By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. –Julie Pendergast, assistant professor of biology in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences, has received a five-year CAREER award for junior faculty researchers from the National Science Foundation. The award is for $875,000. Pendergast’s project, "Deciphering the nueral network orchestrating sex differences in metabolic circadian rhythms“, will help scientists gauge how daily patterns affect obesity. 

CAREER awards are the NSF’s most prestigious awards for early career faculty “who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.” The grants contain both a research and an educational component to supplement the recipients’ teaching duties. 

“The circadian

By Haley Evans and Pedro Fernandes

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 19, 2021) — Two international students were awarded the 2021 Viji Jeganathan Scholarship for Cross-Cultural Understanding during the Global Impacts Awards Ceremony, recognizing their leadership and ability to bridge cultural differences and promote communication between diverse nationalities at the University of Kentucky.

The $1,000 scholarship is awarded annually in memory of former UK student Viji Jeganathan who lost her battle with cancer while attending the university. Originally from Sri Lanka, Jeganathan’s family created the scholarship with funding raised by the community.

Two students were selected as the 2021 recipients:

Alvaro Gonzalez

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 18, 2021) — Three alumni and one faculty member were inducted into the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame at a ceremony on campus Oct. 15. 

Now in its 22nd year, the hall of fame recognizes College of Arts and Sciences alumni and faculty who have made meaningful contributions to the university, the Commonwealth and the nation in their respective fields. 

“The Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame honorees’ life stories reflect the power, the breadth, the longevity and the purposefulness of a liberal arts education," said Christian Brady, interim dean of the college. "This year’s inductees’ lives have enriched our community and our nation, and it was

By Julie Wrinn

As a high school student in Lexington, John Bell had two thoughts about college: he wanted to go out of state, and he wanted to study architecture. For a variety of reasons, neither wish came true.

“Having grown up in Lexington, I wasn’t enamored with the idea of being at home to go to college, but it was what I could do,” Bell said. “Then once I started at UK, I began to realize that college is what you make of it.”

As a shining example of making a virtue of necessity, Bell enrolled as a history major at UK and nurtured a passion for German language and culture that led to a 26-year career in the CIA.

“I remember watching war movies as a kid, thinking, ‘I really want to understand what the Germans are saying,’” he said.

Gerhard Mayrwieser, a German teacher at Bell’s high school, was a native of Munich and sparked Bell’s curiosity

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Three assistant professors in the University of Kentucky’s Mathematics Department in the College of Arts & Sciences have received National Science Foundation grants, demonstrating how the College’s junior faculty are pursuing research and outside funding. The professors are Khrystyna Serhiyenko, Duc Nguyen and Ding Lu. 

 “Congratulations to Khrystyna Serhiyenko, Duc Nguyen and Ding Lu on these wonderful achievements,” said Uwe Nagel, chair of the Mathematics Department. “Every institution of higher education has a department of mathematics. As a consequence, competition for external funding is very, very intense. These NSF awards are a wonderful recognition of the innovative ideas of and the 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 8, 2021) — The Visiting Writers Series, hosted by the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, kicks off Wednesday, Oct. 1,3 with Academy Award winner Kevin Willmott.

The VWS began in the spring of 2014 with a reading by poet Roger Reeves. Each year, the Department of English continues to bring nationally renowned authors to UK.

"This series is a

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 6, 2021) — From routine disruption to social isolation, the COVID-19 pandemic has and continues to affect children in various ways.

Added stress can change a child’s ability to stay focused, as well as negatively impact their appetite and quality of sleep. As a parent, it’s normal to worry about your child's well-being. But how can you lend support in a positive way? 

In the Q&A session below, Michelle Martel, a psychology professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, shares her expertise and offers

Dr. Donald E. Sands, professor and administrator at the University of Kentucky for 37 years, died Sept. 22, 2021, at the age of 92. During his final months he amused himself, as he had all his life, by solving different types of difficult puzzles. Recently he had told people close to him that he had had a very good life.

Dr. Sands was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, in 1929 and did his undergraduate work at nearby Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He then went on to Cornell University, where he completed a Ph.D. in 1955 after having worked in chemical crystallography under the direction of J. Lynn Hoard. One of his papers with Hoard, “The Structure of Tetragonal Boron,” became a classic; a few months later, Linus Pauling wrote to Hoard saying:

I have just been reading, for the second time, your paper on tetragonal boron and I am writing primarily to tell you my

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 4, 2021) — This weekend, the University of Kentucky inducted 27 new members into its esteemed Hall of Distinguished Alumni. The 2020 class of inductees returned to their alma mater on Friday to be honored for their meaningful contributions to the Commonwealth, nation and the world. 

The prestigious event, held every five years, was postponed last year due to pandemic restrictions. 

“The 2020 class is diverse in its range of accolades and achievements, but they each share a common characteristic: they make us proud to call them UK alumni,” said UK President Eli Capilouto.

The inductees are:

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky – Academy Award-winner Kevin Willmott, the director of “The 24th,” will speak at an event featuring the film at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13. The event will be offered both in person at the Chad Perry III Grand Court Room in the J. David Rosenberg School of Law on the University of Kentucky campus and online. People may register for the online event here.  

The Visiting Writers Series, part of UK’s Department of English in the College of Arts & Sciences, is cosponsoring the event.  

“The 24th” (2020) tells the story of an all-Black regiment of the U.S

By Jenny Wells-Hosley and Meredith Weber

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 28, 2021) — This Friday, the University of Kentucky will induct 27 former students into the 2020 Hall of Distinguished Alumni. The alumni will be honored for their meaningful contributions to the Commonwealth, nation and the world. 

The prestigious event, held every five years, was postponed last year due to pandemic restrictions. 

“This is a great group that we’re putting forward,” said Taunya Phillips, 2019-20 UK Alumni Association national president who served on the selection committee for the 2020 inductees. “The university has a wealth of people we could nominate for this honor, and some of the people who are going to be recognized this

Dr. John David Erickson of Lexington (87), died Sept. 8, 2021. Born Jan. 9, 1934, in Aiken Minnesota, he was the son of August and Agnes Erickson.

He was professor in the University of Kentucky Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures from 1995 to 2012. The author of several monographs and studies on 20th-and 21st-century French and Francophone literature and culture, Erickson was one of the first scholars in the United States to write on and translate African francophone texts (Nommo: African Fiction in French South of the Sahara, 1979). He also taught at the University of Kansas, LSU and Rice University.

As a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, he founded and was the editor for more than 40 years of what has become a major scholarly journal of French and Francophone studies, L'Esprit Créateur. In recognition of

By Danielle Donham and Grace Colville

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 30, 2021) — With more than 500 student organizations at the University of Kentucky, it’s natural for students to feel overwhelmed. To help alleviate this feeling, UK Involvement Advisers are a group of peer leaders who exist to help students choose the path that is right for them. 

When Sanjana Dhayalan came to UK, she felt that nervous feeling. "How will I fit in?" and "Where do I even begin?" were just a couple of the dozens of questions that ran through her mind as she prepared to leave India to come receive her education here. After she found where she wanted to plant her roots, she now helps others with that same task, as a UK involvement adviser. 

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 29, 2021) — Patricia Ehrkamp, professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky, has been named the 2021-22 College of Arts and Sciences’ Distinguished Professor and will deliver the annual Distinguished Professor Lecture.

Throughout her time at UK, Ehrkamp has established herself as a noted educator, mentor and researcher.

As an accomplished feminist and political geographer, her research considers the politics of immigration with a focus on refugee geopolitics and trauma, as well as belonging, citizenship and exclusion

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 24, 2021) — The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program will welcome Pulitzer Prize winner Eliza Griswold to UK next week as part of the Appalachian Forum series.

The lecture, “Beyond Extraction: Stories, like resources can be extracted from communities — how do we break the paradigm?” will take place 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, on Zoom. Those interested may also watch the talk live from the Appalachian Center at 624 Maxwelton Court.

Griswold is the author of the award-winning book “Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America.” The book follows a mother and her children for seven years as they wage a battle against the oil and

By Adrian Ho

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 23, 2021) — More than 11,800 students have gained free online access to essential course materials and saved more than $1.48 million in textbook spending from 2017 through 2021, thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries’ Alternative Textbook Grant Program. The program supports UK faculty to switch from commercial textbooks to openly licensed textbooks, library-licensed information resources or free course content created by grant recipients.

“It is exhilarating to hear that the Alternative Textbook Grant Program has enabled equitable access to learning materials for so many students,” said Deirdre Scaggs, UK Libraries associate dean of

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – If you’ve never heard of the bands the Sunmates, Frigidkitty, Whalerus, Cindy or Please Save My Earth, don’t worry – Rae Bandy has you covered. From inside the studios in WRFL in the University of Kentucky’s Gatton Student Center, Bandy is giving attention to these and other bands as the station’s local music director.  

“I actually have a few different shows on WRFL right now,” said Bandy, a senior History major

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Lift up a rock by a lake, and you may find planarians: complex, light-hating flatworms that prefer damp, dark hideouts. But what has Elizabeth Duncan so interested in them is their remarkable ability to reconstruct themselves when severed or injured.

“If we cut one of these worms into three pieces, each piece will create an entirely new worm,” said Duncan, assistant professor of biology in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences. “They regenerate a fairly complex body plan.”

That ability may lead Duncan and other researchers to fresh insights into biological regeneration. As a result, she recently earned a five-year, $250,000-a-year National Institute of General Medical Sciences Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award. The award will help her explore how specific enzyme activity affects stem cells’ ability

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A recent study by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education lauded the International Studies B.A. program in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences as a top program in preparing under-represented minority students for early career success. 

The report is titled “Analysis on Workforce Preparedness and Early Career Outcomes for Under-represented Minority and Low-Income Status Students in Kentucky.” The study’s authors identified the International Studies Program as “exemplary in preparing underrepresented minority students for early career success,” said Matthew K. Vetter, a senior research analyst with the council. 

“Our analysis indicates that under-

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Nothing like a baby jaguar caught on camera to get college students screaming with glee.  

These college students – a group of eight – were deep in Central America’s nation of Belize learning how to assess wildlife populations using cameras. Led by Emily Croteau, lecturer in biology in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences, the students hit pay dirt on their first foray into this wild ecosphere this summer. Just getting the cameras in place was an adventure. 

“It was actually really, really exciting, the first time that we went into the jungle to recover our camera traps,” said Quincy Ipsaro, a junior biology major from Cincinnati. “The first day we did probably a seven-to-10-mile hike into the