Briefly
Shift work
Brian Rogers retired in August after serving seven years as UAF’s chancellor. His interim replacement is Mike Powers, who has served on the UA Board of Regents since 2011. A 30-year resident of Fairbanks, Powers has been an executive at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital for nearly three decades, first as chief financial officer and, for the past 20 years, as chief executive officer.
One immediate challenge for Powers will be to shepherd UAF through a $20 million shortfall this fiscal year, the result of reduced state funding. He will also help the University of Alaska’s new president, Jim Johnsen, launch a search for the permanent chancellor, a process that could take up to a year.
Powers reports to Johnsen, who assumed responsibilities in August. The appointment marks a return to UA for him, having served in several executive roles, including vice president of administration and chief of staff. He was most recently a senior vice president at Alaska Communications. Johnsen succeeds Patrick K. Gamble, who retired from UA after five years as president.
Sharks love salmon, too
Sharks might be a reason for low king salmon returns in Alaska.
Researcher Andrew Seitz ’06 noticed unusual temperature readings from satellite tags on king salmon in the Bering Sea. Temperatures jumped from the typical 40- to 55-degree water king salmon swim in to 65 to 80 degrees in just seconds.
“The only habitat with temperatures in that range in the Bering Sea is in the belly of a warm-blooded predator,” said Seitz. “Marine mammals … have body temperatures approximately the same as humans, about 97-100 degrees, leaving only one other culprit.”
The aptly named salmon sharks are able to keep their body temperature warmer than the surrounding water, and their guts are typically 65-80 degrees.
Two tags spent about three days inside the bellies of salmon sharks, apparently consumed along with the fish they were attached to, before being expelled back into the Bering Sea.
Seitz doesn’t know for sure yet if salmon sharks affect the number of king salmon in the Bering Sea, but said scientists need more information about how and why older salmon die at sea. He plans to further investigate predation on large king salmon by salmon sharks this summer. Read more at http://bit.ly/uaf050730.
Cap and gown
Some 1,350 students earned more than 1,450 certificates and degrees during UAF’s 93rd commencement ceremony in May. Honorary degrees went to geologist Thomas R. Marshall Jr., Yup’ik elder Gust Bartman, and artist and professor emeritus Ron Senungetuk. In 1967, Senungetuk designed the ceremonial mace carried in commencement processionals since then.
Tony Gasbarro ’79, another professor emeritus, and civic leader Karen Parr ’66 received Meritorious Service Awards. Academy Award winner Ben Grossmann ’95 was the guest speaker (see story on page 26), and Lakeidra Chavis ’15 was the student speaker. Seventeen faculty and staff were granted emeritus status, including Chancellor Brian Rogers, who retired in August. (See story on page 6.)
More plants, fewer pikas?
It’s possible that, as climate change allows trees and shrubs to push into formerly treeless alpine habitats, the critters that live there are getting pushed out. The population of collared pikas, singing voles and Arctic ground squirrel populations have declined throughout much of their range, possibly because their alpine and tundra habitats are losing ground to bushier vegetation formerly restricted to lower elevations and latitudes. Read more about the findings from UA Museum of the North researchers at http://bit.ly/uaf031611.
Smoke out
There’ll be no more lighting up on any University of Alaska campus as of Dec. 31. The UA Board of Regents adopted a smoke-free policy for campuses statewide in December 2014.
ARCTIC science extravaganza
About 700 of the world’s top experts on Arctic science and policy will be in Fairbanks when UAF hosts the 2016 Arctic Science Summit Week, the Arctic Observing Summit and the Arctic Council Senior Arctic Officials Meeting in March. The meetings will attract members of international organizations to coordinate research and policy programs, and to share information on Arctic studies. Learn more at https://assw2016.org.
Slow gas
The release of greenhouse gases from Arctic and sub-Arctic permafrost may be more gradual and prolonged than previously thought, which may allow society more time to adapt to environmental change. The prevailing theory has been that, as permafrost thawed, carbon would be released suddenly as a kind of “carbon bomb” that would significantly accelerate climate warming. That might not be the case, according to A. David McGuire ’83, ’89, U.S. Geological Survey senior scientist and climate modeling expert with UAF’s Institute of Arctic Biology. He and Vladimir Romanovsky ’96, a permafrost expert with the UAF Geophysical Institute, helped co-author the report in the April 9 issue of the journal Nature.
“The data from our team’s syntheses don’t support the permafrost carbon bomb view,” said McGuire. The researchers hope their findings will be included in future climate models. You can find the full story at http://bit.ly/uaf040930.
Picture man
A new book showcases the photographs of a Japanese man who spent decades in a Southeast Alaska village but committed suicide after government officials named him a potential spy on the eve of World War II.
“Picture Man: The Legacy of Southeast Alaska Photographer Shoki Kayamori,” by Margaret Thomas, tells the story of Kayamori, who, in 1912, arrived with his box camera in the Tlingit village of Yakutat. For three decades, he photographed daily life in the village, but as World War II drew near, government officials cast suspicion on him. Kayamori committed suicide, leaving behind an enigmatic photographic legacy. “Picture Man” is available from the UA Press at www.uapress.alaska.edu.
Booming bubbles
Bubbles from melting glaciers and icebergs are loud. Erin Pettit, a glaciologist from the Department of Geosciences, was part of a team that examined noise levels in three bays in Alaska and Antarctica. Bubbles make more noise than all other sources, including machines such as ships and sonar devices, raising questions about how underwater noise will affect animals as climate change increases the rate glaciers melt into the ocean. Pop over for more detail at http://bitly.com/LoudBubbles.
teen scientists
After four years of geologic learning adventures across the nation, 15 high school students from North Slope communities graduated in July from UAF’s GeoFORCE Alaska program (http://geoforce.alaska.edu). The rising seniors were the first class to graduate. GeoFORCE Alaska aims to interest Alaska rural and minority students in math and science by taking them on a weeklong field trip for each of the four summers after eighth grade.
The free program is funded entirely through donations, with many sponsors representing industries that rely on Alaska’s natural resources. One goal of the program is that students will pursue higher education that leads them to careers in Alaska’s high-tech workforce.
kudos
2015 American Society of Civil Engineers’ regional
student steel bridge competition
1st place, all seven categories
http://bit.ly/2015CEMsteel
2015-2016
Fulbright Arctic Initiative scholar
Tamara Harms,
assistant professor of ecology
http://news.uaf.edu/uaf_fulbright/
2015-2016
Fulbright Arctic Initiative scholar
Gwen Holdmann, director, UAF’s
Alaska Center for Energy and Power
http://news.uaf.edu/uaf_fulbright/
John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship
Erin Shew, graduate student,
Arctic and northern studies
http://bit.ly/ShewFellowship
Society of Petroleum Engineers’
regional faculty Distinguished
Achievement Award
Abhijit Dandekar,
professor of petroleum engineering