February 2, 2018
Kayne Gutierrez has been hired as UAF’s interim athletic director. Gutierrez was formerly the assistant athletic director for compliance at UAF, a position he has held since June 2016. He is taking over for Gary Gray, who stepped down to take a position at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania after leading the Nanooks for more than five years. The university hopes to have the position filled permanently before the fall 2018 semester.
The Alaska Earthquake Center responded promptly to the 7.9 magnitude earthquake off Kodiak Island on Jan. 23, despite a campuswide power outage that preceded the quake by 20 minutes. Data analysts continue to locate aftershocks, and staff disseminate information to the media and public while additional analyses are underway. The Alaska Earthquake Center was mentioned in thousands of news articles, and a Facebook Live interview with seismic network manager Natalia Ruppert was viewed by more than 5,800 people and generated more than 350 reactions, comments and shares. The Alaska Earthquake Center's Facebook group added several hundred new members.
Two University of Alaska Press publications have received national recognition. The poem "Test" from the book “Whiteout” (July 2017), by Jessica Goodfellow, will be included in the 2018 edition of Scribner's Best American Poetry. “A Seal Named Patches” (November 2017) received a starred review from School Library Journal and the 2017 DeBary Children's Science Book Award for intermediate readers. Roxanne Beltran, a UAF doctoral student, and Patrick Robinson, the University of California Santa Cruz’s Año Nuevo Island Reserve director, wrote the book.
UAF eLearning has added a recruiter, Jessica Armstrong, in an effort to support schools’ and colleges’ enrollment goals. UAF’s online courses and programs helped students achieve educational goals in 172 Alaska communities, 49 states (plus Washington, D.C.) and 18 countries in 2016-17. UAF eLearning managed exam proctoring for 8,387 online students in 2016-2017.
A joint research project through the University of Alaska Fairbanks and University of Connecticut is seeking Alaskan volunteers to supply frozen lowbush cranberry buds. With funding from the National Science Foundation, the researchers are hoping to predict patterns in cranberry bud developmental stages with different temperatures and season lengths across the state. That information can help understand how the timing of berry flowering, ripening and picking will be affected by our changing climate. The team includes Christa Mulder of the UAF Institute of Arctic Biology, Katie Spellman of the UAF International Arctic Research Center and Pam Diggle of UConn.
Alaska Sea Grant has selected six research projects for funding during 2018-2020, with the majority of the work starting in February 2018. The researchers will receive $1.3 million to study a diverse range of topics intended to help Alaskans understand, conserve and sustainably use the state’s rich marine and coastal resources.
In December, UAF eLearning sponsored the Climate Change Collaborative. Twelve faculty members discussed sharing assignments and expertise across disciplines. They also talked about creating platforms where student work on climate change could be aggregated to reveal curricular connections. Numerous faculty members have requested a repeat of this event.
Alaska Sea Grant marine advisory agent Gay Sheffield facilitated a session in December on Indigenous input into rules for ships to avoid marine mammals in the Arctic as required by the International Maritime Organization Polar Code. About 40 people attended the session at the Pacific Environment Workshop in Anchorage, including Indigenous representation from the U.S., Russia and Canada.
The search committee for the interim dean of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics selected chemistry Professor Lawrence Duffy, veterinary microbiology Associate Professor Karsten Hueffer and geophysics Professor Anupma Prakash to give public lectures as part of the selection process. Individual presentations by Duffy, Hueffer and Prakash focused on their vision for CNSM.
Alaska Sea Grant marine education specialist Marilyn Sigman is offering professional development courses for teachers interested in Alaska seas and watersheds. Ten of 16 teachers enrolled since fall 2016 have completed the courses, and the other six educators have until the end of spring semester 2018 to complete a practicum and other assignments.