Tammy Tragis-McCook
907-474-7042
9/13/10

The University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Management will award more than $19,000 in cash prizes through its annual Arctic Innovation Competition.

The competition, now in its second year, asks entrants to propose new, feasible and potentially profitable ideas. The deadline to submit an entry is Sept. 30, 2010.

Last year, more than 200 ideas were submitted from around the world. Last year’s $10,000 winner was Chris Hunter, with an idea that extends lead-acid battery life tenfold. Runners up were Bruce Kraft, exploring efficient refrigeration; Frank Eagle, offering a mobile restaurant-seating concept; and 12-year-old Jared Post, with an electrical cord safety-locking cap concept.

“The Arctic Innovation Competition aims to stimulate people’s creativity and develop new business,” said competition founder and UAF professor Ping Lan said. “Many people have an idea when frustrated by a problem and think there must be a better way. This competition is the perfect opportunity to turn ideas into reality.”

AIC sponsors include UAF departments, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, and local businesses such as Doyon Limited and Northrim Bank.

The competition is open to the public and there is no entry fee. Individuals or groups with an innovative idea for solving real-life problems and challenges are encouraged to enter. After the initial screening process, finalists will present their ideas to judges Oct. 29 from 5-7 p.m. in the UAF Wood Center ballroom with a reception to follow. Twenty winners will be selected to receive cash prizes ranging from $100 to $10,000. The public is invited to attend. More information is available online at www.arcticinno.com.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Ping Lan, professor, at 907-474-7688 or [email protected].

ON THE WEB: www.arcticinno.com

Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
9/10/10

Award-winning writer and environmental advocate Terry Tempest Williams will speak at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Tuesday, Sept. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wood Center Ballroom.

Williams is the author of “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place,” considered an environmental literature classic, as well as multiple other books. Williams has testified before Congress on women’s issues, been a guest at the White House, camped in the remote regions of Utah and Alaska wildernesses, and worked as “a barefoot artist” in Rwanda.

Williams was the 2006 recipient of The Wilderness Society’s Robert Marshall Award, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by The Center for the American West. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. She is currently the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah.

Williams’ lecture is part of the University of Alaska’s Bartlett Lecture Series. Admission is free, but seating is limited. Williams will also participate in an informal meet-and-greet from 1-2 p.m. in Wood Center Conference Rooms E and F.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Cody Rogers at 907-474-6026 or [email protected].

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Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
9/9/10

War photographer, newspaper reporter and documentary filmmaker Cheryl Hatch will serve as the fifth C.W. Snedden Chair in Journalism at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

As a reporter and photographer, Hatch covered conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, including the aftermath of the first Gulf War in Iraq and the famine and subsequent U.S. intervention in Somalia. She also documented the return to peace in Mozambique and Eritrea.

Hatch is the recipient of the Pew Fellowship in International Journalism at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Her photographs have been exhibited worldwide, including at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., the Sony Gallery in Cairo and the Leica Gallery in Solms, Germany. Her work has been published in Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and Paris Match.

This fall, Hatch will be teaching “Journalism in Perspective” as well as giving a public talk in October as part of the Snedden guest lecturer series. The 2010 series will also feature Pulitzer Prize-winning municipal reporter and editor Ceaser Williams and longtime foreign correspondent and author Bradley Martin.

Helen Snedden established the Snedden Chair in 2003 in memory of her late husband, the former publisher and owner of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Since its establishment, the chair has allowed the UAF journalism department to bring a series of nationally known journalists to Fairbanks to teach classes and speak to students, local journalists and the public.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Brian O’Donoghue, UAF journalism department chairman, at 907-474-6247 or [email protected].

NOTE TO EDITORS: “Ceaser” is correct in the fourth paragraph.

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Debbie Carter
907-474-5406
9/8/10

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service has published new recipe sheets with 13 recipes using hulless barley flour.

The recipes were developed in Extension’s food product development kitchen in Fairbanks and funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Kate Idzorek, Extension food research technician, said the purpose of the grant was to help develop a demand for Alaska hulless barley, which has a distinct, nutty flavor. The hulless barley is not truly without a hull but is called hulless because this type of barley requires little or no processing to remove the hull.

Idzorek said the early-maturing hulless barley has a higher nutritional content than the processed hulled varieties such as pearled barley. It is also low in gluten.

Alaska hulless varieties include Thual and Sunshine, a variety developed by the UAF Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and released in January 2009.

Idzorek worked with Kristy Long, Extension’s foods specialist, to develop recipes for cornbread, brownies, banana bread, pancakes, carrot cake, chocolate chip cookies, honey crackers, muffins, noodles, tart crust and barley soup. Each recipe includes nutrition information. The recipes were developed for hulless barley flour, but regular barley flour may be substituted. Alaska-grown barley may be purchased through some specialty or local food stores.

The recipe sheets may be downloaded from www.uaf.edu/ces/pubs. Search for barley on the site or the publication numbers, FNH-00400-FNH-00412.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Kate Idzorek, Extension food research technician, at 907-474-5391 or via e-mail at [email protected].

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Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
9/7/10

University of Alaska Fairbanks Chancellor Brian Rogers will address staff, faculty, students and community members Thursday, Sept. 9 at fall convocation. The presentation will take place at 1 p.m. in the Charles W. Davis Concert Hall on the UAF campus.

Rogers’ presentation will highlight the accomplishments of the past year and give an overview of the coming academic year. He will give an update on the accreditation and budgeting processes, and touch on what the campus can expect during this year’s review of academic, research and administrative operations.

Students, staff, faculty, alumni and the public are invited to attend. Rural sites can listen via audioconference and submit questions during the event via e-mail to [email protected]. The event will be available via webcast at www.uafnews.com/webcasts. The link will also be available at the chancellor’s website at www.uaf.edu/chancellor/. An ice cream social in the Great Hall will immediately follow the event. The chancellor’s office will also sponsor ice cream socials at rural campuses and centers.

Following convocation, the chancellor’s remarks will be available online at www.uaf.edu/chancellor/.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Copies of Rogers’ convocation address, as well as dial-in information for reporters in remote locations, will be available from Grimes on Thursday morning.

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Nancy Tarnai
907-474-5042
9/2/10

Tiger expert, conservationist and educator Anish Andheria [AH-nish on-DARE-ee-uh] will give a free public lecture Wedesday, Sept. 8 at 1:15 p.m. in the Elvey Auditorium on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

The lecture will focus on the decline of wild tigers in India. It is presented by the UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences.

Visitors to campus can purchase a parking permit at the kiosk located behind the Akasofu Building.

MEDIA CONTACT: Nancy Tarnai, SNRAS public information officer, at 907-474-5042 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Susan Todd, SNRAS associate professor, at [email protected].

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Move-in day is a hectic and exciting day at UAF. This year, we decided to capture the chaos in a time-lapse video shot throughout the morning and afternoon of Aug. 29, 2010.

Video produced by Megan Otts, UAF Marketing and Communications. Photos by Megan Otts, Todd Paris and Maureen McCombs.

Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
9/3/10

University of Alaska Fairbanks alumnus Mark Myers will serve as the campus’ new vice chancellor for research.

UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers said Myers is ideal for the position because of his experience as an executive, his strong connections to the state and federal governments, and his commitment to maintain UAF’s place as a premier research institution.

“This is a very exciting time for the UAF research programs and we are confident that Dr. Myers will provide the vision and leadership to help our researchers address the challenges facing our state and nation,” Rogers said.

Myers will begin his new position Jan. 24, 2011. He is currently working as the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act coordinator for the State of Alaska. Prior to that, he was the director of the U.S. Geological Survey. Myers holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a doctorate in geology from UAF. His career as a geologist and policymaker spans more than three decades and includes work as a geologist for ARCO Alaska and the State of Alaska. From 2001 to 2005, he served as director of the state Division of Oil and Gas. Prior to his geology career, Myers served in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve as a pilot and intelligence officer.

As vice chancellor for research, Myers will oversee administration of UAF’s $123-million-per-year research enterprise and supervise the university’s standalone research institutes.

“Our state is facing an exciting future, full of both heightened challenges and opportunities,” Myers said. “UAF’s research programs and partnerships are strategically focused to provide much of the knowledge and research capacity needed to enhance Alaska’s economy, society and environment.”

Myers said he hopes to work with the UAF research community to enhance interdisciplinary research opportunities and internal communications.

“I will also focus on increasing both the visibility and funding of UAF’s research programs with external stakeholders, potential partners and funders,” he said.

Rogers selected Myers for the $214,000-a-year position from a slate of three finalists. His selection follows a six-month international search by a committee of researchers, administrators, staff members and community members. The search drew 18 qualified applicants. Myers will replace Buck Sharpton, who has served in the position since 2005.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Brian Rogers, chancellor, at 907-474-7112 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Mark Myers at 907-337-4863 or via e-mail at [email protected].

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Ned Rozell
9/2/10

474-7468

On a recent expedition to Alaska’s Quartz Lake, four-year-old visitor to Alaska Garrett Ast plucked a caterpillar from a twig. As Garrett held it in his palm, the caterpillar reared up and (with two sparkling baby blues) looked him right in the eye. Upon closer inspection, my nephew saw that, though striking; the caterpillar’s eyes weren’t real. So was born the question of why a caterpillar might invest energy in producing a set of fake eyes.

A little investigation led to a science research paper with one of the best examples of a first paragraph in its genre:  ”You are a 12-gram, insectivorous, tropical rainforest bird, foraging in shady, tangled, dappled, rustling foliage where edible caterpillars and other insects are likely to shelter. You want to live 10-20 years. You are peering under leaves, poking into rolled ones, searching around stems, exploring bark crevices and other insect hiding places. Abruptly an eye appears, 1-5 centimeters from your bill. If you pause a millisecond to ask whether that eye belongs to acceptable prey or to a predator, you are likely to be (and it takes only once) someone’s breakfast. Your innate reaction to the eye must be instant flight.”

John Burns of the Smithsonian Institution helped craft that sentence as one of three authors of  ”A tropical horde of counterfeit predator eyes,” which appeared this summer in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Burns and his coauthors posted excellent photos of more than two-dozen tropical caterpillars with elaborate false eyes.

The caterpillars probably evolved those false eyes to mimic snakes, lizards, small mammals and other things that eat little birds. But wait a second; there are no snakes or lizards in Alaska. Why would an Alaska caterpillar with aspirations of turning into a swallowtail butterfly pose as a reptile? I sent the photo to Burns, and to Derek Sikes, curator of entomology at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

“Birds learn about snakes when they migrate (to the tropics and other places warm enough for snakes), so the snakes don’t have to be here for the mimicry to work. Nice, eh?” Sikes wrote in an e-mail. Burns said even the rugged birds that don’t flee Alaska for the winter might have the image of a snake wired deep within their tiny brains, even though they will never see one.

“Despite the lack of snakes in Alaska, a small insectivorous bird might still be genetically programmed to retreat when abruptly confronted at close range by the caterpillar’s eyes,’ owing to the bird’s evolutionary ancestry,” Burns wrote. “A resident bird species (like a chickadee or redpoll) might have descended in the not-too-distant past from a species that spends much of its life in a tropical environment where selection would directly preserve such behavior.”

* * * University of Alaska Fairbanks Research Forester Tom Malone sent me a message regarding the dryness of firewood, the subject of a recent column. He calculates that cords of dry aspen and birch weigh 1,000 pounds less than the same wood in wet or green condition. Aspen with 60 percent or greater moisture weighs about 3,870 pounds per cord, compared to 2,340 pounds when the same wood is dried to 20 percent or less moisture. A cord of wet birch weighs 4,500 pounds wet, compared to 3,420 pounds dry. A green cord of spruce weighs in at 3,060 pounds, compared to 2,520 pounds dry. An average cord of mixed firewood produces about 20 million British thermal units, Malone figures, while the same wood in its green condition gives off just 9 million Btu. If your house needs 230 million Btu of firewood heat per year, you could satisfy that with either 10 cords of dry birch or 20 cords of wet birch. Those employing the latter option would have carried 27.9 extra tons into the house, in addition to paying for twice as much wood.

This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute,
University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research
community. Ned Rozell is a science writer at the institute.

Carin Stephens
907-322-8730
8/31/10

A University of Alaska Fairbanks fisheries scientist has teamed up with Alaska Power and Telephone to study how a new power-generating turbine affects fish in the Yukon River.

So far, the news looks good for the fish.

“In the brief testing that we have been able to accomplish, we have no indication that the turbine has killed or even injured any fish,” said Andrew Seitz, project leader and assistant professor of fisheries.
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