DIABETES PREVENTION RESEARCH PROGRAM
Are you at risk for diabetes? Visit this link and take the quiz on the right side of the page.
If you score a nine or higher, the answer is yes, you are at risk.
If the answer is yes, and you want to join a 12-month research study that will help you learn more about decreasing your risk for diabetes, contact the University of Utah Diabetes Prevention Research Program at DPP@utah.edu and provide your phone number.
A Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle coach will call you back and ask you a series of questions to determine your eligibility.
Click here to see the video about pre-diabetes.
PERMITS FOR CAMPUS EVENTS
Are you planning an event on campus? Check with the Office of the Building Official.
No matter how large or small, the Office of the Building Official can ensure the safety of our students, visitors, faculty and staff at campus events.
The Office of the Building Official inspects temporary structures, ensure access to exits, ADA accessibility and more. It also coordinates with other campus departments that oversee and approve events including the Office of Health and Public Safety, Landscape Maintenance and the Office of Equal Opportunity.
If your event will include any temporary structures like pop-up tents, stages, platforms, bleachers and fences or require portable toilets, you should obtain a permit from the Office of the Building Official. Permits are easy to obtain and free. Just contact their office two weeks prior to your event. The Office of the Building Official will send a representative out to inspect your event and issue a permit.
To find out more about permits and what steps to follow, contact Jayna Otto with Facilities Management by email at Jayna.Otto@fm.utah.edu or call 801-585-6751.
CHANGES TO UNIVERSITY LOG IN PAGES DELAYED
Changes to the university log in pages has been delayed. The expected changes have been postponed until a later date. We’ll update you as soon as a new launch date has been scheduled.
If you have any questions, please contact your respective help desk or the campus help desk at 801-581-4000.
NOMINATE A COLLEAGUE FOR A $2,500 ALTA SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP AWARD
University of Utah students, faculty and staff now have the opportunity to win one of four $2,500 awards for their efforts in sustainability, thanks to a generous gift from Alta Ski Area.
The award categories include “Campus as a Living Lab,” “Sustainability Community Partnership,” “Sustainability Integration” and “Sustainability Research.”
The Sustainability Leadership Team will select the honorees, and ecological literacy scholar David Orr will present the awards on March 6 during his campus visit. Winners will be contacted prior to the event.
To submit a nomination, visit the Alta Sustainability Leadership Awards webpage and complete the nomination form. Email the completed form to karren.nichols@utah.edu by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19.
TEXTBOOK ADOPTION REMINDER
Have you submitted your textbook adoptions for the upcoming semesters? The University Campus Store and Health Sciences Store are now taking your adoption orders for the summer 2015 and fall 2015 semesters.
The sooner textbook adoptions are sent to the Campus Store or Health Sciences Store the better, as the new semesters will be here quickly. If you have questions about submitting a textbook adoption please call Dave Nelson at 801-581-8321 or email him at dnelson@campusstore.utah.edu.
You can also submit adoptions from the Campus Store’s website at CampusStore.utah.edu, hovering over “Faculty”and clicking “Submit Adoptions Here.”
U MATHEMATICIAN WINS PRESTIGIOUS SLOAN FELLOWSHIP
Jonathan Chaika, an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Utah, today was named as one of 126 young U.S. and Canadian scientists to receive a prestigious 2015 Sloan Research Fellowship.
The much sought-after fellowships and $50,000 awards are meant to “honor early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars, the next generation of scientific leaders,” the nonprofit Alfred P. Sloan Foundation said in New York.
Chaika works on various problems in a mathematical field known as ergodic theory, which studies the way points travel through space over time. He focuses on spaces that have connections to geometry and topology, the study of shapes with properties that remain the same when the shapes are deformed.
“For more than 50 years the Sloan Foundation has been proud to celebrate the achievements of extraordinary young scientists who are pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge,” said Paul L. Joskow, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The Sloan fellowships are awarded in eight fields: chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences and physics. Candidates must be nominated by their fellow scientists. Fellows are selected by an independent panel of senior scholars.
Past Sloan research fellows include such intellectual luminaries as physicist Richard Feynman and game theorist John Nash. Since the program began in 1955, 43 fellows have received a Nobel Prize, 16 have won the Fields Medal in mathematics and 65 have received the National Medal of Science.
The foundation was established in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr., then-president and CEO of the General Motors Co. More information, visit Sloan Research Fellowships.
EXPECT MORE WINTER WARMTH IN THE WEST, SNOW AND COLD IN THE EAST
Utah and parts of the West have seen abnormal warmth and little snow this winter, while the Northeast has been walloped by frigid cold and snow. This pattern, caused by an S-shaped jet stream path over North America, developed over the past 4,000 years and may get worse due to human-caused climate change, U geochemist Gabe Bowen concluded in a study that was published last year but now is more timely than ever (See article here).
Bowen says he used ancient climate records “to reveal how atmospheric circulation has changed, particularly looking at the path of the jet stream. When the jet stream is flat, shooting off the Pacific and across the western U.S., we get nice cold, fresh snow – the good powder. But when the jet stream is very wavy and S-shaped and shoots far north of us, we get sunshine and dry weather and the East gets clobbered by cold Canadian air. That’s what’s happening right now and during much of last winter. We believe we will see more of it in the future.”
For more information, contact Gabe Bowen, associate professor geology and geophysics.
Office 801-585-7925, cell 765-337-3704
Email: gabe.bowen@utah.edu.
KUER WELCOMES NEW MORNING EDITION HOST, DIANE MAGGIPINTO
Veteran radio news host, Diane Maggipinto, has accepted the position as Morning Edition host at KUER 90.1. Maggipinto will replace Dan Bammes, who left the station after 12 years for the communication director position at the Utah Foundation.
“After a national search for a local ‘Morning Edition’ anchor who could seamlessly replace Dan Bammes, we realized our most talented candidate was right here in Salt Lake. I am thrilled to welcome Diane Maggipinto as a permanent member of the KUER news staff,” said KUER News Director Terry Gildea.
Maggipinto brings more than a decade of radio production and hosting experience to KUER. She served as a morning and afternoon anchor at KCPW until 2006. Maggipinto has also lent her voice to several KUED television productions, narrating “The Alta Experience” among other documentaries.