By Dave Melanson

Yang Song, a doctoral student in the UK Department of Chemistry and researcher in at the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER), helped lead the research effort on this project.

When Mark Crocker and the biofuels research team at the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) began their work to convert lignin into biofuels and chemicals, some called it a biofuels gold rush.

Little did anyone know how important gold would become to the actual research.

Utilizing a gold-based catalytic system developed in CAER’s Biofuels and Environmental Catalysis Laboratory, the center’s researchers have discovered a method to turn lignin into valuable aromatic compounds. The process is 

By Gail Hairston

The University of Kentucky Alumni Association — with a committee chaired by UK Associate Provost for Faculty Advancement G.T. Lineberry — regularly honors outstanding UK faculty members with the UK Alumni Professorship Award.

This year, the honors went to Dibakar (D.B.) Bhattacharyya of the College of Engineering’s Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering; D. Allan Butterfield of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry; Seth DeBolt of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment’s Department of Horticulture; Brent Seales of the College of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science; and

By Carl Nathe

Christopher Barton with stream monitoring equipment in Robinson Forest. Photo by Matt Barton, UK Ag Communications.

The University of Kentucky’s Christopher Barton (principal investigator) and Kenton Sena (co-principal investigator) recently were  awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to modernize the stream monitoring network at UK’s Robinson Forest in southeastern Kentucky. This project will upgrade the existing network to enhance both data quality and data accessibility. Currently, the monitoring equipment is old and technologically obsolete, and requires a significant amount of upkeep time for data collection and processing.

Sena, who earned his Ph.D

By Olivia Ramirez and Kody Kiser

As the university for Kentucky, understanding and addressing the health needs of the people of the Commonwealth is the goal of many faculty, staff, clinicians and researchers. As a step toward improving health equity in the Commonwealth, the University of Kentucky Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET) was established during the 2018 Board of Trustees meeting. 

On this episode of Behind the Blue, CHET director Nancy Schoenberg and associate director Carrie Oser discuss how, through research and training, CHET will increase the number of researchers and the amount of health-equity focused research at UK.

"[Kentucky] is one of several states where we see declines in life expectancy so there is a lot of work to be done. We believe that research can help inform the best practices that can support

By Danielle Donham

 The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center (UKAC) will be hosting an open house celebration from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, at its location on 624 Maxwelton Court. The recently-appointed associate director of the center and Appalachian Studies Program, Kathryn Engle, and new Scholar-in-Residence Gurney Norman will be on hand for a gathering filled with refreshments, entertainment, music and tours. This event is free and open to the community, UK students, faculty and staff members.

Food will be provided at the event with a short welcome presentation kicking off at noon. The open house will provide a chance to visit and

By Ellie Wnek

Watch Andrew Finn Magill perform a couple Irish tunes above.

Fiddle music will fill campus as the "Appalachia in the Bluegrass" concert series presents performances by Andrew Finn Magill and Emily Miller and Jesse Milnes. On Friday, Sept. 21, fiddler Finn Magill will perform. The next week, Friday, Sept. 28, country and old-time duo Miller and Milnes will play. These free public concerts will take place at noon, at the Niles Gallery, located in the University of Kentucky Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center.

'Finn the Fiddler'

Raised in

By Nate Harling

Mark Kornbluh, dean of the University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences, has named Emily Beaulieu the new Director of International Studies. Beaulieu, an associate professor of comparative politics in the Department of Political Science, has spent 12 years teaching and conducting research at UK.

Beaulieu obtained a bachelor’s degree in International Studies and French from the University of Washington, and her master’s and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of California, San Diego. She has published a number of works relating to international politics, including, “Electoral Protest and Democracy in the Developing World,” for which she constructed an original data set of election-related protest and reform throughout the developing world for a 31 year period.

“I love the idea, as director of International Studies,

By Lindsey Piercy

Foodies, mark your calendars! Dan Pashman will be speaking at the University of Kentucky on Monday, September 24. The event titled, "Audio Storytelling in Food and Beyond", is presented by the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies.

Food lovers are probably familiar with Pashman. He is the creator and host of WNYC's James Beard Award-nominated food podcast, The Sporkful. Pasham and his guests often obsess over the details of eating to uncover truths about food and people.

"The Sporkful is one of the best podcasts available today because it's funny, informative and persuasive. It is a major part of the new movement in food writing," Jeff Rice, department chair, said.

The podcast discusses diverse topics, such as the search for a Syrian sandwich, the origins of

By Sarah Jayne Johnson

This fall in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) will be exhibiting "Los Códices: an exhibit of illustrated books from indigenous Mesoamerica," Sept. 12-Nov. 9, in the Great Hall of the Margaret I. King Library Building. The exhibit and a lecture with art historian Lori Diel are free and open to public.

National Hispanic Heritage Month runs Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. The celebration started as a week under President Lyndon Johnson and then expanded to the present 30-day period under President Ronald Reagan in 1988. It started Sept. 15, the

Events include:

The Universal Language: Latin
September 17th, 2018, Patterson Hall 218, 4:00pm-5:00pm
Drs. Milena Minkova and Terence Tunberg from the Modern & Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures Department will present “The Universal Language: Latin” at the International Village LLP.

Cultural Research and Internship Opportunities
September 18th, 2018, Gatton College of Business, 435 UV, 3:00pm-4:00pm
Panelists will include Juliana McDonald, George Crothers, Philip Mink, and Renee Bonzani from the University of Kentucky’s Department of Anthropology. The University of Kentucky Department of Anthropology offers programs in three sub-disciplines of anthropology: archaeology, cultural, and biological. Learn about new and upcoming research, opportunities for field work, as well as their experiences with working with the Museum of

By: Loralyn Cecil

Andrea Jenkins, who made history last November as the first openly transgender black woman elected to public office in the U.S, will join Garth Greenwell, a native Kentuckian and author of "What Belongs to You," as keynote speakers at the second annual Kentucky Gender and Women’s Studies Conference.

The conference takes place on Sept. 8, in the Bill Gatton Student Center at the University of Kentucky. Registration is free for UK students, faculty and staff. The public is welcome to attend and can register in advance or on-site the day of the event.

Jenkins, who was elected to serve on the Minneapolis City Council, is a writer, performance artist, poet and transgender activist. She developed her reputation for addressing youth violence and improving neighborhoods.

By Danielle Donham

Don Pedi talks about learning to play the dulcimer for dulcimercrossing.com.

The next performances in the "Appalachia in the Bluegrass" concert series showcase the sounds, artistry and talents of Kentucky's Suffragists and Don Pedi. On Friday, Sept. 7, the Women's Suffrage Centennial Chorus will perform. The next week, Friday, Sept. 14, dulcimer musician Don Pedi will play. Both free public concerts will take place at noon, at the Niles Gallery, located in the University of Kentucky Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning

By: Lindsey Piercy

Sounding an alarm on the crisis of liberal arts education is nothing new, but now, perhaps more than ever before, questions about the direction and importance of a liberal arts degree are being asked.

The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky is working diligently to answer those questions. The college has launched a first-of-its-kind video series titled, "Insights — The Liberal Arts Today." The goal is to address the myths and realities in the field.

"We're living in an increasingly global society. College costs more than it did before, and parents want to make sure it's setting up their children for the future," Mark Kornbluh, dean of the Col

lege of Arts and Sciences, said. "I've gotten to know a lot of alums from our college, a lot of very successful people

By Mack McCormick and Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky Associate Professor of English and University Press of Kentucky author Crystal Wilkinson’s novel, “The Birds of Opulence,” has been named the winner of the 2016 Appalachian Writers Association's Appalachian Book of the Year for Fiction. The multigenerational novel follows four generations of women in a bucolic southern black township as they live with and sometimes surrender to madness. This marks the fourth award “The Birds of Opulence” has won, including the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, the 

By Nate Harling

Mark Kornbluh, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, has appointed two interim associate deans while Elizabeth Lorch, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Study, is on sabbatical for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Carrie Oser is interim Associate Dean for Research. Oser is a highly involved and committed faculty member who serves as associate chair and professor of sociology. She holds joint appointments in the Department of Behavioral Science and the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research and serves as associate director of the new Center on Health Equity Transformation. A scholar of addiction treatment and health disparities, Oser has a strong history of external grant funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

 “It is a tremendous honor to be asked to serve as interim associate dean of research in the College of Arts &

By Whitney Hale

Eight recent University of Kentucky graduates have been selected to participate in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, which provides them with the opportunity to live and work in Japan as assistant language teachers (ALTs) or as coordinators for international relations (CIRs) as interpreters/translators. The 2018 class of UK JET recipients is the largest class from the university to date.

Founded in 1987, JET has sent more than 60,000 global participants (including nearly 32,000 Americans) to work in schools, boards of education and government offices throughout Japan. What makes JET unique is that it is the only teaching exchange program managed by the government of Japan.

The JET Program typically receives 4,000-5,000 applications each year from U.S. applicants. Of these, 1,000-1,100 are

By Sarah Jayne Johnson

The Other Years perform "Red Tailed Hawk" for "Lost River Sessions" presented by WKYU-TV.

This fall the "Appalachia in the Bluegrass" concert series will return to University of Kentucky's campus. Starting Friday, Aug. 31, the series of free public concerts will kick off at noon, in the Niles Gallery of the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music, located at UK's Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center. The opening act is folk duo The Other Years.

Heather Summers and Anna Krippenstapel of The Other Years are both originally from Louisville, Kentucky. They were neighbors

WRD encourages WRD majors and minors to conduct research at UK.

To help facilitate undergraduate research, WRD will offer up to $1,000 as support.

We encourage work in areas related to writing, rhetorical studies, or digital research. Such work might include:

To apply, please send a two page letter to the department chair at j.rice@uky.edu in which you

By Mack McCormick and Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky professor, University Press of Kentucky author and former Kentucky Poet Laureate Jane Gentry (1941–2014) has been named the recipient of Appalachian Writers Association’s 2017 Appalachian Book of the Year for Poetry for her posthumous collection “The New and Collected Poems of Jane Gentry,” edited by Julia Johnson, professor of English.

The AWA’s mission is to recognize and promote writing about the Appalachian region. The association works to celebrate writers who are living or have lived in

By Nick Harling

Tracy Campbell, professor of history in the Department of History, has been awarded the E. Vernon Smith and Eloise C. Smith Professorship in American History.  

The Professorship, part of a nearly $6 million gift from alumnus E. Vernon Smith, was given to UK in 2011 and has had lasting positive effects on the university and its campus. With the state’s matching of the endowment, the generous gift has amounted to more than $11 million, with the bulk of the gift going to the College of Medicine. As part of the original gift, Dr. Smith, a 1937 graduate of UK, established a professorship in American history.

Campbell was nominated, “for his wide-ranging and broad-reaching scholarly endeavors in American History, his excellence in the classroom, his dedication to the University, and his own love of American History,” said Karen Petrone, chair