profound significance in clinical practice down the road.  

Scientists at the University of Kentucky have taken this concept one step closer to reality, announcing today that they have assembled the genome of the axolotl, a salamander whose only native habitat is a lake near Mexico City.

Axolotls have long been prized as models for regeneration, said Randal Voss, a professor in the UK

Professor Grace Jones

January 30, 1951-January 12, 2019

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that our friend and colleague, Professor Grace Jones, has passed away peacefully after a prolonged illness. She was a dedicated teacher, scholar and scientist and will be missed by all. She was in the loving embrace of her dedicated husband, Dr. Davy Jones, at the very end.

Dr. Jones was born in Hong Kong. She moved to the United States and studied Biology at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, NC. She then received a Master’s degree from Jacksonville State in Jacksonville, Ala., before moving to Auburn University, where she received an Ed.D. in Science with a specialty in Entomology in 1978. She conducted post-doctoral research at Texas A&M University (1979) and at the University of California at Riverside (1980). She then

By Jenny Wells and Alicia Gregory

Sustainability and coal mining don't typically go hand in hand, but a project at the University of Kentucky is offering an opportunity to bring the two together.

At least that is the hope of Jack Groppo and Jim Hower, research professors at the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER), where they are locating and evaluating rare earth elements (REEs) found in coal and processing coal byproducts.

REEs are a series of 17 elements within the Earth's crust. Due to their unique chemical properties, REEs are essential components of technologies spanning a range of applications, including smartphones, batteries and defense technologies.

They are also used in renewable energy technologies, like wind turbines and solar panels.

"Never in a million years saw

By Jenny Wells and Jordan Raddick

A Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of all stars currently in the MaNGA Stellar Library, showing temperature and brightness (luminosity) of stars, along with information on their chemical makeup. Photo courtesy of SDSS collaboration.

Want to learn everything there is to know about a subject? Go to the library. Want to learn everything there is to know about stars? Go to the stellar library.

Renbin Yan, an associate professor of physics and astronomy in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, along with a team of astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), announced today the opening of a new “stellar library” containing spectra of thousands of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Having access to this library will help

By Carl Nathe

If you need an example of how a broad-based college education can open up your mind to new challenges and opportunities, look no farther than University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Professor of PsychologySuzanne Segerstrom.

Segerstrom majored in music as an undergraduate and initially thought she would make a career in the field. She took an elective course in psychology and enjoyed it so much she took another, then another. Her curiosity developed into a passion and she decided to go to graduate school and focus on psychology. The rest, as they say, is history.

On this week’s episode of “Behind the Blue,” UK Marketing and Strategic Communications' Carl Nathe talks

The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Justin Mobley and Dr. Jesse Thompson as Adjunct Faculty at the level of Assistant Professor. 

Dr. Justin Mobley is a native of Kentucky who earned a B.S. in Chemistry at Western Kentucky University.  He graduated from the WKU Honors College, completing a capstone project entitled “Synthetic study of para-substituted 5,6-fused ring pyridazines.”  Dr. Mobley completed his Ph.D. at UKy in 2016 under the guidance of Prof. Mark Crocker at the Center for Applied Energy Research (UK-CAER), where he studied oxidative catalytic lignin depolymerization. He went on to a Post-Doc at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under Prof. John Ralph where he studied lignin utilization as well as biomass characterization using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy.  In October of 2017, Dr. Mobley joined

By Madison Dyment

Kerry Gathers’ map detailed the economic impact of the whaling industry throughout the 19th century.

Kerry Gathers, a student in the New Maps Plus online graduate program in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, recently received the national first prize in the Dynamic Map competition at the North American Cartographic Information Society annual meeting.

Gathers’ map detailed the economic impact of the whaling industry throughout the 19th century. To properly map out this information, he drew upon past records of historic American whaling voyages through a database.

“I've been interested in the history of whaling since reading 'Moby Dick,' which inspired me to read more and more about the subject

By Jenny Wells

Thigpen suggests that river erosion may cause parts of the Earth's crust to move more quickly, resulting in large earthquakes far from plate boundaries, such as in Eastern Tennessee, where a 4.4 magnitude earthquake occurred just last week.

Ryan Thigpen, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, has co-authored a paper that describes how river erosion may lead to more earthquakes.

The paper, which published this summer in the Journal of Geophysical Research, was featured in Scientific American this week. 

Working with Sean Gallen from Colorado State University, the geologists suggest that removing so much weight from the

By Jenny Wells and Sara Shoemaker

Courtesy of Andy Sproles/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy.

Christopher Crawford, an associate professor of physics and astronomy in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, along with many of his current and former students, are contributing co-authors on a groundbreaking experiment that was recently featured as the Editor’s Choice in Physical Review Letters, the American Physical Society's scientific journal.

In an experiment carried out at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, experimental physicists were able for the first time to measure the weak interaction between protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom. The project culminates decades of work performed on

By Lindsey Piercy

UK alumnus Nick Wilson is competing on the season finale of the 37th season of "Survivor."

Will Nick Wilson outwit, outplay and outlast the remaining five competitors on the 37th season of "Survivor"? The UK alumnus is still vying for the title of "Sole Survivor" and the $1 million prize. The long-awaited, three-hour season finale is set to air 8 p.m. tonight (Wednesday), Dec. 19, on CBS.

With Fiji as the backdrop, this edition of "Survivor" started with 20

By Lindsey Piercy

As professors in the Department of Linguistics and Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Kentucky, Andrew and Brenna Byrd are dedicated to understanding how languages work, as well as the interaction between languages and the cultures of the people who speak them. Throughout their successful careers in academia, they have also strived to share their knowledge outside of the university.

Outreach is important due to the obscurity of Indo-European Studies. "Not many people know about this field, and folks only learn about it when they study multiple ancient languages, such as Latin and Greek. As you can imagine, there aren’t many people who do that," Andrew Byrd said.

Most recently, the

By Ellie Wnek

UK faculty member Lynn Phillips received the 2018 South Eastern Division of the American Association of Geographers (SEDAAG) Excellence in Teaching Award.

University of Kentucky faculty member Lynn Phillips received the 2018 South Eastern Division of the American Association of Geographers (SEDAAG) Excellence in Teaching Award. In addition to Phillips, the University of Kentucky Department of Geography sent two other faculty members, Karl Raitz and Matthew Wilson, and six graduate students to the conference Nov. 18-19.

"This is a huge honor for me as it represents acknowledgement by geographers in a 10-state region that my instructional practices have impact beyond the classroom," Phillips said. "It is deeply affirming to be

By Jenny Wells

When Kendall Hitch came to the University of Kentucky from Troy, Michigan, as a freshman in 2014, she was nervous about making it "on her own." After all, she was in a different state, a different community and in many ways, a different culture from her home up north. But she says she quickly learned there is no such thing as self-made person.

"We’re all where we are today because of the support of family, friends, mentors and fellow human beings," Hitch said.

Hitch used this knowledge to immediately begin giving back to others — in the UK and Lexington communities and beyond. She spent the next four years advocating for human rights and education, teaching English, and empowering people all around the world.

"Everywhere I have gone I have seen such a huge gap in the desire to learn and the resources present to serve that