May 11, 2018
UAF honored the Class of 2018 during its 96th commencement ceremony on May 5 at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks, where approximately 1,414 degrees were conferred on 1,314 students. UAF’s 2018 outstanding students are Bobbie McNeley, recipient of the Marion Frances Boswell Memorial Award honoring a graduating senior woman; Luke Rogers, recipient of the Joel Wiegert Award honoring a graduating senior man; and Erica Nardella, recipient of the Gray S. Tilly Memorial Award honoring a graduating nontraditional student.
Erin Pettit of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics and Martin Truffer of the Geophysical Institute are part of a $25 million international research project to study a Florida-sized glacier in Antarctica that would raise the sea level several feet if it melts. Pettit is the principal investigator on one of eight projects studying the Thwaites Glacier. Both researchers were quoted in numerous national and international news stories about the project.
Erik Largen was introduced on April 30 as the new head coach for the Alaska Nanooks hockey team. Largen, a Fairbanks native and former goaltender for the Nanooks, becomes the 10th head coach in program history and, at 31 years old, the youngest among NCAA Division I men's ice hockey head coaches. Largen was hired as the assistant coach for UAF in August 2016 under former head coach Dallas Ferguson and continued working in that same position under interim head coach Lance West throughout the 2017-18 season.
Andrea Bersamin, associate professor at the Institute of Arctic Biology’s Center for Alaska Native Health Research, received a $1.8 million award from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for her proposal “Tundra Gifts: Harvesting local and regional resources to prevent obesity among Alaska Native children in remote, underserved communities.”
Fourteen faculty have successfully completed the first iteration of Expanding Pedagogies, Innovative Courses. EPIC is a two-semester, cohort-based program run by UAF eLearning that supports instructors developing and delivering online courses. This spring, more than 200 students were enrolled in the robust online and hybrid courses that resulted from the program.
UAF associate professor Torie Baker, with Alaska Sea Grant in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, co-authored an article on chronic health risks in Alaska commercial fishermen. Surveys, health exams, and use of FitBits for 66 gillnet salmon fishermen revealed that health problems such as hearing loss, upper extremity disorders and fatigue from sleep apnea are higher than in the general population. Researchers gave the fishermen recommendations to decrease their risk.
UAF mining engineers have earned a pass rate of 90 percent in the Fundamentals of Engineering national exam during the past two years, considerably higher than the U.S. rate of 68 percent. It continues a long trend of the UAF pass rate being higher than the national benchmark. UAF students are required to take (but not pass) the exam to graduate.
The University Fire Department had good emergency response statistics in 2017 compared to the U.S. and Alaska average, according to the national Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival. Student firefighters responded to and performed CPR on 11 patients, 27 percent of whom survived to be discharged from the hospital. The statewide average is 13 percent. Eighty-two percent of local patients received bystander CPR compared to the national average of 38 percent.
More than 120 hours of archival recordings from KUAC-FM, UAF’s public radio station, are now available for listening online. The KUAC-FM Audiotapes Collection at the Rasmuson Library consists of nearly 950 open-reel audiotapes containing original local KUAC-FM programs from the late 1970s through the 1990s. Technicians at the Northeast Document Conservation Center digitized 126 hours of recordings with grant funding provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources.
UAF faculty member Chris Sannito assisted nine Alaska food companies in March with flash pasteurization of juice, selling sockeye salmon portions, federal food hazard compliance, processing plant personnel structure, state process authority letters, shipping salmon from Bristol Bay to California, expanding a fish business, and retort vessels for mushroom cultures. Sannito is the Alaska Sea Grant seafood quality specialist in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.
The research vessel Sikuliaq is performing the first cruise associated with the newly funded Northern Gulf of Alaska Long-term Ecological Research site. The program is led by researchers at the UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.
UAF's Geophysical Institute signed a cooperative agreement with Sandia National Laboratories to conduct basic science, energy and security research in the Arctic. Under the agreement, UAF and Sandia’s efforts will include advocating for a comprehensive multiagency research facility that tackles overarching Arctic issues; supporting efforts to improve Alaska’s resilience against natural disasters and the harsh environment; studying the suitability of renewable energy and microgrids for the Arctic environment; and flying tethered balloons and drones to measure atmospheric temperatures.
Alaska’s awe-inspiring flora has been the subject of Steffi Ickert-Bond’s lab-intensive biology courses for more than a decade. This summer, Intro to Alaska’s Flora is being offered by eLearning as a fully online four-week course for the first time. The class will use technology that allows students to collect data, perform dissections and have a hands-on learning experience in the flora’s native environment. The technology will let students not only mimic lab spaces in their own areas but also expand their digital networks, enabling them to collaborate with enthusiasts around the world.