SHORT TAKES

UAF College Bowl Team Triumphs at Regional Tournament

Admittedly, the movie contracts are nowhere to be found, a Wheaties box picture won't appear anytime soon, and the closest thing to championship rings are something from a Cracker Jack box. But the five University of Alaska Fairbanks students who won the regional College Bowl competition on Feb.19-20 brought home something even better– bragging rights.

UAF students Nick Palso, Albert Luna, William Bourke, Tina Buxbaum and Nathan McCowan trampled 12 Pacific Northwest universities– including their biggest rival, the University of Washington– to win top honors. Described by observers as the college version of the hit TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," the competition tests students on just about anything they might learn in school, with topics ranging from biology to business and philosophy to pop culture. UAF's team will compete in the national College Bowl tourney at Bentley College in Waltham, Mass. April 28-29.

Contact: Sarah Comstock, Student Activities, (907)474-6025.

DOE Funds New Career Path for Health Professionals

From ileums to iliac crests, duodenums to diverticulum– it takes guts to get through a semester of college-level human anatomy. But high school students in the Lower Kuskokwim School District already have the biological brawn for these classes and, thanks to a grant from the Alaska Department of Education, they now have the budget.

Established to help students set foundations in health careers, the DOE grant has resulted in a new partnership among the school district, Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Kuskokwim campus.

The first course to be taught, "Human Anatomy and Medical Language," will allow students to earn dual college and high school credits. Two sections of the course will be instructed by Linda Curda, assistant professor of community health, on site at the Bethel Regional High School and via audioconference to other village sites. According to UAF Kuskokwim Campus Director Blanche Brunk, the development of the health career pathway will provide the foundation for other vocational-technical programs.

Contact: Blanche Brunk, Kuskokwim Campus Director, at (907) 543-4502.

UA President, Tech Officer Highlight 40th Annual Library Conference

University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton and Chief Technology Officer Steve Smith were featured presenters during the Alaska Library Association 2000 Conference held March 2-5 at the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel.

More than 400 individual and corporate librarians and library specialists from throughout Alaska and the Pacific Northwest celebrated the association's 40th year of leadership and advocacy for libraries in Alaska during the event. Conference programs offered professional development workshops, forums for discussion of library and information issues and presentations of professional papers. Vendor exhibits were also open to the public, and included the sale and signing of books by Alaskan authors.

Contact: Associate Professor Diane Ruess, UAF Rasmuson Library, at (907) 474-6349.

UAF Scientists Bust Down on Benzene

Every winter an insidious inversion layer of carbon monoxide emitted by cars and stoves blankets the Tanana Valley. But indoor air pollution–mainly caused by gasoline stored in lawnmowers, snow machines, motorcycles and other small engines placed in connected garages–could pose an even bigger problem to residents than the air pollutants outside.

Two years ago, a local high school science teacher, Janet Ricker, teamed up with scientists Larry Duffy and Maggie Isbell from the University of Alaska Fairbanks to measure air samples of benzene and toluene in several local homes. Their findings were published in the latest edition of "The Science of the Total Environment," an international journal for scientific research into the environment and its relationship with human beings. By using this research as a basis for discovery, the chemistry collaborators are assessing how ventilation and changes in temperatures affect benzene levels.

Contact: Professor Lawrence Duffy, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, (907) 474-7525.

UAF Alum Named Business Leader of the Year

Utility Services of Alaska Inc. Board President and CEO George Gordon was named 2000 Business Leader of the Year by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Associated Students of Business during their annual banquet Feb. 24. ASB members selected Gordon based on his record of community service and outstanding business accomplishments.

Gordon graduated from UAF in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Two years later, he played a key role in establishing College Utilities, providing a new link for the College community that prompted expansion into the area now known as West Fairbanks. When the city divested itself of municipality owned utilities in 1997, Gordon and a group of other investors purchased the municipal water and wastewater facilities. The divestiture and purchase of the regional wastewater treatment system was the first of its kind in the United States.

Contact: ASB President Bryan Bernaldo, School of Management, at (907) 474-7461.