PR 1

Office of the President

September 18, 2001

1.       Record Number of Students Come to UK for 2001-2002 Academic Year

A record number of students came to classes at UK and Lexington Community College on August 22 as the fall semester of the 2001-2002 academic year got under way.  Fall enrollment at UK, the UK Chandler Medical Center and Lexington Community College is 32,549.  LCC has enrolled 7,791 students.  The number of undergraduates at UK is 17,311, with 5,572 graduate students – an all-time high -- and 1,875 professional-degree students. The Graduate School increase of 10.2 percent is attributed to an experimental enrollment project titled GIFT (Graduate Incentive Free Tuition) in which a free three-hour graduate course was offered to all Kentucky college graduates; nearly 600 persons accepted.  Freshman enrollment is 3,064, including 132 valedictorians.  Forty-nine National Merit Scholars, two National Achievement Scholars and 125 Governor’s Scholars are part of the freshman class.

2.       President Todd, President Shumaker and Governor Patton Pledge Collaboration

 UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. joined Kentucky Governor Paul Patton and University of Louisville President John Shumaker in late August to announce an agreement to increase cooperation and collaboration between the state’s two research universities.  This emphasis will include joint planning and coordinated efforts to seek federal research grants, as well as an increase in UK-U of L research and service projects.  The announcement highlighted a UK-U of L  project  that will be aided by a more rapid data exchange facilitated by the super-fast Internet 2 connections tying the two universities.

          According to the UK Center for Business and Economic Research, research grants and contracts from out-of-state sources resulted in a $327.7 million contribution to the Kentucky economy in fiscal 2000-2001. This impact includes $100.8 million in personal income and 5,381 jobs, 3,798 of which are directly related to research.

4.       UK Researchers Attract $181 Million in New Grants, Contracts and Gifts

UK faculty and staff experienced record success in attracting grants, contracts and gifts for research in fiscal 2000-2001. UK received $173.6 million in new grants and contracts and $7.4 million in gifts designated for research for a total of $181 million, a 16.6 percent increase over the previous year. UK researchers received $103.4 million from federal agencies, 59.6 percent of the funding total.  Industry-funded research rose to $16.5 million.

5.       College of Medicine Ranks High for NIH Funding

The National Institutes of Health ranks the UK College of Medicine 26th among public medical schools – and 53rd among all medical schools – for NIH funding during fiscal 1999-2000.  The college received $48.2 million that year, a 36 percent increase from fiscal 1998-1999’s $35.5 million.  Six research areas at the college were ranked in the top 20 for NIH funding among categories of departments at public institutions: Physiology, No. 2; Other Health Professions (Aging), No. 3; Anatomy and Neurobiology, No. 10; Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology, No. 11; Microbiology and Immunology, No. 18; and Public Health/Preventive Medicine, No. 20.

6.       Uof  L President Shumaker, UK President  Todd Agree to ‘Presidential Exchange’

In a move that clearly signals greater ties between Kentucky’s research universities, President Lee Todd and U of L President John Shumaker have agreed to teach courses on each other’s campus.  President Shumaker’s suggestion calls for President Todd to teach a course in entrepreneurship at U of L’s College of Business, while President Shumaker will teach Greek at UK.

The UK College of Pharmacy Class of 2005 is the largest doctoral class in the college’s history with 100 students. The Class of 2005 includes 61 women and 39 men who completed pre-pharmacy requirements at 36 institutions including UK.  Ninety percent of the students are Kentuckians, representing 42 counties across the state.

8.       UK Research Finds Single Dose of Drug Effective for Head and Neck Cancer

A recent study conducted by UK College of Medicine researchers found that, for patients with advanced head and neck cancer, a single high-dose injection of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin given near the end of radiation treatment provides results that are comparable to six weeks of chemotherapy. The results of the study by William Regine, Radiation Medicine, were published in the July 15 Journal of Clinical Oncology.

9.       UK Licenses Generate $2.3 Million in Royalties

UK-originated technologies that are licensed for use by business and industry generated $2.3 million in royalties during fiscal 2000-2001. Top royalty-producing inventions include a nasal delivery method for pharmaceuticals, three vaccines for horses, and an implant device for treating eye diseases. UK held 66 license agreements with various companies; 12 licenses were issued during the past year.  After patent costs are recovered, UK returns 40 percent of all royalties to the inventor, 20 percent to the inventor’s department, and 20 percent to the inventor’s college. The remaining 20 percent is reinvested in university research activities through programs administered by the University of Kentucky Research Foundation.

In August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the InSync cardiac resynchronization therapy, the first major therapeutic breakthrough for heart failure drugs.  William Abraham, Cardiovascular Medicine and co-director of the Linda and Jack Gill Heart Institute, was the lead clinical investigator for the study that tested the safety and effectiveness of the new therapy.

According to the Council on Postsecondary Education’s fall 2000 numbers, the Lexington Community College Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) program has the largest headcount of any community or technical college CIS program in the state.  With 464 students, LCC’s CIS program also has more students than the programs at Eastern Kentucky University, Kentucky State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, the University of Louisville or Western Kentucky University.  LCC is educating more than one third of the students in the state who are pursuing associate degrees in computer-related disciplines.

12.     Biomedical Engineering Student is National Role Model

UK biomedical engineering student Letetia Richardson has been awarded a Role Model Citation by Minority Access Inc.  The citation is given as part of a cooperative agreement with Office of Minority Health of the National Institutes of Health to identify role models in biomedical research.  Richardson recently attended the second National Role Models Conference in Washington, D.C. 

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has reaffirmed the accreditation of Lexington Community College.  SACS, which evaluates colleges and universities for accreditation every 10 years, first awarded accreditation to LCC as Lexington Technical Institute in December 1971, and reaffirmed accreditation in 1981 and 1991.  

14.     Sanders-Brown Links with Innovative Residential Center

 In a unique arrangement, the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging will team with an innovative dementia residential center being built near Louisville to study such issues as whether the center improves the lives of people with Alzheimer’s disease.  Doctoral students in gerontology will look at ways that living environments – such as this one in which small groups of residents live in the same “neighborhood” – may help people with dementia.  The new 52-bed facility will open late next year.  The UK program will be the first with a formal affiliation with a facility dedicated to people with dementia.

15.     Significant Activities of Students

Angela Green, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, placed second in the national student poster competition at the 2001 annual meeting of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers for her poster on saccharification of cellulose by

cellulase produced by Clostridium thermocellum in solid state culture.

Anthony Koch, Agricultural Economics, was elected journal editor of the student section of the American Agricultural Economics Association.

Matt McCourt, Geography doctoral student and Appalachian Center research assistant, designed and led an innovative summer course for Harlan city high school students to do field work and GIS analysis as part of a project to develop a digital map for the Harlan area.

Julia Parakkat, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, placed first in the national student poster competition at the 2001 American Society of Agricultural Engineers’ annual meeting for her poster on solid state cultivation of Clostridium

thermocellum on paper pulp sludge.

The Wildcat Pulling Team, a student team from Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, won first place honors in several categories for its 1/4-scale student tractor pull at the national meeting of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers. 

16.     Significant Faculty and Staff Activities

Sanford Archer, Otolaryngology, has been named a recipient of the prestigious Honor Award bestowed by the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.

Zhi Chen, Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been elected to senior member of the 340,000-member Institute of Electrical  and Electronics Engineers.  In addition, Dr. Chen will be listed in the 2001 edition of Who's Who in America.

Don Colliver, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, was named president-elect of the 60,000-member American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineering in July. 

Tricia Dyk, Rural Sociology, was elected as secretary of the Rural Sociological Society for a three-year term.  She also was named chair-elect of the Family Policy Section of the National Council on Family Relations.

Richard Gates, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, received an $874,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for his study “Reducing Ammonia Emissions from Poultry Houses by Enhanced Manure and Diet Management.”

Stephen Gedney, Electrical and Computer Engineering, wrote “High-Order Method of Moment Solution of the Scattering by Three-Dimensional PEC Bodies using Quadrature Based Point Matching,” published in Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, June 5, 2001.

Bernard Hennig, Animal Sciences, received a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant of $260,000 to research anti-atherogenic properties of zinc.

Charles Issel, Veterinary Sciences, received a National Institute of Health grant of $123,000 to conduct research on the immunological management of equine infectious anemia.

Madhu Menon, Center for Computational Sciences and Physics and Astronomy, wrote “Rectification Properties of Carbon Nanotube ‘Y-Junction,’” the August cover story of Physical Review Letters. His project was titled “Rectification Properties of Carbon Nanotube ‘Y-Junctions.’”

Frank C. Miller, Obstetrics and Gynecology, led a delegation of 96 obstetricians and gynecologists on a two-week tour of OB/GYN departments, maternity hospitals and traditional medicine hospitals in China in June.  Miller also has been inducted as a fellow ad eundem of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists at the annual meeting of the British Congress of Obstetrics & Gynaecology in Birmingham, England.

William Kevin Murphy, Lexington Community College, has been appointed by Governor Patton to the state Child Support Guidelines Review Commission.  The Commission is charged with reviewing the guidelines and making recommendations to the Kentucky legislature on a regular basis.  

Sue Nokes, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, was chairperson for the Institute of Biological Engineering’s annual meeting in Sacramento, Calif.

Gary Palmer, Agronomy, received a grant of $117,000 from Philip Morris Inc. to study tobacco curing protocols.

Randy Paylor, Kentucky Geological Survey, received a Fellow Award from the National Speleological Society for achievements in the exploration and scientific study of caves.

C. Rauter and Charles Fox, Entomology, received a National Science Foundation grant of $275,000 to study the indirect genetic effects of parental care behavior in insects.

Chris Schardl, Plant Pathology, received a $119,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study the toxin biosynthesis genes in ergopeptine-producing fungi, related to fescue toxicosis in grazing animals.

Dusan Sekulic, Center for Robotics and Manufacturing Systems, presented a paper based on his brazing program research entitled “Modeling and simulation, Aluminium Brazing” at the sixth International Brazing, High-Temperature Brazing and Diffusion Bonding Conference in Aachen, Germany, in May.   He also lectured at the University of Novi Sad in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Sergio Serrano, Civil Engineering, authored the book Engineering Uncertainty and Risk Analysis: A Balanced Approach to Probability, Statistics, Stochastic Modeling, and Stochastic Differential Equations. 

Lou Takacs, Engineering Administration, received the Clement J. Freund Award from the American Society of Engineering Education, which honors individuals for significant positive impacts on cooperative education program in engineering and engineering technology. 

Miroslaw Truszczynski, Victor Marek and Raphael Finkel, Computer Science, received a $550,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for their study “Computational Knowledge Representation.”

David Wachtel, Lexington Community College, spoke to faculty and students at Mianyang Foreign Language High School in the Sichuan Province of China earlier this month.  Wachtel has been instrumental in establishing several international exchange agreements between LCC and institutions in China. 

Jun Zhang, Computer Science, co-authored the journal article “Enhanced Multi-level Block ILU Preconditioning Strategies for General Sparse Linear Systems” in the Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Vol. 130, 2001. Additionally, he co-authored “A Class of Multi-level Recursive Incomplete LU Preconditioning Techniques” in the Korean Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Vol. 8, 2001, and “Unconditionally Stable Finite Difference Scheme and Iterative Solution of 2D Microscale Heat Transport Equation” in the Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 170, 2001.