By Vice President for Research Lisa Cassis

When you look back at a 45-year career, there are a multitude of moments that stand out. For Allan Butterfield, Professor of Biological Chemistry in the University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences, his signature discovery grew from just such a Eureka moment on the sidewalk on campus. 

“I was walking back from Sanders-Brown Center on Aging to the Chemistry Building — two or three blocks — I kept asking myself, why are there so many proteins that are known to be altered in Alzheimer's disease? Why isn’t there just one?” Butterfield said, “And it occurred to me, ‘Oh, what if there is a free radical in the brain that is hitting all these different proteins and different lipids and causing them to be defective

By Elizabeth Chapin

Dibakar Bhattacharyya has been a fixture in the University of Kentucky’s College of Engineering for more than 50 years and is renowned for his research, which focuses on incorporating life sciences materials with synthetic membranes for filtering and producing clean water.

Today, the director of UK’s Center of Membrane Sciences, known to friends and colleagues as “DB,” is contributing his decades of membrane expertise to help address the spread of the novel coronavirus. He has the concept and the means to develop a medical face mask that would capture and deactivate the COVID-19 virus on contact.

“We have the capability to create a membrane that would not only effectively filter out the novel coronavirus like the N95

The COVID-19 pandemic is creating shortages of sanitizing products in hospitals. Across the nation, spirits distillers are stepping up to help and using their products and equipment to make hand sanitizer for health care workers. At the University of Kentucky, The James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits is making sanitizer and going a step further by creating an instructional video for distillers who want to do the same.

“There is a method that has evolved over the past few weeks using high-proof ethanol and glycerin,” said Seth DeBolt, director of the Beam Institute and horticulture professor in the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. “We have had requests for sanitizer just within the

By Madison Dyment

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A prominent goal of any institution is rewarding and enhancing student success – and the new Tomasky Leaders Scholarship Fund will help the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies achieve this goal. 

Named for Susan Tomasky, a College of Arts & Sciences alumna (BA, Topical Studies, ’74) who established the fund, the Tomasky Leaders Scholarship program serves to encourage students to become involved in politics, pursue higher office and live a life of activism. The fund covers all fees for recipients to attend events such as activism training, conferences and seminars, and participating in internships. 

“My undergraduate education at UK was shaped by several influential professors who helped me understand the relationship between intellectual growth as a student and personal growth as a

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

Carrie Oser, professor and associate chair in the Department of Sociology, is a ’ 98 UK graduate, the associate director of the Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET) and a faculty affiliate of the Center on Drug & Alcohol Research (CDAR). Her research interests include addiction health services, health disparities/equity, HIV risk behaviors/interventions, social networks, implementation science and substance use among rural, African American or criminal justice populations. 

In 2015, Oser received the Senior Scholar Award from the American Sociological Association's Alcohol, Drugs, & Tobacco section.  She leads the Geographic variation

By Richard LeComte

Camp Nelson, a Civil War-era historic site south of Lexington, helps to fill a gap in the epic story of the end of slavery in the United States. At this site, along with about 300 others in the South, the camp offered refuge to people emancipated from plantations and a place where men could enlist in the Union Army.

Here at Camp Nelson and many other places, African Americans began or continued a serpentine journey to freedom—one that American history has, until now, failed to map.

“The story of freedom in the United States is a story of long, drawn-out battles, fights and struggles,” said Amy Murrell Taylor, author of the acclaimed book “Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War’s

By Jay Blanton

University of Kentucky faculty member Connie Wood accepted a collect call in 1989 from a student a world away who was in need of a connection and a path forward.

For Bing Zhang, the willingness of a director of graduate studies to accept that phone call and offer help in a time of need has made all the difference in a life’s work and, now, what has been a lifetime of giving back.

Flash forward more than 30 years.

This February, President Eli Capilouto recommended and the UK Board of Trustees accepted a $6.35 million pledge Zhang is making to the University’s Department of Statistics, where he received his doctorate 26 years ago. The board also approved naming the Department the Dr. Bing Zhang Department of Statistics at the University of Kentucky. UK’s

By Richard LeComte

Teaching his first classes at UK in fall 2019, Eladio Bobadilla fresh from his doctoral studies at Duke—saw a lot of eager students waiting for him to share his perspectives on Latinx history. For many students in the class, Bobadilla was teaching something essential: their own histories. 

“It was pretty amazing because a couple of the classes were largely Latino students who were really excited to have someone who looked like them teach them about their histories,” Bobadilla said. “So that was a lot of fun for me. And it was exciting for them to find someone who cares about their history.”

As part of a cluster hire program to bring new Latinx faculty to campus, the College of Arts and Sciences brought aboard two assistant professors: Bobadilla

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

Anne C. Deaton, English '67, has focused her career on the socio-economic, health and public policy issues related to seniors. In Columbia, Missouri, Deaton co-founded the Children’s Grove, an organization devoted to promoting a culture of kindness and supporting the health of young people through community education, the arts and the environment.

Gerald L. Smith, History ’81, ’83, ’88, served from 1997 to 2005 as director of the UK African American Studies and Research Program. He is a full professor of history and former Theodore A. Hallam Professor and Martin Luther King Center Scholar-in-Residence. His awards include induction into the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars of Morehouse College and the Evelyn Black Award from the UK Black Student Union.

Steve Sullivan, 

Dean's Letter

News & Notes

20th Anniversary Hall of Fame

Energizing a Career

Robert Stokes’ physics degree took his career from space science to energy technology

STEMCATs Program Bears Fruit

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

By Julie Wrinn

Robert Stokes (Physics BS '64) came of age in the 1960s as part of a generation of American astrophysicists who were energized by the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite. He grew up in Ravenna, Kentucky, a tiny city in Estill County built up by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1915.  

His father, a dispatcher for the railroad, passed away when Stokes was 16. Although his parents did not have much formal education, they had always hoped he would be able to go to college, and thanks to his mother’s dedication and a lot of help and encouragement from the close-knit community, Stokes managed to stay on track for college. 

“I had a lot of people who really cared about me,” Stokes said. “I had ‘extra’ parents, scoutmasters, and teachers who had an enormously positive impact on my life. During my junior and senior years in high

By Ryan Girves 

This week marked the start of online learning for University of Kentucky students across campus following the announcement from President Eli Capilouto suspending all in-person instruction through the end of the spring semester in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

UK is one of many universities to move its classes online using channels such as Zoom — a video conferencing platform — as part of an effort to de-densify campus. 

“Overall, both faculty and students indicate that the transition to online is going better than expected,” said Associate Provost for Teaching, Learning and Academic Innovation Kathi Kern. “Faculty have devoted themselves tirelessly over the last week to rethink their courses and prepare them in a new way.”

In the week

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 underlay more than 50% of the state, karst aquifers are used for public and private water supplies. They contribute substantially to the flow in many surface

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

The Appalachian Studies Association conference, which was scheduled to take place this week at the University of Kentucky, has been canceled due to circumstances surrounding COVID-19. The following message was sent from the ASA to its members and registrants yesterday:

"We are writing to tell you that after much consideration and discussion we have determined that cancelling the ASA conference is the right thing to do in light of the circumstances with coronavirus. The Steering Committee has a lot of work to do to evaluate the consequences of this decision and we will be discussing this in the days ahead. We are grateful to the UK administration and especially the planning committee who have organized an amazing conference.

We are sorry that this had to happen, but we

When Isabella Morales’ older sister Maria was a high school student in Lexington, she noticed a lack of mentors who looked like her or who had lived her experience – that of a Latina student in a majority-white school. As a student at UK, she decided to do something about it by founding Leading Latinas, a student organization that mentors Latina high school students and encourages them to apply to UK.

Leading Latinas is now three years old, and the group is active in three Fayette County high schools – Tates Creek, Bryan Station and newly-added Dunbar. Maria Morales is in graduate school at Baylor and her sister Isabella Morales, a UK senior, is continuing the mission. Isabella, a psychology major with a minor in Spanish, hopes to become an occupational therapist. She says she had her sister as a mentor and wants to provide that same experience for

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

A new book by researchers in the University of Kentucky's Center for Research on Violence Against Women (CRVAW) explores adjudication options on sexual misconduct on college campuses.

Published in January by Cognella, "Adjudicating Campus Sexual Misconduct and Assault" was edited by CRVAW Director Diane Follingstad and Judi Conway Patton Endowed Chair Claire Renzetti.

"There is considerable confusion around policies and procedures for addressing campus sexual misconduct and assault and a good deal of diversity across campuses," said Renzetti, who is also professor and chair of the UK Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences. "One of our goals has been to

By University Press of Kentucky

The University Press of Kentucky will feature its “Place Matters: New Directions in Appalachian Studies” series of books at the upcoming Appalachian Studies Association Conference hosted on the University of Kentucky campus March 12-15.

“Literacy in the Mountains: Community, Newspapers, and Writing in Appalachia” by Samantha NeCamp is the newest title in the series. By looking at five Kentucky newspapers printed between 1885 and 1920, it

By Allison Perry

Growing up in an area heavily impacted by the opioid epidemic, University of Kentucky grad student Samantha Malone knew she wanted to pursue a career that involved research on substance use.

“I’m from East Tennessee, and substance use is huge there,” said Malone, a second-year Ph.D. student in the UK Department of Psychology’s Cognitive Neuroscience program. “So I really wanted to go into neuroscience research involving substance use disorder just because of where I’m from, and I know how big of an impact research like this has on our community.”

Malone was one of the dozens of researchers from UK and beyond presenting a