Program helps bridge gap between science, business
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 11
Scientists often speak a different language, one usually only understood by other scientists. This becomes a challenge when they are attempting to explain their research or sell their technology to the general public. “If you can’t sell it to someone, they’re not going to buy it,” said 31-year-old Franchessa Sayler, who is completing her doctorate in chemistry from the University of Alabama. “Most venture capitalists, the people that provide the money, have business degrees, not scientific backgrounds. Scientists need to know how to talk to various people about their technology. That’s really important in getting products to the marketplace.” Sayler did not know the first thing about starting or running a business a year ago. Thanks to a $50,000 Innovation Corps Program grant from the National Science Foundation, she learned. Now, she is majority owner and managing member of ThruPore Technologies LLC, which produces catalysts. The Innovation Corps Program, or I-Corps, was created to help guide scientific discoveries into the development of technologies, products and processes that benefit society.
7 groups get grants to fight child abuse
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 11
Six Tuscaloosa County agencies and the University of Alabama on Thursday received more than $300,000 in grants to help prevent child abuse and neglect in West Alabama. The funds are distributed yearly by the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention. This year, the grant total is about $100,000 more than in 2012, said Greg Smith, deputy director of the department. . .The Parenting Assistance Line will receive $23,800, for its program in answering parenting questions statewide. The assistance line has even received callers from other states or Canada. The Baby TALK program will receive $38,500, which it will use to distribute books and parenting information to parents of infants and young children…The University of Alabama will also receive $92,400 for its work to evaluate the county’s programs as part of the grant process.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 10
Before the big game, BCS rivals teamed up for Overtown garden
South Florida Times – Jan. 10
Sun Life Stadium was packed to capacity Monday night as tens of thousands of football enthusiasts traveled to South Florida to watch the University of Alabama and the University of Notre Dame battle in the Bowl Championship Series. Alabama did a “Roll Tide” over Notre Dame, to win college’s top football championship 42-12 in an intense game, especially in the second half. But a day earlier, players, alumni, cheerleaders and students from each school set aside their rivalry to perform volunteer work in partnership with Roots in the City, an Overtown-based community beautification organization, as well as Camillus House and the Overtown Community Redevelopment Agency. . . . Phillip Sullivan, a junior Consumer Affairs major who works at the University of Alabama’s Community Service Center and assisted in the coordination of the Overtown service project, said the volunteers also helped with trash and debris removal throughout the neighborhood. They also cut down and replanted trees to enhance the beautification effort. “This project felt very good and gave me a sense of unity,” said Sullivan. “Although we are opposing teams, it’s great to see both sides come together for a great cause that produced great results.”
OPINION: Bama title win good for state
Atmore Advance – Jan. 11
Monday night the Alabama Crimson Tide cemented their status as a modern-day football dynasty with their 42-14 shellacking of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish…here in Alabama we should all be thrilled, because another state team winning it all is good for everyone…In the SEC, the winnings of every team that goes to a bowl game is equally distributed amongst the 16 schools that make up the conference. In that respect, Alabama and Auburn’s recent championships are good for several states. Not only does the money poured back into our state schools help those universities and their students, success in front of a national audience also brings people to Alabama. Students from all across the nation now look to Alabama and Auburn as a place to attend school. Many of those same students take up residence here once they graduate and use their education to better their communities.
Coaches’ Trophy to be displayed at Walmart
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 10
The Coaches Trophy will be in Tuscaloosa on Friday at the Walmart. You can get a free on-line photo taken with the trophy from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. All you have to do is show up.
Commentary: Ethanol scam drives up food prices and stifles economic recovery
McClatchy-Tribune News Service – Jan. 10
For more than two decades, special interests have persuaded Congress to mandate Americans buy ethanol whether they want to or not. As a result, 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop is now used for ethanol rather than food. The ethanol mandate means that ordinary Americans pay more for a poorer quality automobile fuel and more for groceries. Ethanol proponents claim these costs will bring us environmental benefits and energy security. They are wrong. A good first question about a mandate is “how good can a product be if you have to force people to buy it?” The answer: not very good. Ethanol is vastly inferior to gasoline. . . . Andrew Morriss holds the D. Paul Jones Jr. and Charlene A. Jones chair in law and professor of business at the University of Alabama. Readers may write to him at UA Law, 101 Paul W. Bryant Drive East, Tuscaloosa, Ala. 35487; email: amorriss@law.ua.edu.
Ferguson Center to premiere Hope Cassity music video Friday night
AL.com – Jan. 11
Haven’t heard of Hope Cassity yet? You may soon. She’s an up-and-coming, Alabama-born country singer, and her new music video will premiere at UA’s Ferguson Center TheatreFriday at 7 p.m. While you’re watching the video for “The Idea of You,” you may notice a familiar location. Part of the video was shot right here in Tuscaloosa at the beautiful Battle-Friedman House downtown. “The Idea of You” was directed by Katie Stewart, produced by Garrett Thomas, edited by Joe Yardley and shot by Luke Porter. What do they all have in common? They’re all from the University of Alabama.
Art and networking at night
AL.com – Jan. 10
Spring Hill College’s first Art After Hours event of the new year will include a reception for artist Jamey Grimes’ installation art and sculpture exhibit “Convergence,” on Thursday, Jan. 31, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. This will all take place at The Eichold Gallery at Spring Hill College, located at 4000 Dauphin St…The artist, who teaches at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, will present a short talk about his work at 7 p.m.
FHS Symphonic Band to play at state
Journal-Standard (Freeport, Ill.) – Jan. 11
The Freeport Symphonic Band and Concert Band will be in concert at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23 at Jeannette Lloyd Theatre in Freeport…The Symphonic Band will premiere “Concerto for Euphonium and Wind Band,” composed by Dr. Thomas Bough, director of the Huskie Marching Band at Northern Illinois University. This performance will also feature world renowned euphonium soloist Dr. Demondrae Thurman, professor of music at the University of Alabama and considered among the finest low brass performers in the world.
GPS hosts screening of award-winning documentary ‘Eating Alabama’
Chattanoogan – Jan. 10
Director Andrew Beck Grace screened his award-winning documentary Eating Alabama on Tuesday evening, before an appreciative audience of Chattanoogans concerned about local food and sustainability. Several hundred first watched the film in the GPS Frierson Theatre and then enjoyed a conversation with the director/producer, peppering him with questions about his year-long quest to eat only Alabama-sourced food and what steps people can take to augment their meals with locally grown fare. …A professor at the University of Alabama, Mr. Grace told the digital storytelling class that his “understanding of the South comes from stories” his grandfather told. He encouraged them to “go into the world, meet people who aren’t like you, and tell their story.”
One-man show unravels mystery of actor’s father
Tuscaloosa News –Jan. 11
When his dad died unexpectedly last year, Michael Walker found a mystery.“My father had told my brother and I that if anything happened to him, there was this lock box. ‘Go look in the lock box. It’s all there; it’ll explain itself,’ ” said Walker, a Huntsville native and University of Alabama theater graduate who’s now living and working in New York City. He’d heard tales of two pistols belonging to a sheriff, but “there was nothing.” So Walker, finishing his master’s studies at Rutgers University, began to investigate his father’s incarceration for embezzlement, struggles with polio and other issues that haunted his life. Another person might have written a memoir from the findings, but as an actor, Walker assembled a performance, the one-man show “Bubba,” which won the Best Variety Show award at the 2012 United Solo festival. He’ll be in Tuscaloosa this week, performing “Bubba” in the Alabama Power Recital Hall at Shelton State Community College, presented by Theatre Tuscaloosa’s Second Stage program, with help from a grant by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.