By Meredith Weber

Awards and an endowed scholarship fund announcement highlighted the 28th annual Lyman T. Johnson Torch of Excellence Awards Dinner on Friday, Oct. 19, at the Woodford Reserve Club at Kroger Field.

The University of Kentucky Alumni Association Lyman T. Johnson African American Alumni Group honored students and alumni during the awards ceremony as part of the 2018 Lyman T. Johnson Homecoming Celebration.

UK’s academic colleges and units select one African-American alum whose faith, hard work and determination has positively affected the lives of people on the UK campus, the city, state or nation. These individuals received the Lyman T. Johnson Torch of Excellence Award. These units also choose an African-American student within their respective colleges/departments whose academic achievement and ability to impact the lives of

By Whtiney Hale

University of Kentucky biology and neuroscience senior Esther Putman, of Lexington, is having an out of this world year. This summer, Putman was named one of 2018’s 50 recipients of a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). In addition, Putman was one of 40 recipients of a Brooke Owens Fellowship, which matches its fellows with paid summer internships in the aviation and space industry.

The ASF Scholarship is presented annually to outstanding college students majoring in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM). A nonprofit

The Lyman T. Johnson Alumni Groups is named after Lyman T. Johnson who played an integral role in integrating Kentucky higher education in 1949.

Today we are busy supporting, promoting and initiating activities, programs, strategies and services which address the unique needs of, and foster the inclusion of, African American alumni in all aspects of university life. We are working to increase the level of participation of African American alumni in the alumni affairs of the university, the UK Alumni Association and its affiliated groups. And, we are here to help young African American students succeed. We sure could use your time and your presence as we come together and make plans.

Aaron has conducted independent research since the Spring of 2017 under Dr. Warren Alilain of the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center at UK. The Alilain lab is focused on understanding the nature of traumatic spinal cord injuries at the cervical level which can cause diaphragm paralysis in human patients often resulting in breathing difficulties that greatly decrease their quality of life. Currently, Aaron is carrying out two experiments in rat models, designed to cause recovery of diaphragm function after the C2-level Hemisection model of spinal cord injury. Inspired by his psychology classes, Aaron uses operant conditioning to vary the duration of the low-oxygen periods of intermittent hypoxia treatment post-injury to induce greater neural plasticity within the spinal cord. In addition, Aaron has begun studying the effects of pharmacological application of the drug

Neuroscience major Esther Putman is pursuing a career in aerospace medicine. She recently completed training as a Research Intern at NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration and is now a Space Systems Intern at Vulcan, Inc. in Seattle, Washington 

Here about Esther's journey, in her own words.

https://www.facebook.com/esther.putman/videos/10212203298494113/?t=12

By Whitney Hale and Jenny Wells

More than 45 of the University of Kentucky's students and recent graduates had the world's most prestigious scholarship, fellowship and internship organizations take note this year. The newest class of highly regarded scholars include UK’s 14th Truman Scholar and first Pickering Fellow.

Helping prepare these UK students and recent alumni to compete for and win such honors is the mission of the UK Office of Nationally Competitive Awards. Under the guidance and leadership of Pat Whitlow, the office identifies and works with young scholars on the application process for large scholastic prizes awarded by regional, national and international sources.

This year UK students and alumni were recognized with the following awards:

Luke Bradley and Janice Fernheimer received the University of Kentucky 2018 Excellent Undergraduate Research Mentor Award. This student-nominated award recognizes UK faculty members who demonstrate an outstanding commitment to mentoring undergraduate researchers, providing exceptional undergraduate research experiences, as well as supporting and promoting the undergraduate research initiatives on campus.

Eighteen faculty mentors were nominated for the award by their students.

Bradley is an associate professor and research mentor in the Department of Neuroscience and the 

Congratulations ! Meghan Turner and Daimen Stoltz.

Neuroscience majors and minors, we congratulate two Neuroscience majors who will be honored this Friday from 3-4 pm in room 221 of the Jacobs Science Building.

Meghan Blair Turner will be recognized for her outstanding leadership and commitment to neuroscience outreach in the community. As the Founding President of NeuroCATS, Meghan has created the largest student-led organization on campus and has taken neuroscience into communities and schools across Kentucky, changing the lives of young people forever.

Daimen Stoltz will be honored for her outstanding research in neuroscience. Daimen has worked in the lab of Dr. Warren Alilain for the past several months and has been key part of a team that is investigating respiratory difficulties that result from spinal cord injury.

We will also recognize the

By Gail Hairston

UK geology senior Adam Nolte explains his research on sinkholes in Woodford County to President Capilouto.

The University of Kentucky was represented by 16 undergraduate students and their 14 research projects at the 17th annual Posters-at-the-Capitol event last week at the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort.

Posters-at-the-Capitol is an annual event that showcases undergraduate researchers representing colleges and universities throughout Kentucky. The annual collaborative event was created to educate Kentucky state legislators of the importance of undergraduate research and scholarly work.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, members of the General Assembly, representatives from students' hometowns and other guests toured the exhibitions and engaged directly with some of the state’s best young scholars.

The mission of

SPOTLIGHT ON NEUROSCIENCE MAJOR CAITLIN WESSEL:

For the past year, Caitlin has been conducting conditioned place aversion (CPA) assays that looks at the affective, or emotionally/motivationally influencing, component of neuropathic pain. This work has focused on showing that one of the lab’s models of diabetic neuropathy embodies similar affective components found in diabetic humans, as well as helping determine the signaling pathway in the central nervous system that produces the affective component of chronic neuropathy.

This fall, Caitlin will be studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark participating in DIS’s Psychopharmacology program. She will

be taking neuroscience classes at the University of Coppenhagen, and as part of the program will be traveling to Munich for a week to visit hospitals and labs in that area.

Thank you to visiting students, Noah Duff and Ruth Ward , who came  to talk about our Neuroscience B.S. program on Friday, February 16th.

Parker Modglin, from Bourbonnais, Illinois,  is studying as a pre-medical neuroscience student at the University of Kentucky.  He is currently involved in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program for the United States Army and aspires to commission as a captain into the medical corps after medical school.  He is currently involved in Neurocats, and the Resident Hall association as an area senator. After receiving his undergraduate degree in neuroscience he will commission as a second lieutenant in the medical corps, going on an education delay before active duty to finish medical school.  Currently, he is researching the effects of neuroplasticity  in alcohol dependence with Dr. Mark Prendergast through the STEMcats living learning program and will present his research at the Showcase of Undergraduate Scholars in  April.

Impressive Undergraduate Researchers Take Work to State Capitol

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 12, 2018) — The University of Kentucky was represented by 16 undergraduate students and their 14 research projects at the 17th annual Posters-at-the-Capitol event last week at the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort.

Posters-

By Tony Neely

Student-athletes at the University of Kentuckycombined to earn a total of 80 spots on the 2017 Southeastern Conference Fall Sports Academic Honor Roll, the league announced earlier this week. 

The 2017 Fall SEC Academic Honor Roll includes the sports of cross country, football, soccer and volleyball. It is based on grades from the 2017 spring, summer and fall terms. Among other qualifications, student-athletes must have a 3.0 grade-point average to be on the honor roll.   

Fittingly, UK’s SEC co-champion volleyball team also tied for the most student-athletes on the SEC Honor Roll with 13. UK placed seven student-athletes in the sport of men’s cross country, six in women’s cross country, 27 in football, 13 in men’s soccer and 14 in

By Laura Wright

Wonder Women: Rachel Maggard, Daimen Stolz and Lydia Hager, with their mentor Warren Alilain, helped confirm the presence of a breathing "ghost network" that might help restore breathing function to paraplegics. Photo by Hilary Brown, UKPR

According to a paper recently published in Cell Reports, labs from Case Western Reserve and the University of Kentucky's Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center (SCoBIRC) were able to demonstrate the existence of a parallel neural network that could potentially restore diaphragm function after spinal cord injury.

This ghost network operates entirely separate from the brain, which has long been considered the only organ capable of directing respiratory function, and appears able to instruct the diaphragm to contract when properly activated. 

While practical solutions

By Jenny Wells

For the second semester, University of Kentucky’s #IAmAWomanInSTEM project has awarded scholarships to 11 UK students for project proposals that promote STEM education and careers for women.

Females are less likely than their male counterparts to pursue an education in the STEM disciplines, which include science, technology, engineering, math and health care. The #IAmAWomanInSTEM initiative, which launched at UK in 2016, seeks to change that by recruiting hundreds of female student ambassadors who are encouraging the study of STEM and health care (STEM+H) among women at UK, and empowering them to persist in those fields.

"We are very grateful for the support from the UK Women & Philanthropy as our STEM+H students are growing in their creative roles and expanding their service

Congratulations to Neuroscience student Kelsey Campbell from Somerset, KY, who was awarded a $2,000 grant from #IAmAWomanInSTEM to complete a project entitled "Careers for STEM Women in Kentucky"

In the fall of 2015, UK faculty, staff and students created  a new movement called #IAmAWomanInSTEM to support undergraduate women in majors (or minors) that rely primarily on the sciences, technologies and mathematics – including engineering and health care professions (aka STEM+H)