New state-of-the-art lab helps teach University of Alabama students the science of cooking
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 20
University of Alabama students studying nutrition and hospitality management in the College of Human Environmental Sciences will gain experience working in a professional-style kitchen thanks to a new food lab in Doster Hall. The $1.5 million state-of-the-art lab opened its doors this fall for two classes, basic food science and experimental and functional foods. The new lab replaces an older, outdated kitchen. “I’ve actually toured the old lab before it was changed,” said Brooke Key, who is taking the basic food science class. “It (the new lab) is amazing, I love it — it’s more like what most people will be working in. It’s not always going to be a 1990s kitchen — this is stainless steel, it’s actually what’s up to grade and if this were a real restaurant this is what you would have to have.” …Kristi Crowe, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama who is a food chemist and dietitian, teaches the basic food science class. “Think of the application of chemistry to all edible food products,” Crowe said. “There is chemistry going on when you make a marinade — how it’s going to impact the flavor of the meat and tenderization of the meat. There is chemistry when you add that touch of sugar to a tomato-based product.”
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Sept. 19
Lab Manager – Sept. 20
University of Alabama’s Sonic Frontiers concert series aiming to attract the experimental
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 19
Tuscaloosa is known for its titles. Community members can rap off years of championships quicker than they can their family members’ names and ages. But Tuscaloosa holds a title many do not know about: It is a legendary pioneer of experimental music. In the 1970s, it was one of the only places in the South that could claim the name. Tuscaloosa was a hotbed for the genre, but has been slinking quietly off the radar for the past four decades. The University of Alabama’s New College aims to bring that title back with its Sonic Frontiers concert series, now about to begin its third consecutive season. Andrew Raffo Dewar, assistant professor of New College and the school of music, curates the concerts. Dewar moved here in 2008 from Connecticut… “Moving to Tuscaloosa was a change, but it’s been a good change,” Dewar said. He said he knew that if he was going to live in Tuscaloosa long-term, he was going to help make it a place that fosters cutting-edge music. “You want to make it your home wherever you live. This is my way of making it home.”
UA President Judy Bonner headlining Oct. 8 ‘Evening of Networking’ in Mobile
Al.com – Sept. 19
If a small business resource center opens its new doors and no one knows it’s there, does it stand a chance of reaching the would-be entrepreneurs it targets? With any luck, the Women’s Business Center Inc. won’t need to answer that question after the Women Lawyers of the Mobile Bar Association host “An Evening of Networking with Business Women of the Mobile Area” Tuesday, Oct. 8 in the Regions Bank Pharr Room of the RSA Battle House Tower…All proceeds from the Women Lawyers’ event – the organization’s third annual community fundraiser – will benefit the Women’s Business Center, and the two-hour event will feature keynote speaker Judy Bonner, president of the University of Alabama.
Gadsden among colleges benefiting from grant to University of Alabama
Gadsden Times – Sept. 12
Gadsden State Community College is among eight community colleges set to benefit from a recent $1,450,000 grant awarded to the University of Alabama. The grant, which was given to benefit the Noyce Scholars Program, involves the Consortium of Noyce Alabama Community Colleges, whose membership includes Gadsden State and seven other community colleges across the state. The award will be used to fund scholarships to support secondary STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) teachers and fund a summer STEM internship for more than 120 freshmen and sophomore students. “This is the beginning of positive reforms to be made in UA chemistry, math and physics departments,” said Dennis W. Sunal, director of the Noyce program at Alabama. “It also will consolidate our recruitment pipeline connections with the eight community colleges.”…The University of Alabama Noyce Scholars Program is the second of two grants received by the University of Alabama to fund early STEM recruiting experiences and scholarship for junior and senior STEM majors selecting teacher certification as a graduation goal.
Famed author regales Reads Together crowd
Forsyth News (Ga.) – Sept. 20
Rick Bragg kept an audience of more than 500 laughing for much of the Tuesday night during the annual Forsyth Reads Together celebration. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist shared stories of being a Southern writer and spoke about his memoir “All Over but the Shoutin’” before fielding questions and signing books during the sixth annual gathering at the Lanier Technical College Forsyth Conference Center…Bragg has written several best-selling nonfiction books and received the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1996 at the New York Times. He is currently a professor at the University of Alabama.
Desperately Seeking Sasquatch
National Geographic – Sept. 19
This summer, I walked into the woods at night with a group of strangers and tried to find Bigfoot. Twice. The first time was in the Cascades in Washington, the second a little over a month later on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Both expeditions were organized by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO). ‘Squatchers — as they call themselves — are a diverse group united only, perhaps, by an affinity for camouflage, a distaste for hoaxers, and a fascination with all things ‘squatch … But there was a part of me that hoped to see something that would force me to believe. I wanted to believe, and still do, that there is something out there in the wide world that has eluded our ability to control and explain — that there is still some mystery to be solved. (In addition to documenting what Americans do when most everyone else is asleep, National Geographic Young Explorer Annie Agnone is pursuing an MFA in creative writing at the University of Alabama.)