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The College of Arts and Sciences is committed to learning and working environments that are diverse, inclusive, and equitable for students, staff, and faculty.

We stand in solidarity with those working to confront systemic racial injustice in our communities and in the United States. We recognize the disproportionate burden of racism and other forms of violence on many within our A&S community during this time. We affirm our support of faculty, students, staff, and alumni in standing against all forms of racism, discrimination, and bias.

During this time of pandemic and continued racism and violence that especially impact marginalized communities of color, we recognize the disproportionate impact on Black and African-American people. In the context of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and here in Kentucky, Breonna Taylor and David McAtee, we affirm that

By Victor Allison and Jenny Wells-Hosley

Respect for the Earth drives Edward Woolery, chair of the Earth and Environmental Science Department in UK’s College of Arts & Sciences, to study the forces that govern the planet’s myriad shifts and changes.

“I’m really an experimentalist and not a theorist; we’re very field-oriented,” said Woolery, who is one of Kentucky’s top geophysicists. “You have to get out there. Get out and enjoy the outdoors. It’s the best laboratory on Earth.”

Woolery was named chair EES in 2019. He first pursued a degree in geology from Eastern Kentucky University in 1985, but his experience working at the Army Corps of Engineers led him to pursue a civil engineering degree.

“I was noticing that there was a

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 27, 2020) — The COVID-19 pandemic has turned life upside down for almost everyone, and University of Kentucky students had to quickly adapt to finish out a semester that was unlike any other in UK history. Maria Sanchez, who graduated from UK this May, was no stranger to these challenges. Sanchez chose to share her personal story of family, hard work and resiliency, and how she plans to use her skills and experiences to create a better tomorrow.

From Mexico to the United States

Sanchez has lived in Chicago for more than half of her life and identifies as a Chicagoan. However, she was originally born in Mexico City and lived in the city’s outskirts as a young child. Her father died when she was just 1 year old, leaving her mother as

By Ryan Girves

Before the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 50 outstanding University of Kentucky undergraduate research students learned they were selected to present their faculty-mentored research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. The event was canceled, but UK's Office of Undergraduate Research is noting the achievement. Among them are more than a dozen students in the College of Arts & Sciences. 

The student conference, which would have been held this past weekend at Montana State University, is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity in all fields of study. It provides models of exemplary research and scholarship and strives to improve the state of undergraduate

This Living Learning Program gives freshmen a mentored head start on the way to majoring in the sciences and mathematics

By Richard LeComte

Started in 2015, the STEMCats Living Learning Program has helped students majoring within the many and varied areas of the sciences or mathematics find their way to success at UK. And STEMCats peer mentors are a big part of that effort. 

“I have a group chat with my mentees about how things are going,” said Keanu Exum, a STEMCats peer mentor majoring in biology and neuroscience. “I want to make myself known to my mentees — that I am a resource for them.” 

Getting students situated in STEMCats is having a positive effect on the academic careers of the participants, says a study conducted by Carol D. Hanley of International Programs in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. STEMCats is a program

By Sarah Mardon

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded funding to the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) at the University of Kentucky to lead a team of collaborative researchers from UK, the University of Arizona and the University of Iowa in an innovative project to study groundwater flow in karst aquifers. Karst aquifers are characterized by rapid, turbulent flow of groundwater through complex underground networks of fractures and solution conduits (caves).

These aquifers are present in many parts of the world underlain by soluble rocks and provide drinking water for millions of people. In Kentucky, where such carbonate rocks as limestone

By Victor Allison and Jenny Wells-Hosley

This Thursday, the University of Kentucky Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) will host its annual open house, giving UK students and the public opportunities to learn about, and even experience, some of the geological research happening on campus. Ed Woolery is one of the participating researchers and plans to showcase his work with seismic sensors and monitoring systems used to predict earthquakes.  

After being named chair of EES last year, Woolery sat down with the 

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

The University of Kentucky Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) will host an open house next week, giving students and the public an opportunity to learn more about the environmental and geological research taking place on campus.

The open house will be held 4-6 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the Slone Research Building, located at 121 Washington Ave. on campus.

What attendees can expect to experience:

Geophysics Professor Dhananjay Ravat’s lab, which will display rocks collected by astronauts on the moon. Faculty and students in the lab are involved in studying gravity and magnetic fields of the Earth, the moon and Mars, and deciphering tectonic processes responsible for them. Pioneer

By Emily Sallee

The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that biology and health, society and populations senior Hannah Thomas in the College of Arts and Sciences has been awarded a Fulbright Canada-MITACS Globalink Research Internship in the program’s first year. Through this highly competitive opportunity, students undertake advanced research projects in Canada for 10 to 12

By Carol Lea Spence

A new statewide consortium with its headquarters at the University of Kentucky is developing interdisciplinary climate research and teaching collaborations to empower people to become well-informed stewards of the environment. The mission of the Kentucky Climate Consortium is to act as a catalyst for climate research and education in the state by providing networking opportunities for Kentucky-based climate scholars and educators from universities, nonprofits and government organizations. This will enable them to leverage their expertise and passion to collaboratively pursue climate-related research, teaching and public outreach.

Co-founders Carmen Agouridis, associate dean in the

This year, the College of Arts & Sciences celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Over the last 20 years, we have recognized 79 alumni and faculty whose
contributions to the College, University, Commonwealth and beyond are far-reaching. Over the next few weeks, I will be highlighting each of this year’s inductees. Today, I am honored to recognize Steve Sullivan.

Steve graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Science in geology in 1978 and a Master of Science in geology in 1983. His professional career began in 1979 in Lexington and focused on environmental and water resources consulting. Partnering with the transportation engineering, planning and construction management firm Schimpler-Corradino in 1989, he founded a Louisville-based environmental consulting firm which merged into The Corradino

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

The University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences will induct six new members into its Hall of Fame this week. 

This year marks the Hall of Fame’s 20th anniversary and the induction ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, in the Gatton Student Center's Worsham Cinema.

This year's honorees include:

Alumni Inductees:

Anne C. Deaton, English, bachelor's degree (1967)

Deaton grew up in Brooklyn, New York, but her father’s employment with IBM brought her to Lexington at age 13. After attending Lexington Catholic High School, Deaton entered the College of Arts and Sciences and devoured her courses, especially those in her major (English) and minor (history). She enthusiastically joined extracurricular activities,

By Lori Adams

The University of Kentucky has released its Dean's List for the spring 2019 semester. A total of 6,562 students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance. 

To make a Dean’s List in one of the UK colleges, a student must earn a grade-point average of 3.6 or higher and must have earned 12 credits or more in that semester, excluding credits earned in pass-fail classes. Some UK colleges require a 3.5 GPA to make the Dean’s List.

The full Dean's List can be accessed by visiting: www.uky.edu/PR/News/DeansList/.

By Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that seven recent UK graduates and four doctoral students have been offered Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships. The UK recipients are among approximately 2,000 U.S. students who will travel abroad for the 2019-20 academic year.

Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected based on academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program operates in more than 140 countries.

This year's UK students offered Fulbright grants, from a university record 37 applications, are:

Elizabeth Avery, an Earth and environmental sciences doctoral student, to do

By Michael Lynch

Authors Patrick Gooding and Frank Ettensohn look at their new publication on black shales in the Appalachian and Illinois Basins.

A new wall-size chart published by the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS), a research unit of the University of Kentucky, shows how black shale formations in the Appalachian Basin of Eastern Kentucky are connected to similar shales in the Illinois Basin, which underlies parts of Western Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. Black shales are found beneath almost 70 percent of Kentucky and are important for the oil and natural gas resources they contain. So tracing the presence of the shales in the Appalachian region, where more is known about them, to their Illinois Basin counterparts could be valuable for future resource exploration in the Illinois Basin.

One of the

By Michael Lynch

Matt Crawford, a landslide researcher with the Kentucky Geological Survey, inspects landslide damage to a house in Boyd County, Kentucky.

A new, three-year project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will allow the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS), a research center within the University of Kentucky, to create landslide susceptibility models and risk assessments for communities in the Big Sandy Area Development District of Eastern Kentucky. Landslide researcher Matt Crawford, who will lead the project, will also use the funding to work with local officials in the five counties of the district, helping them adopt strategies for reducing landslide risks to buildings and infrastructure and improve response and recovery for landslide events.

By Jenny Wells and Alicia Gregory

 

Sustainability and coal mining don't typically go hand in hand, but a project at the University of Kentucky is offering an opportunity to bring the two together.

At least that is the hope of Jack Groppo and Jim Hower, research professors at the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER), where they are locating and evaluating rare earth elements (REEs) found in coal and processing coal byproducts.

REEs are a series of 17 elements within the Earth's crust. Due to their unique chemical properties, REEs are essential components of technologies spanning a range of applications, including smartphones, batteries and defense technologies.

They are also used in renewable energy technologies, like wind turbines and solar panels.

"Never in a million years saw that coming, but it'

By Jenny Wells

Thigpen suggests that river erosion may cause parts of the Earth's crust to move more quickly, resulting in large earthquakes far from plate boundaries, such as in Eastern Tennessee, where a 4.4 magnitude earthquake occurred just last week.

Ryan Thigpen, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, has co-authored a paper that describes how river erosion may lead to more earthquakes.

The paper, which published this summer in the Journal of Geophysical Research, was featured in Scientific American this week. 

Working with Sean Gallen from Colorado State University, the geologists suggest that removing so much weight from the crust (

 

Organizers of Expanding Your Horizons are looking for University of Kentucky students who are interested in being workshop leaders for the 2019 conference. Expanding Your Horizons is a one-day conference on April 20 for middle school girls from across Kentucky. The purpose is to expose them to the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics by taking part in hands-on science workshops.

Women make up only 24 percent of the STEM workforce, and women hold a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees.

“Many times, girls lack role models in those fields, so they may not realize the variety of career options and opportunities that exist for women,” said Ellen Crocker, a conference organizer and postdoctoral scholar in the UK Department of Forestry and Natural Resources.

Expanding Your Horizons

By Meg Mills

UK Has been recognized as a Tree Campus USA each year since 2012.

"This is a very exciting time to be involved with sustainability at the University of Kentucky, and I am inspired by the work being done and opportunities being made possible by students, staff and faculty across our campus." Shane Tedder, UK’s sustainability coordinator, said. 

Nationwide, October is designated as Campus Sustainability Month by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. UK is participating with events and opportunities throughout the month. These remain:

October 6-14 is Tree Week 2018, presented by the Urban Forest Initiative and collaborators on campus and in the community, including the TFISE. This week of events is a