1.       College of  Social Work Secures $2.5 Million to Improve Child Protection

The College of Social Work was recently awarded $2.5 million by the federal Department for Health and Human Services to create a national Quality Improvement Center (QIC) to research and improve child protective services in the rural southern United  States.  The QIC will use partnerships between child protection agencies in 10 states (Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia) and university social work programs in those states to support and evaluate innovative projects in each region within a learning lab model. 

2.       UK Special Education Expert is Named to Presidential Panel

William Berdine, chairperson of UK’s Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling, has been appointed to the President's White House Commission on Excellence in Special Education. Berdine was nominated for the commission by U.S. Senators Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning. As a member of the commission, Berdine and more than two dozen national experts will discuss and recommend ways to improve the educational opportunities and performance of people with disabilities.

3.       UK Researchers Win Grants to Improve Math Education in Appalachia

Carl Lee, Mathematics, won a $1.17 million share of a regional $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation for the Appalachian Collaborative Center for Learning, Assessment and Instruction in Mathematics. The program will enhance mathematics instruction in rural Appalachian regions of Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia through advanced degree programs in mathematics education.   Meanwhile, UK’s Information Systems unit and the Department of Mathematics, along with Morehead State University and the Morgan County Economic Development Authority, are collaborating on a three-year, $900,000 federal Department of Education grant to enhance teaching and learning of mathematics in a 12-county region of Eastern Kentucky. The project focuses on the pre-calculus/college algebra mathematics.  It is based on instructional tools, materials and communications technology developed at UK by professors Paul Eakin, Carl Eberhart and Ken Kubota over the last four years.

4.       UK Student Wins Prestigious Marshall Scholarship for Two Years Abroad

Senior Jennifer Kasten of Nicholasville has received a 2002 Marshall Scholarship, a two-year award worth about $50,000 that will cover tuition, books, travel and living expenses while she studies the control of infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  The British government program, launched in 1953 as a gesture of thanks to the United States for assistance received after World War II, selected 40 students from across the country.  Among the institutions represented are Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, the Air Force Academy and the U.S. Military Academy.

5.       LCC and KCTCS Partner to Enhance Information Technology Education

Lexington Community College and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) will collaborate on a $4 million project to enhance the skills of information technology workers across the Commonwealth.  LCC and KCTCS won a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to improve professional development of instructors who teach information technology classes in high schools and two-year colleges.  KCTCS will match the three-year grant with $1.5 million of its own resources; LCC will contribute $500,000.   The grant and matching resources will help establish the Kentucky Information Technology Center to enable Kentucky’s two-year colleges to prepare skilled information technology workers to fill high-paying jobs with existing and new companies. 

6.       IHDI Assists States in Implementing Disabilities Education Act

The Interdisciplinary Human Development Institute has received grant funding totaling $1,195,017 from the U.S. Office of Special Education to assist South Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia to implement services related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Rich Lewis and Ken Olsen are the principal investigators.

7.       UK Community Shows Compassion to Victims of Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks

UK Student Government President Tim Robinson and UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. presented $6,560.99 on behalf of UK students to the Bluegrass Area Chapter of the American Red Cross. The money was from the Wildcat Relief Fund, established by Student Government after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to allow students to help victims' families. Robinson said the Wildcat Relief Fund is just one of many ways students have been involved in Sept. 11 efforts. Students created a remembrance wall, volunteered assistance to international students, donated blood and held vigils of support and healing.

8.       KGS Releases New Digital Geologic Maps for Central Kentucky

The Kentucky Geological Survey has released new digital geologic data sets for Central Kentucky, the first in a series of digital quadrangle maps being prepared for the entire state. The digital maps will assist regional and county-level planning for highway construction, watershed management, wetland restoration and land use and development.  The data sets make it possible to use geologic information together with agricultural, archeological, biological, engineering, geographical and medical data in geographic information systems and other software.

9.       Plant Pathologist Wins $1.3 Million for Fungal Genomics Research

Mark Farman, Plant Pathology, received grants in excess of $1.3 million to support fungal genomics research.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation is providing $792,999.  The National Science Foundation Plant Genome Program awarded $456,096.  Meanwhile, Syngenta Crop Protection Corp. is providing $53,000 for Farman’s research.

10.      UK Hospital Designated as Magnet Hospital

UK Hospital has been named a Magnet Hospital in recognition of outstanding nursing care at UK Hospital and UK Children’s Hospital.  UK Hospital is the first in Lexington – and only the 39th of almost 6,000 hospitals in the nation – to achieve the recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, a subsidiary of the American Nurses Association.  As a Magnet Hospital, UK Hospital joins such hospitals as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, May-Rochester Hospitals, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the Robert Wood Johnson University.

11.      UK Establishes “Comply Cats” Phone Line to Report Athletic Violations

UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. and Athletics Director Larry Ivy unveiled an enhancement to the UK Athletics Association’s Compliance Program titled “Comply Cats” – a toll-free telephone number that allows employees, student-athletes and the general public to anonymously report potential misconduct or ask compliance-related questions.  The new program is the first of its kind in a Southeastern Conference athletics department and is believed to be the first introduced by a National Collegiate Athletics Association member institution. It is modeled after a similar, successful program established by the Office of Compliance at the UK Chandler Medical Center in 1999.

12.      UK Receives $1.5 Million Grant to Expand HIV/AIDS Clinical Care

The Division of Infectious Diseases at the UK Chandler Medical Center has received a grant of more than $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to expand health care services for people with HIV and AIDS.  The grant will allow UK to increase the range, accessibility and continuity of its HIV primary care services.

13.      UK Hospital Joins in Preparations Against Bioterrorism

UK Hospital has joined its Lexington counterparts on disaster plans for a bioterrorist attack. Infectious disease specialists also have formed the Task Force for Bioterrorism Preparedness to develop standards for treating anthrax and smallpox, and discuss with officials whether one hospital should be designated for smallpox cases in the event of an outbreak. Martin Evans, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at UK Hospital, is chairing the task force.

14.      Medical Research Funding Increases from Same Period Last Year

An encouraging preliminary sign for the year shows that for the first quarter of this fiscal year, UK Chandler Medical Center research funding is up from $41 million at this point last year to $57.8 million as of Oct. 2, 2001.

15.      UK and U of L Researchers Given Awards for Lung Cancer Research

Twenty researchers from the UK and the University of Louisville recently received awards from Governor Paul Patton for lung cancer research. The $3.8 million comes from the federal tobacco settlement money. The grants are part of the Lung Cancer Research Project created in the 2000 General Assembly to combine efforts of UK and U of L to become national leaders in lung cancer basic research, early detection, diagnosis and treatment.  The Lung Cancer Research Project is a 20-year initiative that will receive 20 percent of the money in the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement for this collaborative partnership between the two universities. 

16.      UK Researchers Develop Potential Gene Therapy for Prostate Cancer

UK Chandler Medical Center researchers have developed a potential new gene therapy treatment for prostate cancer using a gene, called PAR-4, first identified at UK in the early 1990s. The recent research study was led by Vivek M. Rangnekar, Radiation Medicine, and appeared in the Oct. 1 issue of Cancer Research.  The PAR-4 gene induces certain prostate cancer cells, which are resistant to current treatments, to die. Rangnekar is working with James Herman, Surgery, to move this basic research into the clinic for patients in the next few years. 

17.      UK Opens New Starbucks Cyber Café in Student Center

 A novel new Starbucks cyber café where students, faculty and staff can borrow a laptop computer to check their e-mail while enjoying a cup of coffee was officially opened in late November in the UK Student Center. UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. told students, faculty and staff who attended the opening that the innovative cyber café is another of the University's continuing efforts to create a friendlier campus.  Plans are already under way to open similar cafés in other locations around campus.      

18.      Gatton College Investment Class is Featured on CNBC

Eight students in the Gatton College of Business and Economics were featured last week on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” program.  During a seven-minute segment, the students discussed their stock market investment strategy using a real cash account with money provided by the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Investment Challenge.  The students are competing with 18 other teams of students at other universities in the TVA service region.  The UK students are Louis Davis, Clay McDaniel, Corey Burns, Joel Traut, Travis Gleason, Danielle Babine, Chris Cahill and Steve Lesshaftt.

19.      Researchers Win $2.2 Million to Study Ways to Deter Risky Sexual Behavior

Communication professors Phil Palmgreen and Rick Zimmerman have received a four-year, $2,282,747 grant to study ways to craft advertising campaigns designed to deter risky sexual behavior.  The grant was awarded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.  Palmgreen already has established a national reputation for successfully crafting advertisements that reduce drug abuse among certain high-risk groups.

20.      Significant Activities of Students

Keiron Bailey, Geography graduate student, received the John Fraser Hart Award for best doctoral student paper at the recent Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers annual meeting.

Tourette Jackson, Shalini Parekh, Alex Bingcang, John Poe, Bridget Hittepole, Michael McNeely, and Chris Day, all second-year graduate students in the Kentucky School of Public Health, presented “Defining Public Health: Contemplating its True Meaning” at the 129th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Atlanta.

Chava Pocernich, Chemistry graduate student, had an article on UK’s research into the beneficial effects of increasing glutathione levels in-vivo in protecting gerbil brains against acrolein at levels found in an Alzheimer's disease brain published in Chemical and Engineering News.

Amber Schroeder, Scott Sloan, Simidele Adaegbo and Brooks Meriwether, Journalism, each received $1,000 Harry Barfield Scholarships from the Kentucky Broadcasters Association.

21.      Significant Faculty and Staff Activities

Gloria Alias, Spanish, recently published the article “UN naive firmament dal _Tristano_ in prosa..” in the Italian literary journal, Lettere italiane.  The article presents a newly discovered parchment fragment of a medieval manuscript that contained the famous legend of Tristan and Isolda.

George Allen, Veterinary Sciences, received a grant of $160,000 from Fort Dodge Laboratories to research the construction and characterization of a replication-defective mutant of equine herpes virus-1.

John Anthony, Chemistry, has received a $310,000 grant from the federal Office of Naval Research for a three-year study on functionalized acenes for electronic and optical applications.  Anthony also was the primary author of “Functionalized Pentacene:  Improved Electronic Properties from Control of Solid-State Order” in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (2001)  and “A Roadmap to Stable, Soluble, Easily Crystallized Pentacene Derivatives” in Organic Letters (2001).

Carol Baskin and Jerry Baskin, Biological Sciences, won the 2001 Botanical Society of America Merit Award, the society’s premier award.  

Christopher Begley, Archaeological Research, was recently featured in a BBC documentary that aired in England this fall and will be shown worldwide on The Travel Channel.  The program, titled “Trips Money Can’t Buy,” documents a 10-day trip through the jungles of the Mosquito Coast of Honduras where Begley has conducted archaeological research for 10 years. 

Julie Berry, Journalism and Telecommunications, has received the College of Communication and Information Studies’ Outstanding Staff Member Award.

Jose Bicudo, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, is part of a research team involved in a European project investigating processing strategies for farm livestock manures to enable maximum nutrient use with minimum environmental problems.

Robert Blouin, Pharmacy, has been named a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.

Arthur Cammers-Goodwin, Chemistry, was awarded a three-year, $270,000 National Science Foundation grant for his study, “Biomimetic Conformational Motifs for Practical Molecular.”

Lois Chan, Communication, received the College of Communication and Information Studies’ Excellence in Teaching Award.

Diane Davis Davey, Pathology, received the 2001 College of American Pathologists (CAP) William L. Kuehn, Ph.D., Outstanding Communicator Award at a ceremony at the American Society of Clinical Pathologists/CAP Annual Meeting and Exhibits in Philadelphia.

Edward DeMoll, Chemistry, has been reappointed to the editorial board of the American Society for Microbiology journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Edgar Enochs, Mathematics, was a main speaker at the "Some Trends in Algebra" conference organized by Charles University and held in September in Prague, Czech Republic.

Richard Gates, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, delivered the keynote address at the Agribuilding 2000 conference at University of Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Robin Gornto, Lexington Community College, has been appointed as a consultant to the American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation.

Don Graves, Forestry, received a grant of $985,000 to conduct post-mining reforestation demonstration projects.

Robert Grossman, Chemistry, and Mike Piascik, Physiology, received a four-year, $736,000 National Institutes of Health grant for his study, “Bicyclic Amines via Double Annulation.”

Philip Harling, History, recently published the book The Modern British State: An Historical Introduction.  The publisher was Polity Press.  Harling was also recently named executive secretary of the North American Conference on British Studies.

Peter Hislop, Mathematics, delivered a plenary lecture at an International Workshop on Anderson localization in Trieste, Italy, in September.

Deborah G. Kelly, Physical Therapy, published the first North American textbook for health care professionals to treat lymphedema, “A Primer on Lymphedema,” in October.  The book was released by Prentice Hall Health.  It is the first North American textbook for health care professionals about lymphedema, an abnormal accumulation of lymph fluid, causing the swelling of a body part.

Jim Krupa, Biological Sciences, has received the Kentucky Academy of Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award for 2001. 

Keh-Feh Liu and Terry Draper, Physics and Astronomy, received a three-year, $450,000 federal Department of Energy grant for “Lattice Calculation of Hadron Physics.”

Robert A. Lodder, Chemistry, won the $5,000 International Buchi Near-Infrared Award presented in Frankfort, Germany, on Sept. 26.

William Lubawy, Pharmacy, and Frank Romanelli, Pharmacy, received honors as the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Teachers of the Year.

C. S. Man, Mathematics, received a three-year, $151,177 National Science Foundation grant for “Some Studies on Microtexture and Acoustoelasticity in Polycrystalline Media.” He also presented two papers at the 28th Annual Review of Progress in Quantitative Non-Destructive Evaluation in Brunswick, Maine.

Vipul Mankad, Pediatrics, was appointed chairperson of the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee for the Stroke Prevention Study at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Mary Marchant, Agricultural Economics, was appointed as member of the editorial council of the Journal of Agribusiness.

Richard Mills, Ophthalmology, has been appointed editor of EyeNet, the official monthly magazine of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Mike Montross, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, presented a paper, “Corn Stover Handling Characterization” as part of the Systems Engineering program of the Bioenergy Feedstock Development Programs Subcontractor’s and Collaborator’s meeting sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratories in Memphis in November.

Debra Moser, Nursing, received the 2001 Research Article of the Year Award from the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Nursing for her 2000 “Research in Nursing & Health” article, "Impact of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training on Perceived Control in Spouses of Recovering Cardiac Patients.”

Jim Nance, Kinesiology and Health Promotion, received the 2001 W. Walter H. Mustaine Award, the highest honor awarded by the Kentucky Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Wolfgang Natter, Geography, received a $325,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to fund Resident Fellowships in the Humanities project titled “Civic Professionalism and Global Regionalism.” Natter also received a Leibnetz Professor Fellowship in support of a year's research leave at Leipzig University in Germany.

Lois Nora, Academic Affairs and Neurology, has received two recent honors. The American Association of University Women Educational Foundation has named Dr. Nora as this year’s University Scholar-in-Residence.  The two-year project will explore sexual discrimination and harassment as two common forms of mistreatment that students experience during medical school and the resulting impact these experiences have on career decisions.  She also has been honored with an Association of American Medical Colleges Women in Medicine Silver Achievement Award.

Joe Peek, Economics, contributed “Synergies Between Bank Supervision and Monetary Policy:  Implications for the Design of Bank Regulatory Structure” to Prudential Supervision:  What Works and What Doesn’t?, published by University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Jeremy Popkin, History, recently published Press, Revolution, and Social Identities in France, 1830-1835. The book was recently published by Penn State Press. 

Dan Potter, Entomology, received a grant of $130,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study biological control of turf-infesting scarabaeid grubs by native and exotic tiphid wasps.

Vivek Rangnekar, Radiation Medicine, has been on an invited seminar tour of India, presenting research findings on “Apoptosis by Par-4” at eight research universities and institutes around India.

Deborah Reed, Mary Kay Rayens, and Steve Browning, Nursing, Jan McCulloch, Human Environmental Sciences, and Lorainne Garkovich, Agriculture, received a five-year, $1.2 million National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health grant for their study, “Sustained Work Indicators of Older Farmers.”

Deborah Reed and Mary Kay Rayens, Nursing, and Hank Cole, Education, received a three-year $520,000 National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health grant for their study, “Evaluation of Farm Safety-4 Just Kids Day Camps.”

Deborah Reed, Nursing, and Zaida Belendez, Medicine, received a five-year $362,000 grant as part of renewal grant for the Southeast Center for Agricultural Injury Prevention and Research, for their study, “Nurses Agricultural Education in the Southeastern United States.” The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health funded the grant.

Chris Shardl, Plant Pathology, Bruce Webb, Entomology, Ernest Bailey, Veterinary Sciences, Joseph Chappell, Agronomy, Susheng Gan, Tobacco and Health  Research Institute and Agronomy, and Mark L. Farman, Plant Pathology, received a U.S. Department of Agriculture special grant totaling $443,343 to establish the Advanced Genetic Technologies Center for high-throughput genetic analysis and DNA sequencing.

Rick Smoot, Lexington Community College History faculty, has three articles slated for inclusion in Encyclopedia of Appalachia.  

Joseph Straley, Physics and Astronomy, received a $539,992 federal Department of Education grant to develop a distance-learning method to help elementary and middle school teachers in rural areas introduce physics in their classrooms.

Sherry Velasco, Spanish, recently published her second book, The Lieutenant Nun: Transgenderism, Lesbian Desire, and Catalina de Erauso, published by the University of Texas.

Gregory A. Waller, English, published a new book Moviegoing in America, Blackwell Publishing.

Bruce Webb, Entomology, received a grant of $479,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate genome evolution of mutualistic viruses.

Rick Zimmerman, Communication, received the College of Communication and Information Studies’ Faculty Research Award.