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• The Bucks for Brains program for the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville was provided $50 million. UK will receive $33 million of that amount which must be matched. New language was incorporated to authorize the university to use that money for endowed positions and renovations. Previously, the money could not be used for laboratory renovations. The funds have to be matched, but it is a source of funds that the university did not have access to before.
President Todd expressed appreciation to Steve Byars, Tom Harris, Jay Blanton, and everyone else that helped work the session.
President Todd continued his report by referring to PR 1. He called attention to the first item in the report regarding UK's graduate program being listed among the best in the nation according to newly released rankings in the U.S. News and World Report's 2009 edition of American's Best Graduate Schools. UK's College of Pharmacy ranked highest on the list as the fifth best pharmacy school in the nation.
UK will help spearhead a statewide effort to unite business, industry, government, and education leaders in an initiative to encourage elementary, middle, and high-school girls to study science, technology, engineering, and math.
Former Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's visit to UK's campus resulted in a $1 million endowment gift to the university. This is a very strong commitment for the Indian community.
There is a dramatic new study published in the March issue of Nature by Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, a University of Kentucky researcher in the Department of Ophthalmology and the paper's senior author.
UK HealthCare's Albert B. Chandler Hospital is named among the nation's top 100 hospitals by Thomson Healthcare.
The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation chose UK for the third time as an awarding institution for a Beckman Scholarship to support undergraduate research. Other institutions receiving a scholarship this year include Boston University, Georgia Tech, Indiana University, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Vanderbilt University, which are all top 20 institutions.
Andrew Lynch, a chemical engineering senior, has now won five national scholarships in one year. He is the first person in the country to receive five national scholarships during one year. His latest scholarship is the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue his graduate studies at Cambridge University in England. He will pursue his doctorate in chemical engineering.
The Scientist magazine lists UK as the best place for postdocs. The magazine cited "training and mentoring" as the reason UK ranked as high as it did.
Six UK professors were honored for excellence in the classroom as the UK Alumni Association's recipients of the 2008 Great Teacher Awards. The Alumni Association does a