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  • Head and shoulders photo of a man in a knit cap and light jacket in a fall landscape with the Alaska oil pipeline in the background.

    A rich career in a quirky place that fit

    November 15, 2024

    Brian Barnes did something outrageous earlier this week. The biologist drove to a movie theater. In the middle of the day. Barnes, 70, had time to catch a matinee in Fairbanks because after 38 years he recently retired from the University Alaska Fairbanks.

  • A landscape with spruce trees in the foreground and a rocky mountain slope in the distance.

    Geologic hydrogen may be an answer

    November 09, 2024

    The internal combustion engine is less than 100 years old. Same for the technologies we have developed to pull oil and gas from the ground. It's hard to imagine life without our cars and planes and buildings heated with natural gas and oil. But it really wasn't that long ago that people had none of these things. Sometimes, advances happen, and clever people change the way we live.

  • Cars sit in a parking lot covered with slushy snow.

    The numbers behind a weather forecast

    November 01, 2024

    A meteorologist from the National Weather Service's local office recently told a newspaper reporter that heavy, wet, snow would materialize in a few days. He said it would resemble "cement falling from the sky."

  • Clusters of “fairy circles” in Western Australia have been found to seep hydrogen gas.

    UAF workshop will look at Alaska's geologic hydrogen

    October 25, 2024

    Reshaping Alaska's energy future with geologic hydrogen is the subject of a three-day workshop next week hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission.

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Fairbanks is central to science

At 120 miles south of the Arctic Circle, the Fairbanks campus is well situated for northern research. UAF research in arctic biology, engineering, geophysics, supercomputing, and Alaska Native studies is renowned worldwide.

UAF ranks in the top 150 of nearly 700 U.S. institutions that conduct research. UAF has ranked in the top 11 of more than 10,000 institutions worldwide for number of citations in climate change publications.

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Your discoveries support Alaska

University researchers work to combat challenges Alaskans face on a daily basis. We are helping Alaskans live more comfortably and safely with a secure future by bringing research dollars into the state. More than 80% of the university’s research is directly related to Alaska.  

To support research innovation, the University of Alaska hosts many professionally staffed laboratories with highly technical capacities. Our labs and field facilities are available to all scientists. 

Achieving R1 at UAF

With more than $200 million in research activity each year, the University of Alaska Fairbanks is Alaska’s research university. We are ready to step up to R1 and join the top 4% of research universities in the United States.

R1 is more than a status symbol. It will take research in Alaska to the next level by opening doors to additional funding and attracting top-tier faculty and graduate students. In addition to powering discoveries that will shape Alaska’s future, UAF’s increased research activity benefits Alaska’s economy with more jobs and more spending at Alaska businesses.