UNH Today

DURHAM, N.H. - Durham: It's Where U Live, a grassroots organization committed to creating a better connection between University of New Hampshire students and their surrounding community, has partnered with UNH Community Leadership students for Durham Dialogue, an effort to get people talking about how to strengthen our shared community.

DURHAM, N.H. - Two University of New Hampshire institutes - the New Hampshire Institute on Health Policy and Practice (NHIHPP) and the Institute on Disability (IOD) - have received $900,000 from the federal department of Health and Human Services for programs to better support seniors, individuals with disabilities, and caregivers as they navigate health and long-term care options.

DURHAM, N.H. - Democrat Ann McLane Kuster and Republican Charlie Bass are locked in a very tight race for New Hampshire's Second Congressional District seat. The First Congressional District race also has tightened with Republican Frank Guinta holding a modest, but not insurmountable, lead over incumbent Carol Shea-Porter.

DURHAM, N.H. — The University of New Hampshire's first user-controlled live webcam has been launched by the UNH Alumni Association. The "Cat's Eye" webcam offers a view of the Wildcat sculpture, the university's mascot, in front of the Whittemore Center Arena.

Viewers can control the camera for 60 seconds at a time to view the sculpture as well as Main Street, College Road, Memorial Field and the Great Lawn in front of Thompson Hall.

DURHAM, N.H. - University of New Hampshire folklore professor Burt Feintuch was drawn to Canada's Cape Breton Island by the remarkably vibrant local traditional music culture. In 15 years of fieldwork, he came to understand the complexity of a place both achingly beautiful and deeply challenged by economics. With traditional mining, farming, and fishing industries depressed, tourism, though significant, is a less-than-adequate replacement as economic engine, and the island has faced an ongoing decline in population.

DURHAM, N.H. - Scientists from the University of New Hampshire have been awarded $700,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to do a baseline study of greenhouse gas emissions at both traditional and organic dairy farms operated by UNH. The grant will also support development of extension and higher education programs that will improve the competitiveness of organic livestock and crop producers, as well as those who are adopting organic practices.

DURHAM, N.H. - A major new study that sounds a conservation alarm for the world's vertebrate species notes that the world's seagrass species are faring somewhat better, says a University of New Hampshire researcher who was a coauthor of the study. 

Fred Short, UNH research professor of natural resources and director of the worldwide program SeagrassNet, was among the 174 scientists who contributed to "The Impact of Conservation on the Status of the World's Vertebrates," released online this week in the journal Science.

DURHAM, N.H. - Joseph Onosko, associate professor of education, will deliver the distinguished Kimball Lecture Friday, Nov. 5, 2010. The title of his lecture is "Obama's Race to the Top Leaves Children and Future Citizens Behind: The Damaging Effects of Centralization, Standardization, and High Stakes Accountability."

The Kimball Lecture will take place at 3:30 p.m. Richards Auditorium, Murkland Hall. It is free and open to the public.

DURHAM, N.H. - Marc Sedam, chief operating officer of Qualyst, has been named the executive director of the University of New Hampshire's Office for Research Partnerships and Commercialization (ORPC) after a national search. Sedam graduated from UNH in 1993 with a bachelor's in biochemistry. He will be at the university full time beginning Nov. 2, 2010.

DURHAM, N.H. - Researchers at the University of New Hampshire's Hubbard Center for Genome Studies (HCGS) have developed a "barcoding" technique that's shedding new light on the biodiversity of some of the world's most abundant and interesting creatures.