The College of Arts and Sciences is proud to recognize faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, mentorship, service and community engagement during the 2025-26 academic year. These annual awards celebrate individuals whose contributions strengthen student success, advance scholarship and enrich the college community.

Michelle Sizemore – Department of English
Michelle Sizemore, a faculty member in the Department of English, has received the Outstanding Teaching Award in the humanities. She is recognized for her commitment to student learning and excellence in the classroom. 

Jonathan Allison – Department of English
Jonathan Allison has been honored with the CAREER Award in the humanities category of the Outstanding Teaching Awards. His recognition

By Jennifer Osterhage 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 4, 2026) — The University of Kentucky Office of Transdisciplinary Educational Approaches to Advance Kentucky has selected the TEK Faculty Fellows for the 2026-27 academic year. A mission of TEK is the development of transdisciplinary courses and the reimagining of existing courses to emphasize one or more essential career skills.  

The TEK Faculty Fellows for the 2026-27 academic year are: 

By Daniel Flener 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 2, 2026) – This summer, Eduarda Frizzo Pereira, a senior double major in applied economics and political science at the University of Kentucky, traveled through Germany, France and Spain during a three-week cultural experience funded by the UK Gaines Center for the Humanities. 

Thanks to Gaines supporter Evelyn

By Christian Honce 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 18, 2026) —  Alexandra N. Johansen, a first-year psychology Ph.D. student in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, is serving as the lead author of a comprehensive systematic review recently published in Pharmacological Reviews.

The manuscript, titled “Translational Medications Development for Methamphetamine Use Disorder: A Systematic Review of Preclinical, Human Laboratory and Clinical Research,” tackles one of the most pressing public health crises in the Commonwealth: the lack of FDA-approved medications to treat

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

Video produced by UK Public Relations and Strategic Communication and UK Marketing and Brand Strategy. To view captions for this video, push play and click on the CC icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. If using a mobile device, click on the “thought bubble” in the same area.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 17, 2026) — This February, the University of Kentucky Alumni Association honored six recipients of this year’s Great Teacher Awards. 

Launched

By Ann Blackford 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 4, 2026) — Bobby Clue credits the University of Kentucky with providing far more than an education. UK was where a young student from Somerset, Kentucky, discovered his passion for leadership, developed lifelong friendships and laid the foundation for a career serving his community.  

Clue, the youngest of three adopted children, is the son of a career U.S. Air Force officer and an interior designer. He describes himself as an extreme extrovert who is energized being around other people. Coming from a small town and a small high school, he told himself he was completely comfortable to blend into the background a bit at UK.

By Christian Honce 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 24, 2026) — Ashley W. Seifert, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, has been honored as a 2026-27 University Research Professor.

Seifert’s interdisciplinary research group is constructing a blueprint for musculoskeletal regeneration to help inform next-generation regenerative and scar-reduction therapies. His research team takes a comparative approach using wild and laboratory rodents to identify drivers and inhibitors that direct tissue repair in mammals.

Seifert received a Ph.D.

By Lindsey Piercy and Christian Honce 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 22, 2026) — As the United States pushes to accelerate innovation, researchers from the University of Kentucky will play a leading role in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission.

Principal investigators are:

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 14, 2026) — A decades-old mystery about supermassive black holes may finally have an answer. 

University of Kentucky astronomer Gary Ferland, Ph.D., is part of an international team that uncovered new evidence explaining how supermassive black holes continue to grow despite releasing enormous amounts of energy. 

Using observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, Ferland and his team, led by the Université de Montréal, have captured one of the clearest views of a self-

By Christian Honce 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 14, 2026) — On Feb. 17, 2025, after a weekend of heavy rainfall, a hillside in Fleming-Neon, Kentucky, suddenly gave way. A wall of earth and debris tore downhill, straight toward a cluster of houses. Those houses were occupied, families inside. Tons of material thundered down — and thankfully stopped before completely burying the homes. 

This was not an isolated incident. Landslides cause an estimated $10 million to $20 million in damage across the Commonwealth annually, impacting everything from private residences to critical infrastructure and roads. That problem is particularly concentrated in Eastern Kentucky, where a maze of hills, hollers, creeks and human

By Erin Wickey 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 7, 2026) — Nathaniel Stapleton, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Mathematics in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, has been honored as a 2026-27 University Research Professor.

Stapleton’s research explores some of the most challenging and conceptually rich questions in modern mathematics. Working in a field known as chromatic homotopy theory, he investigates deep structural patterns that shape how mathematicians understand space, symmetry and change. His work connects multiple areas of study, including algebra, geometry and even theoretical physics, revealing unexpected links across disciplines.

At the center of his research are tools called Morava E-theories,

By Francis Von Mann 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 22, 2026) — University of Kentucky faculty members Julie Pendergast, Ph.D., and Michael Tackenberg, Ph.D., will join an international panel of researchers for an "Ask Me Anything" forum hosted on Reddit for World Circadian Day on June 24. 

World Circadian Day aims to raise public awareness about circadian health — the internal biological clocks that regulate sleep, metabolism and other essential functions. Common questions from the public tend to center on how to sleep better, the health effects of meal timing and the risks associated with shift work. The event is sponsored by the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms and partner organizations. 

“Living in sync with our circadian

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

PASADENA, Calif. (June 17, 2026) — A University of Kentucky researcher is helping uncover how stars are born and evolve deep inside galaxies by revealing dozens of previously hidden star clusters buried in cosmic dust. 

Using a combination of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and radio observatories including the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, the study provides new insight into how galaxies build their stellar populations over time.

The findings from “Hidden Gems in

By Robby Hardesty 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 18, 2026) — One of the most painful chapters of Kentucky’s story — the history of racialized slavery — will be memorialized June 19 during the national observance Juneteenth and the centuries-long struggle that led to its abolition.

Researchers who want to explore Kentucky’s history of racialized slavery should begin with Researching African American Slavery in Kentucky, a research guide curated by Reinette Jones, librarian with UK’s Special Collections Research Center. 

The guide provides pointers on the types of information most readily available. It also offers guidance on

By Motunrayo Oladele

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 18, 2026) — Diffraction glasses, dry ice and red cabbage brought chemistry to life for eighth-grade students at Lexington Christian Academy during a University of Kentucky outreach visit.

On May 4, Anne-Frances Miller, Ph.D., Gill Eminent Professor of Chemistry, and doctoral candidates Motunrayo Oladele, Lateefat Jimoh and Hashini Navarathne from the UK Department of Chemistry visited the school to lead demonstrations on atomic emission spectra, states of matter and acid-base chemistry. The activities connected classroom science to environmephoto of three students and a professorntal issues and everyday experiences.

Miller opened the session with an introduction

By Ryan Girves 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 17, 2026) — Edgar Garcia-Velozo, a University of Kentucky Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences, is among 10 educators honored with UK’s 2026 Outstanding Teaching Awards.

These awards identify and recognize UK faculty and graduate teaching assistants who demonstrate special

More than 2,000 students have been named to the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Science's Dean's List for spring 2026. To earn Dean's List honors, students must earn:

A list of Dean's List students may be found here.

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 10, 2026) — Alex Farone, Ph.D., a former University of Kentucky graduate teaching assistant, is among 10 educators honored with UK’s 2026 Outstanding Teaching Awards.

These awards identify and recognize UK faculty and graduate teaching assistants who demonstrate special dedication to student achievement. Recipients were selected via nomination and reviewed by a selection committee based in the UK Provost’s Office for Faculty Advancement and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching.

Farone earned his Ph.D. in political science from UK this

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 3, 2026) — Faith Hensley, Ph.D., a former University of Kentucky graduate teaching assistant, is among 10 educators honored with UK’s 2026 Outstanding Teaching Awards.

These awards identify and recognize UK faculty and graduate teaching assistants who demonstrate special dedication to student achievement. Recipients were selected via nomination and reviewed by a selection committee based in the UK Provost’s Office for Faculty Advancement and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching.

Hensley earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from UK this May, where she served as a graduate teaching assistant in the

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 2, 2026) — University of Kentucky physicists are among an international team recognized with one of the world’s most prestigious scientific honors: the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. 

Often referred to as the “Oscars of Science,” the award recognizes the global collaboration behind the muon g-2 experiment, a decades-long effort to better understand the fundamental properties of matter. 

UK Department of Physics and Astronomy faculty members Renee Fatemi, Ph.D.; Tim Gorringe, Ph.D.; and Brad Plaster, Ph.D.; along with five UK