Car assembly lines use thousands of parts to build just one automobile, with each individual piece specifically engineered to perform one function. Could you instead build a car out of LEGO blocks, creating a complex machine out of a far more limited set of parts? This would require that each 'block' be very versatile: able to function in many different roles. However once in place, each block should adopt and retain only the role intended. This is the same strategy as that employed by life to maximize biochemical efficiency while also exploiting a dizzying array of chemical reactions. Nature's protein catalysis (called enzymes) accelerate reaction rates by up to 10,000,000,000,000,000,000-fold, yet do so using only 20 different amino acid building blocks and a dozen vitamin cofactors as additives. In studying enzyme catalysis, University of Kentucky graduate student

Dr. William D. Ehmann, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, has been elected to the Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. Bill received a B.S. degree (1952) with honors and an M.S. degree (1954), both in chemistry, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He went on to receive a Ph.D. degree in radiochemistry in 1957 from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and carried out postdoctoral work (1957-58) at Argonne National Laboratory under a National Research Council/National Science Foundation Fellowship. He joined the Department of Chemistry at UK in 1958 and was a Fulbright Research Scholar (1964-65) at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. In addition, he has held visiting faculty appointments at Arizona State University and

by Kathy Johnson

Three University of Kentucky professors have been named Southeastern Conference Academic Consortium (SECAC) 2011-2012 Academic Leadership Development Program (ALDP) Fellows.  They are Anna Bosch of the College of Arts and Sciences and Martha Peterson and Diane Snow, both of the College of Medicine.

The three will participate in this year-long leadership program consisting of both on-campus and off-campus activities including workshops that will bring them together with other ALDP Fellows from SEC schools. Workshops can focus on a variety of topics such as budgeting and finance, diversity, communication, strategic planning, fund raising, media relations, trends in higher education, and leadership

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

Four years of college is four years of finding yourself socially — and sometimes academically — for many enrolled at the University of Kentucky. The city in which a student goes about pursuing the next chapter of his or her life doesn't always come into play.



UK geography professor Richard Schein hopes to shed some local Lexington light on students this fall with a Community 101 class being offered to all university students through UK's College of Arts and Sciences.



"We've been an urban society since the 1920s," said Schein. "It's important for our students to become urban citizens, understanding gentrification, immigration, school districts and other city issues."



The class, which begins a day after UK's drop/add period, is a "win-win-win situation," according to Schein. "Not only

At age seven, Peyton Fouts,’06, wanted to change the world. And he’s been working toward that goal since.

At that young age, he saw a girl on TV carrying one brother and dragging another (who was dead) by the hand in the sand. “She had been orphaned by AIDS and my heart broke. I knew I wanted to change their circumstances and I just kept seeing people around the world who needed help.”

Fouts, a Lexington, Ky., native, grew up in a family of six children. The son of a teacher (mother) and lawyer (father), he has an older sister and four younger brothers.

When Fouts graduated high school from Lexington Christian Academy in 2003, he enrolled at the University of Kentucky, earning two degrees in just three years at age 19.

While at the University of Kentucky, Fouts decided to plow through his coursework to graduate early. “I was at UK for three years

by Saraya Brewer

photos by Richie Wireman

Like many graduate students, University of Kentucky English Ph.D. candidate Sarah Schuetze lights up when she talks about her research. That in and of itself is not particularly strange – what’s perhaps a bit unusual about it is that her focus of study is rather dark, at times bordering morbidity. Schuetze’s academic concentration is disease – the culture of hysteria surrounding it, and the various ways it has affected characters’ lives in American literary texts throughout history.



She admits that it’s a bit odd, but she’s okay with that.



“I’m really attracted to things that are sort of peculiar,” she said. “I try to study things that are interesting and weird, because that’s what attracts me to a book.”

To that end,

A few years ago when reality television became 'the next big thing,' a lot of time was devoted to figuring out its appeal. Was it the stunts? The crazy situations? The relationships? Lisa Zunshine, who holds the Bush-Holbrook Professorship in the UK Department of English, theorizes that it is really about feeding a deeply seated evolutionary need.

Think about it. Reality shows use techniques that focus on the moments that most people try to conceal. Confession booths. Night-cams. Overheard private conversations. The audience seemingly has perfect access to the participants’ true thoughts and feelings.

“Such cultural representations make you feel like an extremely accomplished social player when you are confronted with those moments of

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

When University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences academic adviser Emily Dailey first contacted psychology senior Suzanna Mitchell about a developmental social neuroscience fellowship at Yale, "it reached out and grabbed me," Mitchell said.

Mitchell, a graduate of Dunbar High School in Lexington, had become interested in child developmental psychology after working at Immanuel Baptist Daycare and as a part-time nanny.

"I am very passionate about working with children, and this opportunity felt right," Mitchell said.

The two-year Yale Fellowship in Developmental Social

Before Ericka Barbour learned about feminist scholars, before she heard the stories of men and women and their struggles to overcome society’s misconceptions of gender, and before the name “Judith Butler” meant something to her, she was on her way to becoming a doctor.

After graduating from Louisville’s Central High School Pre-Med magnet program, Barbour saw a career in the field of medicine as a means of “healing” and helping those in need. Deciding she wanted to become an OBGYN, Barbour signed up for classes in biology and chemistry as a college freshman at the University of Kentucky.

But within her first two semesters of the natural sciences, Barbour became restless. “The classes were just so impersonal to me,” she said.

In search for a more meaningful college experience

Betsy Dahms has known since her childhood that masculinity can mean a variety of things. Growing up with eight brothers and one sister, Dahms developed an acute awareness that a person’s masculinity can never be reduced to a single form or expression. It is this aspect of her family upbringing that has most significantly influenced Dahms’ budding scholarly and pedagogical career.

“My father died when I was young, so I didn’t grow up with a father-figure in my life,” said Dahms. “In my house I was able to see how my brothers were treated versus how my sister and I were treated, and I often thought to myself, ‘wow, that’s different.’”

This disparate treatment did not end when Dahms left her Northern Kentucky childhood home. As an adult, Dahms has faced criticism because she’s done things typically coded as masculine. She and her partner built the house

Our year-long initiative Kentucky & South Africa: Different Lands, Common Ground was a wonderful success, but it isn’t over, certainly not for some of our students studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa. While there, the students are interning at various non-governmental organizations and bringing their skills and assets to the South African organizations. They are also taking a course on South African politics and history in order to better understand the challenges the NGOs face. Follow their memorable adventures on their blogs.  

Sarah Houseman - http://sarahhouseman.wordpress.com

Joseph Mann - http://josephmann.wordpress.com/

Al Mauldin - http://almauldin0313.wordpress.com

Brooke McCloud -

by Whitney Hale

This summer 25 recent graduates of the University of Kentucky will embark on a new challenge as they train to teach in America's inner cities and rural communities this coming fall. The UK group, the largest in school history, is among 5,200 new corps members selected for Teach For America, a national program in which outstanding college graduates commit to teach for two years in disadvantaged urban and rural public schools. 

Teach For America places its recruits in the nation's highest-need elementary and secondary schools in many of the country's lowest income communities, both rural and urban, in an effort to close the achievement gap between economically advantaged and disadvantaged children.

This year’s corps is the largest in Teach For America’s

Jessica Baer takes time to carefully listen to the students that she advises. In return, her students took the time to nominate her for the Ken Freedman Outstanding Advisor Award at UK, which she was honored with. That has been parlayed into also being awarded a 2011 National Outstanding Advising Award in the Primary Roll Category.  

https://www.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/An%20Outstanding%20Advisor_%…

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by Erin Holaday Ziegler

Today is the deadline to register for the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences online classes for the 8-week summer term. Although the first 4-week session has ended, UK's 8-week summer session begins on June 9, and the 6-week session begins June 23.  For more information, visit the A&S website at http://www.as.uky.edu/online-education/courses.

As technology has changed, so has the way courses are offered.  Ted Higgs, an instructor and supervisor of teaching assistants in the University of Kentucky's Department of Modern and Classical, Languages, Literatures and Cultures, has been involved with correspondence classes since his days in Vietnam, where he first took an Algebra 1 class through the mail.

Two UK Arts & Sciences geology graduates who learned that they share quite a bit in common are working together to share what they’ve earned in their careers with current students interested in science.

Both Cara Hollis and Susan Eriksson grew up in small towns in Kentucky and found their way into geology almost by accident. Both women understand the challenges of studying and working in a field that has been led primarily by men in the past.

So when Hollis and Eriksson met by chance at a UK alum picnic outside Denver, Colo., several years ago and started sharing their backgrounds, the pair realized that they might be able to find a way to give back to their university if they joined efforts.

The two created the Advancing Science for Kentuckians, or ASK, endowment which provides scholarships for full-time earth and environmental science students

Earth & environmental graduate students Ashley Barton and Donny Loughry took separate but similar paths to their graduate education at the University of Kentucky.



Both are natives of West Virginia. Both completed undergraduate degrees in education and have experience as teachers. Both had an interest in science and nature from a young age, and both relished the opportunity to be interviewed outside on a sunny day.



Most importantly, however, both Barton and Loughry decided that graduate study in UK’s Earth and Environmental Science (EES) Department was the right outlet for the their passion for science.



So what motivated them both to come to the University of Kentucky to continue their education as graduate students?



“When you’re

Who knew science was a universal language? Over the past few years the UK Department of Environmental and Earth Science is expanding its reach internationally, working with their geological compatriots in Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia and South America to advance science and advance goodwill.



India



If you’ve ever been camping, you may have personal and painful experience with the dangers of drinking surface water from lakes, rivers and ponds. For many people in the world, that is their only source of drinking water and childhood diarrhea is one of the major causes of death worldwide.



For the whole of his academic career, Alan Fryar has studied the geological aspects of water quality. What controls that chemistry in terms of geologic processes? What is the chemistry of groundwater? Are there human

by Ann Boden

University of Kentucky graduate, Col. James “Jim” Crider is currently serving as the G3 for the 3rd Infantry Division/Task Force Marne in Northern Iraq. In this, his third tour in Iraq, Col. Crider is planning, resourcing and synchronizing stability operations there. On September 1, 2010 he began primarily training, advising and assisting the Iraqi Security Forces. But his job includes dealing with other issues as well including regional relationships between the Arabs and the Kurds, securing the boarder, providing provincial reconstruction, and protecting American forces.

Currently nearing the end of his third tour, Col. Crider explains that each of his tours has been different. His first tour was with the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division during the initial invasion.

“I was able to witness much of the initial jubilation amongst the

by Jason Kazee

Keep moving forward. Words such as these can get you through daily challenges, lifelong struggles, or even just around the next corner. Though these words are not found in the United States Army Code of Conduct, soldiers and civilians alike can rely on them. Cadet Battalion Commander Brennan Parker depends on them to carry him through whatever may lie ahead.

Parker recently took part in a 12-cadet relay that carried the game ball from Joker Phillips’ hands in Commonwealth Stadium and delivered it to a team from the University of Louisville’s ROTC program. The team ran 46-miles to a town located mid-way between Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky. The cadets from the University of Louisville took over from mile 46 and delivered the football to Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Capped off by Brennan delivering the ball along with a University of

By Kami Rice

photos by Richie Wireman

When he enlisted, Master Sergeant Jason Skinner wasn’t planning on a career in the military. He simply needed money to help pay for the birth of his daughter, and a stint in uniform could provide it. So just out of high school, he made a three-year commitment to the Army. Now 17 years later, he’s still wearing his military fatigues.

“I didn’t come in for a greater good,” Skinner acknowledged. “But after being [in the Army] and falling in love with the people and being part of an organization that’s bigger than yourself, that’s why I stayed.”

In March, Skinner arrived at UK from Fort Riley in Kansas to serve as the senior military instructor with UK’s ROTC “Wildcat Battalion.” In his new role, the 35-year-old Indiana native serves as the right-hand support for Lieutenant Colonel Jason