By Sarah Geegan

University of Kentucky history Professor Jeremy Popkin was recently appointed a fellowship for the 2012-13 academic year by the National Humanities Center.

More than $1.5 million in individual fellowship grants will allow scholars to take a yearlong leave from their regular academic duties to pursue research at the center, located in North Carolina. Popkin is one of 33 fellows who will have the opportunity to work on an individual research project and share ideas in seminars, lectures and conferences.

“The National Humanities Center is an ideal environment for scholars,” Popkin said. “It is set up to encourage the exchange of ideas.”

Popkin will spend the year researching how the

Article and video courtesy of reveal - University of Kentucky Reseach Media

At any given time, hundreds of salamanders are being bred at the University of Kentucky. "We have the only captive-bred salamander population in the world where people can call us up, and we can do the breedings, make those resources and ship them out nationally and internationally," says Randal Voss, a professor of biology and faculty associate of the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center (SCoBIRC).

With funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Army Research Office, Voss is studying salamander regeneration—something that may one day help people with spinal cord and limb injuries. He is involved in sequencing the salamander genome, and says he has been able to identify

Susan Bordo, the Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities and professor of English and Gender & Women's Studies was recently published in the The Chronicle of Higher Education. Click here to read the full article, "When Fictionalized Facts Matter: From 'Anne of the Thousand Days' to Hilary Mantel's new 'Bring Up the Bodies''.

Biology Professor Ann Morris' lab contains approximately 200 individual fish tanks, but only one type of fish.

Having recently secured a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Morris will continue investigating zebrafish and the insight they offer in regard to solutions for human retinal degeneration. The NIH grant, titled, “The role of insm1 in vertebrate photoreceptor differentiation,” will be funded over five years and focuses on zebrafish to better understand genetic pathways that control the development of the retina.

"Mammals cannot regenerate photoreceptors, because the retina is part of the central nervous system, and like other neurons in the brain, when you damage them you can't replace them," Morris said. "So that means when people get genetic diseases where the neurons, particularly the

Jeramiah Smith is a professor and researcher in the Department of Biology. Smith's research focuses on gene rearrangement, with a specific focus on the genes of Lamprey, a species of aquatic vertebrate. In this podcast, Smith explains why Lamprey DNA is important to humans and where his research is headed.

This podcast was produced by Sam Burchett.

By Kathy Johnson, Sarah Geegan

Three leading chemistry experts from around the country will speak at the University of Kentucky's annual Naff Symposium Friday, May 4, at UK's William T. Young Library auditorium.

Hosted by the UK Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences, the Naff Symposium brings the very best chemistry scholars to campus to share their expertise with students and faculty from UK as well as other colleges and universities in Kentucky and nearby states.

The topic of the symposium is "Metals and Proteins" and the featured speakers are Brian Crane, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University; Li Yu of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where he is the Jay and Ann Schenck Endowed Professor of Chemistry; and

By Sarah Geegan, Blair Helwig, Kody Kiser

For Fraternel Amuri Misako, pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky amounts to much more than enhancing his career. It represents his freedom to conduct his important research without the threat of political persecution.

A visiting scholar from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Amuri came to UK in 2010 through the Institute for International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund, an organization that aides scholars whose academic freedom and physical safety are threatened in their home countries.

He recently defended his landmark dissertation through a tri-national committee, consisting of two faculty members from UK, two from France and two from Congo, coordinated via videoconferencing.

Amuri's research, which focuses on rural

By Sarah Geegan

As the semester draws to a close, the UK College of Arts & Sciences will continue to offer coursework for students interested in earning credit over the summer.

The college offers both on-campus and online courses throughout both summer terms, covering subjects in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Several of these courses also fulfill UK Core requirements.

The summer course catalog also includes several College of Arts and Sciences' "featured" classes, such as A&S 350: Personal Strengths & Your Career Development, which is designed to help students move forward with their academic majors and to introduce them to the fundamentals of career development strategies.

For more information about A&S summer and online courses, 

By Sarah Geegan

The UK College of Arts and Sciences will see two of its professors, Richard Schein and Sue Roberts, travel to Finland on Fulbright Scholarships throughout the 2012-2013 school year. 

Schein, a professor in the Department of Geography, was appointed as the Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland, which ranks among the most distinguished Fulbright honors. The Award focuses on American Studies, ranging from American history, political science, cultural studies,

By Sarah Geegan

University of Kentucky students and faculty will travel to Shanghai in May to share Appalachian culture at the American Studies Center at Shanghai University.

The  American Studies Center, funded by a grant from The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, is one of 10 similar centers in China. In December 2011, UK signed a joint-venture agreement with Shanghai University to pioneer the center on the SU campus.

The facility aims to broaden Chinese understanding of American culture and to foster intellectual and cultural exchange. UK's primary contribution involves providing a perspective of the American South and Appalachia.

"The purpose of the center is to try and counter Hollywood stereotypes of the United States by bringing them a more nuanced version of

By Kami L. Rice

College of Arts & Sciences biology graduate, Dr. Christopher S. Weaver, was recently named chief medical officer for Wishard Health Services, one of the largest safety-net health care systems in the United States. Wishard serves as the public hospital for Marion County, Indiana, and provides a wide network of primary care sites and other health services in Indianapolis. In his new administrative role, Weaver is excited to be positioned on the front lines of working toward the health care changes nearly everyone in the United States agrees are necessary, even if they don’t agree on how to improve health care delivery.

Citing the danger zone for patients that occurs—sometimes because of poor coordination between caregivers—when patients transition out of hospitals back to the care of family and

By Colleen Glenn

Last week, Jamie Wheeler, academic advisor in the College of Arts and Sciences, learned that the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) selected her to win the Outstanding Advising Award.

As remarkable as this achievement is, Wheeler’s award actually marks the second year in a row an advisor from the College of Arts & Sciences from the University of Kentucky has won this award. Last year, Jessica Baer took home the same prize.

“For an advisor from the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Kentucky to win the NACADA National Outstanding Advising Award two years in a row speaks volumes about the high-level of

At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester, we met with all of the new faculty hires in the College of Arts and Sciences. This series of podcasts introduces them and their research interests. Catherine Linnen is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology and researches how biodiversity arises. She is particularly interested in how organisms adapt to changing conditions and how that adaptation can lead to the formation of entirely new species. Currently she is working on two projects addressing this interest: one looking at changes in coat color among deer mice in Nebraska and the other looking at the relationship of host shifts to the formation of new species among pestilent insects to various pine tree species.

By Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky Gaines Fellow and knitter Catherine Brereton will unveil the final product of the Diversity Project, which sought to create a visual representation of the community through a large piece of yarn-art. The unveiling of this blanket will be part of Gayla, UK OUTsource's birthday bash, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in the UK Student Center Small Ballroom.

The Diversity Project blanket is one of several festivities being presented at the Gayla. The event will also include drag shows, music and free food. In addition, donations toward a one-time scholarship of $1,000 will be collected by the project. Applications for this scholarship, which will be presented to a local LGBT

By Sarah Geegan

In February and March, area high school teachers gathered at the University of Kentucky to learn about recent scientific discoveries in various fields. On Thursday, April 26, the College of Arts & Sciences will offer a psychological perspective on "What's New in Science."

Psychology Professor Susan Barron will lead the fourth lecture in the What's New in Science series, an outreach program aimed to strengthen UK's relationships with high school science programs. The lecture will take place in the Davis Marksbury Building at 7 p.m.

The series engages teachers and youth in various scientific

By Jonathon Spalding

As a society, we are fascinated by war stories. Movies, television, video games and literature all do their part in capturing something that is so fundamental to human nature, yet so incredibly hard to imagine. From the beginning of time we have huddled around campfires and told each other stories of conflict, complete with a triumphant victory or a symbolic defeat, a hero and an enemy fighting for something worth dying for. Today, most of the images we associate with war are carefully and artificially crafted in a Hollywood studio or neatly twisted into a storyline fit for the nightly news.

But for the soldiers who actually live it, war is not a fictional escape but a harsh reality.

Many veterans struggle with the traumatic events of their wartime service and may never be able to express what they saw “over there.” With the inherent

By Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky Biology, Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, and Psychology departments are reaching out to area high school science teachers and teaching them something new: what's new in science.

The What's New in Science series, an outreach program aimed to strengthen UK's relationships with high school science programs, will engage teachers and youth in various scientific areas. It will focus specifically on emerging discoveries and developments in the realm of science.

"The university already has a strong history in supporting science teachers in Kentucky Schools," said Sally

By Whitney Hale

In 1912, an incredible gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees was bestowed on Washington, D.C. by Tokyo, Japan. Rooted strongly and surviving outside elements, the trees have withstood the test of time and become a beloved treasure of our nation's capital. Nearly a century later, the friendship between Japan and Kentucky is preparing for an unprecedented and once-in‐a‐lifetime centennial celebration of this gift as the Japan/America Society of Kentucky (JASK) paint the state and University of Kentucky campus pink.

In honor of this international friendship between Kentucky and Japan, the Embassy of Japan and the Consul General of Japan in Nashville, Tenn., has awarded the JASK 20 offspring from the original cherry blossom trees to be donated to the

By Kathy Johnson

Kentucky poet, novelist, environmentalist and University of Kentucky alumnus Wendell Berry delivered the 2012 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities last night in Washington, D.C.  Berry was named earlier this year by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as this year's Jefferson Lecturer, the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.

The lecture, titled "It All Turns on Affection," was delivered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

To read coverage of Berry's speech by Inside Higher Education visit this website

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/04/24/wendell-berry-delivers-annual-jefferson-lecture-humanities 

The College of Arts & Sciences is pleased to announce that the recipients of the 2012-13 A&S Outstanding Teaching Awards are Drs. Christia Brown (psychology), Brenna Byrd (MCLLC), Yanira Paz (Hispanic Studies), and Bradley Plaster (physics & astronomy).

Dr. Christia Brown has been in the psychology department since 2007 and is affiliated with the Children at Risk Research Cluster, Gender and Women’s Studies, and the UK Center for Poverty Research.  She exemplifies teaching excellence.  She creates an innovative learning environment in every classroom she enters, whether through engagement activities in her large lecture courses or debates in her smaller seminars. One of her students stated, “This is the best class and professor I have ever had at UK.”  Outside the classroom she is a