Four University of Alabama graduates win Fulbright Scholarships
Al.com – Aug. 1
Four University of Alabama graduates have been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to study and teach abroad during the 2013-14 school year. The highly competitive Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards grants for study and research projects overseas in hopes of facilitating cultural exchange. This year, 1,700 students from around the nation were chosen out of an applicant pool of nearly 10,000. According to a UA press release, Emma Fick, an English major from Covington, La., will serve in Serbia, where she will assist an English instructor. Carolyn Bero, a Spanish, international studies and political science major from Madison; and Rachel Hunkler, a Spanish and secondary education major from Nashville, Tenn., will assist English teachers in Spain. And Anna Foley, of Richardson, Texas, a 2011 graduate of UA who has been serving as a bilingual instructor for Teach For America in Denver, will serve in Brazil.
UA nursing school receives federal grant
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 1
The University of Alabama’s Capstone College of Nursing received a three-year federal grant to implement a team-based approach to working with rural patients with chronic health conditions. The college received the $997,173 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement the program, which is a collaboration between UA’s colleges of Nursing, Community Health Sciences, Human Environmental Sciences and the School of Social Work and community partners Baptist Health Systems of Alabama and the University Medical Center, according to a release from UA. Under the program, inter-professional teams of graduate-level students from various disciplines will create plans to improve the quality of life for rural patients with multiple chronic health conditions, according to the release. Nurse practitioner students, who will lead the teams’ efforts, will be assigned patients who they will follow for as long as a year.
Professor donates fossil collection to UA
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 1
A University of Alabama astronomy professor with an interest in paleontology has donated his collection of more than 1,200 fossilized impressions of animal tracks to the UA Museums. Ron Buta, a professor of astronomy and physics, collected the shale impressions of footprints from reptiles, amphibians and other organisms from a surface coal mine in Carbon Hill, according to a release from the university. The fossilized tracks, which are predominantly from vertebrates, could help provide researchers with an idea of what the state looked like more than 300 million years ago, according to the release. Buta collected the fossils over the course of more than 30 trips to the mine during the past two years, according to the release.
High school students spend summer doing research
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – July 31
Some high school students are spending their summer doing full-time research. They’ve teamed up with University of Alabama faculty on topics from cancer research to fitness science. Electromyography machines measure the intensity and duration of contractions. Researchers are developing smaller, portable, and affordable machines that can be used for physical therapy or exercise.
Authors with Hoosier ties honored
Indianapolis Star – July 31
Fort Wayne native Michael Martone, who has lived in Alabama, Iowa and Massachusetts but has always interspersed tales of his home state in his work, has won this year’s Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award. The $10,000 prize honors an author with Indiana ties who has written books with national impact. Winners are evaluated on their life’s work and must either have been born in Indiana or lived there for five years. The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation oversees the award program, which comes with a $2,500 grant to a public library of the winner’s choosing. The award is supported by the Glick Fund, part of the Central Indiana Community Foundation. Martone, a professor at the University of Alabama, has written a number of books, including most recently “Four for a Quarter.” Other works include “Not Normal,” “Illinois: Peculiar Fiction from the Flyover,” and “The Blue Guide to Indiana.”
Alabama’s economic growth on pace with 2012
Birmingham Business Journal – July 31
Alabama’s economy should expand 2.2 percent in 2013, according to an updated economic forecast from the Center for Business and Economic Research in the Culverhouse College of Commerce at the University of Alabama. That’s a little higher than CBER’s initial 2013 projections and the updated forecast would put Alabama’s growth rate in line with its 2012 pace. The state’s anticipated growth is above the 1.6 percent gain predicted for the U.S. economy this year and experts say that economic activity should accelerate in 2014, when Alabama’s real GDP is expected to increase by 3.2 percent. Industries that will continue to grow include transportation equipment manufacturing, food services, administrative support, educational services, health care social assistance and finance and insurance-related services.
Dothan Resident Completes Congressional Internship
CBS 4 (Dothan) – July 31
U.S. Representative Martha Roby (R-AL) announced today that Hunter Harris, from Dothan, Ala., recently completed a Congressional internship in the Washington, D.C. office. During his internship, Harris assisted Rep. Roby and staff members on a variety of tasks, including legislative research, record keeping and administrative duties. Rep. Roby thanked Harris for his hard work while in Washington … A 2010 graduate of Houston Academy, Harris, 21, is currently a rising senior at The University of Alabama where he studies Political Science and Philosophy. He is a member of The University of Alabama’s College Republicans and an officer of the UA Fly Fishing Club. He is the son of Dr. Steve and Vicki Harris, of Dothan, Ala.
Experts in abortion clinic case come at a price
Montgomery Advertiser – July 31
The Alabama attorney general’s office plans to pay two experts between $300 and $385 an hour for their work on an ongoing lawsuit over a new abortion clinic law…The contracts are capped at $80,000, and include a $7,500 allowance for expenses. Experts said those figures are not unusual. “That fee structure fits with what experienced and solid experts get,” said Stanley Brodsky, a psychology professor at the University of Alabama who directs the department of psychology’s Witness Research Laboratory. “Some very well-known and distinguished experts, like psychiatrist Park Dietz, get $1,000 an hour.”