Short Takes: People and programs at UAF

Submitted by Marmian Grimes
Phone: (907) 474-7902
12/22/06

UAF student wins research award at conference
University of Alaska Fairbanks undergraduate student Sargent Shriver in early November was one of 24 students to receive a first-place award for their research presentations at the 2006 Sigma Xi Student Research Conference in Detroit. Shriver won a $200 cash award for his research project, "The Role of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Dorsolateral Pre-Frontal Cortex on Moral Judgment: Evidence from a Lesion Study."? Shriver is pursuing bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and the philosophy of science and neuroscience.

UAF faculty members named Fulbright Scholars
Two faculty members at the University of Alaska Fairbanks were recently awarded Fulbright Scholar grants for the 2006-2007 academic year. The grants, awarded to approximately 800 faculty members and professionals nationwide this year, allow recipients to lecture and do research at overseas institutions.

Richard Collins, an associate professor at the Geophysical Institute, is slated to visit the University of Rostock in Germany and participate in collaborative laser radar studies of the arctic middle atmosphere.

Judy Shepherd, an associate professor in the social work department, will visit the University of the West Indies-St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago. She is slated to lecture and participate in research on domestic violence and cultural considerations and implications in practice.

UAF is also scheduled to host two visiting Fulbright Scholars this year: Tatiana Bugaenko of the Sukachev Institute of Forest, Russian Academy of Sciences-Siberian Branch, and Muhammad Iqbal of the Biotechnology and Food Research Center, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

UAF library announces site honoring Elmer E. Rasmuson
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Elmer E. Rasmuson Library recently announced a web site that honors the library’s namesake. The site, "Elmer Rasmuson: A Life of Service,"? is the culmination of a four-year effort to assess, archive and catalog Rasmuson’s papers, which are part of the library’s Alaska and Polar Regions Collections. Rasmuson was a longtime library supporter and a former member of the UA Board of Regents. The project was supported by the Rasmuson Foundation and Mary Louise Rasmuson, Elmer E. Rasmuson’s widow. The site is available at www.uaf.edu/library/apr/rasmusonbio/.

Staff member awarded art grant
Mary Matthews, disability services coordinator at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was recently awarded a $2,500 Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Project grant. The grants are designed to provide artists with the resources to concentrate and reflect on their work and to develop their artistry more fully. Matthews is a mixed-media sculptor.