UW in the News

November 15, 2021

State, national and international media frequently feature the University of Wyoming and members of its community in stories. Here is a summary of some of the recent coverage:

The Casper Star-Tribune (CS-T) published comments from Christelle Khalaf, associate director of UW’s Center for Business and Economic Analysis, in an article that detailed how the recently passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill will impact Wyoming and its residents.

UW law Professor Sam Kalen, a natural resources expert, was interviewed by HuffPost for an article that focused on environmentalists who are accusing President Joe Biden of breaking a campaign promise to ban new federal fossil fuel leasing. The administration says its hands are tied, but legal experts, including Kalen, offered opinions on the issue. Mother Jones republished the article.

MSN published a USA Today article that included comments from UW political science Professor Jim King. The article focused on U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and whether her ongoing anti-Donald Trump crusade will end her political career or vault her as a White House contender.

UW researchers and graduate students will be among scientists from several institutions who will study the impacts of climate change and the pressure of people on Front Range ecosystems through a five-year, $3.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The University of Colorado-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and the National Center for Atmospheric Research will lead the study, noted The Boulder Daily Camera.

The Laramie Boomerang, WyoToday Media, SweetwaterNOW and Laramie Live published UW’s release noting that a UW student team won a $100,000 prize in the Carbon Removal Student Competition funded by XPRIZE and the Musk Foundation. The competition was launched, in part, to fund early-stage concepts from the next generation of carbon removal innovators and to remove barriers to entry for those interested in the main competition. Philanthropy News Digest, The Gillette News Record, Nebraska Rural Radio Network, Financial Post and IT News Online published similar articles.

UW has launched a new phase of its “The World Needs More Cowboys” marketing campaign. Wyoming News Now, Cap City News and Oil City News published UW’s release noting that it includes a new anthem video, “I Am a Cowboy,” that highlights the attributes of UW students, employees, alumni and supporters.

Utah Public Radio interviewed UW Professor Merav Ben-David, who discussed how her past research on the climate crisis pushed her to run for the U.S. Senate last year. Ben-David was the speaker for Utah State University’s Ecology Center Seminar Series last week.

Two UW research teams are Phase 1 semifinalists of the U.S. Department of Energy’s American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize, a $4 million competition. ThinkGeoEnergy published UW’s release noting that the competition is designed to advance technologies and techniques to support direct lithium extraction from geothermal brines.

Hits 106 and Wyoming News Now published UW’s release announcing that the Wyoming Conservation Corps at UW will recruit to fill the first all-women crew, composed of two crew leaders and six crew members.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) awarded the Wyoming Small Business Development Center Network at UW a $2.5 million grant to implement the SBA’s Community Navigator Pilot Program in Wyoming. County 10 published UW’s announcement.

SweetwaterNOW published UW’s release noting that the School of Energy Resources (SER) will receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy as a subawardee in a collaborative grant proposal with Baker Hughes Energy Transition LLC to develop innovative solutions and uses for coal waste.

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso was interviewed by Wyoming News Now on several topics, including a discussion on energy in which he noted SER’s efforts to capture carbon.

Wyoming News Now published UW’s release noting that UW medical students Luiza Bosch, from Pinedale, and Taylor Thompson, from Cody, recently volunteered at Ivinson Memorial Hospital’s Outpatient Regeneron Infusion Clinic to help care for COVID-19 patients. Bosch and Thompson are second-year students in the Wyoming-WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) Medical Education Program.

UW is celebrating International Education Week this week with a variety of events, including informational workshops, panel discussions, a film screening and nightly international meals. The Laramie Boomerang published UW’s announcement.

Big Horn Radio Network published UW’s release announcing that the College of Law and the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources will host a symposium marking Yellowstone National Park’s 150th anniversary at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody May 19-20.

Nino Abashidze, a postdoctoral research associate in the UW Haub School, was among researchers whose study revealed that racial and ethnic disparities were found in the use of a popular prostate cancer test. Abashidze conducted the research in her previous position at Georgia Tech. The study appeared in JAMA Network Open.

The Western Farmer-Stockman published UW’s release on the Coe Student Innovation Center’s MakeHER Scholar Program that offers STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and maker workshops and camps aimed at Wyoming’s young female students.

Retired UW Professor Conrad Smith’s journey to find a historical rock in Wyoming was featured in a WyoFile article. A documentary featured Smith, who has spent nearly a decade trying to locate the exact rock within the Rocky Mountains where Charles Preuss sat in 1842 to sketch the first published image from within the Rocky Mountains.

The CS-T interviewed UW psychology Professor Narina Nuñez for an article on a legislative bill to improve juvenile justice data collection. Nuñez is a member of the State Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice’s Executive Committee.