When Kyle Longley applied to doctoral programs in history, he narrowed the choice down to two schools: the University of Kentucky and one other. But a visit to Lexington and Billy’s Bar-B-Q, where he had lunch with George Herring, the professor who would become his mentor, made UK the place to go.

“Once I met George, there was

The son of a naval architect/marine engineer, Steven C. Grambow credits his father for putting him on the path to hard sciences.
“He was my biggest influence. At a relatively young age he was the chief engineer and naval architect of a World War II Navy Shipyard in Sausalito, CA that at its peak had over 20,000 employees. He went on to have a long and successful career as an engineer and project manager in international mining and minerals. He had a brilliant mind and enjoyed studying math, physics and general science as a hobby. It definitely rubbed off on me.”
Grambow grew up in Northern California and started college at UCLA,

For philosophy alum Will Sanders, attending the University of Kentucky was always part of the plan. The Frankfort native’s parents both attended the university and it was natural for him to follow in their steps. Choosing a major was the challenge.
The College of Arts and Sciences was the perfect place to land when it came to finding his footing, according to Sanders.

“I started as a French major but then switched to 

When Shannon Hincker started her undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky in 2004, she was a mathematics major.
After two years, she switched to the College of Arts & Sciences’ mathematical economics program.
With its combination of math, statistics and economics, the program was a good fit for Hincker and prepared her well for a job doing actuarial work for Mercer.

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

A University of Kentucky biology professor has been chosen as one of 22 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences for her innovative and

Topical studies alum Susan Tomasky was drawn to the University of Kentucky because of its honors program but she also became deeply rooted in the College of Arts & Sciences political science department.

Tomasky began her studies at UK in 1970 after she moved from her hometown of Morgantown, W. Va.

When Sam Powers travels, he buys a one-way ticket. He prefers it that way - as he searches for “Goat man” in Guatemala or participates in Buenos Aires’s annual pillow fight or motorbikes through Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, he wants the people he meets, not a return ticket, to determine his schedule.

In the past year, Powers has purchased quite a few one-way tickets, tickets that have taken him to 15 countries outside of the United States and introduced him to four new languages, including Khmer, Vietnamese, Thai, and Icelandic.

Powers documented his year long journey through his website. Filled with videos, daily travel commentaries, and stunning photography, this website is so recognized internationally, it won 

by Jenny Wells

Burt Davis, longtime associate director for the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research's Clean Fuels and Chemicals Group, has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from NASA – and has been named to the 2011 American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Fellows Program.

by Erin Holady Ziegler

When rising University of Kentucky senior Joseph Mann arrived in Cape Town, South Africa in mid-May, he was ready to make a difference and ready for a challenge. Little did he know that his travel abroad experience would change the course of his life.

"You just need to come here," Mann laughed. "That's what I've told my friends and family. In the face of such adversity, there's hope. South Africans know that they have a bright future. Despite issues with service availability and government

University of Kentucky alumna Nicole Lally says her interest in sociology was sparked at an early age.

When she was seven years old, Lally’s family moved from Cleveland to Elizabethtown. The change in environment was shocking, Lally said.

“On the street we lived on in Cleveland, there was so much diversity,” she said. “Elizabethtown just didn’t have those same demographics and even though I was a kid, I noticed. Some of my new friends at school would make comments about other groups of people and it just didn’t make any sense to me.”

In a high school English class, Lally was assigned an argument paper and began researching gay rights.

“I was immediately interested in anything to do with human rights,” she said. “All of the papers I was using for my research were written by sociologists and I just knew that’s what I wanted to study then.”

UK

“I didn’t want to rush into the next step after undergrad so I took some time off,” Payne said. “Then, I sort of came to the point where I wanted a plan for the rest of my life.”

Knowing that she wanted to continue to study chemistry but also wanting to foster her other life passions, Payne picked UK and started her graduate work in 2000.

“I was an avid rock climber and I knew I could be close to the Red River Gorge,” she said. “I also rode horses as a kid and had been to Lexington several times, so I had some familiarity with the area

At age seven, Peyton Fouts,’06, wanted to change the world. And he’s been working toward that goal since.

At that young age, he saw a girl on TV carrying one brother and dragging another (who was dead) by the hand in the sand. “She had been orphaned by AIDS and my heart broke. I knew I wanted to change their circumstances and I just kept seeing people around the world who needed help.”

Fouts, a Lexington, Ky., native, grew up in a family of six children. The son of a teacher (mother) and lawyer (father), he has an older sister and four younger brothers.

When Fouts graduated high school from Lexington Christian Academy in 2003, he enrolled at the University of Kentucky, earning two degrees in just three years at age 19.

While at the University of Kentucky, Fouts decided to plow through his coursework to graduate early. “I was at UK for three years

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

When University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences academic adviser Emily Dailey first contacted psychology senior Suzanna Mitchell about a developmental

by Whitney Hale

This summer 25 recent graduates of the University of Kentucky will embark on a new challenge as they train to teach in America's inner cities and rural communities this coming fall. The UK group, the largest in school history, is among 5,200 new corps members selected for Teach For America, a national program in which outstanding college graduates commit to teach for two years in disadvantaged urban and rural public schools. 

Teach For America places its recruits in the nation's highest-need elementary and secondary schools in many of the country's lowest income communities, both rural and urban, in an effort to close the achievement gap between economically advantaged and disadvantaged children.

This year’s corps is the

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.

UK professor of Political Science Mark Peffley's most recent publication, "Justice in America: The Separate Realities of Blacks and Whites" was awarded the Robert Lane Award from the Political Psychology Section of the American Political Science Association. Available from Cambridge University Press, the book is co-authored by Professor Jon Hurwtiz of the University of Pittsburgh.

Peffley & Hurwitz's research uses innovative survey experiments to uncover how whites and blacks formulate and use their widely differing views of the fairness of the

The Rural Sociological Society has recognized Shannon Bell and Richard York for Best Article. The article, “Community Economic Identity: The Coal Industry and Ideology Construction in West Virginia,” was published in March 2010 in Rural Sociology, the Society’s journal. Shannon Bell is an assistant professor of sociology at UK; Richard York, who co-authored the article, is a professor at the University of Oregon. 

In their article, Bell and York address the relationship between capitalist modes of production and ecological destruction. Using the Appalachian coal industry as a case study, they demonstrate the ways in which declines in coal industry jobs and the

by Whitney Hale, Erin Holaday, & Jessica Hancock

The University of Kentucky Asia Center will host a Chado (Japanese tea ceremony) demonstration at 2 p.m. on May 29 and June 12 at the Art Museum at UK.

The tea ceremony is designed to take a few moments to close out the world and find a moment of peace and tranquility. Chado, meaning "the way of tea," is a way to self-discipline, inner strength and peace. The ceremony is designed to contain different elements of the Japanese arts, including pottery, calligraphy, lacquer work and more.

"In my own hands I hold a bowl of tea; I see all of nature represented in its green color. Closing my eyes I find green mountains and pure water within my own heart. Silently sitting alone and drinking tea, I feel these become a part of me," was the way that Sen

by Erin Holaday Ziegler and Jessica Hancock

A 2009 film exploring the history that lies beneath Kentuckians' feet is one of 18 films to be featured in this year's Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival in Eugene, Ore.

"Historic Archaeology: Beneath Kentucky's Fields and Streets," produced by the Kentucky Archaeological Survey (KAS), the Kentucky Heritage Council (KHC) and Voyageur Media Group, Inc., will make its west coast debut on Saturday, May 28.

The festival began May 24 and includes five days of juried films and videos on archaeological and indigenous topics as well as a conference on Cultural Heritage Films.

"This is a great honor for KAS and Kentucky archaeology in general," said KAS

Christie Shrestha, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, was contacted by the United Nations' High Committee on Refugees to publish an abridged version of her MA thesis, which was published in 2010. Her thesis, "Power and politics in resettlement: a case study of Bhutanese refugees in the USA," is based on research conducted in 2009 in Lexington, Kentucky. 

The article, as it appears in the UNHCR series, "New Issues in Refugee Research," can be found here.