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MONDAY, OCT. 14 – SUNDAY, OCT. 20, 2013

BEST BETS

PREPPING FOR ANTARCTICA – You’re not the only one thinking of dusting off a winter wardrobe. Dr. Samantha Hansen, a UA geologist, and two graduate students are headed next month to the coldest, windiest and driest place on the planet — Antarctica. High temperatures ranging from -10º to 0ºC are considered uncommonly pleasant there, and that’s during the summer. The trio is returning to retrieve data from multiple seismic stations they installed about a year ago. Now buried underneath several feet of snow, the stations have been capturing earthquake information from all over the world. By using the energy from these earthquakes, the researchers are able to image the Transantarctic Mountains, an atypical mountain range in Antarctica. For more background on the project, click here. Contact Hansen directly at 205/ 348-7089 or sehansen@as.ua.edul. For assistance, contact Chris Bryant in media relations, 205/348-8323, cjbryant@ur.ua.edu.

UA PROFESSOR TO STUDY EFFECTS OF APRIL 27, 2011, TORNADO ON AREA CHILDREN –Dr. John Lochman, UA psychology professor, is leading a team of researchers in a five-year study of the April, 27, 2011 tornado’s emotional impact on 360 at-risk children in the Tuscaloosa area. Lochman received a $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to fund the study, which will focus on externalizing behaviors, like physical aggression or verbal bullying. The study will compare levels of exposure to the disaster, family and community support networks, peer relationships and emotional effects on parents.Lochman’s team will also analyze data of children’s nervous system functioning.“We expect the children who were most stress reactive on these physiological measures shortly after the tornado are going to be the most at-risk for emotional problems in years ahead,” Lochman said. Contact: David Miller, UA media relations, 205/348-0825 or dcmiller2@ur.ua.edu

UA’S HEALTH CORNER PROVIDES PRACTICAL HEALTH TIPS – Dr. Jared Ellis highlights the importance of the flu vaccine, who should get one and why, in the latest video in UA’s Health Corner, http://vimeo.com/album/2551337/video/75786831. The video series addresses various health topics and provides practical advice and guidance from UA’s expert sources and physicians in the College of Community Health Sciences. A new video topic posts every Wednesday morning. Contact: Kim Eaton, UA media relations, 205/348-8325 or kkeaton@ur.ua.edu.

UA PROFESSOR’S BOOK WINS AWARD—University of Alabama professor Dr. Josh Rothman’s book, “Flush Times and Fever Dreams: A Story of Capitalism and Slavery in the Age of Jackson,” won the Gulf South Historical Association’s Michael V.R. Thomason Book Award for the best book on the history of the Gulf South.  Contact: Bobby Mathews, UA media relations, 205/348-4956 or bwmathews1@ur.ua.edu

UA MATTERS

TIPS ON BUILDING SELF-ESTEEM IN YOUNG PEOPLE – Positive self-esteem in young children is the foundation for success later in life. Children with positive feelings about who they are and what they can accomplish in life are more confident and tend to be more successful in all aspects of their life. The University of Alabama’s Dr. Laura Bloom offers tips on how parents can help build positive self-esteem in their young children. Visit http://uanews.ua.edu/2013/10/ua-matters-building-positive-self-esteem-in-young-children/. Contact: Kim Eaton, UA media relations, 205/348-8325 or kkeaton@ur.ua.edu.

TIPS ON CREATING FUN, IMAGINATIVE COSTUMES – With Halloween just around the corner, many parents are beginning to think about whether their little ones will delight or fright this year. The University of Alabama’s Melissa Panzarello provides some fun and easy ideas that can make use of items you may have available around the house; a way of upcycling everyday items into original costumes for the kids. Visit http://uanews.ua.edu/2013/10/ua-matters-creating-fun-imaginative-halloween-costumes-at-home/. Contact: Kim Eaton, UA media relations, 205/348-8325 or kkeaton@ur.ua.edu

EVENTS

UA COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES HOSTS ‘LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL’ —In April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sat in a jail cell in Birmingham, writing a letter that would become one of the most famous documents of the civil rights movement. Fifty years later, opera theatre students from the UA College of Arts and Sciences’ School of Music, in partnership with Red Mountain Theatre Co. of Birmingham, will bring his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to life. The performance is at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, in Morgan Auditorium. Admission is free, but tickets are required. Ticket reservations can be made via uamusic.tix.com. Contact Bobby Mathews, UA media relations, at 205/348-4956 or bwmathews1@ur.ua.edu

UA’S NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM EVENT FEATURES FOSSILS, 3D PRINTING — The community is invited to explore a world of fossils during National Fossil Day at the Alabama Museum of Natural History at Smith Hall on the UA campus. The event will be held from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, in the grand gallery of Smith Hall, and it will feature demonstration tables with the department of geology and the evolutionary studies program, hands-on activities for children in the museum’s Discovery Lab and a wide variety of fossils on display. Printers from the UA 3D Printing Lab, located in the College of Engineering, will also print fossils. Contact: Kim Eaton, UA media relations, 205/348-8325 or kkeaton@ur.ua.edu

UA CAMPUS GETS A TASTE OF NASCAR – Fox Sports NASCAR analyst Larry McReynolds will speak as a guest of the UA Program in Sports Communication Thursday, Oct. 17, at 1 p.m. in the Ferguson Center Theater. McReynolds will discuss his time as a NASCAR crew chief and how he made the transition to media. He also will be available for a media group interview in Ferguson room 301 at 2:15 p.m. Contact: Misty Mathews, media relations, 205/348-6416, mmathews@ua.edu, or Dr. Andrew Billings, 205/348-8658, acbillings@ua.edu

LOOKING AHEAD

UA TO HOST EXHIBIT TO OBSERVE ANNIVERSARY OF SURGEON GENERAL’S ANTI-SMOKING REPORT – UA’s Dr. Alan Blum and the Gorgas Library will host an exhibit to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of a landmark report that changed American culture. The exhibit, “Alabamian Dr. Luther Terry and the Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health” begins Monday, Oct. 21 in the J. Wray and Joan Billingsley Pearce Foyer, Gorgas Library. Contact: Bobby Mathews, UA media relations, 205/348-4956 or bwmathews1@ur.ua.edu

UA TOWN HALLS – UA’s Honors College has announced its Town Hall 2013 Fall Series. The series, held in the Ferguson Center Forum, is free and open to the public. The first fall entry is “Cronkite to Colbert – What is News to You?” The panel will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21. Panelists are Dr. Jennifer Greer, interim dean of the College of Communication and Information Sciences, and Rick Bragg, Cason professor of writing, department of journalism. Contact: Richard LeComte, media relations, rllecomte@ur.ua.edu, 205/348-3782

WELL-KNOWN FEMALE SPORTSWRITER TO SPEAK – USA Today columnist Christine Brennan will speak as a guest of the UA Program in Sports Communication Friday, Oct. 25, at 1:30 p.m. in the Ferguson Center Theater. Brennan’s talk will be titled “Sports in the 21^st Century: Diversity at the Starting Line.” In addition to her work with USA Today, Brennan is a commentator for ABC News, ESPN, NPR and FOX Sports Radio. A leading expert on the Olympics and women’s sports issues, she is also a nationally known speaker. The event is cosponsored by the APSC, the UA Department of Journalism, the Women’s Resource Center and the Society of Professional Journalists, and is a Through the Doors event. Contact: Misty Mathews, media relations, 205/348-6416, mmathews@ua.edu, or Dr. Andrew Billings, 205/348-8658, acbillings@ua.edu.

TRICK OR TREAT – UA’s  Panhellenic Association will host the annual Sorority Row Trick-or-Treat from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29. Children from the Tuscaloosa area ages 12 and younger are invited to dress up in Halloween costumes and visit the lawns of the campus sorority houses on Magnolia and Colonial Drives for candy and fun activities. UA sorority members from the Alabama Panhellenic Association and National Pan-Hellenic Council, also in costume, will provide candy to area children. Contact: Katie Andrews, 205/348-2693 or kmandrews3@crimson.ua.edu or Richard LeComte, media relations, rllecomte@ur.ua.edu or 205/348-3782