By Guy Spriggs

In the field of geology, the University of Kentucky is not traditionally known as a petroleum school. But through participation in the Imperial Barrel Award (IBA), a team of graduate students in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) not only gained invaluable insight into the oil industry, but elevated UK’s standing as a geoscience program.

The IBA, organized by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, is an annual basin evaluation competition where participants analyze geological and geophysical data sets for oil-producing viability. Teams this year were challenged with determining hydrocarbon potential for an area in New Zealand’s Taranaki Basin and presenting their findings to a panel of industry experts.

By Mary Venuto

The Ecological Research and Education Center (EREC) has reached an important milestone in becoming a recognized field station.

For eighteen years the Ecological Research Facility (ERF), located on the north side of town, was used as a site for controlled experiments. Four years ago the University of Kentucky bought a former library building that was adjacent to ERF. With financial assistance from LexMark, ERF was able to become a field station.  

University of Kentucky biology faculty and undergraduate students have since used the Ecological Research and Education Center for a broad range of ecological environmental and genomic research. In addition to research, EREC is also involved in furthering the education of undergraduate

by Gail Hairston

(July 10, 2014) – University of Kentucky sophomore psychology major Kara McCord won one of the 2014 Noba Student Video Award top prizes, awarded by the Diener Education Fund (DEF) and Noba Psychology, for her video titled “Flashbulb Memories”.

The worldwide competition recognizes the most outstanding student-made videos developed around psychological concepts related to memory.

McCord’s entry, judged by a panel of leading psychologists, was among entries from the U.S., Europe, South America, and Asia. In addition to receiving a cash award of $3,000, her video focusing on a phenomenon of autobiographical memory, will be included as a part of the Noba Psychology digital textbook in a

by Kathy Johnson, Jenny Wells

(July 8, 2014) — A book by two University of Kentucky professors was highlighted recently in a Huffington Post blog by author Janet Mason.

"A Positive View of LGBTQ: Embracing Identity and Cultivating Well-Being" by Sharon Rostosky, professor of counseling psychology in the UK College of Education and Ellen Riggle, professor of political science in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, is one of two books Mason focused on as exhibiting the importance of identity in the LGBTQ community.

Mason said the book "talks about the unique

by Jenny Wells

(July 8, 2014) — The University of Kentucky Honors Program has selected nine incoming freshmen as recipients of the T.W. Lewis Scholarship. Representing Fayette County and a select group of Appalachian counties in Kentucky, these "Lewis Scholars" will serve as the first cohort of Honors students to receive the prestigious scholarship.

While T.W. Lewis has offered a scholarship program in his name and his mother's, Ruth Jones Lewis, since 2006, this year marks the implementation of the new Lewis Scholars program, housed in UK Honors. This January, the UK Board of Trustees accepted a pledge of $1 million from the T.W. Lewis Foundation to create and endow the fund.

"Mr.

by Whitney Hale

(July 8, 2014) — Each year University of Kentucky students are recognized on the national, and even international, stage with a variety of prestigious scholarships, internships and fellowships that acknowledge their excellence in the classroom, as well as in research and extracurricular activities.

In the 2013-14 school year alone, UK students earned 11 more national awards than the previous year, including a prized Truman Scholarship and two Goldwaters. This brought the year's count of major honors to 35 with several national

by Zachary Dodson

(July 7, 2014) — When University of Kentucky student Erica Mattingly enrolled in one of Andrew M. Byrd’s linguistics courses, she had no idea she would be rewriting history — or at least re-speaking it.

Byrd, assistant professor of linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences, and his students have drawn national attention for their groundbreaking work to reconstruct and understand prehistoric languages.

Byrd has devoted much of his research time translating the language known as Proto-Indo-European (PIE). The language is thought to have been first used over 7,000 years ago, with some suspecting it was spoken even earlier. Byrd’s work

by Heather Chapman

(July 3, 2014) — This July, a University of Kentucky professor is headed back to Lichfield Cathedral in England to continue a labor of love: digitizing the nearly 1,300-year-old St. Chad Gospels.

William Endres, an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, has already captured multispectral and historical images of the St. Chad Gospels and

by Whitney Hale

(July 1, 2014) — Celebrated authors Joy Castro and Leslie Jamison will make their first appearance together at the Kentucky Women Writers Conference for a reading, conversation and a book signing. The reading events are scheduled for 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

While best known for their nonfiction works, Castro's 

by Gail Hairston

(July 1, 2014) — Excitement is building as construction begins for the University of Kentucky’s new Academic Science Building. Scheduled to open in Fall of 2016, the building is designed to make learning engaging for undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, teachers and visitors.

Construction only recently began, but the new structure is already touted as UK’s next iconic landmark building, rivaling Memorial Hall and the William T. Young Library.

In a recent podcast about the new science building, College of Arts and Sciences’ Dean Mark Kornbluh discussed the building’s interdisciplinary potential, as it will house different science disciplines with teaching and research across those disciplines.  He also talks about the

by Rachel Knuth

(July 1, 2014) — Former University of Kentucky student Amanda Fickey is back at her alma mater this summer, teaching Appalachian history and culture to 60 high school students from Eastern Kentucky who are part of UK’s Robinson Scholars Honors Program.

Fickey, a native of Letcher County, served as the arts and cultural outreach coordinator for The Center for Rural Development in Somerset, Kentucky, prior to her time at UK. Fickey, who recently completed her doctoral degree in economic geography at UK, also holds a bachelor’s degree in 

by Whitney Hale, Derrick Meads

(May 27, 2014) — Last week, 15 UK faculty taught students at Shanghai University (SHU) in China through the UK Confucius Institute’s (UKCI) “UK Faculty China Short-Term Teaching Program,” which ran June 16-20.

The program fostered global literacy throughout UK’s multiple disciplines by embedding UK faculty members in SHU’s departments where they taught students for one week, met professional colleagues, identified shared research interests and gained key insights into China that they can then share with their students in Kentucky.

"Students need to know how knowledge is created, disseminated and used in a commercial and global environment of commerce," said 

Portuguese is the fifth most spoken language in the world, with more than 250 million speakers worldwide. Aside from its country of origin, Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Acores, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe, and is commonly spoken in seven other countries. A part of the Ibero-Romance language group that descends from Latin dialects, its origins are ancient, but during the Age of Exploration, it spread to many corners of the globe, and is present in many popular forms of music, such as bossa nova and samba.

During Fall semester 2014, Fabrício da Silva will teach introductory Portuguese. He is a native Portuguese speaker from Brazil, has lived in Lisbon, Portugal, and has an MA in Languages, Literatures

by Rachel Knuth

(June 24, 2014) — Three University of Kentucky graduate students have received the fellowship award from the Association of Emeriti Faculty. Each award includes a stipend of $2,000.

Since 1996, the UK Association of Emeriti Faculty has awarded 53 fellowships to full-time graduate students who demonstrate a commitment to teaching at a university or college. Thanks to generous gifts from UK faculty retirees to the fellowship program and UKAEF’s Commonwealth of Kentucky Research Challenge Trust Fund, these gifts constitute a $77,000 donation of ongoing support of graduate students.

4Winners for the 2013-14 school year were Brad Fox, Ashley Bourgeois and Michelle Bolduc.

Bolduc is in her fourth year as a doctoral candidate in the

by Jenny Wells

(June 24, 2014) — This week, 85 high school sophomores from across the Commonwealth will begin living and learning on the University of Kentucky campus for three weeks as part of the GEAR UP Kentucky Summer Academy@UK. In partnership with the Council on Postsecondary Education and the UK Division of Undergraduate Education, this college and career readiness initiative aims to develop a college transition path to UK for the students by showcasing the skills and attitudes needed to succeed at the state's premier research university.

"Our highest priority is the success of our students," said UK President Eli Capilouto. "By

by Sarah Geegan, Danielle Middleton

(June 24, 2014) — A group of 15 first-generation University of Kentucky students is seeing blue across the pond this summer. In a course designed specifically for students who are the first in their families to attend college, the group is exploring global communication and business in London, England, led by Director of First Generation Initiatives Matthew Deffendall.

Throughout three weeks, spanning the end of June and beginning of July, the students will visit several international businesses and corporations in London. Throughout their journey, UKNow will highlight some of their experiences by publishing their blogs.

The class began their series of business site visits with the British

By Zachary Dodson

The Department of Chemistry and Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) at the University of Kentucky are always looking to infuse their research environments with new energy—and recent hire Chad Risko will do just that when he comes to campus this fall.

Risko received his PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he specialized in understanding structure-property relationships of organic-based materials. He went on to Northwestern University as a research fellow where he expanded his research interests to the study of hybrid interfaces. For the past five years, he worked as a Research Scientist at Georgia Tech.

“Dr. Risko comes from the world’s leading group in applying computation and theory to the design and analysis

by Carl Nathe

(June 16, 2014) — The University of Kentucky has received a $12.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue its work to better understand and minimize negative health and environmental impacts from hazardous waste sites.

The Nutrition and Superfund Chemical Toxicity grant funded through the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is administered through the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. It supports the efforts of more than 50 scientists and students from 15 departments within the colleges of Agriculture, Food and Environment; Arts and Sciences; Engineering

by Benjamin Kandt, photo by Kiran Lannagadda

(June 13, 2014) - The University of Kentucky is proud to host a Confucius Institute (UKCI), a center dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of Chinese culture throughout the University of Kentucky and the Lexington community. UKCI’s offerings include Chinese language classes and cultural outreach events. It also serves as a bridge for the University of Kentucky to make connections with institutions

by Whitney Hale

(June 10, 2014) — University of Kentucky juniors Matthew Fahrbach, of Louisville, Ky., and Samuel Saarinen, of Shelbyville, Ky., have been awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship worth up to $7,500 per year. Fahrbach and Saarinen are among 283 students nationwide awarded the Goldwater Scholarship this year. This year's Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,166 mathematics, science and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was authorized by Congress to honor the former Arizona U.S. senator who served the nation for 30 years. The scholarship program was designed to foster and encourage outstanding