By Sarah Geegan

Earth and Environmental Sciences Professor Frank Ettensohn recently joined an elite group of science, technology, and engineering scholars, who will serve a critical role in advising national policy makers. He is the first person from the Commonwealth of Kentucky to be named a Jefferson Science Fellow.

The Jefferson Science Fellows (JSF) program was established in 2003 as a model for engaging the American academic science, technology and engineering communities in formulating and implementing U.S. foreign policy. Overseen by the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State, and with administrative support of the

by Sarah Geegan

By Dean Mark Lawrence Kornbluh

 

The College of Arts & Sciences is very pleased to announce that Dr. Frank Ettensohn of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences has been named the 2013-14 Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor.  Dr. Ettensohn’s thirty plus year career at the University of Kentucky is remarkable for its breadth and depth across all the roles expected of a university professor.  He has become an internationally recognized and widely published expert in sedimentary geology and paleontology, excelled in both undergraduate and graduate education, and compiled a truly distinguished record of service to the University, the Department, the science education community of central Kentucky, and the

By Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky's David P. Moecher and George L. Scott Jr. were honored as the recipients of the 19th annual Ken Freedman Outstanding Advisor Awards. The award recognizes outstanding service in the field of academic advising. Two awards are presented each year, one to a full-time professional adviser and another to a faculty adviser.

David Moecher, faculty adviser and chair of the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said that he was stunned, then humbled  to receive the award, knowing that there are so many dedicated professional and faculty advisers

By Sarah Geegan

Since 1948, the University of Kentucky has operated a geology field camp in the Rocky Mountains. The field camp presents students in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) with a unique opportunity to apply principles and ideas learned from the classroom in a real-world setting.

This summer EES will offer a similarly unique opportunity for its alumni: a reunion for past field camp participants taking place from July 4-6.

“This was a chance to get all of the UK geology field camp alumni who want to come back. Instructors and students can come back for our big bash out there,” EES professor David Moecher said.

As fellow EES

By Whitney Hale

In celebration of the University of Kentucky's upcoming sesquicentennial in 2015, the 41st of 150 weekly installments remembers a popular leisure and educational travel option for the institution's students and faculty.

The April 1896 Cadet announced: "Fall in for Natural Bridge! A Gala Day! Let everybody go. Students and friends in the city. The Lexington and Eastern Railroad can’t be excelled for scenery. All who went last year, know that the trip was far superior to expectation; since then, the Railroad Co. have spent thousands of dollars, and now have the best place in the country for picnic parties and pleasure seeker. Go! 

Tickets for the road trip and admission to the grounds $1, for sale by A.S. Reese and R.F.

by Sarah Geegan

UK Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Alan Fryar was recently featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education; his essay describes his experience with 11 students from the arid Middle East and North Africa who convened in drought-stricken San Angelo, Texas, to learn about water.

Through a grant from the State Department's Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Fryar and colleagues focused on capacity building in the Middle East and North Africa, with a particular emphasis on hydrology.

In collaboration with

by Jay Blanton

video by UK Public Relations and Marketing.

University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto Thursday praised the partnership of Gov. Steve Beshear and legislative leaders who are strongly supporting UK's self-financing of a dramatic $275 million transformation of the campus.

"We are here this morning because of your leadership and your willingness to partner with us, as educational institutions, united to provide Kentucky with the best education, research and service," Capilouto said at a Frankfort news conference with the governor and legislative leaders who are supporting UK's proposal. "In offering your support for us to self-finance facilities that will help dramatically improve and transform our campuses, you are voicing your faith in Kentucky's

In November, the James W. Stuckert Career Center assembled a UK team to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative University, a program through which university students propose solutions to the world's humanitarian problems. While each of the students came from different backgrounds, from the College of Arts and

By Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky’s Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program will feature a panel discussion about hydraulic fracturing (or “fracing”) as a way of extracting natural gas in Kentucky. The event, part of the Appalachian Forum series, will take place from 7-9 p.m Thursday, Feb. 23, in Room 106 of UK's White Hall Classroom Building.

Panelists at the event will represent a variety of relevant areas of expertise, and after brief introductory remarks by each panelist, Al Cross

By Mike Lynch

Feb. 7, 2012, marks the 200th anniversary of the last and possibly strongest event of a series of very strong earthquakes that shook eastern North America in the winter of 1811-12. The events occurred on what became known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), located along the Mississippi River in northeastern Arkansas, southeastern Missouri, northwestern Tennessee, and western Kentucky.

Because seismic instruments were not available at that time, today's seismologists can only estimate what the likely magnitudes might have been, based mostly on eyewitness accounts and newspaper reports from that time. The magnitudes of the three largest shocks ranged between 6.8 and 7.7 on the Richter scale, which also didn’t exist at the time of these events.

Two departments at the University of Kentucky, the 

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences will host a trailblazing American diplomat next week to continue the college's Year of China initiative.

Former U.S. Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch will speak on “Leadership and Education in a Globalizing World: China’s Challenge” at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, in Room 118 of the White Hall Classroom Building on UK's campus.

Bloch’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the "Passport to China: Global Issues & Local Understanding" course taught by UK sociology Professor Keiko Tanaka.

Ambassador Bloch, the first Asian-American ambassador in American history, has had a broad career in U.S. government service. She is currently president of the U.S.-China Education Trust, a nonprofit

By Guy Spriggs

University of Kentucky's Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences (EES), in partnership with UK alumnus Tom Spalding (’80, ’82), accepted a $600,000 gift from Pioneer Natural Resources Company today.

Spalding is vice president of Pioneer, a large independent oil and gas exploration company based in Dallas, with operations in Texas, Colorado, Alaska and South Africa.

“Pioneer really went to bat for us,” said David Moecher, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies of EES in the 

UK’s Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences (EES) has partnered with Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Company to secure a $600,000 gift through UK alumnus (’80, ’82) and Pioneer Vice-President Tom Spalding.

The gift, which is intended to be spread out over the next 3 years, will fund the Pioneer Natural Resources Research Professorship in Stratigraphy. The money will not only support the new faculty member’s research program, but will also fund graduate and undergraduate student research.

“Pioneer really went to bat for us. This professorship really is the icing on the cake,” said David Moecher, professor in the Department of EES. “Tom [Spalding] and Pioneer want to

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

University of Kentucky geologist and cave diver Stephanie Schwabe recalls her 1997 dive into the Mermaid's Lair, on the south side of Grand Bahama Island quite plainly.

Schwabe is not one to embellish or exaggerate. A simple account of her late August dive is captivating of its own accord.

Schwabe, a renowned cave diver of international acclaim, will share the story of her nearly fateful dive on National Geographic Explorer's Angel Effect at 10 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, on the National Geographic Channel.

Angel Effect delves deep inside the mysterious phenomenon of the "Third Man Factor," as detailed in John Geiger's

An exhibition on the results of the excavations by University of Kentucky faculty of an ancient Greek fort will debut at the Lexington Public Library - Central Library before moving to Italy, where it will remain on permanent display.

"A Greek Mountain Fort in Southern Italy. University of Kentucky Archaeological Investigations at Monte Palazzi (Passo Croceferrata, Grotteria, Calabria)" will be on exhibit March 26 through May 1, in the library’s gallery.

Paolo Visonà, adjunct associate professor of art history in UK’s Department of Art, will give a lecture on the Monte Palazzi archaeological project at 6 p.m. Monday, March 28, in the library's theater. A gallery reception will also be

When the University of Kentucky's Environmental Studies program director position opened up last summer, chemistry Professor David Atwood enthusiastically submitted his application.

But UK's resident expert on the removal of metal contaminants from water wanted to see something more.

 

"In working with others across campus, I was hearing more and more about the need for an interdisciplinary environmental studies major at UK," Atwood explained. "I thought that in order to really make the director position worth it, we should expand what we already had."

 

So, Atwood met with Dean Mark Kornbluh with argument in hand.

 

But to Atwood's surprise, Kornbluh "basically described exactly what I had hoped to do," Atwood laughed. "I guess

Graduate Student Spotlight

by Guy Spriggs

photos by Richie Wireman



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