Alumni, faculty, staff, and students were recognized for their sustainability efforts during the annual UNH Sustainability Awards on Thursday, Oct. 30.

Awards included lifetime achievement recognition in each of the non-student categories, as well as selection of a Student Organization of the Year.

Millions of Americans are dealing with significant uncertainty around access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as the government shutdown extends into its second month, as the presidential administration recently announced that it would pay out only half of the amount people normally receive this month.

Two years ago, Jayden Buckrell ’27 was pondering walking away from the sport he’d dedicated most of his young life to.

Burned out and questioning whether he even wanted to pursue an athletic future as a skier at the collegiate level, an email from then-UNH ski coach Brian Blank re-lit Buckrell’s competitive fire.

And the rest of the NCAA men’s slalom field soon paid the price.

UNH earned the No. 25 position in the Princeton Review’s Top 50 Green Colleges list, earning 96 out of a possible 99 points in the sustainability rating. The announcement comes during Campus Sustainability Month, an international celebration of sustainability in higher education by Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

With Halloween right around the corner and Thanksgiving pie season close on its heels, we asked a UNH expert to drop some knowledge about pumpkins. Chris Hernandez, assistant professor of plant breeding, researches cucurbits, which are "any sort of vining crop, like cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash – those are all in the cucurbit family." He offers some tips for picking the best variety for a jack-o'-lantern and sheds some light on what makes the best pumpkin pie – the latter of which might surprise you.

The newest research facility on campus is a big empty room that’s full of possibilities. Last week (Friday, Oct. 24), UNH unveiled a high-tech cleanroom at the John Olson Advanced Manufacturing Center donated by Airtho, which is co-located at the Olson Center. The new ISO7 will help strengthen UNH’s role as a leader for emerging research and innovation, contributing to the growth of advanced manufacturing in New Hampshire and the surrounding region.

UNH alum Ladd Raine ’06 is helping keep New Hampshire’s outdoors open, safe, and sustainable. As president of the Rumney Climbers Association, he leads volunteer efforts focused on trail maintenance, access, and education while also helping launch the Pawtuckaway Climbers Coalition. Drawing on lessons from his UNH education, Raine continues to model stewardship, mentorship, and lifelong adventure.

There was a time when Katie Hawkinson ’22 never imagined herself in sales. Shy and soft-spoken, she sometimes wouldn’t even engage over the phone. 

That changed when she joined UNH’s Professional Sales Group (PSG) in her junior year. Through immersive coursework, sales competitions, and mentorship from professionals, Hawkinson developed the confidence to pitch, negotiate, and close — skills that led to an internship at BitSight, a Boston-based cybersecurity firm, and ultimately to her current role as an account executive. 

Earlier this week, a major Amazon Web Services outage caused a significant dirsruption to apps and websites around the world. UNH's Aleksey Charapko, assistant professor of computer science whose work focuses on designing systems to be less vulnerable to such disruptions, weighed in on the recent situation.