other news

  • NSF Awards $450,000 to UNH, Conductive Compounds Inc. for Solar Panel Innovation

    UNH researchers and Conductive Compounds Inc. in Hudson recently received $450,000 from the National Science Foundation to help produce more conductive and cost-effective solar panels. The three-year grant, under the GOALI (Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry) program, will support the engineering of nanoparticles of silver suitable for screen-printing onto photovoltaic (PV) solar panels.

    To generate electricity from the sun, solar panels must have metal on the top and bottom to create a positive and negative connection, like a battery. Coating the shaded bottom side is fairly easy, but on the top, panels are screen-printed with lines of silver fine enough that they maximize light exposure.

    “But the ink that creates these lines is not nearly as conductive as pure silver,” says principal investigator Dale Barkey, professor of chemical engineering. “We’d like to produce inks that are much more conductive than the ones on the market.”

    Nanoparticles...

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  • Policy Changes for Getting Keys

    UNH Facilities is instituting key issue policy and procedure changes within the next few weeks that will affect the way keys are requested on campus.  These changes will lead to a paperless streamlined system allowing designated “key requestors” to request keys online through the Facilities database FAMIS. 

    A list is being sent to BSC directors and RCU heads to confirm key requestors within each RC unit. Facilities is holding two presentations on campus in September that will outline policy, procedure, and an overview of FAMIS as well as the historical reasons for why these changes are occurring. Key requestors will receive an invitation to this presentation and are encouraged to attend.  Policy and procedure information will also be available online at the Facilities website as the go-live date draws near. 

    Facilities has been leveraging the software package FAMIS for several months to track maintenance related work. The spring rollout gave all...

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  • President Huddleston Greets PAWs Students

    President Mark Huddleston was on hand last week at Mendum’s Pond to greet about 100 incoming students who arrived early for the PAWs program, a six-day, five-night outdoor program for incoming UNH students that is a collaboration between the Campus Recreation and the Memorial Union Building.

    More than 2,900 first-year students moved in during the Aug. 24-26 weekend.  

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  • UNH Police Department Now in New Location

    The UNH Police Department has moved from its old headquarters in Janetos House at 1 Rosemary Lane, where it had been located since May 1980, to its new location at 18 Waterworks Road next to Gregg Hall.

     Moving to the Waterworks facility allowed the department to move all police services to one place. Previously, campus support services, detectives and others were spread among other buildings on campus.

     According to Chief of Police, Executive Director of Public Safety Paul Dean, the move would not have been completed if not for the dedication of the entire University Police Department and their commitment to the UNH community.  A special thanks to the many UNH departments that also assisted.

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  • Passings: David Lane Biological Sciences Librarian

    David Lane, who worked at the Biological Sciences Library for 27 years as biological sciences librarian and associate professor, died of natural causes over the weekend. No service is scheduled at this time but a gathering to celebrate his life and many contributions to the library and the university will be held at a later date.

    Lane earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in botany from UNH and a Ph.D. in botany from Duke University before he went on to receive his master’s degree in library science from Syracuse University in 1983.

    In 2011 he received the Charles Robert Long Award of Extraordinary Merit from the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL). It is the highest honor presented by CBHL and was established to recognize outstanding service to CBHL and/or to the field of botanical and horticultural literature, information services and research.

    His many colleagues will miss his affable nature, his generosity and irrepressible wit as...

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  • Wildcat Transit Adds Extra Service between UNH/Durham and Newington/Portsmouth

    As part of the N.H. Department of Transportation's Little Bay Bridge project, UNH’s Wildcat Transit has been awarded grant funding to add and increase certain service routes that will mitigate some of the traffic concerns expected for the bridge area between Dover and Newington.

    Wildcat Transit’s Route 4 service between UNH/Durham and Newington/Portsmouth now has six additional runs that, when combined with existing service routes, will effectively double service between the communities during “rush hours” (6-9 a.m. and 2-6 p.m.). 

    The six new departure times from Durham/UNH are  5:40, 6:15, 7:15, and 8:15 a.m., 3:05 and 5:35 p.m.  Like other Wildcat Route 4 service before 10 a.m., these new routes will follow “express” schedule, meaning they skip the Newington stops at Wal-Mart, Fox Run Mall, Crossings at Newington, and Gosling Road on the outbound leg, towards Portsmouth.  These stops are serviced on the return leg, towards Durham/UNH.

    ...

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  • Start As You Mean To Go On, Or How UNH Expanded WiFi

    By Joanna Young, chief information officer, UNH IT

    In 2009, not long after joining UNH, I sat down to meet with a couple of students about what UNH IT could be doing better for them. ”More wireless coverage” was right at the top of the list.  UNH had scant if any outdoor coverage, and indoor coverage was not ubiquitous, particularly in the residence halls (a/k/a dorms).

    Like most IT organizations, there was not a pot o’ gold stashed under the raised floor in the data center to address this justified customer demand, but the amazing IT telecommunications team was determined to “make it happen.” We told the students while we couldn’t do everything at once, we could do it in phases and asked them for their priorities – which they eagerly provided. We started with outdoor spaces, then moved to having at least one area (usually a central area...

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  • Meghan Howey - Profile in Sustainability

    Megan HoweyWhy did you decide to become a UNHSI faculty fellow this year?

    UNHSI's approach is unique in that it considers culture a key factor in sustainability.  I decided being a faculty fellow offered an exciting way to be involved in this work and to extend the cultural component of UNHSI's efforts at UNH and beyond.

    How does your archaeological and anthropological research relate to sustainability?

    Looking at deep time allows me to study long term cycles of human-environment interactions and to identify the cultural solutions people developed and used to solve ecological and demographic crises in...

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  • UNH Hosts Second Annual Twilight Dinner at Woodman Farm Sept. 14 and 15

    The Whittemore School of Business and Economics will host its second twilight gourmet barn dinner at Woodman Farm Friday, Sept. 14, and Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012, in the farm’s beautiful and historic white post and beam barn.

    “The Twilight Dinner was incredibly popular last year, selling out weeks before the event. We are seeing a growing trend of people reconnecting with agricultural land and farmers in their communities, and for a land-grant university like UNH, it was incredible to see the support. This year we have three experienced young alums overseeing the food, beverage, and service, and we expect this year’s dinner to be a popular community event,” said Amy Winans, coordinator of the gourmet dinner and lecturer in hospitality management at the Whittemore School. 

    The dinner will be held rain or shine and is hosted by the advanced food and beverage students majoring in hospitality management in collaboration with the EcoGastronomy dual major, New Hampshire...

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  • Political Science Student Has Front-Row Seat at Democratic National Convention
    Emily Gold and Barack Obama.
    Emily Gold, a first-year student at UNH, will serve as an official page with the New Hampshire delegation at the Democratic National Convention. Gold, 18, from Manchester, is majoring in political science. Here she is pictured with President Barack Obama during his visit to Durham in June 2012.

    Emily Gold, a first-year political science student from Manchester, is starting her academic career at UNH with a once-in-a-lifetime experience serving as an official page to the New Hampshire delegation attending the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

    Gold, 18, is the only UNH student serving in an official capacity as a page or delegate at either national political convention.

    “Being selected as a...

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  • Provost: Initiatives Will Increase Efficiencies

    Provost John Aber has asked academic departments and programs to undertake a set of initiatives to facilitate the reallocation of budget and facilities according to priorities identified in the university’s strategic plan and informed by last year’s Academic Review. The initiatives aim to increase efficiencies and free faculty time for close teaching and mentoring, increase recruitment and retention of students, build to strengths in research, and increase the number and flexibility of pathways to a UNH degree.

    In a letter sent to faculty today, the provost noted the growing success of key revenue-enhancing initiatives highlighted in the strategic plan, The University of New Hampshire in 2020, which was adopted in 2010. Navitas, the program to recruit and enroll international students, has grown to more than 200 students in the 2012-13 academic year. More than 100 courses are currently offered through eUNH, the online teaching platform students can access year-round.

    ...

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  • New Hampshire Residents Strongly Believe State Tax Dollars Should Help Keep Public Colleges Affordable, New UNH Poll Finds

    Sixty-four percent of Granite State residents did not agree with the state legislature’s decision to cut funding by 50 percent for public colleges and universities in New Hampshire, according to the latest Granite State Poll conducted by the UNH Survey Center.

    Five hundred eighty one (581) randomly selected New Hampshire adults were interviewed by telephone between Aug. 1 and 12, 2012. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 4.1 percent.

    The survey also found that eighty-four percent of those polled believe keeping public colleges affordable is worth an investment in state tax dollars, and 71 percent favor restoring the state funding if in-state tuition rates are frozen at current levels. That number jumps to 81 percent if additional funds are made available for financial aid for lower income students.

    The USNH board of trustees is expected to vote Sept. 11, 2012, to ask the state legislature to restore funding to $100 million in return for no tuition...

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