Published Apr 10, 2024 by Yereth Rosen

When the federal government established an Arctic Domain Awareness Center 10 years ago at the University of Alaska Anchorage, the mission focused on maritime issues in the changing Arctic Ocean and how the U.S. Coast Guard would manage them.

Now a new Arctic Domain Awareness Center has started operations at UAA, and the research mission is much broader, reflecting new knowledge about the wide-ranging impacts of Arctic climate change on what the federal government classifies as homeland security.

“The world has changed. And what we think about being important has evolved,” Dimitri Kusnezov, undersecretary for science and technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told reporters on Tuesday.

Kusnezov was a featured speaker at a ceremony held Tuesday at UAA that marked the opening of the new center. It has been given a long name: Arctic Domain Awareness Center – Addressing Rapid Changes through Technology, Information and Collaboration, which is abbrieviated as ADAC-ARCTIC.

As Kusnezov and other speakers described it, ADAC-ARCTIC will be a hub for collaborative research on numerous Arctic subjects influenced by climate change. 

Published Apr 10, 2024 by Dimitri Kusnezov

Environmental changes are rapidly transforming Alaska and the larger Arctic region. Warming temperatures and glacial melt in the Arctic, for example, will increase economic opportunities and accelerate risks to Arctic residents, commercial activity and national security. As the Arctic grapples with growing challenges, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has an opportunity to take on an expanded role in our work with the state of Alaska. By investing in cutting-edge research and leveraging the expertise of our state partners, we’re advancing security priorities and securing a prosperous future for Alaskan communities.

The new ADAC-ARCTIC Center of Excellence is critical to this effort. In January, DHS announced a $46 million, 10-year cooperative agreement with the University of Alaska, which will lead a consortium of U.S. academic institutions and other partners for the new Center of Excellence. The center will serve as a research hub examining how changes in the regional environment may impact operations and identifying solutions to improve regional resilience. It will also provide a training ground for current and aspiring members of the DHS workforce, who will work with the latest developments and methods in Arctic research relevant to homeland security. Internships and degree programs, as well as other workforce development initiatives, will provide the necessary training, skills, and experience in Arctic operations.

Vital insights gained from academic-led innovative research will help the Department adapt operations to this complex, evolving environment.

Dimitri Kusnezov, Ph.D., is the undersecretary for science and technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Published Apr 10, 2024 by Alaska Public Media

In 2022, Cook Inlet’s largest natural gas producer, Hilcorp, announced it could not guarantee a gas supply to the Railbelt beyond the next few years.

It’s not that Cook Inlet is out of natural gas, said Philip Wight, an energy historian at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. But it’s become too expensive to produce locally.

“We are a small market,” Wight said. “And it is not worth it for many oil and gas companies to come into the Cook Inlet, a mature basin where most of the gas has already been removed, to try to encourage more production.”

That’s a problem for communities on the Railbelt, the stretch of Alaska communities from Homer up to Fairbanks. Two-thirds of the region’s electricity is currently generated from Cook Inlet natural gas.

Electric utilities are scrambling to come up with new energy sources.

Currently, about 15% of Railbelt electricity comes from renewable sources — mostly hydro power.

The study found in the most affordable scenario, renewables would need to provide 76% — or five times today’s output — of electricity generation by 2040.

Denholm said that would require building major new wind and solar farms, along with battery storage. In this scenario, for example, wind power would go from providing just 2% of Railbelt electricity today to 51% within 15 years.

That’s a lot of infrastructure to build in a short period of time.

Published Apr 10, 2024 by Matt Acuña Buxton

The Alaska House is set to begin floor amendments on the state operating budget today, a multi-day process that stands as one of the marquee events of the legislative session. Any legislator can propose any change to state spending, which has made for tense floor fights over school funding, the dividend and just about any other issue in Alaska.

A complete list of the changes can be found here, but here are the big-ticket items that caught my attention in this process:

• $3 million to the University of Alaska to continue and expand pilot programs to prepare teachers and health care workers for working in Alaska. The money would be evenly split between the two programs, which are mainly operated through student grants.
• $1 million for safety upgrades at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
• $20 million for the University of Alaska Fairbanks to achieve the sought-after R1 Research Status, which officials hope will lead to higher enrollment and additional research grants.

Published Apr 9, 2024 by La'shawn Donelson

In a packed atrium at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Members of the community celebrated a new chapter of Arctic collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology.

The University of Alaska, Anchorage, and the Department of Homeland Security have created a new Arctic center of excellence to help prepare and understand the challenges in the Arctic.

"Building education programs, research programs involving subject matter experts from across the United States to address challenges in the Arctic and homeland security enterprise," said Jeff Libby, faculty at UAA and principal investigator at Arctic Domain Awareness Center.

Earlier this year, Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology gave the university $46 million. Within the next 10 years, UAA will lead a consortium Arctic Center of Excellence.

To learn more about the center, you can visit University of Alaska Anchorage website.

Published Apr 9, 2024 by Jordan

The University of Alaska Fairbanks will receive $3.5 million in federal funding to establish Alaska’s first radiocarbon dating laboratory on the Troth Yeddha’ Campus. 

The funds were included in H.R. 4366 by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in March.

“We have been pursuing this vision for several years,” said Matthew Wooller, director of UAF’s Alaska Stable Isotope Facility. “We are especially grateful to Lisa Murkowski for picking this up and advocating for it.”

The lab, which will house a nearly 10,000-pound mass spectrometer, will be located in the basement of the Usibelli Building. It will take approximately a year for the massive instrument to be built and shipped from Switzerland to Alaska.

Radiocarbon dating is a method of determining the age of organic materials like fossils or wood. All living things contain carbon-14, a radioactive form of the element that decays at a steady rate over time. By measuring the amount of carbon-14 remaining in a sample, scientists can tell its age up to approximately 60,000 years.

Wooller noted that Arctic researchers from around the world will benefit from having a state-of-the-art lab on the same campus as the extensive Arctic natural history collections at the UA Museum of the North. “Our museum has one of the largest skeletal collections in the world,” he said. “Providing accurate dates for all of those specimens will add tremendous value.” 

Published Apr 9, 2024 by Yereth RosenAriana FigueroaClaire StrempleClaire Stremple

A new program at Alaska Pacific University will allow students to get sequential graduate business degrees and law degrees while staying in Alaska.

The dual MBA-JD program, to start in next fall’s semester, links the master of business administration program that already exists at the small private university in Anchorage with the degree program at Seattle University School of Law. Through dual admission, students who want to combine the degrees will be able to earn them on an accelerated schedule – and stay in Alaska at the same time, the universities said when they announced the program.

While there is currently no option for attending law school within the state, there are some existing opportunities through the University of Alaska for students who want to become lawyers.

UAA has a partnership with Willamette University College of Law in Oregon and Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Ohio that allows students to get work through undergraduate and law degrees on accelerated timelines, for example, and UAF offers a prelaw program.