By Abby Schroering and Sara Shehata

As a land grant university, the University of Kentucky is committed to the advancement of knowledge through research. Even undergraduate students contribute significantly to that mission.

Students of any major, background and skill level have the opportunity to work with professors from all over UK, whether in labs, on faculty projects or even on independent projects that they design themselves.

“For those undergraduates who are interested in building faculty mentorships, gaining critical thinking and presentation skills and deepening their understanding of the subjects that interest them, the UK Office of Undergraduate Research (UGR) is there to help them along the way,” said Evie Russell, assistant director of the UK Office of Undergraduate Research

By Whitney Hale

 The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced five of the university's undergraduate students pursued research in their fields of study this summer with funding from the National Science Foundation-Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) program.

The NSF funds many research opportunities for undergraduate students through its REU Sites program. An REU Site consists of a group of approximately 10 undergraduates who work in the research programs of the host institution. Each student is associated with a specific research project, where he/she works closely with faculty and other researchers. Throughout the NSF-REU program, students are granted stipends and, in many cases,

By Whitney Hale

Angela Wei, an agricultural and medical biotechnology and mathematics senior from Lexington, was one of five students across the country selected to participate in the 2017 Dartmouth MD/PhD Undergraduate Summer Fellowship Program.

Started in 2012, the Dartmouth MD-PhD Undergraduate Summer Fellowship Program is an initiative aimed at exposing undergraduates, especially members of historically underrepresented ethnic minorities in medical science, to the vibrant career pathway of the physician-scientist.

During the 10-week fellowship, running from mid-June until mid-August, fellows were exposed to basic medical science research working alongside one of Dartmouth’s MD-PhD students presently

By Whitney Hale

In the wake of the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Kentucky Women Writers Conference continues doing its part to advance dialogue, education and understanding about race and violence here in America through its Sonia Sanchez Series. As part of the series, the conference will present a screening this weekend of the critically acclaimed documentary “13th,” which explores questions of race and mass incarceration, and a few weeks later the Sonia Sanchez Lecture by University of Kentucky law and African-American and Africana studies scholar Melynda J. Price will occur during the September conference. Both events are free and open to the public

By Gail Hairston

Three nuclear physics researchers in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences have been awarded a $1.425 million grant from the Department of Energy Office of Science to explore the universe, without slipping "the surly bonds of Earth."

The principal investigator of the grant is Brad Plaster, associate professor and associate chair of the UK Department of Physics and Astronomy, with co-PIs from his department, Professor Wolfgang Korsch and Associate Professor Christopher Crawford.

The grant will support research on the fundamental symmetries of the universe, using neutrons as the experimental probe. The group hopes to observe violations of

A team of researchers led by Professor Suzanne Segerstrom of the University of Kentucky Department of Psychology has received a $3.3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to continue its study of healthy aging.

The “Thought, Stress, and Immunity” study has been investigating the interactions between psychological and immunological health among older adults since 2001. Over the next five years, the study will expand to include brain health. 

“Infections and products of the immune system are being recognized as important drivers of brain aging,” Segerstrom said.

“We hope to demonstrate that as the mind and the immune system ‘talk’ to each other, there are consequences for the brain. If that’s true, improving psychological and immunological health could improve brain

By Jennifer T. Allen

University of Kentucky mathematics Assistant Professor Bert Guillou has been awarded funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his research in homotopy theory. The $139,765 grant over three years will enable Guillou to further the understanding of all of the ways that a sphere can be mapped onto a sphere of a different dimension.

“This project will attempt to classify mappings in two related contexts,” Guillou said. “The first is a rigid world of algebraic geometry, where all objects can be described by polynomial equations. The other is the equivariant setting, where symmetries of the spheres are taken into account.”

Guillou will use recently developed techniques to tighten the connection between these two arenas and extend the range of dimensions in which these mappings can be classified.

“The calculation of the set of

By Susan Odom

Yinan Wei, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Kentucky, has received an award to study membrane protein oligomerizations in bilayers. This award, supported by the Chemistry of Life Processes Program in the Chemistry Division of the National Science Foundation, investigates protein-protein interactions in the cell membrane that lead to the assembly of functional protein complexes.

Selective-permeable membranes, which define the boundaries of individual cells and cellular organelles, are essential for energy production to sustain life. Membrane proteins are gates on these highly impermeable barriers, allowing selective exchange of

University of Kentucky researchers participating in a Department of Energy-funded center have discovered a ground-breaking process that allows them to harness energy from chemical reactions that previously would have been dismissed as unusable. The process – which maximizes the efficiency of reactions at the molecular level – could affect everything from synthetic biology to fuel and chemical production. The authors are part of a multi-institutional team called the Biological Electron Transfer and Catalysis (BETCy) Energy Frontier Research Center. The Center is headquartered at Montana State University, and the key authors of the paper are at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., MSU, Arizona State University, the University of Georgia and the University of Kentucky. BETCy was launched in 2014 and is one of 32 Energy Frontier Research Centers throughout

Dr. Kenneth Graham, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Kentucky, has been selected as a recipient of a CAREER Award from the Department of Energy. This award supports the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and stimulates research programs in the disciplines supported by the DOE Office of Science.

Dr. Graham’s research funded under this award focuses on a promising set of emerging solution-processed semiconductors, organometal halide perovskites (OMHPs).  These low-cost semiconductors can be printed from solution to make solar cells with power conversion efficiencies equal to current state-of-the-art commercial solar cell materials, which require slower and more expensive processing methods. Furthermore,

By Gail Hairston and Jenny Wells

Professor Tom Troland talks total solar eclipse. See full interview here: https://youtu.be/dpXmSyd8UYY.

Imagine humankind at the dawn of civilization, or even earlier. Men, women and children huddle mesmerized, terrified in their ignorance, as a bright sunny day suddenly darkens until the sun vanishes and stars appear in the midday sky. It is dark long enough for night creatures to make an appearance. Imagine the confusion, the panic, the helpless terror that undoubtedly engulfed those people of a darker age who had no idea if their life-giving sun would ever return.

Today, humankind is blessed with the knowledge that when the skies darken and the stars appear midday over a 100-mile-wide swath of the continental United States — including Western Kentucky — on

By Mack McCormick and Whitney Hale

A&S history alumna and University Press of Kentucky author Judith Jennings has been named the recipient of the 2017 Sallie Bingham Award by the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Photo by Kopana Terry.

University of Kentucky alumna and University Press of Kentucky (UPK) author Judith Jennings, co-editor of “Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia” and author of “Why Work?,” has been named the recipient of the 2017 Sallie Bingham Award by the Kentucky

By Gail Hairston

Peter Kekenes-Huskey, assistant professor of chemistry, is the first University of Kentucky faculty member to be awarded funding under the National Institutes of Health’s Outstanding Investigator Award (R35) activity code. The new grant will be made under the National Institute of General Medical Sciences’ (NIGMS) prestigious Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) program.

The $1.55 million MIRA grant will enable Kekenes-Huskey and his team of researchers to develop large-scale, computer-based models to study the role of calcium regulation at a subcellular level. The role of calcium in the body is paramount,

By Nate Harling

If you have been anywhere near the University of Kentucky’s Don & Cathy Jacobs Science Building this month, it is more than likely you heard at least one language you have never heard before. Since the beginning of July, there have been people on campus speaking a plethora languages ranging from Mauritian Creole to Farsi to Kalaallisut, the language spoken by the indigenous people of Greenland.

Creolists Salikoko Mufwene (r) and Stéphane Térosier at the Hilary J. Boone Center.

The UK College of Arts and Sciences is hosting the Linguistics Society of America’s (LSA) biennial Linguistic Institute, the world’s largest extended gathering of linguists. Institute Program Director Jo Mackby was quick to dispel the common misconception that linguists only learn how to speak foreign languages.

“Linguistics is the

By Gail Hairston

Derek Young, University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of statistics, recently published his new book, “Handbook of Regression Methods,” which concisely covers numerous traditional, contemporary and nonstandard regression methods. 

The handbook provides a broad overview of regression models, diagnostic procedures and inference procedures, with emphasis on how regression methods are applied. The organization of the handbook benefits both practitioners and researchers, who seek either to obtain a quick understanding of regression methods for specialized problems or to expand their own breadth of knowledge of regression topics.

“Handbook of Regression Methods” covers classic material about simple linear regression and multiple linear regression, including assumptions, effective visualizations and

By Gail Hairston

A team of scientists at the University of Kentucky and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been awarded a $200,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop a prototype of a battery utilizing chemical components prepared at UK.

UK chemistry professors Susan Odom and John Anthony synthesized new organic compounds as donors and acceptors for a type of battery called a redox flow battery (RFB), currently of great interest for large-scale energy storage. In collaboration with James Landon (UK Center for Applied Energy Research) and Fikile Brushett (MIT), the team will investigate the operation of the new materials in a prototype.

This PFI: AIR-TT (Partnerships for Innovation: Accelerating Innovation Research-Technology Translation) project focuses on incorporating high concentration organic electrolytes for redox

By Dave Melanson

Robby Pace, a chemistry graduate student, working at UK CAER.

The University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research’s (CAER) Biofuels and Environmental Catalysis Group has received a $2 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to develop new emissions technology for low-temperature gasoline.

The project is titled “Research and Development of Novel Adsorber Technology to Address Hydrocarbon and Nitrogen Oxide Emissions for Low Temperature Gasoline Applications.” As part of the grant, UK CAER will be partnering with the University of California, Berkeley, Purdue University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Ford Motor Company.

This research project seeks to solve a problem with vehicle emissions. As internal combustion engines become more efficient, their

By Vice President for Research Lisa Cassis

Abigail Firey didn’t set out to blaze trails in digital humanities. But that’s exactly what has happened in her quest to get a grasp on the enormous corpus of unpublished manuscripts that are part of her work in medieval canon law.

In this podcast Firey, the Theodore A. Hallam Professor (2017-2019) in the Department of History and a University Research Professor, recalls the chance encounter that changed her trajectory.

“In 2007 a researcher at UK in the Classics Department, Ross Scaife—deeply beloved—ran into me outside the library. And I was telling him about my work, and he said, ‘Have you considered a digital project?’ And I hadn't. And those few words really launched me into thinking about the ways that digital strategies and devices and tools might help us get at these thousands and thousands of

By Amanda Lee

Fiona Foster. Photo by William Bingham.

Recent University of Kentucky graduate and member of Phi Kappa Phi (PKP), Fiona Foster, has received the 2017 Phi Kappa Phi National Fellowship. PKP is the nation's oldest and most selective all discipline honor society, having over 300 chapters across the nation and more overseas.

PKP currently presents 51 fellowships of $5,000 each to award winners entering the first year of graduate or professional study. Each active PKP chapter may select one candidate from among its local applicants to compete for the society-wide award.  

Foster graduated in May 2017 with a mathematics major and a 

A team of scientists at the University of Kentucky and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to develop a prototype of a battery utilizing chemical components prepared at UK. Professors Susan Odom and John Anthony (UK Chemistry) synthesized new organic compounds as donors and acceptors for a type of battery called a redox flow battery (RFB), currently of great interest for large-scale energy storage. In collaboration with James Landon (UK CAER) and Fikile Brushett (MIT), the team will investigate the operation of the new materials in a prototype.

This PFI: AIR Technology Translation project focuses on incorporating high concentration organic electrolytes for redox flow batteries (RFBs) into functional, high-voltage, stationary batteries. RFB have advantages for electrical grid-scale energy storage options, including