By UK Provost Timothy Tracy

At the University of Kentucky, our work is deeply rooted in a sense of community and in a spirit of partnership; we know that working together is the best way to address complex challenges.

It’s wonderful to see the impact this partnership and collaboration has upon our community members, our faculty and our students. It’s a great pleasure of mine to share these stories.

Take as an example, among many, Computer Science professor Brent Seales’ research. Seales and his team of undergraduate research assistants contributed to an international collaboration to decipher and analyze 2,000-year-old scrolls, using an innovative computer software tool. The group traveled to Paris, France this summer to work with a world-renowned papyrologist, who is learning to use the software, and to present their work at Google Paris, where Seales was a

By Jenny Wells

(June 26, 2015) — The University of Kentucky hosted the seventh annual Kentucky Girls STEM Collaborative conference, "Go for the Gold," June 12 at E.S. Good Barn, bringing representatives from across the state together to help advance gender equality in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

"We are pleased to provide a forum for Kentucky residents to join us in this endeavor," said Sue Scheff, co-chair of the collaborative. "Our agenda included a full day of speakers and hands-on activities to excite and entertain girls as well as educate the parents, teachers, and community leaders of the many career opportunities available to young people in Kentucky."

Kentucky continues to rank very low in number of scientists and engineers, high-tech jobs, and

By Stephanie Meredith

(June 25, 2015) — On June 19, both Harold Kleinert and Katie Hastings were named by the University of Kentucky Human Development Institute (HDI) as the winners of the prestigious 2015 Paul Kevin Burberry Award.


Kleinert has served people with intellectual disabilities for nearly 47 years, the last 27 of those as part of HDI and is retiring June 30, 2015, from his position as the executive director of HDI. He also serves on the board of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities and the Commonwealth Council on Developmental Disabilities. He has improved the world for people with developmental disabilities both nationally and in Kentucky by building meaningful training programs for educators and medical providers, and he has offered

By Ashley Tabb

(June 25, 2015) — University of Kentucky Analytics and Technologies (UKAT) has reached an agreement to roll out Canvas by Instructure over the next year as the university’s new learning management system (LMS) for faculty and students.

Over the last four years, UK faculty, students and staff have provided feedback and usability preferences for a “next generation” learning management system. They worked in depth with UKAT’s e-Learning Team to review the existing and future state of the current UK LMS, Blackboard Learn, while exploring other systems through small working groups, pilots and a faculty-led LMS review committee.

During a request for proposal process earlier this year, several vendors proposed

By Gail Hairston

New Maps Plus Graduate Certificate from New Maps Plus on Vimeo.

(June 15, 2015) — When Gov. Steve Beshear named University of Kentucky geography professor Matthew Zook the state geographer this spring, Zook knew exactly how he wanted to honor his adopted state — by creating a new type of online mapping education for a new era in maps.

Zook along with Matthew Wilson, Rich Donohue and Jeremy Crampton — part of a larger initiative called New Mappings Collaboratory — have been working for the past year on a new

By Whitney Harder

(June 12, 2015) — The drive for miniaturization of devices is clear, as each new version of the iPhone, cameras, GPS systems, computers and so on becomes smaller and more powerful. Such miniaturization is possible thanks to advances in the microelectronics industry, yet this field could be revolutionized by moving from the micro to the “nano” scale by finding a way to use nanoparticles — particles between 1 and 100 nanometers in size.

To put that in perspective, consider that a nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter and approximately 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

This is the scale of work for Beth Guiton, assistant professor in the University of Kentucky

By Whitney Harder

Ryan McElhose, a University of Kentucky sociology junior, with minors in philosophy and neuroscience, recently represented the ONE Campaign, an international advocacy organization, at this year’s G7 summit in Germany.

G7, or the Group of Seven, comprises the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom and meets annually to discuss issues such as global economic governance, international security and energy policy.

McElhose joined more than 250 young campaigners representing 10 countries this past weekend, June 5-7, to call on leaders to pledge at least 50 percent of overseas aid to the least-developed countries, put girls and women

By Terrence Wade

(June 8, 2015) — Records from Benham Coal Company, one of several Appalachian collections to be digitized by University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) funded Coal, Camps, and Railroads project, is now available on the digital library ExploreUK.

Located on the eastern side of Harlan County, Kentucky, Benham is a coal town developed by the Wisconsin Steel Company, a subsidiary of

By Mike Lynch

(June 8, 2015) — The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) at the University of Kentucky is working to install two new networks across the state to gather important data on low-level seismicity and the state’s groundwater levels.

KGS Geologic Hazards Section staff have installed the first two of at least 15 highly sensitive seismic stations in eastern Kentucky. Both of these new stations, one in Boyd County and one in Lawrence County, were installed on private property in relatively remote and quiet locations. These new instruments, along with others in the network, will help monitor the background level of natural earthquakes too small for current instruments in the existing KGS seismic network to detect. Seismologist Seth Carpenter, who leads the project, says he hopes to determine if

By Kody Kiser, Amy Jones-Timoney, Whitney Harder

(June 4, 2015) — In the 18th century, researchers attempting to read the writings of ancient, charred scrolls picked and pulled at the fragile artifacts, destroying many. Fast forward to 2015 and researchers are developing a superior method, one that never unrolls or even attempts to open the scrolls.

Leaving it intact almost exactly as it was 2,000 years ago, scanning methods and a new first-of-its-kind computer software tool are currently working to reveal text from a Herculaneum scroll. The scroll, carbonized by the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, was preserved with hundreds of others in the only library from antiquity to survive.

The "Volume Cartographer" software tool, built by Brent Seales, professor

By Whitney Hale

(June 2, 2015) — The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that five A&S students have been selected as recipients of Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships. The UK recipients are among more than 1,900 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2015-2016 academic year through the prestigious program.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S.

By Staff Reports

After taking first place in the Global Health Case Competition at UK, sociology's Ryan McElhose (pictured second from the right) and his teammates took to the road to compete in an international competition against 24 other universities at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Emory Global Health Case Competition is a unique opportunity for students to come together to promote awareness of and develop innovative solutions for 21st century global health issues. In 2010, EGHI opened the competition to students from other U.S. universities, and in 2012 the competition welcomed student teams from international universities.

By Blair Hoover, Rebecca Stratton

(June 1, 2015) — Today the student-named facility, Bowman’s Den, opens its doors to the campus and Lexington community. As construction on the Student Center begins, Bowman’s Den will house many University of Kentucky dining and retail facilities for the duration of the Student Center construction: June 2015 through January 2018.

Located adjacent to the Singletary Center for the Arts, Bowman’s Den is close to north campus, central campus, the academic neighborhood, and the Greek Park. It is home to dining venues including Starbucks®, Chick-fil-A®, Panda Express®, Subway® and Greens to Go, as well as the UK Dining Office. 

Click here to see a list of summer

By Gail Hairston

(June 1, 2015) — There is a surplus of summer camps available for local children, but the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences offers a summer day camp experience beyond the norm — camps focusing on linguistics, geography, creative writing and philosophy that not only keep kids occupied, but engaged, active and informed.

UK Department of Geography's summer MapCamp is a weeklong day camp for children in middle school that includes exercises in map making and outdoor geo-challenges. Attendees will participate in the ancient craft of cartography, build digital interactive maps to share with the world and conduct campus treasure hunts with GPS-enabled mobile devices.

MapCamp runs June 22−26 or July 6-10, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in UK's state-of-the-art GIS and Cartography Lab (Room

by Rebecca Freeman

Director of Undergraduate Studies, EES

As competition for graduate school admission increases, we have come to realize that it is increasingly important for our top undergraduates in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences to have research experience before they graduate. With the generous (and we hope, ongoing) support of our alumni we have recently awarded the first round of the “Alumni Undergraduate Research Fellowships.” We hope to be able to award at least one or two every semester and summer session.

Even before the launch of this new internally-funded program, our undergraduates have been busy in the lab and in the field.

Sean Bemis’ NSF-funded research group has incorporated

Compiled by Tasha Ramsey

Three students of Japan studies have been accepted by the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program, sponsored by the Japanese government. Mikayla Rogers (Japan studies minor), Naomi Hayes (Japan studies minor), and Samantha Warford (Japan studies major) will work full-time as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in the public school system in Japan this fall. We caught up with two of the three participants for some questions as they prepare for their travels.

Naomi Hayes

Hometown: Louisville, KY

Major: Biology

Minor: Japan Studies

Year: Senior

Fun fact: President of Korean pop dance group on campus for four years

Mikayla Rogers

Photo: (L to R) Stuart Nealis (UK grad student), Dwight Cropper (Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission), Josh McConaughy (Archaeological Conservancy), Kary Stackelbeck (KHC), Charlie Holbrook (local attorney), Bruce VanHorn (President, Town Square Bank), Helen Danser (Chair, KNAHC), and George Crothers (UK anthropology professor) at dedication.

By Gail Hairston

(May 28, 2015) — University of Kentucky anthropology doctoral students and professors played an instrumental role in the donation of a prehistoric Native American mound in Greenup County to the Archaeological Conservancy, a national nonprofit dedicated to acquiring and protecting endangered archaeological sites.

Five acres of land — located within a rural subdivision in

By Whitney Harder

(May 28, 2015) — “I never really thought I’d be working on something like this,” said Michael Roup, who earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from the University of Kentucky earlier this month. Roup is referring to his work on unveiling text in ancient scrolls with computer software.

Roup, a UK Presidential Scholar from Crestwood, Kentucky, joined the ancient scrolls team led by UK Department of Computer Science Professor and Chair Brent Seales last summer. Roup has since been dubbed the “segmentation expert," and recently traveled to Paris, France, to present his work with the team at Google Paris.

The Department of Geography is proud to announce that Carolyn Finney will be joining the department's faculty this fall. She most recently was in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California-Berkeley.



“Her research interests are broad, and coalesce around questions of difference, identity, nature, and place. Her work is exciting in the way it challenges the academy’s traditional boundaries of research, teaching, and service; and her commitment to public engagement in a variety of guises and settings also requires a methodological attention to participation, partnerships, collaboration, and perhaps even entails a radical epistemology. Dr. Finney’s book, Black Spaces, White Spaces out last year, UNC press, widely noted and favorably received; and has drawn much attention, including in the popular

By Whitney Harder

(March 26, 2015) — The University of Kentucky Department of Biology welcomed researchers from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as renowned Dutch scientist Serge Daan, as it hosted the 4th Biennial Conference of Rhythms in the Southeast Region (RISER) this past weekend.

At the UK/Lexmark Center for Innovation in Math and Science Education on Saturday, May 23, researchers presented their work in oral and poster presentations throughout the day. Daan, the Niko Tinbergen Distinguished Honorary Professor in Behavioural Biology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, delivered a keynote speech on the history of the chronobiology. 

Chronobiology is