Out of the Big Blue

The upcoming Memorial Day weekend is often considered the “unofficial” start of summer. Whether you will be grilling out, visiting family or enjoying the warm weather, we hope you have a relaxing holiday weekend.

We would also like to thank the servicemen and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country. After all, Memorial Day is a remembrance to them. Reminders of respect and honor for their service are found throughout the UK campus such as Memorial Hall, Memorial Coliseum, Barker Hall/Buell Armory and the Spanish American War cannon. The next time you pass by one of these sites, be sure to pause a moment and remember those who have given their lives for our country.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!

Photo from UK Veterans Resource Center (www.uky.edu/gallery/veterans).

When asked what some of her future goals are, one of the items on Colleen O’Connor’s list is to “cure cancer.” This mix of positivity, ambition and persistence exemplifies Colleen O’Connor ’08 MED. Thanks to her current work at The University of Texas MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital, this lofty goal of O’Connor’s just may be attainable.

Colleen O’Connor in the lab.

O’Connor is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the cancer center, and is part of a team that has made some exciting developments in the fight against non-Hodgkin lymphoma using “man’s best friend.” The team has developed a new model for adoptive T-cell therapy using pet dogs.

“Treating dogs with cancer provides us with a great comparative oncology model for humans,” says O’Connor, who is one of the primary investigators of the study. “We learned important details about the interaction between chemotherapy and tumor cells that can be harnessed to improve the body’s immune response. This is something we hadn’t appreciated thus far from our clinical research in humans.”

Their work has received national attention and has been featured on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer. “The project has been very challenging, but when you see owners so happy and grateful to be able to have more quality time with their dogs, it is really touching and drives me to get back to the lab and develop new immunotherapies,” she said. “I really love what I do. The results (of the study) make me hopeful for the future of cancer research.”

O’Connor has led an interesting path to her cancer-fighting career. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Miami in Florida with a marine science/biology major. Prior to earning her doctoral degree, she was an aquatic biologist at the Newport Aquarium. While there, she was in charge of the “Dangerous and Deadly” and “Jellyfish” galleries. Due to her close contact with the animals, she became interested in animal toxins and how the immune system reacts to, say, being stung by a jellyfish.

That’s when she decided to pursue a doctoral degree in toxicology from the UK College of Medicine graduate program.

“I was in Dr. Don Cohen’s lab in the Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics Department. His mentorship has a lasting effect on me, as I have drawn from the many things he taught me, especially about perseverance and analysis. Dr. Cohen’s lab provided me with a solid foundation to succeed. He was always so calm in the face of any problem. I have to give a lot of credit to UK for molding me into the scientist I am today,” she says.

While at UK, O’Connor was busy in and out of the classroom. She loved attending football and basketball games and attending Keeneland races in the fall and spring. She also remembers spending “a couple of months” in the W.T. Young Library writing her dissertation.

UK also has a special family connection for O’Connor. “The August of my first year of grad school, my sister Emily O’Connor Schwegman ’01 AS, ’06 DE started her first year of dental school and my brother Patrick O’Connor ’06 AS, ’09 LAW started his freshman year at UK. On the first day of school, we all met at Ovid’s for coffee early that morning. We called our parents for our ‘first day of school’ pep talk,” she says.

Since then, Emily has graduated from UK College of Dentistry and Patrick has graduated with an undergraduate and law degree from UK. O’Connor’s father, Dr. Patrick O’Connor ’78 DE also graduated from the UK College of Dentistry.

O’Connor advises others who are interested in medical research to pursue their passion and to stay positive and persistent.

“I read once that ‘success is a marathon, not a sprint.’ That phrase describes the business of science very well. In this field, I think we all make a difference in humanity,” she says.

By Molly Clark

Colleen O’Connor

Students and faculty in the UK College of Fine Arts School of Music are now tickling the ivories of 18 new Yamaha pianos. And these aren’t just any old instruments. Their names alone sound more like an instrument used on a spaceship than in a concert hall.

Included in the piano acquisition are two AvantGrand N3 hybrid pianos, two T118 47” acoustic upright studio pianos, three T 121 48” acoustic upright studio pianos and 11 DC2E3 5’8” Disklavier conservatory grand pianos. With the arrival of these instruments, the School of Music has become the largest, single user of Disklavier performance reproducing pianos in academia anywhere in the world.

The Disklavier is a special acoustic piano fitted with a sophisticated system of sensors that records every aspect of a performance, including pitch, dynamics, phrasing and pedaling. The performance information can be stored on a hard drive and recalled for a later performance. The latest model of Disklaviers can be connected to one another via the Internet. Once connected, the performance information can be transmitted from one instrument to the others – and be immediately reproduced with perfect precision, even on the other side of the globe.

These are some high tech pianos! To read more about this new fleet of grand instruments, click here.

And, if this gets you in the mood to enjoy some good music, don’t forget that UK Opera Theatre is holding the 20th anniversary “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” from June 8-10 and 15-17 at Singletary Center for the Arts. Who knows, one of these new pianos may make a cameo!

*Compiled from material written by UK PR and Marketing.

George Litterst, of Yamaha, demonstrated how the Yamaha Disklavier could record to a thumbdrive and then play back on its own. Everett McCorvey, director of UK Opera Theatre, watched the piano as it recorded Litterst’s performance.

Logan Bright, a new graduate from the University of Kentucky College of Education, first learned about “4 Paws for Ability” before she transferred to UK in the fall of 2009. Once she arrived, she quickly established a chapter of the program that trains and places service dogs on UK’s campus, since she saw the potential of the program.

“I wanted to be able to show college students that community service can be fun,” Bright said. “And with this program, you learn how being a part of an organization like this can benefit other people in the community so much.”

To learn more about Logan’s experiences with 4 Paws for Ability, read this story from UK Public Relations and Marketing.

Logan Bright ’12 ED with the service dog she trained, Deja.

With classes out and many undergraduate students gone for the summer, campus has slowed down a bit. However, we must say, we do miss our great students. Many of them are back home working or furthering their skills at a summer internship. Alums, what were some of your summer jobs between the school years?

All is quiet on campus.

Just when you thought the UK’s men’s basketball national championship victory couldn’t get any sweeter, it did! Last Tuesday, May 1, Coach John Calipari received a one-of-a-kind cake from local baker and lifelong UK fan Brandi Romines of Happy as a Lark Cake Creations. Romines spent 40 hours making a cake modeled after UK’s national championship trophy. This cake is a real doppelganger of the actual trophy safely tucked away in the Joe Craft Center trophy case! Watch the video by UK PR & Marketing to see Coach Cal’s reaction to this unique dessert!

On Sunday, May 6, UK will confer degrees on the Class of 2012 during the school’s 145th Commencement ceremony. Congratulations to all graduates who have worked so hard for this day! Graduation also marks a special day for the UK Alumni Association. As former students begin the next chapter of their lives, we are thrilled to be able to welcome them to the UK alumni family.

We will be hosting Commencement receptions for both graduate and undergraduate degree recipients on Sunday at the Lexington Convention Center. We hope to see all of our newest alumni and their families there!

All UK alums out there, what advice or pieces of wisdom do you have for UK’s newest graduates as they take on the world?

Photo courtesy of the University of Kentucky

There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that UK’s student-athletes are exceptionally gifted on the field, court, shooting range, or wherever they may display their talents. However, what is not so often publicized is the academic excellence that so many of these students display in the classroom. UK Athletics recently announced the 2011-12 Winter SEC Academic Honor Roll. There’s a long list of UK student-athletes recognized.  We’ve included their names and respective sports below in case you’re curious to see who made the grade. Well done, Wildcats!

Twany Beckham – M. Basketball
Terrence Jones – M. Basketball
Darius Miller – M. Basketball
Jarrod Polson – M. Basketball
Kastine Evans – W. Basketball
Amber Smith – W. Basketball
Keyla Snowden – W. Basketball
Caitlyn Ciokajlo – Gymnastics
Audrey Harrison – Gymnastics
Kayla Hartley – Gymnastics
Storey Morris – Gymnastics
Whitney Rose – Gymnastics
Kayla Sienkowski – Gymnastics
Dayna Ferguson – Rifle
Heather Greathouse – Rifle
Emily Holsopple – Rifle
Henri Junghanel – Rifle
Ed Ryznar – Rifle
Stacy Wheatley – Rifle
John Bullock – M. Swimming and Diving
Greg Ferrucci – M. Swimming and Diving
John Fox – M. Swimming and Diving
Blake Freeman – M. Swimming and Diving
Travis Green – M. Swimming and Diving
William Heidler – M. Swimming and Diving
Luke Iannuzzi – M. Swimming and Diving
Jonathan Keltner – M. Swimming and Diving
Pat Kemme – M. Swimming and Diving
Zack Peterson – M. Swimming and Diving
Tyler Reed – M. Swimming and Diving
Matt Russell – M. Swimming and Diving
Maclin Simpson – M. Swimming and Diving
Jacob Thomas – M. Swimming and Diving
Claire Archibald – W. Swimming and Diving
Catherine Brueckbauer – W. Swimming and Diving
Megan Eppler – W. Swimming and Diving
Lindsay Lash – W. Swimming and Diving
Anna Mattox – W. Swimming and Diving
Marisa McGlynn – W. Swimming and Diving
Chelsea Peterson – W. Swimming and Diving
Jenna Willis – W. Swimming and Diving
Kristen Wilson – W. Swimming and Diving
Samantha Wright – W. Swimming and Diving

Perhaps one of the best ways to learn about what other UK alumni are up to is to hear it “straight from the horse’s mouth.” (That seems an appropriate idiom considering UK is located in the Horse Capital of the World!)

UK Alumni Career Services has been doing just that with its “Career Spotlight” videos. These videos have proven to be very interesting. We encourage you to check them out, here. Currently featured are alums who recently opened their own distillery, an alumnus who is a fromager (Don’t know what that is? Watch the video!) and an alumna who organizes the largest fundraiser of the year for the Lexington Division of the American Heart Association.

If you are a UK alum and would like to have your 15 minutes of fame in a “Career Spotlight” video, contact Kelly Allgeier, alumni career counselor, at kelly.higgins@uky.edu

If you were a student at UK in the 1962-63 school year, chances are Jack Guthrie ’63 CIS kept you abreast of the current news stories at UK, the nation and around the world as editor of the independent school newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel.

Jack Guthrie was editor of the Kentucky Kernel during the 1962-63 school year. (Photo from The Kentuckian, 1963)

Under Guthrie’s charge, the Kernel reported on national issues such as the civil rights struggle and the Bay of Pigs invasion. The Kernel even initiated an editorial campaign that eventually led to the integration of athletics at UK, in spite of some strident opposition locally and throughout the Southeastern Conference.

Recently, as a way to give back to the newspaper that meant so much to him, Guthrie created a fund in the UK College of Communications and Information Studies to provide the equivalent of a full-tuition scholarship to future editors-in-chief of the Kentucky Kernel.

“Being the editor of the Kernel is more than a full-time job,” Guthrie said. “It takes more than eight hours a day. When I was with the Kernel, we were here morning, noon and night. Throw in a couple of classes, and you don’t have time for a part-time job. If you do, then you’re really burning the candle at both ends.”

Becca Clemons, recently named editor for the 2012-13 school year, will be the scholarship’s first recipient.

“It’s already an incredible honor to be selected as editor-in-chief,” Clemons said. “This just makes it even more special.”

Guthrie, founder of Guthrie/Mayes Public Relations in Louisville, says he created the scholarship to make it easier for Kernel editors to dedicate themselves to the newspaper without having to worry about how to make ends meet, and to inspire more students to aspire to editorial leadership.

We think Jack Guthrie’s commitment to UK students is great! Also, Jack is involved with the UK Alumni Association. He served as president of the association in 1988.

*compiled from material written by Keith Hautala, UK PR and Marketing