By Mary Venuto

The Ecological Research and Education Center (EREC) has reached an important milestone in becoming a recognized field station.

For eighteen years the Ecological Research Facility (ERF), located on the north side of town, was used as a site for controlled experiments. Four years ago the University of Kentucky bought a former library building that was adjacent to ERF. With financial assistance from LexMark, ERF was able to become a field station.  

University of Kentucky biology faculty and undergraduate students have since used the Ecological Research and Education Center for a broad range of ecological environmental and genomic research. In addition to research, EREC is also involved in furthering the education of undergraduate

This story originally ran in the Herald-Leader on Saturday, May 31, and appears courtesy of Linda Blackford and the Lexington Herald-Leader.

by Linda Blackford

In 1976, Geoffrey Manley dropped out of Lafayette High School. He was only a sophomore, but money was tight and he felt like he needed to help support his mom and brother. He'd always enjoyed working with his hands, so he got a job as an auto mechanic at a Texaco station in Gardenside.

"No one in my family had gone to college, so growing up in Lexington, I don't think there was an expectation for me to go to college," Manley, now 53, said recently. "My mom was a single mom and there was a lot of financial burden on our family. I felt a need to go out there and make some money."

He began to specialize

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 21, 2014) — The axolotl may look like a creature from a science fiction movie, but researchers at the University of Kentucky say these strange little salamanders have a lot to teach us.

On Monday, Feb. 24, the university will host a daylong symposium, titled "How Mexican Axolotls Promote Science, Conservation, and Creativity," sponsored by the UK College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology, and Department of Hispanic Studies.

The axolotl (rhymes with "tax a bottle") is unusual in that it does not undergo a metamorphosis between its juvenile form and adulthood, as do most salamanders, a trait known as paedomorphism, the retention of juvenile traits by adults.

"Axolotls are the most famous paedomorphic

by Whitney Hale

(Feb. 14, 2014) — In celebration of the University of Kentucky's upcoming sesquicentennial in 2015, the 71st of 150 weekly installments explores the university's connection to the adoption of evolutionary theory.

Kentucky students were introduced to evolutionary theory as early as 1900. A photograph from campus of an early zoology class has written on the chalkboard, "The Evolution of Evolution Theories." This was long before the controversy regarding teaching evolutionary theory in the 1920s would erupt.

William Jennings Bryan, who had visited with campus leaders in 1912, would become the leading antievolutionist of the time.  In 1922, Bryan returned to Kentucky to further his beliefs speaking to large audiences in Lexington, Paris, Danville, as well as the legislature in Frankfort in favor of the antievolution bill.

An

by Jake Most

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 24, 2013) — Seven Kentucky Wildcats – Khristina Blajkevitch, Caitlin Ciokajlo, Ashley Frazier, Jonathan Keltner, Shelby Kennard, Megan Moir and Chelsea Oswald – have been recognized with the 1A Faculty Athletics Representatives organization’s Academic Excellence Awards.

Individuals had to maintain a minimum 3.8 cumulative GPA and have competed for at least two years of intercollegiate athletics in a sport sponsored by a Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division 1A) conference to qualify for the awards.

Joe Fink, UK’s Faculty Athletics Representative and Professor of Pharmacy, noted that this national recognition is significant for several reasons.

“In addition to recognizing academic excellence as indicated by achieving an outstanding GPA, the award emphasizes the skill these outstanding individuals

by Allison Elliott-Shannon

(Nov. 26, 2013) — From humans to sparrows, individuals within a species display distinct "personalities" when it comes to their behaviors. Taking an innovative approach to understanding how various factors impact behavioral patterns, David Westneat is working with a local population of house sparrows to understand how variables including local ecology, stress and hormones come together to affect the parenting behaviors of birds and other creatures.

Westneat, professor in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology, has been awarded a four-year grant from the National Science Foundation for $670,000. As a behavioral ecologist with expertise on reproductive and social behavior, Westneat will use the grant to study variation in parenting patterns.

by Allison Elliot-Shannon

(Oct. 21, 2013) — Prominent evolutionary biologist John Avise will deliver two lectures at the University of Kentucky this week, as the featured speaker for the fifth annual installment of the prestigious Thomas Hunt Morgan Speaker Series sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology.

Avise will offer two talks, the first a technical and scientific talk titled "Clones, Hermaphrodites, and Pregnancies." This talk will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, in Room 116 of the Thomas Hunt Morgan building on Rose Street. The second talk, titled "Genetics in the Wild," will take place at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 25, in the auditorium of William T. Young Library. The second talk will be appropriate for a general audience. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

By Guy Spriggs

Every year talented and driven students are drawn to the University of Kentucky for its emphasis on research. This summer, biology students Taylor Shackleford and Sarah Whelan – who came to UK to pursue research – were given a unique opportunity to continue their lab work after spring classes came to a close.

Shackleford and Whelan are the first awardees of the Ribble Undergraduate Summer Research Internship, a new program for outstanding biology majors supported by the Gertrude F Ribble Fund. Both are not only excellent students, but also invaluable contributors to exciting biological research taking place here at UK.

“Taylor is intelligent and curious, which has enabled him to engage with the scientific

By Victoria Dekle

Salamanders, one of the oldest lineages of extant animals, are beloved by biology Ph.D. student, Paul Hime. Some of Hime’s research subjects, however, may not be on the top of everyone’s cute animal list. Take, for instance, the North American hellbender salamander – an aquatic amphibian, largely unchanged since before the age of dinosaurs, that can grow over two feet long. “They’re in the water. They’re slimy. They’re big,” Hime said with a grin.

These large and nearly endangered amphibians live in many of Kentucky’s cool rivers and Hime is working with his laboratory director and adviser,