By Whitney Hale, Lea Mann

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities has chosen 10 outstanding undergraduates as new scholars for the university's Gaines Fellowship Program for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years.

Gaines Fellowships are given in recognition of outstanding academic performance, demonstrated ability to conduct independent research, an interest in public issues and a desire to enhance understanding of the human condition through the humanities. Fellowships are awarded for the tenure of a student's junior and senior years, or for the last two years of a five-year program; students in all disciplines and with any intended profession are given equal consideration.

UK's 10 new Gaines

By Whitney Hale

The upcoming University of Kentucky Libraries Annual Dinner will recognize this year's Medallion for Intellectual Achievement recipient, chemist John Anthony, and will feature guest speaker, Alan C. Lowe, director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. The dinner, which is open to the public, will be presented 7 p.m. Friday, April 13, at the Hilary J. Boone Center.

Alan C. Lowe, UK alumnus and native of Paris, Ky., has been the director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum since 2009. Lowe began his career with the National Archives where he helped assemble records to open the Ronald Reagan Presidential

by Jonathon Spalding

“As soon as I got to the reception dinner everyone was just smiling,” said Adesuwa Ighodaro, the first recipient of the Paul G. Sears endowed scholarship in chemistry.

The scholarship, initiated in 2008, was created in honor of Dr. Paul G. Sears to assist undergraduates studying chemistry at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Sears earned his B.S. in Industrial Chemistry in 1950, as well as his Ph.D. in 1953 from UK, but the connection he has with the university doesn’t end there.

“My roots at UK run deep,” said Dr. Sears.

After working at Monsanto for a couple years, Dr. Sears returned to UK as a full professor where he eventually retired in 1990. For 28 years Dr. Sears influenced the lives of more than 7,200 undergraduates in more ways than just teaching the difference

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences will host a trailblazing American diplomat next week to continue the college's Year of China initiative.

Former U.S. Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch will speak on “Leadership and Education in a Globalizing World: China’s Challenge” at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, in Room 118 of the White Hall Classroom Building on UK's campus.

Bloch’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the "Passport to China: Global Issues & Local Understanding" course taught by UK sociology Professor Keiko Tanaka.

Ambassador Bloch, the first Asian-American ambassador in American history, has had a broad career in U.S. government service. She is currently president of the U.S.-China Education Trust, a nonprofit organization working

by Erin Holady Ziegler

As one of the foremost experts on organic electronic materials and carbon solar cell design, University of Kentucky chemistry professor John Anthony enjoys creating materials in order to do things.

"What many people fail to remember is that everything in our lives, including ourselves, is made from chemicals," Anthony said. "My goal every day is to make my electronic materials stronger, lighter and more stable."

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.

Dr. William D. Ehmann, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, has been elected to the Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. Bill received a B.S. degree (1952) with honors and an M.S. degree (1954), both in chemistry, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He went on to receive a Ph.D. degree in radiochemistry in 1957 from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and carried out postdoctoral work (1957-58) at Argonne National Laboratory under a National Research Council/National Science Foundation Fellowship. He joined the Department of Chemistry at UK in 1958 and was a Fulbright Research Scholar (1964-65) at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. In addition, he has held visiting faculty appointments at Arizona State University and Florida

Four University of Kentucky students have been recognized by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program for 2011. Juniors Philip Houtz, of Winchester, Ky., and Taylor Lloyd, of Union, Ky., have been named Goldwater Scholars and will receive scholarships worth approximately $7,500 per year for up to two years of undergraduate study. Additionally, two other UK seniors, Andrea Ramsey, of Paducah, Ky., and Jason Rexroat, of Nicholasville, Ky., have received honorable mention

Ph.D. Student

By Sarah Vos
photos by Mark Cornelison

On a recent Monday afternoon, Miranda Lange filled four small dishes, each containing a small rectangle of paper, with a buffer solution and set them on a rocking platform to gently wash an antibody away. The papers, really a membrane of mesh-like nitrocellulose, were covered with proteins extracted from the brains of transgenic mice, some of which have the mouse-equivalent of Alzheimer disease.

When the experiment is finished, Lange, using sophisticated proteomics methods, should be able to identify which of the brain proteins have suffered the most from oxidization. And in the case of the Alzheimer’s brain, oxidation is bad. 

Lange, a fourth year graduate student at the University of Kentucky, has worked mainly on projects involving Alzheimer’s. In a previous project, she