Tag: Desktop News October 2016


A Name to Reflect Change

From the October 2016 Desktop News | Since 2001, the number of undergraduates majoring in the Department of Criminal Justice has increased more than 300 percent. Last year alone, more than 2,000 students took Introduction to Criminal Justice, and the department now holds some of the most popular majors on campus. “Our growth is due in large part to the efforts of our dedicated and diverse faculty,” the department’s chair, Dr. Lesley Williams Reid, said. “As the demand for our courses has […]

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Psychology Professor Honored for Contributions to Geropsychology

Dr. Scogin winner of APA research award for his work on geropsychology

From the October 2016 Desktop News | Dr. Forrest Scogin, a professor of psychology at The University of Alabama, received the American Psychological Association Committee on Aging’s Award for the Advancement of Psychology and Aging at its annual convention in August. Scogin, whose primary concentration is clinical geropsychology, researches mental health and aging, as well as psychotherapy and depression. He’s also affiliated with the Alabama Research Institute on Aging, a UA-based interdisciplinary research group that promotes the quality of life for older adults. […]

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Researchers Explore Biomass Potential to Replace Petrochemicals

Arduengo and German exchange student Philip Maximilian Knaff work in a UA lab.

From the October 2016 Desktop News | For years, manufacturers of some pharmaceuticals and everyday items made of plastic have relied on non-renewable petrochemicals that gush from the bowels of the Earth—black gold, Texas tea—as a key ingredient. Now Dr. Anthony J. Arduengo III, a University of Alabama chemistry professor, and an international group of scientists are working to replace petrochemicals with a much more chemically complex component that grows, rather than springs, from the ground. The component? Wood. “Wood, a renewable […]

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Fruit-Fly Diet Impacts Descendants, UA Researcher Finds

 From the October 2016 Desktop News | For a fruit fly, what its grandparents ate may affect how much it weighs. And, according to Dr. Laura Reed, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, similar relationships between generational diet and obesity may hold true for humans as well. To study obesity, Reed and her team experiment with the diets of fruit flies. They feed some of the larvae a high-fat diet while they give the control group a regular diet. Then, […]

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Student Represents Team USA in Paralympic Games

Shelby Baron

From the October 2016 Desktop News | Shelby Baron was helping unload cars during freshman move-in day at The University of Alabama when she got a call from Team USA wheelchair tennis coach Dan James. It was Aug. 12, her 22nd birthday, so Baron thought James was calling to wish her a happy birthday. “He said, ‘You want the good news or bad news?’” Baron said. “I was confused, but I took the bad news first. He said, ‘We didn’t order […]

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Three Brothers Cheer Together for First Time at UA

Elijah Vaughn supports a cheerleader by her leg as he lifts her into the air.

From the October 2016 Desktop News | In January 2015, The University of Alabama’s cheerleading team made history when it became the first division 1A team to win first place in both the coed and all-girl categories at the College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship put on by the Universal Cheerleaders Association and the Universal Dance Association. Orlando-native Jed “Trey” Vaughn was part of UA’s winning coed cheer squad that year, helping to blaze a trail at UA and in his […]

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