April 18, 2014
The Rasmuson Fisheries Research Center board members selected six fellowship recipients for the 2014-15 academic year. This marks the 20th year the center has awarded fellowships to the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences students. This year’s awards, totaling $233,169, include tuition and a stipend to support graduate student research.
Alaska butterfly expert Ken Philip, of Fairbanks, recently passed away, leaving his world-class collection of more than 83,000 specimens to the UA Museum of the North along with the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service. The collection spans a 40-year period.
This year, 30 university authors were honored for 18 books published during the past year. The publications include a book-length poem, a novel, memoirs, collections of essays and poems, and several scholarly works covering topics such as permafrost, Alaska Native language teaching models and historical events.
The Sustainable Master Plan steering committee has a half-day workshop planned May 1 as it begins the process of developing UAF’s first Sustainable Master Plan.
Professor Willy Østreng, senior researcher and chairman of the research institute Ocean Futures in Oslo, Norway, and affiliated faculty member at UAF visited in April and lectured several classes on public policy, Russian politics, world history and circumpolar northern history. To view the public lecture visit https://news.uaf.edu/arctic-geopolitics-expert-visit-uaf-campus/
UA Museum of the North Collection Manager Jack Withrow and his advisor, Curator of Birds Kevin Winker, have shown that American and Pacific golden-plovers are distinctive genetically and have commented on the evolutionary mechanisms that helped produce and maintain their differences. A paper by Withrow entitled “Genetics of a High-Latitude Cryptic Speciation Event: American and Pacific Golden Plovers” has recently been accepted at the Wilson Bulletin of Ornithology. The paper is the first chapter of Withrow's master thesis. The second chapter was published in the The Auk, a quarterly journal published by the American Ornithologists' Union.
Classes are now being held at the UAF Bristol Bay Campus Applied Science Building. The first group of students in the Certified Nursing Assistant Program completed the clinical portion in the nursing lab. The UAA/Bristol Bay Campus nursing students have also been using the lab space.
Four Alaska Nanook shooters, who all garnered all-America status this season competed for their country at the 2014 International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup USA at Fort Benning, GA, this spring. Senior Mike Liuzza (New Orleans/business administration), junior Ryan Anderson (Great Falls, Va./biological sciences) and sophomore Tim Sherry (Highlands Ranch, Colo./mechanical engineering) all competed for the United States while Junior Mats Eriksson(Malung, Sweden/business administration) shot for his home nation of Sweden. The shooters turned in scores good enough to rank in the top 50 in the world in their respective disciplines.
The UAF Model United Nations Club recieved an honorable mention at the National Model United Nations Conference in New York. The five-day national conference in March let students represent countries and address global challenges in simulated UN committees. The UAF club represented Rwanda on the Security Council and Chad on all other committees. Of 207 teams, 82 received awards.
The UAF Community and Technical College dedicated the Learning Center at its downtown campus to Debbie Moses April 18. Moses began teaching mathematics and advising students for UAF in 1996. She passed away in 2012 after a two-year battle with cancer.
Summer Sessions is offering a one-credit course with NPR's Neal Conan. The award-winning journalist was the last host of the Talk of the Nation. He served as an editor, producer and executive producer of NPR's flagship evening news magazine, All Things Considered, and the co-host of Ken Rudin'sPolitical Junkie. A love show of Political Junkie will take place July 11 at the Wood Center ballroom.
More than 30 Bristol Bay Campus students attended a three-day gardening symposium in March. Discussions included soils, composting, garden planning, invasive species control, nutritious eating and seed starting. The symposia are held biannually in partnership with the Bristol Bay Native Association.
UAF Police Chief Keith Mallard and members of the UAF police department are joining other Fairbanks law enforcement officers to walk a mile in high heels to raise awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault. The “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event takes place takes place April 26. This is the first year the UAF Police Department has participated in the national awareness-building event. Proceeds benefit the Interior Alaska Center for Non-Violent Living.
Tickets are on sale for the Alaska International e-Piano Competition. From June 28 through July 12, two dozen of the brightest young pianists from around the world will come to UAF to participate. Through the use of a Yamaha Disklavier, a premier Internet-connected piano, the performances taking place live in the Davis Concert Hall will be shared with international audiences, as other connected Disklaviers around the globe play synchronously with the performer, displaying the precise keystrokes and pedal technique of each musician in real time.
The UA Press released two new titles "Seventeen Years in Alaska: A Depiction of Life Among the Indians of Yakutat" by Albin Johnson, edited and translated by Mary Ehrlander and "Harnessed to the Pole: Sledge Dogs in Service to American Explorers of the Arctic, 1853–1909" by Sheila Nickerson.