Jan. 10, 2012

By Reba Lean

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

FAIRBANKS — Camera-equipped drones flew over Nome this week to help a Russian fuel tanker, the Renda, get a perspective on the sea ice near the town’s harbor.

Glenn Shaw, Professor Emeritus of Physics and a fixture at the Geophysical Institute since 1971, has just written a memoir, Fingerprints on the Moon: My Life in Physics. It is available from the man himself, at Gulliver's Books, or through Amazon.

The Science For Alaska Lecture Series is celebrating its 20th anniversary! For two decades, Science For Alaska has continued to bring the latest in scientific research to the Fairbanks community. Come out to the 2012 lectures and learn about unmanned aircraft, reindeer, earthquakes, and more! The lectures will be held Tuesday evenings Jan. 31 through Mar. 6 in the Westmark Gold Room located in downtown Fairbanks. A full line-up of this year’s presentations and other information can be found at www.ScienceForAlaska.com. 

Chancellor Brian Rogers has opened the nomination period for the Chancellor's Cornerstone Award to recognize the contributions of staff at UAF.

Last year, Scarlett Hopkins, with the Center for Alaska Native Health Research in the Institute of Arctic Biology, was selected from nearly four dozen employees nominated by their colleagues and supervisors for their exemplary work.

Andy Mahoney, an assistant research professor with the Sea Ice Group at the Geophysical Institute, is helping to determine ice conditions near Nome, Alaska so a fuel tanker can deliver much-needed fuel to the northwest community. 

Find out more about Mahoney's involvement by listening to an Alaska Public Radio story here.

Glenn Shaw, GI Professor Emeritus of Physics and a fixture in these parts since 1971, has just written a memoir, Fingerprints on the Moon: My Life in Physics. It is available from the man himself or here.

By Ned Rozell

In 1973, Elden Johnson was a young engineer with a job working on one of the most ambitious and uncertain projects in the world — an 800-mile steel pipeline that carried warm oil over frozen ground. Thirty-five years later, Johnson looked back at what he called “the greatest story ever told of man’s interaction with permafrost.”

According to the Alaska Volcano Observatory, a single explosive event sent an ash cloud up to 15,000 feet from Cleveland Volcano. Satellite images from December 29 reveal the ash cloud has detached and is drifting east/southeast from the volcano. 

Based on the presence of an ash cloud, AVO has raised the aviation color code at Cleveland Volcano to ORANGE and alert level WATCH.

The Geophysical Institute's Computer Resource Center needs in-house personnel to take part in a survey that will be used to develop a plan that ensures all GI workers have a recent, capable work computer. This action is spurred by GI Director Bob McCoy. Please take the time to do the brief survey at http://crc.gi.alaska.edu/DesktopSurvey.

If you have questions, contact Paul Delys, CRC manager, at paul [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu or 907-474-7090.