University of Alabama start-up ThruPore earns $150,000 NSF grant
Al.com – Dec. 18
ThruPore Technologies, a University of Alabama start-up company, has earned a $150,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop a new catalyst for the petrochemical industry. The company plans to use the grant to help prove through additional research that its catalysts are less expensive to produce and have superior properties to those currently on the market. Martin Bakker, a University of Alabama associate professor of chemistry who co-founded the company with Franchessa Sayler, said the grant will have a ripple effect. “The company will acquire a new, high throughput reaction system to run 24 reactions in parallel,” Bakker said. “It will be shared by the students at UA and ThruPore Tech. This means that the students working on the project will become exposed to state-of-the-art instrumentation, as well as being involved in a project with direct industrial relevance.”
Chemist Leads Supercomputer Effort to Aid Nuclear Understanding
LabManager.com – Dec. 18
Two of the nation’s fastest supercomputers will aid a research team, led by a University of Alabama computational chemist, in guiding both the development of new nuclear fuels and clean-up efforts from past nuclear fuel and weapon production. This is the structure of a key thorium oxide cluster found in water. Researchers are studying this structure as a critical intermediate in forming larger thorium oxide particles that are potential precursors to a thorium nuclear reactor fuel. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the team, led by Dr. David Dixon, UA professor and Robert Ramsay Chair of Chemistry, 250 million processor hours on supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. “Supercomputer simulations can provide detailed information, at the molecular level, about new types of materials that are going to potentially be used for nuclear fuels,” said Dixon. The simulations create detailed pictures of complex phenomena by using codes to solve quantum mechanics equations with complex mathematical expressions.
Grammy winner John Legend to perform at the University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 18
Nine-time Grammy winner John Legend will perform Jan. 19 at the Moody Music Hall for the University of Alabama’s Martin Luther King Jr. Realizing the Dream concert. Tickets for the concert are $15 general admission and will go on sale Jan. 8 at the Moody Music Building. Call 205-348-7111 or visit www.ua music.tix.com to order tickets. The concert is sponsored by UA, Stillman College, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Realizing the Dream Committee, Shelton State Community College, UA’s University Programs and its School of Music. Past guests for the Realizing the Dream concert include James Earl Jones, Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier.
Al.com – Dec. 18
2 Alabama university events tied to MLK
Newnan Times Herald (Ga.) – Dec. 18
Events with ties to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. are coming up at Alabama universities. The University of Alabama has lined up Grammy winner John Legend for its Martin Luther King Jr. Realizing the Dream Concert on Jan. 19. Tuskegee University has announced it will honor King’s life with a program Jan. 22 at the University Chapel. The former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Louis Sullivan, will speak. Sullivan is the former president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, will speak at Troy University on Feb. 7. The university says she will give the keynote address for the annual Leadership Conference Celebrating African-American History Month.
Alabama rivals unite, help Habitat for Humanity finish home before Christmas
WTVM 9 (Columbus, Ga.) – Dec. 18
It was a miracle in more ways than one. Students from Auburn University and the University of Alabama joined together today, Dec. 17, to help Habitat for Humanity finish a home for an Opelika family to move into before Christmas. This is the second home Geordan Construction, sub-contractors and volunteers have built for a Habitat family. The partners donate nearly all the materials and time, essentially slashing the family’s mortgage in half. The effort has made home-ownership an affordable reality for Shirley Meadows, her daughter and two granddaughters. “It’s a blessing,” says Meadows. “We are so excited for the help, and what people have done for us. It’s very good, how the community comes together. I am so blessed, me and my family.”
‘Tis the season to drive carefully
Davis Enterprise (Calif.) – Dec. 18
On Earth peace, good will to man … but on the highway, not so much. A STUDY BY David Brown, a University of Alabama professor who examines holiday traffic (perhaps if you’re researching the traffic, it means you’re not stuck in it), found that the six days around Christmas showed 18 percent more accidents than Thanksgiving weekend, the heaviest travel days of the year, and 27 percent more than New Year’s Eve when drivers are perhaps handicapped by an excess of holiday cheer.
Telehealth chronic disease self-management effective for boosting care to isolated areas
FierceHealth IT – Dec. 18
Telehealth chronic disease self-management programs can be effective for boosting care access to isolated areas, research published this month in Telemedicine and e-Health has determined. The study’s authors–from the University of Toronto, the Women’s College Research Institute of Toronto and Public Health Ontario–noted that in rural areas, education for chronic conditions is hard to spread because of limited access and funds … Telehealth isn’t only about knowing the patient and the treatment–knowing the technology is equally important, Leigh Ann Chandler Poole, M.D., a nurse practitioner at the University of Alabama, said at the 2013 mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C., last week. Poole said telehealth is about datasets, as well as practical implications and quality improvement. Alabama’s program, she said, teaches students the importance of taking pictures of the equipment used for telehealth consultation, and learning how to operate it. In addition, the program teaches do’s and don’ts for lighting, background room locations and basic camera functionality to ensure smooth visits.
UA coach Nick Saban sends letter to family of Waycross, Georgia firefighter who died in a fire
WJXT-TV (Jacksonville, Fla.) – Dec. 18
Fire lieutenant Jeff Little was killed while putting out flames at abandoned home Sunday. Vic Micolucci attended today’s service along with firefighters from more than 30 different departments. And people here in this southeast Georgia community tell me they are having a very difficult time dealing with the loss of this very popular man. They say not only was he a firefighter, he was a great father. A husband, and a friend to so many and they tell me he was born to serve. There were three long sirens, followed by silence as family and friends brought out the body of Lt. Jeff Little … one small gesture is they got a message from University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban that he is “so sorry for their loss, praying for lieutenant Little, family and friends.”