News briefs: People and programs at UAF

Submitted by Marmian Grimes
Phone: 907-474-7902
04/04/08

Cooperative Extension Service interim vice provost named
Pete Pinney has been appointed interim vice provost for outreach and director of University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. The new position will oversee CES and will work to integrate it into the learning and discovery mainstream of the university while providing communities stronger engagement with research and outreach. Pinney was previously the associate dean of academic affairs for the UAF College of Rural and Community Development.

Top undergrads slated to compete at research symposium
Ten top undergraduate researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will compete for tuition and book waivers during the 2008 Undergraduate Research Symposium Tuesday, April 15, at 4 p.m. in the UA Museum of the North auditorium. The symposium is free and open to the public. Each student was awarded $2500 to conduct a research project from any science discipline, especially those related to the International Polar Year. Projects covered a range of topics in arctic biology, engineering, psychology, geology and geophysics. The symposium is cosponsored by Flint Hills Resources and the UAF Center for Research Services.

Faculty members to present at science conference in Dillingham
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Bristol Bay Campus is hosting the 2008 Western Alaskan Interdisciplinary Science Conference and Forum in Dillingham April 4-7, 2008. The conference, "Weathering Change, Monitoring Uncertainty," aims to promote science, innovation and education in western Alaska and will highlight interdisciplinary approaches to scientific inquiry and resource management. Larry Duffy, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, Cynthia Fabbri, instructor in the School of Education, and Anna Godduhn, Resilience and Adaptation graduate student, will travel from Fairbanks to Dillingham to present "Adapt and Adopt: an interdisciplinary nuclear science course that includes society and civic engagement."

Three CNSM professors named National Academies Education Fellows
Richard D. Boone, biology and wildlife department chair, Sarah Fowell, associate professor of geology and geophysics, and Jonathan Runstadler, assistant professor of biology and wildlife, have been named National Academies Education Fellows in the Life Sciences for the 2007-08 academic year. They received this award as a result of their participation in the 2007 National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education in Biology. The National Academies is comprised of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.

CONTACT: Marmian Grimes, UAF public information officer, at 907-474-7902 or via e-mail at marmian.grimes@uaf.edu.