At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester, we met with all of the new faculty hires in the College of Arts and Sciences. This series of podcasts introduces them and their research interests. Jeremiah Smith is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology. Smith's area of focus is on genetics and genomics, particularly on how the genome is put together and why it occurs the way that it does. His current research projects concentrate on the lamprey genome.

At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester, we met with all of the new faculty hires in the College of Arts and Sciences. This series of podcasts introduces them and their research interests. Catherine Linnen is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology and researches how biodiversity arises. She is particularly interested in how organisms adapt to changing conditions and how that adaptation can lead to the formation of entirely new species. Currently she is working on two projects addressing this interest: one looking at changes in coat color among deer mice in Nebraska and the other looking at the relationship of host shifts to the formation of new species among pestilent insects to various pine tree species.

Morgan Hartlage, an undergraduate student in the Department of Biology, is the organizer of the Slow Food Organization at the University of Kentucky and serves as an A&S Ambassador, acting as a student liaison between faculty, prospective students, and the University of Kentucky campus at large. 

Cameron Hamilton, an undergraduate student in the Department of Biology, serves as an A&S Ambassador and as a K Crew Coordinator for UK's K Week for incoming students. Hamilton discusses new initiatives that the K Crew Coordinators are working on as well as the personal and professional benefits of being a K Crew Coordinator and A&S Ambassador.

Ann Morris, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, studies retinal regeneration and development in zebra fish. Morris discusses the potential that her research has to help people with eye diseases.

Vincent Cassone, chair of the Department of Biology, discusses how to bring the department to what he believes is its full potential.