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

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

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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-

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

Feature banner image - Dan Dry/Kentucky Derby

By Rebekah Tilley

The sharp taste of bourbon, the fluttering ladies hats, the first few bars of “My Old Kentucky Home,” pounding hooves, the refinement of the clubhouse box and the wild parties on the infield grass.

This is the Kentucky Derby.

In his recent book The Kentucky Derby: How the Run for the Roses Became America’s Premier Sporting Event, published by University Press of Kentucky, Department of History alumnus Dr. James Nicholson explores how the paradoxical reputation of Kentucky for lawlessness and gentility is reflected in and helped sustain “the most exciting two

By Jonathon Spalding

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

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

More than $1,500,000 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 their ideas in seminars, lectures and conferences.

“I’m looking forward to the rare opportunity to spend a year thinking and writing about a problem that has intrigued me since I was an undergraduate,” Popkin said.

By Sarah Geegan

The Appalachian Center and the University Press of Kentucky are hosting three events Friday, April 20, to celebrate Appalachia-related books published during this academic year.

The events, which will take place both at Memorial Hall and the Appalachian Center, honor books that contribute to the understanding of the Appalachian region and were published by UK faculty or by the University Press of Kentucky during this academic year.

Helen Lewis and Judi Jennings will give an Appalachian forum based on their new book, "Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in

By Sarah Geegan, Lea Mann

Hanban, the Confucius Institute headquarters in Beijing, has designated the University of Kentucky Confucius Institute as the official Chinese proficiency test center for the state of Kentucky.

The HSK (Chinese Proficiency Test) and the YCT (Youth Chinese Test), are proficiency exams that rank Chinese language learners on different levels of mastery.

The HSK assesses non-native Chinese speakers’ proficiency in using the language in daily, academic and professional environments. The test contains both written and oral sections, ranking speakers into six different levels in writing and three different levels in speaking.  

Chinese universities will use the HSK test results for enrollment; by taking this exam, U.S.

By Sarah Geegan, Lea Mann

University of Kentucky math professor Carl Lee recently received the Kentucky Mathematical Association of America award at the annual KYMAA meeting at Bellarmine University. The award is given annually to one mathematician from across the state.

The Mathematical Association of America, (MAA), is a national professional mathematics society, which focuses on collegiate teaching. The Kentucky section draws from all colleges and universities across the state and recognizes one member each year for distinguished college or university instruction.

Lee said he was surprised but honored to receive the award.

"This was very unexpected," Lee said of his award. "I was attending