What We've Done Lately
Among institutions across the nation, the University of Arizona is among the top ranking for research and development expenditures, and it maintains a strong record for landing state and federal grants to help solve some of the most pressing contemporary challenges.
How does that investment help?
Here are just a few recent examples of how UA-led research, or investigations involving University scientists, has been shaping new knowledge and providing practical solutions to everyday challenges:
Image 1: Chris Segrin, head of the UA's communication department, and his collaborators found that adults who were overparented have an exaggerated sense of entitlement and more doubt about their ability to overcome challenges.
2: UA astrophotographer and astronomy educator Adam Block has gained a national and international following for capturing new and stunning images of celestial objects.
3: Judee Burgoon, director of human communication research for the UA Center for the Management of Information, is developing automated devices to be attentive to physical responses, such as eye movements, that would aid in the identification of suspicious behavior.
4: Mark R. Haussler, a professor at the UA College of Medicine — Phoenix, has collaborated on research finding that vitamin D can help brain function.
5: Supapan Seraphin, a professor of material science and engineering, optical sciences and also biosystems engineering, is involved in international work helping women advance in the sciences.
6: Karl Flessa, a UA geosciences professor, is a member of a team that engineered the flood that has reintroduced vegetation to the lower Colorado River Delta.
7: Pavel Polynkin, a laser physicist at the UA, and his colleagues have developed a new technique would make practical air lasers hundreds of times more efficient than previous methods of creating air lasers from atmospheric components.
8: Hands-only CPR can triple the odds of survival and is the most impactful intervention for cardiac arrest, says Dr. Ben Bobrow, a UA Distinguished Professor of Emergency Medicine.
9: David Cuillier, director of the UA School of Journalism, has worked on the national level to ensure free speech protections.
10: With the news that 2014 was the hottest year on record, UA climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck has been at the forefront of discussions about the implications of shifts in the Earth's weather, in addition to possible solutions.
11: David Sbarra, a UA psychologist, co-authored findings that post-breakup wallowing can actually help you recover.
12: UA researcher Arthur Nelson led a study finding that rent costs dropped farther away from light-rail stations, with a significant decrease just under two miles away.
13: The UA has launched the Center for Compassion Studies, the nation's first such formalized collegiate center focused on advocating for the expansion of compassion education, which is meant to help people enhance efforts to live ethical lives.
14: Shane Burgess, dean of the UA's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, writes that efforts to thin forests in northern Arizona are worthy of funding because they save lives and money.