By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Alyson Ackerman’s success as a doctoral candidate in chemistry at the University of Kentucky is attributable directly to St. Nick.  

“I don't know exactly what got me interested into chemistry, but I do know that I've always been into it,” said Ackerman, who grew up in Lexington, earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from UK in 2018 and now is a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow. “I did get a microscope for Christmas when I was 11. That was my big Santa gift. I played with my microscope a lot growing up to identify contents of the nearby creek.” 

As an undergrad in UK’s College of Arts and Sciences, Ackerman was a Patterson Scholar  and earned department honors in chemistry as well as the Nancy J. Stafford Award. After spending four years as a quality

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 3, 2024) — Daria Goncharova, Ph.D., a May 2024 doctoral graduate from the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, is one of nine people to receive an University of Kentucky’s 2024-25 Outstanding Teaching Award.

The awards recognize individuals who demonstrate special dedication to student achievement and who are successful in their teaching. Recipients were selected via nomination and reviewed by a selection committee based in the UK Provost’s 

LEXINGTON Ky. -- Bethany Abebe, a political science and international studies major in the University of Kentucky's College of Arts and Sciences, participated in the Meridian-Cox Foreign Service Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Washington, D.C., in June. She was one of 20 students chosen for the program. 

The Meridian-Cox Foreign Service Fellowship for Emerging Leaders is a fully paid enrichment and training program seeking to expand awareness and access to U.S. Foreign Service careers to students from underrepresented communities. 

A partnership among Meridian International Center, the Una Chapman Cox Foundation and Community Colleges for International Development, the Foreign Service Fellowship provides undergraduate students with insight into American diplomacy while underscoring educational, internship and career paths within the U.S. Foreign

By Jennifer T. Allen 

When Rebekah Duke-Crockett, a first-year Ph.D. student in chemistry, took Julia Bursten’s Philosophy of Science graduate seminar, she began thinking about the wealth of insights philosophy has for chemists. The questions brought up eventually led to a collaboration between Duke-Crockett, philosophy professor Bursten, philosophy Ph.D. alum Ryan McCoy, and chemistry professor Chad Risko.  

That collaboration culminated in a recently published article in the Journal of American Chemical Society: “Promises and Perils of Big Data: Philosophical Constraints on Chemical Ontologies.” 

“Philosophers of science spend a lot of time thinking about problems and questions relevant for chemistry but, unfortunately, chemists

By Neale Benjamin 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 28, 2024) — The University of Kentucky Advising Network recently announced the recipients of the 2024 Ken Freedman Awards during the Ken Freedman Day of Recognition awards ceremony.

This year’s professional adviser award went to Phyllis Nally from the College of Arts and Sciences. Nally serves as a senior adviser in the College of Arts and Sciences, primarily working with pre-health students. 

Each year, the Ken Freedman Outstanding Advisor Award is presented by the UK Advising Network to one full-time professional adviser and one faculty adviser for outstanding service. Ken Freedman, the award’s namesake, was one of the founders of the UK

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 25, 2024) — Doris Yvonne Wilkinson, Ph.D., a Lexington native and one of the University of Kentucky’s first undergraduate African American graduates, died at the age of 88.

Today, UK celebrates Wilkinson’s inspiring legacy and honors her memory by recognizing the virtues and values that distinguished her life, which also speak to the community UK aspires to be.  

A nationally honored professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, Wilkinson’s influence spans beyond the boundaries of UK’s campus and beyond the borders of the Commonwealth.

As one

By Jesi Jones-Bowman 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 21, 2024) — Undergraduate students at the University of Kentucky who participate in research under the guidance of faculty mentors have the opportunity to publish the outcomes of their work and collaborative experiences. The first edition of Aperture Journal of Undergraduate Research launched June 1, highlighting seven student-professor partnerships.

Published by the Office of Undergraduate Research, the open-access, peer- and expert-reviewed journal, which will be published annually, aims to showcase

By Jonathan Greene

University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences psychology and College of Public Health public health dual major McKenna Green is one of 14 UK undergraduates selected for the 2024 Commonwealth Undergraduate Research Experience Fellowship program. 

The fellowship will support McKenna as she works on research related to cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.

Sponsored by the UK Office of Undergraduate Research and the Office of the Vice President for Research, the CURE Fellowship program empowers undergraduates to develop new knowledge and skills through research within eight of UK’s Research Priority Areas: cancer, cardiovascular health, diabetes and obesity, energy, equity (UNITE), materials science, neuroscience, and substance use disorder.

Students selected as CURE Fellows receive a $5,000 stipend to

By Tom Musgrave 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 18, 2024) — A proposed monument honoring a Kentucky couple who escaped enslavement and later became a force in the abolition movement has University of Kentucky connections. 

Four people with ties to UK are involved in the Lexington Freedom Train monument effort: 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 13, 2024) — In March, the University of Kentucky Alumni Association honored six recipients with this year’s Great Teacher Awards.

Launched in 1961, they are the longest-running UK awards recognizing accomplished and passionate educators.

In order to receive the honor, teachers must first be nominated by a student. The UK Alumni Association Great Teacher Award Committee, in cooperation with the student organization Omicron Delta Kappa, then makes the final selection. Recipients receive a commemorative award and stipend.

Zada Komara, Ph.D., senior lecturer in the Lewis Honors College and an

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 12, 2024) — Lukas Bullock, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies (GWS) in the College of Arts and Sciences, received one of the the University of Kentucky’s 2024-25 Outstanding Teaching Awards.

These awards identify and recognize individuals who demonstrate special dedication to student achievement and who are successful in their teaching. Recipients were selected through nomination and reviewed by a selection committee based in the UK Provost’s Office for Faculty Advancement and the 

By Lindsay Travis 

UKNow is highlighting the University of Kentucky’s 2024-25 University Research Professors. Established by the Board of Trustees in 1976, the professorship program recognizes excellence across the full spectrum of research at UK and is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research.  

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 11, 2024) —  Haralambos Symeonidis, Ph.D., the John E. Keller Endowed Professor of Spanish Linguistics in the Department of Hispanic Studies in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, has been honored as a 2024-25 University Research Professor.

Symeonidis joined UK in 2007. His research focuses on the language

On May 1, Anthropology Ph.D. students Emmanuel Asante, Nuwan Herath, Jessica Nwafor, Brittany Thomas and Refah Tamanna received Unite Predoctoral Research Enhancement Awards. The UNITE Predoctoral Research Enhancement Program provides benefits to graduate students interested in an academic career, including a $10,000 stipend, mentorship from UK professors, and research career development activities. 

In late spring, James Keppeler and Michelle Roberts were awarded grants from the Wenner Gren Foundation. The foundation plays a leadership role in anthropology by publishing the Sapiens anthropology magazine and the journal Current Anthropology while also sponsoring workshops as well as pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships. 

Roberts’ fieldwork project is  "Webs of Care: Understanding Acquired Disability in Rural Appalachia through Culture, Politics, and Biomedicine." Keppeler’s fieldwork is  “Unearthing Mindanao: Archaeological

By A Fish 

LEXINGTON, Ky, --  Patricia Ehrkamp, Ph.D., professor of geography in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, has been elected president of the American Association of Geographers.  

The scientific and educational organization serves around 10,000 international educators, practitioners, researchers and students in  geography. Ehrkamp has been serving as vice president of the organization since 2022. She will assume the presidency July 1.

“I've been involved in different roles with this professional organization since I first presented my research at annual meetings as a Ph.D. student,” Ehrkamp said. “Over the last 20 years, I've served on the boards of various research specialty groups in the organization, across different subfields such as European,

By Jennifer T. Allen 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- When Reagan Sutton, an English and Spanish double major, registered for an advanced Spanish translation course, she didn’t realize how much the work would impact the community.  

“It’s really easy to feel disconnected in your schoolwork, but this is something that touches real lives,” Sutton said. “I’m passionate about language and connecting with different populations. This course made me feel like my major serves a purpose outside of only getting me into law school. Through this class, we got out there and talked with people and are helping with projects that have impacts on people’s lives.” 

Sutton, along with 12 classmates, spent the spring semester in

By Emily Sallee 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 5, 2024) — The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards announced three students have been selected as award winners of a Critical Language Scholarship.

The program provides opportunities for American college and university students to study languages and cultures essential to America's engagement with the world. 

Each summer, undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities across the country spend eight to 10 weeks learning one of 13 languages at an intensive study-abroad institute.

More than 500 students were

By Lindsay Travis 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 4, 2024) — Rosana Zenil-Ferguson, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology at the University of Kentucky, is part of a wide-ranging group of experts to study a complex phenomenon with significant implications in plants, animals and humans called polyploidy.

Polyploidy means having more than two complete sets of chromosomes. Typically, when plants and animals undergo sexual reproduction, two sets of chromosomes — one from each parent —

By Erin Wickey 

UKNow is highlighting the University of Kentucky’s 2024-25 University Research Professors. Established by the Board of Trustees in 1976, the professorship program recognizes excellence across the full spectrum of research at UK and is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research.  

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 4, 2024) — Michelle Martel, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Psychology in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, has been named a 2024-25 University Research Professor.

Her research examines hormonal effects on such disorders related to impulse control as ADHD and binge drinking in women. Martel’s research on

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 3, 2024) —  Last month, the University of Kentucky had significant involvement in this year’s Seminar on Indigenous Issues, held April 24 in New York City, as part of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

The seminar, organized by Edward Lo, Ph.D. (羅力明), a