Published Aug 11, 2023 by Joey Klecka

A new union representing graduate student employees with the University of Alaska is one step closer to becoming reality.

Representatives with the university and the Alaska Graduate Workers Association — which is part of the United Auto Workers — signed a settlement agreement Wednesday that defines those eligible to be part of a new graduate student employee union, which would include a bargaining team of grad students and a union election this fall.

According to the AGWA-UAW, student representatives filed for union authorization cards in February with the Alaska Labor Relations Agency, and by March had picked up enough interest — 30% “showing of interest” count — to continue negotiations.

UA officials said that over two days of mediation, the ALRA decided to side with the university and not to include undergraduate students and staff employees at the bargaining table.

The next step, according to the graduate workers association, is for the student employees to vote to confirm a majority choice to form a union.



Published Aug 10, 2023

The drones that fly through Alaska’s skies can be employed for critical and even life-saving purposes, and Alaska’s chief medical officer, speaking at an Anchorage conference on Monday, gave one example.

Dr. Anne Zink said that when she was traveling in late July along the Yukon River, a resident of a remote village there went into seizures, apparently from a drug overdose. In that region, where there is only spotty medical and law-enforcement service and where cellphone service limps along at a rudimentary level, a drone could have swept to quickly deliver medicine to that or any other patient suffering seizures.

Zink’s description of ways that drones could be used for medical services came on the opening day of a three-day conference hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration.

Through that center, UAF and Alaska have emerged as leaders in the development and use of drone technology, said University of Alaska President Pat Pitney.

“We’re just in a prime position to take the next steps,” said Pitney, who attended the conference. “I think Alaska can be the first state to have commercial drone operations.”

This week’s conference, to run through Friday, attracted about 250 participants, a UAF spokesperson said. It is expected to become an annual event, Pitney said.

There are numerous functions that can be conducted by drone, aside from quick delivery of medical services suggested by Zink, that are on the agenda for this week’s conference.

Those include assistance in management of emergencies like wildfires and floods, support for scientific research and support for industrial activity like oil and gas operations. Also on the agenda are sessions about development of regulations, industry best practices and new technologies.

Published Aug 10, 2023

Paleontologists working in northern Alaska have discovered a tiny fossil mammal that thrived in what may have been among the coldest conditions on Earth about 73 million years ago.

The researchers, led by Jaelyn Eberle of CU Boulder, described the Late Cretaceous animal in a study published this month in the "Journal of Systematic Palaeontology."

They gave it the scientific name Sikuomys mikros—from “Siku,” an Iñupiaq word for “ice,” and “mys” and “mikros,” the Greek words for “mouse” and “little.” 

“These guys probably didn’t hibernate,” said Eberle, curator of fossil vertebrates at the CU Museum of Natural History and professor in the Department of Geological Sciences. “They stayed active all year long, burrowing under leaf litter or underground and feeding on whatever they could sink their teeth into, probably insects and worms.”

She and her colleagues had to be equally tenacious to discover the fossil animals: The researchers identified the new species from only a handful of tiny teeth, each about the size of a grain of sand.

“I always like working at the ends of the Earth,” Eberle said. “You never know what you’re going to find, but you know it’s going to be new.”

Those minute fossils are giving researchers a new window into ancient Alaska, said study co-author Patrick Druckenmiller, director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North. 

“Seventy-three million years ago, northern Alaska was home to an ecosystem unlike any on Earth today,” he said. “It was a polar forest teeming with dinosaurs, small mammals and birds. These animals were adapted to exist in a highly seasonal climate that included freezing winter conditions, likely snow and up to four months of complete winter darkness.” 

Published Aug 10, 2023

Not every Alaskan community can afford a full electrical retrofit, but an important lesson from RADIANCE can be extracted for remote microgrids anywhere: “The engagement of the community, grid system operators, and linemen is crucial to support community buy-in and long-term adoption of new technologies,” said Rob Hovsapian, principal investigator of the RADIANCE project. “In other words, installing a microgrid is just half the battle.”

“Throughout the state and beyond, communities with new microgrid technologies must learn how to maintain systems,” said Sherry Stout, the laboratory program manager for NREL’s State, Local, and Tribal activities. “Every system is unique to an extent, but a consistent challenge is how to manage and operate microgrids, which requires a certain level of competency and planning.”

The RADIANCE project emphasized that lesson to an extreme by bringing operations into a digital twin environment, where the cooperative and researchers could grasp the sophistication of microgrid management. To facilitate a smooth handoff of technology, the RADIANCE project brought technology vendors into contact with a community where their products are deployed and engaged customers about improvements to the electric system. To the extent that Cordova’s journey is applicable elsewhere, its lessons will spread with the help of participation from organizations like NRECA, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Alaska Power Association, the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, and the DOE Arctic Energy Office.

“We’ve pressed a lot of levers, so I believe Cordova has a lot to share,” Koplin said.

Published Aug 10, 2023 by Clarise Larson

Chancellor Aparna Palmer officially began her position in July after being selected by University of Alaska President Pat Pitney in March. She took over the role from former Chancellor Karen Carey who retired at the end of June after three years in the position.

Despite her freshness to the position and as a resident of Juneau, Palmer says she has big ambitions. She shared some of her goals with community leaders as part of the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce’s luncheon Thursday afternoon.

“I want us to be a leader in offering a great education in a wide variety of disciplines to our students and I want to increase that access,” she said. “My dream for us is to have even more students come and enjoy what we have to offer — I really believe in us.”

Palmer said steps to get there mean increasing access and emphasizing completion at the university, along with strengthening and growing connections and partnerships in Alaska communities.