UA News

UANews | Students and faculty members will have the opportunity to show off their marketable research ideas on March 6. Some will receive a $10,000 award for moving their concepts out of the University and into the marketplace.

UANews | Researchers led by the UA's Matt Sullivan are among the first to dive into the world of viruses drifting through the world's oceans. They are discovering a diversity no one would have dreamed of even a few years ago.

UANews | Parasitic wasps that use tiny insects known as aphids as living nurseries for their brood can sniff out whether the host insect is protected by symbiotic bacteria. The wasps have altered their egg-laying strategy to overwhelm aphid defenses and ensure survival of wasp offspring.

UANews | Invented by a UA professor, the new device is in the early stages of human study. It's designed to treat people with Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in Americans age 60 or older. There is no known cure for the disease, which can lead to partial or complete vision loss.

UANews | Students now have access to additional degree options because of a new agreement signed by the UA and Central Arizona College administrators. Among the program offerings are agribusiness economics and management, nutritional sciences, anthropology, communication and English.

UANews | The UA has earned gold for its campus-wide sustainability efforts, joining the ranks of 30 institutions in the U.S. and Canada. The rating comes from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, a group that measures and encourages sustainability.

UANews | UA Regents' Professor John G. Hildebrand has been elected to the Council of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, he is being honored for his lifetime accomplishments on how olfaction, the sense of smell, influences the behavior of animals, from bugs to humans.

UANews | In one of the first successful attempts to use whole-genome sequencing to track down the cause of a neurological disease in a patient, UA researchers have identified a previously unknown mutation in a sodium channel protein as the likely cause of a severe form of epilepsy.

UANews | The UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has installed its new leadership group. Four new associate deans have been appointed, Dean Shane Burgess has announced.

UANews | With its bathroom-themed contraption, the UA's Rube Goldberg Club aspires to win a regional competition Feb. 25 as part of Engineering Week. Rube Goldberg competitions ask student teams to design elaborate devices that perform simple tasks.

UANews | The UA's Research Data Center offers researchers access to powerful high-performance computing capabilities benefiting scientific, engineering, social, economic and cultural research.

UANews | A collaboration between astronomers at the UA's Steward Observatory and the National Astronomical Observatory of China has led to a better camera for one of the UA's telescopes on Kitt Peak, and better pictures of the sky for the Chinese astronomers.  

UANews | UA researchers have received funding to help the U.S. Department of Defense tackle environmental challenges and manage its land in a sustainable way. Two of the projects focus on climate change impacts, and two center on environmental restoration.

UANews | The UA will host its ninth-annual Innovation Day at the UA on March 6. The event will celebrate the UA's success in technology development and innovation by highlighting the research achievements of students and faculty and staff members.

UANews | Two films that address the social, health and environmental effects of energy production on the Navajo and Hopi lands will be shown at the UA on Feb. 23, followed by panel discussions with Navajo and Hopi environmental leaders and Arizona energy experts.

UANews | The NemaSym Research Coordination Network is an opportunity for scientists to collaborate on nematode research. Understanding the relationship between roundworms and their internal bacteria offers insights on an array of problems, including pest management in agriculture.

UANews | The Michael A. Cusanovich Commemorative Weekend will be held March 2-3 in honor of the late UA researcher.

UANews | UA faculty members have joined an expansive nationwide movement to train and retain 100,000 science, technology, engineering and math teachers over the next 10 years. 

UANews | An investigation found that refrigerator filters work the best, and some pitcher-style filters work to some degree to remove contaminants. Results of the study are scheduled for publication in the March issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.

UANews | Astronomers are watching the astronomical equivalent of streaming live video of a spectacular outburst from the unstable, behemoth double-star system Eta Carinae, which initially was seen on Earth nearly 170 years ago.

UANews | A Rube Goldberg competition, a food drive, a talent show, a career fair, plus numerous community outreach events characterize the flavor of this year's E-Week at the UA, Feb. 16-25.

UANews | Involving artists, engineers, foreign language instructors, filmmakers, environmental scholars and new media studies specialists, the Arizona Centennial Project team is developing a new way to see the UA in the history of Arizona’s statehood.

UANews | UA engineering alumnus Jim Todsen donated a kidney to his wife, Ae, for their 20th wedding anniversary. The two bounced back from the surgery back to ride with their children in El Tour de Tucson.

UANews | A UA astronomy research team was awarded a $600,000 grant for technology development in the NASA’s Explorer mission program. The EXCEDE mission involves a new space telescope for studying the dusty regions near stars to learn how planets form and evolve.  

UANews | Dozens of undergraduate researchers will present their original work during the Honors Research Expo, which is now in its 25th year.

UANews | Scientists are preparing to launch a 10-year project to study water resources, gas exchange and carbon cycling in three man-made landscapes built in a half-acre laboratory at the UA's Biosphere 2.

UANews | Biologists have discovered a bizarre and beautiful reproductive process in diving beetles. What they found challenges the paradigm that sexual selection is mostly driven by males competing against each other.

UANews | UA Science: Tumamoc is looking for people who are interested in science and want to share their excitement, knowledge and skills by volunteering to become "walking docents" at Tumamoc Hill. The training sessions are free, and the first one is Feb. 11 from 10 a.m. to noon.

UANews | UA professor Richard Michod is three months into his recovery from bypass surgery, and fresh from sailing in the Virgin Islands – a trip he was able to make thanks to a pioneering, minimally invasive, robotic-assisted coronary artery bypass graft procedure offered at The University of Arizona Medical Center.

UANews | The Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation recognizes ranching's central importance to Arizona and has demonstrated its commitment to the state's rangelands – and the UA's research and extension efforts in this field – through a $4.5 million endowed gift.

UANews | Astronomy Camp, run by UA Steward Observatory's Don McCarthy, has introduced students and others to science for 25 years. The American Astronomical Society has recognized McCarthy and his efforts with its annual education award.