June 14, 2013
The Rasmuson Library’s oral history program received a $61,205 grant from the North Pacific Research Board to work with the community of Barrow to record and preserve traditional knowledge of area sea ice. The information will be used to create a Sea Ice in Barrow Project Jukebox using old and new recordings and historic film and photographs already in the archives.
John and Fran Zarling made a $26,000 gift to the Zarling Family Hockey Scholarship, the Nanook Fund and the Zarling Engineering Scholarship; Leslye and Dick Korvola made a gift of $25,253 to establish the Korvola Award for Yakutsk and BP Exploration, Inc., donated $30,000 in support of Alaska Business Week, a precollege leadership program for students finishing 9 - 12 grades.
UAF adjunct instructor and alumna Annie Duffy recently received an $18,000 Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship. Duffy is a mixed-media artist living in Fairbanks whose current work focuses on vessels made of paper, cotton, bent wood and beeswax. This is Duffy’s second Individual Artist Award.
Staff with the College of Rural and Community Development organized a sale to benefit Galena residents who have been displaced by recent flooding on the Yukon River. The sale will take place June 15.
With climate change causing the arctic ice pack to melt, more northern waters are opening up to shipping each summer. Sea ice in the region is a major hazard, warns Hajo Eicken, a geophysicist and sea ice expert at the Geophysical Institute. Eicken says better forecasts are needed and will require a new network to manage and distribute sea ice data. Eicken’s ideas were recently published in a in the journal, Nature.
Contractors excavating on the north and northeast side of the Gruening Building to replace a chilled waterline for Wood Center discovered the foundation of UAF’s original dormitory. They’ll need to cut through that foundation in order to install the lines. Read more in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation indicates the permit application for the replacement Combined Heat and Power Plant is complete. A draft will be available for public comment in July.
UAF teams raised more than $31,000 for the American Heart Association during this year’s Heart Walk fundraiser. Thirteen UAF teams, a total of 119 people, participated in the walk May 18. The Gee Wiz team from the Geophysical Institute raised more than $12,000, surpassing their goal by $1,236.
Several UAF students worked as production assistants on a National Geographic reality television show, “Life Below Zero,” which aired May 19. View the trailer
Marketing and Communications compiled social media coverage of the newly painted Bombardier Dash-8.
Several employees were recognized at this year’s Staff Appreciation Day. Cathy Morgan, program coordinator for the psychology department, received this year’s Chancellor’s Cornerstone Award; Brad Krick, Rasmuson Library technician, received the Outstanding Staff Council Award; and Mary Booth-Barger, admissions coordinator the Chukchi Campus, received the Margaret Peggy Wood Award.
Athabascan Elder and UAF honorary degree recipient Katie John passed away at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage May 31. She was 97. John received an honorary doctorate of laws degree in 2011.
Samara Kinkki joined the UAF Development team as the new Annual Giving Coordinator. Kinkki is a 2006 UAF alumna who has development experience as the event and volunteer coordinator at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kalaheo, HI.
Alaska volleyball head coach Mallory Larranga named Jamie Foland as the program's next assistant coach. Foland’s been a part of Nanook volleyball for the past 13 years as a student-athlete and a volunteer.
Tina Buxbaum is the new program manager for the Alaska Center for Climate and Assessment and Policy. Buxbaum has served four years as project manager for the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. and has a master’s degree in Natural Resource Management from UAF.