News
  • A person walks along a storm-battered beach near Quinhagak after ex-Typhoon Merbok hit Western ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ in 2022.

    Shapes of Western ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ bays influence local flood danger

    August 20, 2026

    When large storms hit Western ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥, some areas fare much worse than others. New research studying ex-Typhoon Merbok in September 2022 has found that a complex recipe of topography, tidal influences and seasonal water-level changes contribute to those differences. A ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥-led team determined that the shape of bays and estuaries in the region played a huge role in funneling and amplifying Merbok-driven storm surges.

  • Aerial view of the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Arctic Research Park, showing research and office buildings surrounded by roads, lawns and autumn trees, with forested hills in the distance under a partly cloudy sky.

    Expanded UAF, military partnership looks north

    August 19, 2026

    A newly inked federal agreement will expand the scope of the research partnership between the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ and the U.S. military. It will also refocus those efforts on the Arctic.

  • A composite image of head-and-shoulders portraits of Jill Faudree, Derek Sikes and Leslie Shallcross.

    Faudree, Sikes, Shallcross named 2026 Usibelli Award winners

    August 13, 2026

    The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ has announced the recipients of the 2026 Emil Usibelli Distinguished Teaching, Research and Service Awards.

  • Aerial view of the coastal ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ village of Kipnuk severely flooded, with homes on stilts surrounded by brown floodwater, debris-strewn land, and displaced vegetation stretching to the horizon in October 2025.

    Accelerated rates of warming in the Arctic continue

    August 12, 2026

    The American Meteorological Society released its annual report on the global climate this week, with many researchers from the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ participating.

  • Red currants grow on a bush at the Georgeson Botanical Garden in Fairbanks in July 2026.

    Festival will satisfy currant curiosity

    August 12, 2026

    The fourth annual Far North Currant Festival will celebrate one of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥'s lesser-known berries from 1-4 p.m. on Aug. 22 at the Georgeson Botanical Garden in Fairbanks. Visitors of all ages can enjoy berry tastings, educational exhibits, hands-on activities and garden tours. Local growers, gardeners, researchers, artists and community experts will be on hand to answer currant questions.

News
  • A person walks along a storm-battered beach near Quinhagak after ex-Typhoon Merbok hit Western ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ in 2022.

    Shapes of Western ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ bays influence local flood danger

    August 20, 2026

    When large storms hit Western ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥, some areas fare much worse than others. New research studying ex-Typhoon Merbok in September 2022 has found that a complex recipe of topography, tidal influences and seasonal water-level changes contribute to those differences. A ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥-led team determined that the shape of bays and estuaries in the region played a huge role in funneling and amplifying Merbok-driven storm surges.

  • Aerial view of the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Arctic Research Park, showing research and office buildings surrounded by roads, lawns and autumn trees, with forested hills in the distance under a partly cloudy sky.

    Expanded UAF, military partnership looks north

    August 19, 2026

    A newly inked federal agreement will expand the scope of the research partnership between the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ and the U.S. military. It will also refocus those efforts on the Arctic.

  • A small brown and tan frog rests in a person's hand

    Time capsule: Looking for a few good wood frogs

    August 13, 2026

    The office phone rang while Brian Barnes discussed with me his need for wood frogs. The caller's loudness forced Barnes, a ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ associate professor of zoophysiology, to tilt the phone away from his ear.

  • A composite image of head-and-shoulders portraits of Jill Faudree, Derek Sikes and Leslie Shallcross.

    Faudree, Sikes, Shallcross named 2026 Usibelli Award winners

    August 13, 2026

    The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ has announced the recipients of the 2026 Emil Usibelli Distinguished Teaching, Research and Service Awards.

  • Aerial view of the coastal ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ village of Kipnuk severely flooded, with homes on stilts surrounded by brown floodwater, debris-strewn land, and displaced vegetation stretching to the horizon in October 2025.

    Accelerated rates of warming in the Arctic continue

    August 12, 2026

    The American Meteorological Society released its annual report on the global climate this week, with many researchers from the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ participating.

  • $100,000 planetarium gift celebrates alumni association centennial

    August 12, 2026

    The new planetarium at the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ will receive $100,000 from the UAF ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Association. The gift will support teaching, expand programming and connect guests with the university's research.

  • Red currants grow on a bush at the Georgeson Botanical Garden in Fairbanks in July 2026.

    Festival will satisfy currant curiosity

    August 12, 2026

    The fourth annual Far North Currant Festival will celebrate one of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥'s lesser-known berries from 1-4 p.m. on Aug. 22 at the Georgeson Botanical Garden in Fairbanks. Visitors of all ages can enjoy berry tastings, educational exhibits, hands-on activities and garden tours. Local growers, gardeners, researchers, artists and community experts will be on hand to answer currant questions.

  • Water flowing over a dam.

    UAF leads AI project to strengthen ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥'s rural power grids

    August 11, 2026

    A new energy research project led by the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ has received a $725,000 award from the U.S. Department of Energy.

  • A close-up of a standing arctic ground squirrel, brown in color, against a blurred olive background

    How do ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ animals sleep in the summer?

    August 11, 2026

    More than a month after the summer solstice, Fairbanks is still the land of the midnight sun. Joggers are out getting in their late-night runs along Farmers Loop, and we still don't need our headlights after another evening ice cream at Hot Licks.

  • An undergraduate UAF student places samples in a mass spectrometer. UAF photo by JR Ancheta.

    New instrument will aid environmental science and industry

    August 10, 2026

    A new spectrometer facility at the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ will let researchers see chemical components of materials in the parts-per-trillion range, advancing environmental science across ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥.

  • Meg Nordale, president of GHEMM Company, poses for a portrait at the company’s Fairbanks office.

    Tickets available for UAF Business Leader of the Year event

    August 10, 2026

    Tickets are on sale for the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ College of Business and Security Management's 48th Business Leader of the Year dinner and award ceremony.

  • Week's events: Robert Hannon, sleep, ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Native language archive, string band

    August 09, 2026

    ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Summer Sessions and Lifelong Learning is hosting more than 40 free lectures, concerts and events this summer. Here's what's happening during the final week, Aug. 10-16.

  • UAF Day at the fair scheduled Aug. 4

    August 03, 2026

    The ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ will host UAF Day at the Tanana Valley State Fair on Tuesday, Aug. 4. UAF employees, students, alumni and friends will receive $1 off admission by wearing UAF apparel or showing their PolarExpress card.

  • Week's events: Atkinson and Toelle, dementia, AI, progressive rock

    July 31, 2026

    ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Summer Sessions and Lifelong Learning is hosting more than 40 free lectures, concerts and events this summer. Here's what's happening during the week of Aug. 3-9.

  • Buildings sit on a ridge with a small lake and hillsides covered with yellowing fall vegetation in the background.

    World War II sparked creation of Geophysical Institute

    July 30, 2026

    As presidential bill signings go, H.R. 6496 wasn’t a particularly exciting one for the nation on July 31, 1946. But it would prove historic for the University of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ and the future state.

  • Dipnetters fill the Kenai River in July 2021. An orange buoy (center right) marks one of the hydrophones used to monitor Cook Inlet beluga echolocation clicks

    Belugas absent from Kenai River during peak fishing season

    July 30, 2026

    Endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales, which have traditionally fed in the salmon-rich Kenai River throughout the summer, were absent during times of high human activity in a recent two-year period.

  • Mammoth bones lie in a pit at Langmannersdorf, Austria.

    DNA shows ancient humans killed more female mammoths

    July 30, 2026

    After analyzing the DNA in over 500 ancient mammoth bones, an international research team has determined that ice age humans disproportionately killed female woolly mammoths. The newly published study in the journal Current Biology sampled mammoth bone accumulations associated with ancient human activity and found they were dominated by females.

More news

 

Events
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Aurora

A magazine for alumni and friends of the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ | Summer 2026

Kwigillingok Elder David John speaks as part of a panel at the Western ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Interdisciplinary Science Conference in Bethel, ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥, April 7, 2026. To the left of the photo is Kwigillingok Elder Fred Phillip. To the right is Kipnuk Elder Tim Samson and Jessica Lewis-Nicori, originally from Chefornak.

In Bethel, weathering the storm through science and stories
John Davies visits the Arctic Research Park on the Fairbanks campus in April 2026. As a seismologist, he worked and studied for many years at the Geophysical Institute, located in the Elvey Building (with the blue satellite dish). UAF photo by Eric Engman.

From seismologist to statesman
Bruce Cech interviews UAF men’s basketball head coach George Roderick at the Big Island Invitational in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1995.

The voice that bridges the miles
Scenic view of Troth Yeddha' campus.

Welcoming new leadership at ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥â€™s university
UAF students (from left) Cole Houser, Jesse Tyrrell, Lilly Varney and Jackson Nelson celebrate Giving Day with Nook at Alyeska Tire, one of this year's challenge sponsors, in March.

Students embrace hands-on philanthropy
From left, Denise Thorsen, associate dean of academics for UAF’s College of Engineering and Mines, visits with donors Rachel and Richard Kacsur at a lab in late 2025.

Turning retirement assets into opportunity
Rosie Fordham, right, leads the pack of runners up the first hill of the 3-lap, 6K women's course as ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ cross-country runners compete in the Blue & Gold race against University of ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Anchorage the morning of Sept. 13, 2025, on the UAF Competition Trails.

A season of athletic success
KUAC television videotapes and other materials await sorting in 2024 for possible inclusion in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting at the Library of Congress.

Like turning your television on in the past