by Erin Holady Ziegler

When rising University of Kentucky senior Joseph Mann arrived in Cape Town, South Africa in mid-May, he was ready to make a difference and ready for a challenge. Little did he know that his travel abroad experience would change the course of his life.

"You just need to come here," Mann laughed. "That's what I've told my friends and family. In the face of such adversity, there's hope. South Africans know that they have a bright future. Despite issues with service availability and government

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

When University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences academic adviser Emily Dailey first contacted psychology senior Suzanna Mitchell about a developmental

by Brad Duncan and Jenny Wells

Celebrating its 13th year, the University of Kentucky College of Education’s Teachers Who Made a Difference program honored its newest group of educators at the 2011 ceremony held Saturday, April 30. More than 140 educators from nine states were recognized for the significant influence they have had in the lives of their students.

"The University of Kentucky College of Education prides itself on preparing great teachers," said Mary Ann Vimont, the college's director of Public Relations and Student, Alumni and Community Affairs. "As part of our mission, we also think it is important to honor those teachers who are making a difference in the lives of their students, here in Kentucky and across the country."

The program got its start

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

A child’s ability to focus on a videogames is not necessarily the type of focus parents should look for when determining attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

In fact, increased focus on a screen as opposed to other activities is actually a characteristic of ADHD, according to pediatrician Perri Klass.

"Is a child’s fascination with the screen a cause or an effect of attention problems — or both? It’s a complicated question that researchers are still struggling to tease out," Klass wrote in a recent New York Times story.

Klass references University of Kentucky psychology professors Elizabeth Lorch and

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

From the complexity of Proctor and Gamble's profit-maximizing strategies, to the seeming simplicity of a crepe myrtle's determination of how much root mass to grow, the world makes decisions in a spectacular array of circumstances.

Most academic disciplines at the University of Kentucky address the process of decision making in some way. According to UK biology Professor Philip Crowley, there's a rich mix of similarities and differences in approach among the disciplines that provides great opportunities for cross-fertilization when it comes to studying decision making.

"For example, there are different goals for the decision making process in different fields, such as profit maximization in economics, fitness maximization in

Director of the Center for Drug Abuse Research Translation and Department of Psychology Professor Michael Bardo has been named a 2011 William B. Sturgill Award recipient. The award is presented anually to a graduate faculty member for outstanding contributions to graduate education at the University of Kentucky.

"Winning the Sturgill Award is such a high honor for me because my past trainees have been so successful," Bardo began. "It has been a great pleasure to stay in contact with many of them on an annual basis at professional meetings in psychology and neuroscience. Watching them grow from trainees into true

Title: Hit Songs Offer Window into Society's Psyche
Contact: Cheyenne Hohman
Page Content: by Erin Holaday Ziegler

Popular music is doing more than entertaining society, it's giving a University of Kentucky researcher a window into how society is changing and apparently becoming more self-loving.

UK psychology Professor Nathan DeWall was listening to Weezer's 2008 hit "The Greatest Man that Ever Lived" last summer, when he had an observation.  "They’re marketing this towards an audience who has never loved themselves more," he thought, while listening to the "I'm the greatest man that ever lived" lyrics strewn throughout the chorus. "What’s the connection here?" DeWall asked.
 
DeWall and his colleagues at UK, the University of Georgia and San Diego State University wanted to use culture to measure social change over time. Since

Director of the Center for Drug Abuse Research Translation and Department of Psychology Professor Michael Bardo has been named a 2011 William B. Sturgill Award recipient. The award is presented anually to a graduate faculty member for outstanding contributions to graduate education at the University of Kentucky. "Winning the Sturgill Award is such a high honor for me because my past trainees have been so successful," Bardo began. "It has been a great pleasure to stay in contact with many of them on an annual basis at professional meetings in psychology and neuroscience. Watching them grow from trainees into true colleagues has been personally fulfilling, and I now ask them questions relevant to my ongoing research and training. In fact, I have several examples where I have used their advice to enhance my own research laboratory and

by Saraya Brewer
photos by Lee Thomas

Leave it to a graduate student in film studies to hammer out aspects of horror from one of America’s most beloved family Christmas classics. “It’s Christmas film noir,” said Colleen Glenn about "It’s a Wonderful Life." “It’s an extremely dark film.” "It’s a Wonderful Life" is just one of the handful of Jimmy Stewart films that Glenn, a University of Kentucky English Ph.D. candidate with a specialty in film studies, has watched (and re-watched, analyzed, paused, rewound, and watched again) for her dissertation, in which Stewart and other great actors of the mid 20th century –– including Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra, and John Wayne –– will each get their own chapter.

“I grew up watching old classic movies on PBS with my family, so I really have my parents to thank for my original interest in film,” Glenn said. “I

by Rebekah Tilley
photos by Richie Wireman

For many of us, our freshman year of college is the first transitional step into experiencing the world. As a freshly minted high school graduate, doctoral student Leah Bayens instead spent that first year in the woods reading.

“There is something about that experience that forged in me what was already a deep-seated understanding of the importance of those kinds of rural communities, the importance of not developing everything into suburban enclaves,” explained the Louisville native. “It was a foundational experience for me because of that. It was also my first real foray into understanding farm culture.”

Since that time Bayens has grafted herself into the land, the culture and the nature that surrounds it all. It permeates her graduate research, how she lives her life, and who she is at her core.

By Erin Holaday
Photos by Shaun Ring

After a busy day without a lunch break, how many times have you had that extra piece of chocolate cake, or another glass of wine later that night, when you knew, in your heart of hearts that you might not really need it?
 
"And the next morning, you're beating yourself up about it," said UK psychology graduate student Holly Miller. "It happens to everyone."
 
But according to a new study headed up by Miller, it's not necessarily your fault. "Without fuel, you can't inhibit the bad behavior," she explained. "It's physiology."
 

Graduate Student

By Megan Neff
Photos by Mark Cornelison

Natalie Glover bears no material resemblance to Wassily Kandinski.

But the 23-year-old psychology graduate student has dealt with the abstract in ways that parallel this Russian abstract painter and art theorist.

The most obvious parallel is that Glover is a painter too. And like Kandinski, she realizes the intrinsic value of art in dealing with matters of human nature; of reflecting not only what is aesthetically pleasing, but also what is internally revealing.

“The older I get, the more I study, the more confident I become,” said Glover. “And I find that in my art. More and more I’m starting to do original work, most of it abstract. I’m starting to trust in my abilities more.”

Though Glover’s path did not

Janet Neisewander spends a lot of her time with rodents and cocaine.

As strange as that may sound, the research the Arizona State University professor is doing with those two things may someday help people struggling with addiction.

Neisewander, who earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Kentucky in 1988, became interested in how the brain is connected to behavior early on in her academic career.

As a freshman at Rockford College in Rockford, Ill. Neisewander became passionate about the human brain.

“I was fascinated by the way the brain is involved in behavior and how brain dysfunctions result in dysfunctional behavior,” she said.

As she was finishing her bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology, Neisewander looked for graduate programs that would allow her to continue her studies.

“I wanted a good graduate training program

Growing up in Athens, Greece, Panayotis “Taki” Petrou knew he wanted to study in the United States when he was older.

Three of his uncles lived in America and his older sister had already left Greece for school in Chicago.

“I was finishing high school and thinking about college, and it had always been my dream to go to the U.S.,” Petrou said.

As far as choosing the University of Kentucky as his American destination, Petrou took a pretty simple approach. “Kentucky had similar latitude as Greece so I figured that the weather would be similar,” he said, laughing.

In researching UK, Petrou also found a school with reasonable tuition in an area of the country with an affordable cost of living, he said.

“I also liked that it was a big school,” he said. “It had a lot to offer.”

While Petrou felt comfortable with his choice in schools, he didn’t

Ph.D. Student

by Saraya Brewer
photos by Tim Collins

When Tamika Zapolski was searching for a doctoral program, University of Kentucky clinical psychology professor Gregory Smith was one of her first interviews. “I had several interviews after that, but I didn’t care about any of them,” she said. “I knew I wanted to study with Dr. Smith.”

When Zapolski arrived at UK in 2005, she was able to put her undergraduate career to use immediately. With a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in black studies & human development and family studies from University of Missouri-Columbia, she was particularly interested in how cultural factors play into the development of eating disorders – as she put it, “what factors were more important for beauty to women and how that then led to dysfunction.”

For example, she explained,

Earth & Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Trevor Strosnider
by Sarah Vos

For work this summer, Trevor Strosnider, a junior majoring in geology, donned a hard hat and descended into a Nevada gold mine. He identified rocks and fault lines, measured how far mining tunnels had been extended and used that information to help the Newmont Mining Corporation find gold.

Before he left for Nevada, Strosnider had no idea what he would be doing at the mine. He learned of the internship after a representative from Newmont, one of the world’s largest gold producers, made a presentation at UK. A professor encouraged him to apply, even though Strosnider didn’t think he was qualified. He had studied geology at UK, but did not specialize in gold mining and mineral extraction.

But a few weeks later the offer came: $20 an hour, 40 hours a week, to work in the company’s

Psychology Junior

by Sara Cunningham

Amanda Hatton’s honesty and passion shines as she talks about the challenges she’s faced and how those challenges have shaped her goals.

“Five years ago, I had a big setback in my life,” the psychology junior said.

On Aug. 9, 2003, Hatton and her boyfriend were in a serious car accident on their way out to her family’s farm in Woodford County. Hatton’s boyfriend was killed and Hatton was badly injured. She spent two months in a coma, Hatton said.

“I had a closed-head injury and when I did finally wake up, there was so much I didn’t remember and I had to relearn how to do a lot,” she said.

But Hatton said she found strength in her experience and in her family. She is the youngest of seven children.

"When my accident happened, I was a student at LCC and I had to take that fall

There is one 12 or 13-year-old female, with great dental work, that he can’t get out of his mind. This is a case that haunts him.

“I can’t ID her,” said Bill Bass, one of the world’s leading forensic anthropologists and alumnus of UK’s College of Arts and Sciences. “There are cold cases, but they are never really that cold. We are constantly talking about them and there are new techniques that are coming out all the time that may break the case.”

Originally from Stephens City, Va., Bass came to Kentucky in the early 50s after being

Was it destiny or some predisposition that led John Yozwiak to the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences? Or maybe it simply was a matter of finding a great opportunity.

Yozwiak, whose grandfather was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Youngstown State University, was born in Binghamton, N.Y., but found himself relocated with his family to Lexington, Ky., when he was six.

Upon graduating from Lexington Catholic High School in 1990, Yozwiak, who comes from a long line of college graduates, knew that college was certainly the next step. He used his experiences from visiting friends at UK as well as his desire to stay close to home in choosing his collegiate destination.

“My family has always valued education. Therefore, attending college was very important to me,” Yozwiak said. “In part, I decided to attend the University of

Department of Pyschology Ph.D. Student

by Joy Gonsalves

The Department of Psychology has taught Ben Freer a thing or two about learners. Though this third-year Ph.D. student from the Cognitive Development Program has “always been philosophical about why people behave the way they do,” his academic experience has challenged his perspective on the cognitive differences among us. 

“It’s important to understand people from every walk of life, not as victims, but as different, and as I’ve grown, this is the direction my studies have taken me.” 

In the middle of the summer, Freer is hard at work on several research projects, each one related to that philosophy. One uses an EEG to measure brain activity in children with ADHD to further break down current research and