Todd Paris
1/12/11
It has been a phenomenal year helping document a slice of the incredible University of Alaska Fairbanks experience. As the photographer with UAF’s Marketing and Communications office, I have great opportunities and an amazing variety of subject matter to photograph: Fairbanks, our Northwest Campus in Nome, the Yukon River, ice climbing and roller derby, preschool and college graduation, and so much more. Here are 100 of my favorite photos from the past year. I hope you’ll enjoy them.

Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
12/24/10

Clinical-Community Psychology Ph.D. program produces first graduate
Last fall, Sarah Dewane made history by becoming the first graduate of the joint University of Alaska Fairbanks and University of Alaska Anchorage Clinical-Community Psychology doctoral program. The program’s courses are co-taught by faculty members at both UAF and UAA campuses. Students can take courses in either Fairbanks or Anchorage while working toward a doctorate from UAF. The University of Alaska Board of Regents approved the program in the summer of 2005 and admitted its first cohort of students in 2006.

Students named to national honor band
Four University of Alaska Fairbanks music students been selected to perform in the College Band Directors National Association’s Small College Intercollegiate Honor Band at their national conference to be held in March 2011. Hadassah Silveira (bassoon), Ben Cobb (bass trombone) and Amber Hess (horn) have all won positions, while Kellen Baker (euphonium) is an alternate. The students will rehearse and perform during the conference with approximately 80 other student musicians from across the United States and Canada. Karen Gustafson, director of the UAF Wind Symphony and chair for Alaska in the CBDNA, will attend the conference with the students.

Ohio rancher makes donation to Reindeer Research Program
Reindeer rancher Ron Disher of Waterville, Ohio, has donated $5,000 to the Reindeer Research Program at UAF. This is the start of a five-year commitment Disher has made to the program. He has also challenged members of the Reindeer Owners and Breeders Association to donate to the program and will match their contributions. UAF’s Reindeer Research Program is dedicated to the development and promotion of the reindeer industry in Alaska. The research focuses on meat science, range management, nutrition and animal health.

Annual giving coordinator honored as ‘Rising Star’
Megan Damario, UAF‘s annual giving coordinator and UAF alumna has received the District VIII Rising Start Award in Philanthropy from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Damario will accept the award at the CASE District VII annual advancement meeting in Vancouver in February. The Rising Star Awards recognize advancement professionals with seven or fewer years of experience whose accomplishments distinguish them as possible future leaders in the profession.

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Theresa Bakker
907-474-6941
12/14/10

Until last summer, recent discoveries of dinosaur bones and tracks in Alaska have been restricted to the Cretaceous Period.

That changed when a team including University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists documented fossilized tracks in Southwest Alaska that appear to date from the Jurassic Period, which stretches from 150 to 200 million years ago.

“In one fell swoop we pushed the record of dinosaurs in Alaska back about 50 million years,” said Patrick Druckenmiller, earth sciences curator at the University of Alaska Museum of the North and assistant professor in the UAF geology and geophysics department.

In 1975, geologists mapping the rocks near Chignik Bay discovered what appeared to be three-toed dinosaur tracks on a sandstone cliff. The group photographed the site but did not collect any other data. Thirty-five years later, Druckenmiller and a team of scientists set out to find the location in that photo and fully document the site. The team included Kevin May from the museum, UAF geologists Sarah Fowell and Paul McCarthy, and invertebrate paleontologist Robert Blodgett of Anchorage.

Planning the expedition presented logistical challenges. The field area is in remote and mountainous terrain famous for its high density of coastal brown bears. The precise location of the tracks was also uncertain, so Druckenmiller received permission to work on both Chignik Lagoon Native Corporation land and in the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge. The work was based out of Chignik Bay, Alaska.

“It was great to land in a community that was very receptive and accommodating to the field work we had to do,” said Druckenmiller.

Supported by helicopter pilot Sam Egli of King Salmon, the team established a remote field camp and set to work. May said they found the site after only two days of searching. “After staring at the 1975 photograph for so long, it was a real thrill to finally see it in real life.”

The layer of tracks was tilted nearly vertically and could only be reached with the use of climbing equipment. Once they reached the site, Druckenmiller and May made replicas of each track for study and exhibit back at the museum.

Druckenmiller said the trip netted a surprising amount of information.

“Based on their size and shape we can tell that the tracks were made by a human-sized, meat-eating (theropod) dinosaur,” he said. “We could even see impressions from tips of their claws. That makes these tracks especially rare.”

The rest of the team examined the rocks for additional clues and were able to establish that these dinosaurs walked on sand in a beach-type environment during the Late Jurassic Period, long before modern Alaska took shape.

Druckenmiller said the findings provide an entirely new chapter in the story of the life that once existed in Alaska and he hopes to return to the site in the near future. “We are pretty sure there are other surprises waiting for us out there.”

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Patrick Druckenmiller, museum earth sciences curator, 907-474-6954, [email protected].

ON THE WEB: museum.uaf.edu

NOTE TO EDITORS: Images of the dinosaur tracks and the fieldwork team are available for download at www.uafnews.com.

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Carin Stephens
907-322-8730
12/8/10

Despite a 30-year warming trend, the last three years in the Bering Sea have been the coldest on record. A University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist says that the cold temperatures have helped produce larger zooplankton in the Bering Sea, which may affect the way Walleye pollock feed.

Alexei Pinchuk, research professional at the UAF Seward Marine Center, has spent the last three years gathering zooplankton samples in the Bering Sea. He and his colleagues have been looking at how changes in temperature in the Bering Sea affect resident zooplankton and, in turn, how those zooplankton shifts may affect the diet of Walleye pollock.

During colder years, like the last three, pollock tend to eat the larger zooplankton, like copepods and krill, which flourish in chillier temperatures. Pinchuk has also found that the recent cold temperatures have brought an arctic “sand-flea”, the amphipod Themisto libellula, south into Bering Sea waters. Young salmon and pollock seem to prefer to eat these amphipods over other smaller zooplankton.

In warmer years, which include the record-setting high temperatures of 2001 to 2005, smaller zooplankton tend to thrive. According to Pinchuk and his colleagues, younger pollock tend to eat the smaller plankton, while larger pollock favor the larger plankton found in colder waters. This causes younger pollock to start out doing well in warmer temperatures, but as the pollock grow bigger, they may not be able to find the larger zooplankton prey they need to produce enough fat for overwintering.

“The larger pollock may then eat their smaller cousins instead,” said Pinchuk.

Pinchuk conducted his research on board the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, R/V Knorr and R/V Thomas G. Thompson. He collected his zooplankton samples using multiple collecting nets.

Although the last few years have been cold, scientists predict that the warming trend in the Bering Sea will continue.

Pinchuk’s findings were featured in the Nov. 4 issue of Nature magazine. His work is part of the broad Bering Sea Project, a six-year, $52 million integrated ecosystem study of the Bering Sea. The Bering Sea Project is funded by both the National Science Foundation and the North Pacific Research Board.

About the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences

The UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences conducts world-class marine and fisheries research, education and outreach across Alaska, the Arctic and Antarctic. 60 faculty scientists and 150 students are engaged in building knowledge about Alaska and the world’s coastal and marine ecosystems. SFOS is headquartered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and serves the state from facilities located in Seward, Juneau, Anchorage and Kodiak.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Alexei Pinchuk, research professional, UAF Seward Marine Center, 907-224-4313, [email protected].

ON THE WEB: www.sfos.uaf.edu

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Doug Schneider
907-474-7449
12/2/10

Biologists developing the science and technology to raise wild king crab in hatcheries have received $460,000 to assess how hatchery crab may fare in the wild.

Researchers at the Alaska King Crab Research, Rehabilitation and Biology program, or AKCRRAB, will use the funds to study how juvenile king crab cope with predators, find food, and interact with other marine organisms, including other crab. Their work could eventually help rebuild collapsed king crab stocks in parts of Alaska.

AKCRRAB is a coalition of university and federal scientists, fishermen, seafood businesses, coastal communities and Alaska Native groups that formed in 2006 to find ways to help Kodiak Island red king crab and blue king crab in the Pribilof Islands recover.

AKCRRAB scientists working at the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery in Seward have steadily improved red king crab larval survival in the hatchery: from two percent in 2007 to 31 percent in 2008 to 50 percent in 2009 and 2010. During the past two years, scientists have raised about 100,000 red king crab to their first juvenile stage.

Ginny Eckert, associate professor of fisheries at the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, and Allan Stoner, research fisheries biologist with the federal Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Ore., received a two-year, $303,000 grant from the NOAA Sea Grant Aquaculture Research Program. Additional in-kind and support services totaling nearly $157,000 comes from the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, UAF and Alaska Sea Grant.

Eckert says the research is critical to evaluating the feasibility of rebuilding king crab stocks in waters around Kodiak Island and the Pribilof Islands. To better understand whether hatcheries can work, scientists need to know how their crabs would handle the rigors of life in the open ocean.

“Hatchery-cultured red king crabs have no experience with seasonal cycles, predator avoidance techniques or foraging for natural food items,” Eckert explained.

Eckert said that hatchery programs for other crab species elsewhere in the world found that hatchery crabs benefited from non-lethal exposure to predators in the hatchery.

Part of this new research will explore whether conditioning juvenile crab to predators improves survival, Eckert said.

Over the next two years, Eckert, Stoner and Ben Daly, Alaska Sea Grant research biologist assigned to the AKCRRAB program, will conduct experiments aimed at better understanding the role of habitat, crab body size, prey and predator density, water conditions and predator types, on the survival of juvenile crab. Lab experiments will be done at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. Field experiments will be conducted in Yankee Cove, near Juneau.

Raising and then releasing large numbers of hatchery-born king crab into the wild is not currently part of the AKCRRAB program. Rather, the program seeks to determine the feasibility of hatcheries as a tool to rebuild wild crab stocks. Should hatcheries be a feasible rebuilding tool, resource managers and policymakers would have to decide whether to use them.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Ginny Eckert, associate professor, UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, 907-796-5450, [email protected].

ON THE WEB:www.alaskaseagrant.org

NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos are also available for download online at http://seagrant.uaf.edu/research/projects/initiatives/king_crab/photo_gallery/.

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Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
10/15/10

Seifert takes new sustainability role within Cooperative Extension Service
Rich Seifert, the longtime “energy guy” for the UAF Cooperative Extension Service, has a new role as community sustainability coordinator for Extension. Seifert will help Alaska communities become as self-sufficient as possible and will work to meet the needs for increasing energy, food and health security. Seifert and Extension will provide the link between the university and communities that need current, research-based information in these areas. He will also work with existing community sustainability organizations in all regions of the state and provide opportunities for them to share information. Seifert served as Extension’s energy specialist for 28 years, and retired from the university June 30. He began his new position Sept. 9 but will continue some of his energy education work until a replacement is hired. Seifert is available at 907-474-7201 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Boyer named head of Center for Alaska Native Health Research
Bert Boyer has been named director for the Center for Alaska Native Health Research, part of the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Boyer has been serving as acting director since February, when CANHR director Gerald Mohatt died. Boyer, who was the center’s co-founder along with Mohatt, is the principal investigator of several CANHR genetics studies. Boyer is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. He will give an overview of CANHR at the Alaska Federation of Natives at 10:25 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 22.

New librarian takes helm at Geophysical Institute’s Keith B. Mather Library
Former Vassar College science librarian Flora Grabowska was recently named the new librarian and research assistant professor at the Keith B. Mather Library at the UAF Geophysical Institute. At Vassar, Grabowska was a strong proponent of open access, which is a move to provide scientists, teachers, students and the public free and unrestricted use of research published in scholarly journals. Before earning her master’s degree in library science in 1981, Grabowska was a scientist herself. She worked in biochemistry at the University of British Columbia and at the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research in the United Kingdom. The Keith B. Mather Library is the most northern special library in the Unites States. The library has a number of special collections, including the largest aurora collection in the country. Although the library supports the GI and IARC, it’s open to the public Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The library is located in Room 202 of the Akasofu Building on UAF’s West Ridge.

UAF Alumni Association elects board members, officers
This spring, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Alumni Association elected several new board members and officers. New board members include Jim Dixon of Fairbanks, Dani Carlson of Fairbanks, Sam Enoka of San Francisco and Tania Clucas of Fairbanks. During the meeting, the board elected new officers, including Randy Pitney of Fairbanks, president; Dan Flodin of Chugiak, vice president; DeShana York of Anchorage, secretary; and Derek Miller of Fairbanks, treasurer.

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Nancy Tarnai
907-474-5042
10/14/10

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy named University of Alaska Fairbanks geography professor Lawson Brigham as its 2010 distinguished alumnus of the year, the highest honor bestowed by the academy. The award was presented by Rear Adm. Richard Larrabee, USCGA Alumni Association chairman of the board, at a ceremony at the academy in New London, Conn., last month.

“Your Coast Guard experience, research and service to commissions and panels around the world have enable you to become a preeminent authority on the Arctic as it remains a bellwether of climate change,” Larrabee said. “In all your polar work with international maritime and scientific communities you have reflected great pride on your alma mater.”

After graduating from the academy in 1970, Brigham went on to command four Coast Guard cutters. He worked with all of the world’s icebreaker services and sailed aboard Canadian, Russian, Swedish and Finnish icebreakers. Brigham was the commandant’s chief strategic planner and led a large personnel study, the Coast Guard’s Work-Life Study. He was a distinguished science faculty member, head sailing coach at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a marine policy fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Brigham earned a doctorate at the University of Cambridge and served on many arctic and Antarctic panels and commissions, led the Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2005-09 and served aboard polar icebreakers in more than 20 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. He was one of the signers of the American Geographical Society’s Fliers’ and Explorers’ Globe in 2008, joining the signatures of Sir Edmund Hillary, Neil Armstrong and Amelia Earhart. He served as commanding officer of the icebreaker Polar Sea, the first ship in history to reach the ends of the global ocean at the North Pole in 1994, deep in the Ross Sea.

UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences Dean Carol Lewis said of Brigham’s award, “I am extremely pleased and proud that Lawson is part of our school. His distinguished service and record have enhanced our work in arctic policy and set us up for the future as we look for new challenges of navigable waters within the arctic seas.

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Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
9/30/10

History professor Carol Gold has been appointed the Arthur T. Fathauer Chair in History at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The late Helen Ann Fathauer established the Fathauer Chair in 2000 in honor of her late husband, who studied history at the University of Chicago.

Gold joined the UAF history department in 1980. She has taught a wide variety of courses on European, Scandinavian and women’s history and published multiple books, chapters and articles in English and Danish. Her recent book, “Danish Cookbooks: Domesticity and National Identity 1616-1901,” was named one of the best culinary histories by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

During her time at UAF, Gold has served on dozens of committees from the departmental to statewide level. She is a founder of the UAF Women’s Center and served as its director from its founding in 1994 until 1996. She has twice served as the chair of the history department between 1998 and 2001 and then from 2001 to 2006.

Gold holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Antioch College. She earned her master’s degree in Scandinavian Studies and a doctorate in history from the University of Wisconsin.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Carol Gold, Fathauer Chair, at 907-474-6509 or [email protected].

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Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
9/16/10

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Alumni Association will honor professor of petroleum engineering Shirish Patil with the 2010 Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Patil will receive the award Sept. 24 at a luncheon at the Princess Riverside Lodge. The event is part of the alumni association’s annual reunion, scheduled for Sept. 23 – 25.

Patil, the oldest of three children, was born and raised in Pune, India. In 1981, he graduated from the College of Engineering in Pune, India and moved to the United States shortly thereafter. He continued his studies, first at the University of Pittsburgh and later at UAF, earning master’s degrees in mechanical engineering, petroleum engineering and engineering management. In 2007, he received a doctorate in mineral resource engineering from UAF.
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Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
9/15/10

As the climate warms and global commerce grows, the prospect of an arctic shipping route becomes more tangible. A new report released by the University of Alaska Fairbanks offers international policymakers guidance for navigating the political and practical ramifications of shipping in the Arctic.

The report, “Considering a Roadmap Forward: The Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment,” is the result of a workshop hosted by UAF in October 2009 as part of the University of the Arctic’s Institute for Applied Circumpolar Policy. The workshop drew nearly 70 experts from Canada, China, Denmark, Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States to examine the 17 recommendations outlined in the Arctic Council’s 2009 Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment.

“The workshop report takes the key AMSA recommendations and provides to the arctic community a list of action items to consider as we collectively navigate a future of change,” said Mike Sfraga, head of the UA Geography Program and UAF vice chancellor for students.
Sfraga co-chairs the Institute for Applied Circumpolar Policy with Kenneth Yalowitz of Dartmouth College. Yalowitz is director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth.

“The future of shipping in the Arctic is one of the most important issues resulting from climate change in the North,” Yalowitz said.

The three-day October 2009 workshop focused on three themes: enhancing arctic marine safety, protecting arctic people and the environment, and building the arctic marine infrastructure. The 24-page report offers dozens of proposed actions, many of which will require public or private funding. Among the highest-priority policy issues are:

• A mandatory International Maritime Organization Polar Code.
• Full tracking and monitoring of arctic commercial ships.
• An arctic search and rescue agreement (underway).
• Surveys of indigenous marine use.
• A circumpolar response capacity agreement among the arctic states.
• Implementation of an arctic observing network to support science and marine operations.

“The working groups identified a roadmap, actions and a set of key issues for each of AMSA’s recommendations,” said UAF geography professor Lawson Brigham, who led the original AMSA effort for the Arctic Council.

Sfraga presented the report at an Institute for Applied Circumpolar Policy workshop in Rovaniemi, Finland, last week. UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers is sharing the report with members of the University of the Arctic, Arctic Council and Arctic Parliamentarians in Brussels this week. It is available online at http://www.snap.uaf.edu/downloads/arctic-marine-shipping-assessment. The workshop report will also be widely distributed to the global maritime and arctic communities.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Mike Sfraga at 907-474-7317 or [email protected]. Lawson Brigham, UAF geography professor, at 907-474-7494 or [email protected].

ON THE WEB:
The Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment, http://pame.is/amsa
University of the Arctic’s Institute for Applied Circumpolar Policy, http://iacp.dartmouth.edu/

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