UofL Gift Ideas

Ceramics sale
UofL ceramics students and faculty members will offer handcrafted functional and art objects in their annual holiday sale Dec. 14, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. and Dec. 15, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Room 136, HPES Building, (corner of Floyd and Warnock streets), Belknap Campus.

Garden of Hope
Honor someone special in your life with a brick in the James Graham Brown Cancer Center's Garden of Hope. Bricks are $100 and can be engraved in honor of an individual or family.

UofL Alumni Store
Looking for Cardinal clothing and accessories? The UofL Alumni Association has launched UofLAlumniStore.com. Buyers can choose from three logo designs, including one for the UofL Alumni Association. Merchandise is competitively priced, and each purchase provides funding for alumni programs.

Donate to UofL
Make a gift to the UofL school, department, library, research or scholarship program of your choice. You can also donate in honor or memory of others, which can make for a unique holiday gift. Donate before Dec. 31 to receive a receipt for your 2007 taxes.

'Extreme Makeover' helps UofL band student Patrick Hughes

In November a Louisville family got the surprise of their lives: a call from "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" saying that Elite Homes would refurbish their modest home. Patrick Henry Hughes, a UofL sophomore and Spanish major who plays trumpet in the Marching Band, was born without eyes or the ability to fully straighten his arms or legs. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" also made more than $250,000 in renovations to the UofL band/intramural field. The show will air on ABC Feb. 17. To help Patrick "see" his house, UofL engineers used the Speed School's Rapid Prototyping Center to create a three-dimensional model so he could feel the shape and layout of the house.

Honoring Excellence

2008 Grawemeyer Award winners announced

The 2008 Grawemeyer Award winners include a composer who wrote a song cycle for his dying wife based on five love poems; a Berkley professor who questions the value of political forecasts; education researchers who advocate universal preschool for children; a psychologist who was the first to prove that self esteem affects choices; and a scholar who says justice is an essential part of sexual ethics.

Research that Makes a Difference

UofL engineer reduces land mine dangers

In the time it takes a typical American to commute to work, two people somewhere in the world have lost a limb, their sight or their lives to land mines. That's because an estimated 60 million to 100 million land mines or other unexploded weaponry lie buried in more than 70 countries--even peaceful ones. Often, the victims are unintended targets: civilians. New mine detectors developed by Speed School researcher Hichem Frigui are helping to find and clean old and new land mine sites.

Student Excellence

Brohm and Barlowe earn academic All-America honors

UofL quarterback Brian Brohm, who became the BIG EAST Conference's career passing leader this season, was named to ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-America football team. Brohm made the first-team academic all-America selections, while Louisville offensive guard Danny Barlowe was chosen to the second team. Brohm is a finalist in the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award as the nation's top senior quarterback and finished his career with 10,824 passing yards. He carries a 3.50 grade-point average as a finance major.

Community Partnerships

Robot helps doctors treat patients in rural areas

UofL Health Care is teaming up with Owensboro Medical Health System to use a robot to provide care to patients in rural and outlying areas of Central and Western Kentucky. The 5-foot, 6-inch device works through remote control. A doctor seated at a computer can connect via the Internet to the robot, which is located in the OMHS Emergency Room. The doctor can interact and converse with a patient, the patient's family, physician or nurse through a live, two-way audio and video connection through the robot.

Accountability

EPA gives award to Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center

The Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center at UofL received the Environmental Protection Agency's Water Efficiency Leader Award this week. The award recognizes KPPC's ongoing efforts to find profitable pollution prevention solutions for the metal finishing industry. One example the EPA cited was KPPC's work at a plant that resulted not only in a 30 percent net water savings, valued at $50,000 annually, but also in a 50 percent increase in production. The KPPC provides technical information and assistance to Kentucky businesses and industries to improve their environmental performance and reduce their operating costs.

Community Partnerships

UofL, UK sign deal to speed clinical trial start-ups

Kentucky's two largest universities are partnering with an international biotechnology company to move new drugs from the lab to the marketplace more quickly. UofL and the University of Kentucky each have signed master clinical trial agreements with Amgen Inc., a California-based business that operates a distribution center in Louisville. The step is intended to shorten the time it takes to move drugs from the research stage to testing with actual patients.

Cardinal Sports

UofL men's basketball to play in John Wooden Tradition

The Cardinal men's basketball team will face Purdue in the John Wooden Tradition in Indianapolis Saturday, Dec. 15, 3:30 p.m. tip off--and the UofL Alumni Association has two pre-game parties planned. Friday's free party starts at 5:30 p.m. at Jillian's, 141 S. Meridian St.; Hall of Fame Coach Denny Crum and 1980 National Champion MVP Darrell Griffith will be special guests. Saturday's pre-game party starts at 1 p.m. at Conseco Fieldhouse's Pepsi Square. Pregame party tickets are $25. Register Online

Library Archive

Exhibit features 'Little Colonel' author, photographer

The University Libraries' Photographic Archives is exhibiting works by Kentucky author Annie Fellows Johnston and photographer Kate Matthews. Johnston's most famous books were the "Little Colonel" series of children's books that chronicled the escapades of a feisty youngster with a bad temper. "The Little Colonel" inspired a movie by the same name that featured Shirley Temple. Johnston's characters and Matthew's photographs, which illustrated the books, drew heavily from the people of Pewee Valley, Ky. The exhibit runs through Feb. 16.