PhD Student

by Rebekah Tilley

photos by Mark Cornelison

Any person involved in academic research knows there is no way to avoid the field of statistics. Somewhere along the way you have to have a working knowledge of it. Statistics touches everything.

It was this very aspect of the field that captivated Angela Schörgendorfer, now a fourth year doctoral student in the UK Department of Statistics. “I’m a math person. I like doing math that I know will be applied to something. That was what intrigued me about statistics. You can use it for medical research, any kind of social science, and just about anything.” 

Schörgendorfer experienced the wide-ranging application of the field as a statistical consultant to the UK College of Agriculture where she worked on over 100 projects during a two-year period. The

I am thrilled to welcome a high caliber class of new faculty to the College this fall.  Arts & Sciences is fortunate to have 42 new faculty (professors and lecturers) joining us as the semester starts. Over the next few blogs, I hope to acquaint readers with these new additions to the A&S team.

 

Allow me to introduce these new faculty members in the Departments of Chemistry and Physics.

Ribhu Kaul (Physics)

The field of "condensed matter theory" is concerned with understanding the rich diversity of our material world from the most fundamental laws of physics, i.e. quantum mechanics.  More specifically, Ribhu’s research focuses on the consequences of quantum mechanics on systems of infinite particles. Many-body quantum physics forms the basis of our understanding of the properties of a growing number of

<p>I am thrilled to welcome a high caliber class of new faculty to the College this fall.&nbsp; Arts &amp; Sciences is fortunate to have 42 new faculty (professors and lecturers) joining us as the semester starts. Over the next few blogs, I hope to acquaint readers with these new additions to the A&amp;S team.</p>
<p>Allow me to introduce these new faculty members in the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics.</p>
<p>Kathleen Ponto (Mathematics)</p>
<p>Every airport map has a &quot;you are here&quot; point. There is a theorem in topology that says this always must be the case. Kathleen Ponto studies what happens to these kinds of points when you consider more complicated spaces - more dimensions, more twists and turns. She is particularly interested in ways to describe how many &quot;you are here

<p>I&nbsp;am thrilled to welcome a high caliber class of new faculty to the College this fall.&nbsp; Arts &amp;&nbsp;Sciences is fortunate to have 25 new instructors joining us as the semester starts. Over the next few blogs, I hope to acquaint readers with these new additions to the A&amp;S team.</p>
<p>Allow me to introduce these two new faculty members in the Department of&nbsp;Hispanic Studies.</p>
<p><strong>Mariana Amato</strong><span> specializes in Latin American literary and intellectual history from the 19th century onward. Mariana has written articles on the works of Mansilla, Lugones, Bellatin, Pauls and Quiroga. She is working on a manuscript that explores figures of the animal and the flesh in Latin American fiction of the 20th century.</span></p>
<p><strong

Rebecca Greene knew one thing when she came to college from Elliott County in eastern Kentucky. She was going to leave her tiny hometown of Sandy Hook and become an astrophysicist. No doubt about it.

Both her parents were teachers, and she was reading at a very young age. Greene seemed far enough ahead of the other kids that she was “outcast and ostracized” from the start. “So, I was turned against my hometown in certain ways,” Greene said. “I thought I needed to get out of there – that it was suffocating and oppressive.”

After landing a Singletary Scholarship to UK, she signed up as a double major – in physics and linguistics. The linguistics part of the equation came from a paper she did in high school on the “science of language.” That idea – ‘the science of language’ – swirled in her

But to Rebecca Linares, the city and Latin America as a whole are not just exotic vacation destinations; they are tangible entities whose interests and culture are directly and firmly tied to the United States. And her work is aimed at showing how.

Linares left Louisville in 2006 bound for Midway College. After realizing that the school’s selection of courses would not satisfy her ambitious goals, she transferred to the University of Kentucky in 2007. Here, she tailored her plans into a Spanish and Latin American Studies/International Studies

<p>This summer the College of Arts and Sciences has expanded its curriculum to include online course offerings. I&nbsp;recently talked with UK&nbsp;President Lee Todd on WUKY's podcast &quot;UK&nbsp;Perspectives&quot;&nbsp;about the process of integrating technology into A&amp;S, and I am honored to have been able to discuss the exciting progress that A&amp;S&nbsp;has made as a whole. </p>
<p>To listen to our conversation, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wuky/news.newsmain?action=article&amp…;

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.as.uky.edu/academics/departments_programs/HispanicStudies/Hi… Rueda</a>, a&nbsp;professor with the Department of Hispanic Studies, has co-released a book: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.marcialpons.es/fichalibro.php?id=100871361">El retorno / El reencuentro: La inmigracion en la literatura hispano-marroqui</a> (The Return / The Reencounter: Migration in Hispano-Moroccan Literature). </p>
<p>The book was written in collaboration with Sandra Martin, and was recently named &ldquo;Book of the Week&rdquo; by Radio

by Rebekah Tilley

photos by Shaun Ring

When you ask UK University Scholar Dan Sheffler to name one of his favorite books, he immediate replies The Confessions of St. Augustine. Leaning back in his chair, his face lights up and searching the ceiling, he begins to describe why.



“I feel that when I read The Confessions Augustine is talking to me, as if he were directly addressing me,” Sheffler explained. “Even though it is all obviously addressed to God I feel like I’m sort of sitting in the room. I feel like I can completely relate to Augustine’s position in his life, and I can really connect with what he’s saying.”



“I think it is one of the most beautiful things that has ever been written in Latin. There are passages in it that are just shockingly beautiful.”



If this wasn’t your take on The

by Guy Spriggs

Cassie Hardin was sure that she wanted to explore her passion for studying languages after arriving at the University of Kentucky in the fall of 2008, but she also knew that she getting tired of more traditional romance languages. She wanted something new; she wanted a new horizon.

So how did Hardin arrive at her decision to pursue courses in UK’s Chinese Studies program? She left it up to chance.

“I wanted a new challenge, so I flipped a coin: did I want to do Japanese or did I want to do Chinese. It landed on Chinese, so I went with Chinese and I’m so glad.”

In the spring of 2010, Hardin was presented with a unique opportunity to travel to China for the Conversational Chinese in Shanghai Program through Education Abroad at UK. The program, directed by UK professor Liang Luo, was the inaugural exchange program for the new Confucius

<p>Summer is generally considered a time of higher flexibility for students, and being able to offer online education was an opportunity that A&amp;S wanted to offer to its student body. I am excited to report that the flexibility and quality of these courses has resonated with the participants, and that online courses will be an integral part of what A&amp;S has to offer in the future &ndash; for our current students and alumni.</p>
<p>A&amp;S&nbsp;summer courses have been featured on UKNow; <a target="_blank" href="http://uknow.uky.edu/node/10353">click here</a> to read more.</p>

Peggy Keller's research tackles alcohol problems and family stress

by Rebekah Tilley

Photos by Richie Wireman

An elementary school teacher notices one of her students is acting out in odd ways. She seems sad and anxious, exhibits random aggressive behavior toward other children, and her schoolwork is suffering.

What’s going on?

Researchers have long been aware that parental alcohol problems relate to these and other behavior problems in children. Yet what happens between Point A and Point C remains a mystery.

Enter Peggy Keller.

“It’s really important for researchers to tackle how alcohol problems translate to difficulties with children,” said Keller, an assistant professor in the 

<p>May&rsquo;s bike commuter challenge was the most successful one in the history of the event, and the University of Kentucky earned first place in three categories (determined by size). UK Libraries IT, the Department of Chemistry, and the College of Arts &amp; Sciences Dean&rsquo;s Office all earned first place in their categories. By biking to work, the participants were helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and represented a sustainable alternative to using fossil fuels. Even though the challenge is over, many participants continue to ride to work.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
UK has been working on making campus more environmentally friendly, and their &ldquo;Big Blue Goes Green&rdquo; campaign is planning a Sustainability Fair in September, which will showcase the ways in which UK is making efforts to conserve natural resources

Ph.D. Students

by Amber Scott

photos by Richie Wireman

During one typical afternoon in an average American high school, Nicholas Kirby, a junior at the time, found himself wandering into the "young, cool" math teacher's classroom. Curiosity about the different sizes of infinity had taken hold of him and he decided to give up his lunch break to get some answers.  His teacher patiently explained this complicated concept, crystallizing an appreciation for abstract thought that would eventually become Nick's whole life.

"It was just too cool," said Nick. "I was hooked. I became a math addict."

Setting out from his hometown of Nashville, Tenn., Nick went to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh to complete his bachelor’s degree in math. While there, he did research in the field of materials under his advisor and received

Growing up in Los Angeles and studying as an undergraduate at Brigham Young University, Michael Dorff hadn’t heard a lot about Kentucky, let alone the University of Kentucky.

But while he was getting his masters in mathematics at the University of New Hampshire and trying to look for a doctoral program, one of his professors mentioned UK.

“She told me about a professor at UK, Ted Suffridge,” Dorff said. “He’s the reason I applied.”

Dorff, now an associate professor in Brigham Young University’s math department, said he wasn’t disappointed.

“The faculty at UK had high expectations that I would work hard and professors like Ted Suffridge were always looking for ways to help me and the other students,” Dorff said. “People there were very friendly, very nice. I have these fond

Graduate Student Spotlight By Saraya Brewer

Photos by Mark Cornelison



Amy Anderson’s academic history has taken a sharp turn since her early undergrad pre-medical path. “We had to kill things in our lab class and that was the end of that,” she laughed. “I always liked to write – I went straight back to the English Department.”



Though she has studied English for close to a decade now, Anderson is quick to admit that her “academic ADD” still stands: “I can’t focus on a time period. I’m interested in anything you put in front of me.” 



Her broad and varied interests make Anderson the perfect candidate for the brand new division of the University of Kentucky English department: Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media. Anderson says she was

They came from different backgrounds and for different reasons-- a diverse group of UK undergrads that didn't know much about one another, or the culture in which they were getting ready to dive into.

 

On May 30, 12 UK students and two instructors returned from a two-week trip to the Bawana Resettlement Colony on the outskirts of New Delhi to work with nonprofit home-builder Habitat for Humanity.

 

But these students weren't constructing houses; they were constructing relationships, hitting the slums running with video cameras and tape recorders, telling Habitat's story of India from the ground up in a UK summer class aptly titled, "Writers Without Borders."

 

"I was just shocked; and shocked more and more every day," said English and Spanish

By Guy Spriggs

In late March 2010, two conferences will come together when the University of Kentucky hosts the Spring Southeastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Section of the Mathematical Association of America (KYMAA).

The events on March 26, 27 and 28 will mark the first time UK has hosted a sectional meeting of the AMS since 1994 and the first return of the KYMAA since 2001. Organizers in the Mathematics Department at UK have worked hard to bring the meetings to Lexington and overlap events for one weekend. “It was definitely not a coincidence,” said UK associate professor of mathematics

<p>The summer months will provide many of us with time to further our individual efforts (and hopefully offer a little bit of rest).&nbsp;I plan to spend part of the summer furthering a planning initiative that commenced this Spring.&nbsp;In an effort to develop a common College vision, groups of faculty have been meeting to brainstorm what it means to be a college of excellence in 2020.&nbsp;This exercise, dubbed Envision 2020, relates in part to the University&rsquo;s goal of becoming a top 20 public university in 2020, but it also provides us with the opportunity to create a vision of where we want to be as a college &ndash; a vision that will energize and excite alumni and friends to invest in us. My hope is that by the time school starts in August, I will have a set of documents ready to circulate to faculty and staff for comment. I look forward to

Physics & Astronomy alum Dr. Anjan K. Gupta came to the University of Kentucky after earning bachelors and masters degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1995 in Kanpur, India.

Anjan is from a small city called Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, the most populated state in India.

“I wanted to go to the United States because I knew there would be many opportunities for research as a graduate student,” Anjan said. “I applied many places but I was interested in UK because they had a good condensed matter experimental department. I knew that’s what I wanted to pursue.”

Anjan said he found good teachers and mentors among the faculty in the physics and astronomy department, particularly Dr. Joseph Brill and Dr.