August 18, 2017
UAF’s Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization has hired Gwen Holdmann to be its new director. She succeeds Richard Collins, who resigned after a two-year tenure to focus on new challenges in his research. Holdmann, who will also continue in her current role as director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, has a history of innovation and commercialization that includes work developing Chena Hot Springs Resort’s geothermal power plant.
UAF eLearning enrollment is projected to increase 10 percent this fall compared to a year ago, marking the fifth straight year of enrollment gains in online courses. UAF is reaching new students by strategically expanding the number of programs fully available online. Business and justice degrees are among the most popular online programs offered at UAF. The newest eLearning degree will be in political science, allowing students to earn their diplomas online starting in spring 2018.
A program that brings rural high school students on geological field trips during the summer is broadening its focus to include students from Interior Alaska. GeoFORCE Alaska received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to expand its recruiting from the North Slope and Northwest Arctic boroughs to include rural schools in Interior Alaska, primarily those off the road system. The UAF College of Natural Science and Mathematics hosts the program.
The University of Alaska Museum of the North is now featuring movies from National Geographic. One of the films features a team of UAF scientists at work among Alaska's glaciers. Erin Pettit, with the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, and two UAF graduate students are featured in “Extreme Weather,” which explores how climate change affects sea levels, forest fires and severe storms. Another National Geographic title, “Sea Monsters,” will also be shown at the museum.
Eric Stevens, with the Geophysical Institute’s Geographic Information Network of Alaska, was among the NASA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series team members selected to receive the Group Achievement Award in NASA’s 2017 Agency Honor Awards. These are the most prestigious awards given by NASA. The award will be presented in October at a ceremony at NASA’s headquarters.
Despite gloomy weather, more than 1,000 people turned out to enjoy Agriculture Appreciation Day at the Farm on Aug. 3 at the Matanuska Experiment Farm. Families participated in hayrides, vegetable bobbing and nature walks, and visitors saw presentations about grain and animal research, operations at Mike’s Quality Meats, plastic bags and wildlife, and berries and wild edible plants. Demonstrations included search and rescue dogs, goat milking and a cabbage stir-fry.
Alaska Hydrokinetic Energy Research Center’s Rapid Deployment Inundation Platforms are ready to be deployed to collect storm data in coastal Northwest Alaska. The sensors will detect a storm event and log data at one sample per second. The information will help researchers understand how storms are changing and their impact on coastal erosion. The platforms and sensors will be deployed in the erosion-plagued communities of Kivalina, Shaktoolik and Shishmaref in late August and will collect data throughout the fall and winter storm season.
Small mountain glaciers play a big role in recharging vital aquifers and in keeping rivers flowing during the winter, according to a newly published study. The research also suggests that the accelerated melting of mountain glaciers in recent decades may explain a phenomenon that has long puzzled scientists — why Arctic and sub-Arctic rivers have increased their water flow during the winter even without a correlative increase in rain or snowfall. Anna Liljedahl, the study's lead author, is a research associate professor at the UAF Water and Environmental Research Center.
A study looking at the physics of tidewater glaciers has yielded new insights into what drives their retreat-and-advance cycles and the role that climate plays in these cycles. Lead author and UAF doctoral student Douglas Brinkerhoff said the study in Nature Communications reveals that shifting sediments drive the cycles among tidewater glaciers in temperate climates such as southern Alaska. The study also reveals that these glaciers don’t need periods of warming within the temperate climates to trigger the glacier’s retreat, as previously thought. Brinkerhoff studies geophysics with the College of Natural Science and Mathematics and the Geophysical Institute.
Eight students and two professors from Hokkaido University arrived Aug. 7 for the second Alaska Natural Resources Sustainability Field Seminar, hosted by the School of Natural Resources and Extension and UAF International Programs and Initiatives. UAF postdoctoral researcher Miho Morimoto and Professor Dave Valentine are coordinating the seminar and a busy schedule of field tours and lectures from Aug. 8-17. The group will travel to many locations around Fairbanks and to Denali National Park.
Research Computing Systems, a Geophysical Institute unit, is expanding Chinook, UA's high-performance computing cluster, in partnership with Penguin Computing and Mellanox Technologies. In August, Mellanox is highlighting the work of five UAF researchers who use Chinook to support their Arctic research: Andy Aschwanden, David Newman, Carl Tape, Uma Bhatt and Peter Delamere. This week the blog focuses on Newman’s atmospheric turbulence modeling, which affects air travel: https://bit.ly/2vQLUt0.