UA Newswire March 7, 2023

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December 5, 2023

Research, workforce development and economic growth news stories and other feature articles from the University of Alaska Anchorage, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Alaska Southeast, University of Alaska System Office and the UA Foundation. Compiled by the University of Alaska System Office of Public Affairs.

University of Alaska Anchorage

LG Electronics, UAA Establish Consortium for Advanced Heat Pump Research

The agreement will facilitate collaboration among LG innovators, university researchers, local industry and government agencies to help drive market transformation through research on heat pump technology and electrification.

Addressing the growing worldwide interest in cold-climate heat pump technologies, the Consortium will leverage the complementary expertise of technologists at LG Electronics, a global heat pump leader, and the College of Engineering at UAA and its highly regarded HVAC Lab.

Contact: Austin Osborne

LG Electronics North America CEO Thomas Yoon, University of Alaska Chancellor Sean Parnell and James Lee, global president of the LG Electronics Air Solutions business unit pose with agreement

LG Electronics North America CEO Thomas Yoon, University of Alaska Chancellor Sean Parnell and James Lee, global president of the LG Electronics Air Solutions business unit stand together with the signed agreement. (LG Photo)

Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska, University of Alaska Anchorage Partner to Promote Behavioral Health Careers

Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska is supporting a new video campaign with the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) to encourage people to pursue careers in behavioral health, which includes care for mental health conditions and substance use disorders. The videos feature UAA alumni sharing their stories about their behavioral health work and how it benefits the community.

Studies found 36 percent of adults in Alaska experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression did not receive treatment, while 62 percent of Alaskans age 12–17 with depression did not receive any care in the last year. With nearly 25 percent of Alaskans also facing challenges from substance use, the behavioral health care system is strained.

The first two videos in the campaign, along with information about the UAA College of Health educational programs, can be found here.

Contact: Austin Osborne

Anchorage professor honored by state historical society for new work on Black Alaskans

Hartman is an associate professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He’s also the department chair.

“To this day, I really do believe that it’s the teacher that can really stir the passion and if you don’t have that, then history tends to be one of those overlooked disciplines,” he said.

Hartman doesn’t just make an impact in the classroom. He’s also contributed a great deal in making sure Alaska’s history is remembered. “Black Lives in Alaska: A History of African Americans in the Far Northwest” is a book he co-wrote with David Reamer that highlights more than 100 years of African-American history in the Last Frontier.

Hartman, along with Reamer, was awarded the James H. Ducker Historian of the Year Award by the Alaska Historical Society.

Contact: Austin Osborne

University of Alaska Fairbanks

First NASA rocket of season flies high out of Poker Flat Research Range

This month at the Poker Flat Research Range, owned and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute under contract with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, one mission – named Dissipation – could have exciting implications for NASA’s Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC) mission.

The team wanted to study how energy from the magnetosphere dissipates in the upper atmosphere in the forms of heat and visible light.

Mehdi Benna, aeronomist and planetary scientist for the University of Maryland and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, is the principal investigator for both GDC’s MoSAIC (Modular Spectrometer for Atmosphere and Ionosphere Characterization) instrument and for Dissipation, which launched an engineering model of MoSAIC into the skies above Alaska.

Contact: Rod Boyce

The Dissipation team poses in front of the vertical rocket with the mission logo

The Dissipation team poses in front of the vertical rocket with the mission logo. The rocket and its instruments are encapsulated in styrofoam to protect them from the weather. (NASA/Danielle Johnson photo)

How earthquake detectors can be used to study northern lights

Seismometers—devices that detect ground motions caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions—are also sensitive to magnetic fluctuations in the atmosphere.

While some scientists are trying to prevent magnetic influence from entering seismic data, a team at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has found a use for it.

In their research paper, they say seismometers can detect magnetic signals from aurora borealis.

The findings offer an example of how magnetic fluctuation sensitivity in seismometers may have a practical application and demonstrate how the devices could be paired with other technologies to study auroras.

Contact: Marmian Grimes

Iñupiaq Author Makes Library of Congress Great Reads from Great Places with Debut Novel

Iñupiaq author Lily Tuzroyluke's new book “Sivulliq: Ancestor” will be featured in the 2023 National Book Festival as part of the Great Reads from Great Places program, a list of books representing the literary heritage of each state distributed by the Library of Congress.

In “Sivulliq: Ancestor,” the story follows an Inupiaq woman on a desperate trek to rescue her daughter from the captain of a whaling ship who has kidnapped the child to take as his own.

Tuzroyluke is a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and previously served in Tribal government in her home Native Village of Point Hope, Alaska.

Contact: Kaili Berg

University of Alaska Southeast

Petersburg High School students raise and release pink salmon with UAS partnership

Every year, Petersburg High School students vie for the chance to take an aquaculture class, where they learn about fish that sustain the local seafood economy — and they do that by raising and releasing salmon into the wild, themselves.

Through the high school’s partnership with the University of Alaska Southeast, students can earn technical education credits for the class, alongside standard high school credits.

In addition to learning about biology, the class is helping state fish biologists learn more about the health and genetics of the fish in the area.

Contact: Angie Steeves

PHS aquaculture students release salmon fry into City Creek, about two miles outside of Petersburg. (Photo by Shelby Herbert/KFSK)

PHS aquaculture students release salmon fry into City Creek, about two miles outside of Petersburg. (Shelby Herbert/KFSK photo)

After 43 years of service, UAS Ketchikan Director Dr. Priscilla Schulte to Retire December 31

Dr. Priscilla Schulte announced plans to retire after the 2023 fall semester. Schulte has served as the Ketchikan Campus Director since 2013.

As an educator and researcher, she specializes in cultural anthropology, multicultural education, Alaska Native cultures, sociocultural change, and the archaeology of southeast Alaska. As part of a partnership with the United States Forest Service, She has coordinated an annual field trip to do archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork with local Native elders, cultural teachers, and UAS students, which focus on the survey and inventory of important cultural sites located in southern southeast Alaska.

Among her many accomplishments, Dr. Schulte produced the Alaska Public Television documentary The Bear Stands Up (1994), that features Tlingit Elder Esther Shea of the Tongass Bear Clan, who dedicated her life to teaching the songs, language and values of Tlingit traditional life in Southeast Alaska. In 2008 she was recognized with an Emmy for her work as a content advisor for the series Physical Anthropology: The Evolving Human in the category of Best Instructional Programming.

Contact: Angie Steeves

Coeur Alaska donates $300,000 to Environmental Science Endowment at UAS

It all began in 1991 when Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation (now Coeur Mining, Inc.), parent company for Coeur Alaska, received the first-ever $20,000 DuPont/Conoco Environmental Leadership Award. Coeur took the money and used it to establish an endowed scholarship at the University of Alaska Southeast now known as the Coeur Alaska - Kensington Gold Mine Environmental Science Award.

Coeur Alaska has continued to donate additional funds to the endowment over the years and this fall they generously donated $300,000 to the fund in support of UAS Environmental Science students.

The purpose of the scholarship program is to provide financial assistance to Marine Biology and Environmental Science students.

Contact: Angie Steeves

UA System Office

Delegation of UArctic Board members had a community visit in Nome, Alaska

After the Board meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska, a delegation of UArctic Board members headed to Nome, Alaska for a community visit in early November.

The Board members visited UAF's Northwest campus to discuss about their language and reindeer herding programs. They also visited a local reindeer ranch to learn about the living conditions in rural Alaska, and the collaboration the ranch does with UAF in reindeer herding education program. During their visit in Nome, the Board also engaged with local community members.

Contact: Jonathon Taylor

UArctic Board members visiting a reindeer ranch in Nome, Alaska

UArctic Board members visiting a reindeer ranch in Nome, Alaska (UArctic photo)

University of Alaska Regents approve FY25 budgets

The University of Alaska Board of Regents recently approved Fiscal Year 2025 budget requests and strategies on the grounds of growing enrollment and ongoing fiscal stability.

The approved operating budget request includes: $6 million in state funds to support State and Arctic Leadership programs that will support students through their educational endeavors and ultimately add to Alaska’s workforce; $8.5 million to cover unavoidable fixed cost increases as property insurance premiums, cyber security, and utility costs continue to escalate; and $14.7 million to offer negotiated compensation increases to faculty and staff.

Regents kept tuition rates flat for FY25 while tuition revenues are expected to grow by roughly $3 million due to higher enrollment.

Regents also approved a new Bachelor of Business Administration in Business and Data Analytics degree at UAA which was developed in collaboration with industry partners to address an important need in Alaska's workforce.

Contact: Jonathon Taylor

UA System "Did You Know?"

Did you know ANSEP Ruled 2023 with Unprecedented Numbers and a Landmark Graduation?

In 2023, the Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program - ANSEP - saw its largest graduating class and record-breaking enrollment. ANSEP is making history with remarkable achievements, marking this year as a pivotal moment for the program.

Contact: Jonathon Taylor

ANSEP student Katherine Sakeagak

ANSEP student Katherine Sakeagak. (UAF photo)

For more information on the UA Newswire, contact Integrated Media Manager Rebecca Lawhorne at ralawhorne@alaska.edu.

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