University of Alaska Fairbanks

The Alaska Nanooks women's cross country program had two student-athletes named to the 2024-25 Academic All-America Women's Track & Field/Cross Country Team, selected by College Sports Communicators (CSC). Rosie Fordham and Kendall Kramer both earned Academic All-America honors after standout seasons on the course and in the classroom. Fordham, now a two-time honoree, earned Second Team Academic All-America recognition, while Kramer was named a First Team Academic All-American - the first such honor in program history.

The Alaska Nanooks volleyball team has once again been recognized for excellence in the classroom, earning the 2025 AVCA Team Academic Award for the 2024-25 academic year. The Nanooks are one of 1,458 teams honored by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, marking a record-breaking total of collegiate and high school programs to receive the distinction. The award celebrates teams that maintain a year-long GPA of 3.3 or higher on a 4.0 scale (or 4.1 on a 5.0 scale). This is the seventh consecutive year-and the 11th time in program history-that Alaska has earned the AVCA Team Academic Award. The Nanooks first received the honor in 2008.

FAIRBANKS - The Alaska Nanooks rifle team continues to uphold its tradition of excellence-this time in the classroom. All nine student-athletes on the 2024-25 roster have been named to the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association (CRCA) Scholastic All-American Team, announced following the completion of the academic year.

Samples of extremely small crystal clots, each polished to the thickness of a human hair or thinner, have revealed information about the process triggering the major 2006 eruption of Alaska's Augustine Volcano. Graduate student researcher Valerie Wasser at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute determined that the addition of hot new magma into Augustine's reservoir of cooler, older magma increased the pressure enough to trigger the 2006 eruption. Wasser's analysis of Augustine crystal clots was published May 29 in Geology, the journal of The Geological Society of America.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks honored the Class of 2025 during its 103rd commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 3, at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks. The university's first commencement took place in 1923, when the sole graduate, John Sexton Shanly, received a bachelor's degree in agriculture. This year, UAF conferred approximately 1,184 degrees on 1,110 students. Some students received more than one degree. The commencement ceremony included graduates from summer and fall 2024 and spring 2025.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology's Toolik Field Station has named five recipients of its 2025 Tundra Award for student and early career research.

The UAF Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity has named the recipients of the URSA 2025 Innovative Technology and Education Awards.

UAF students John Davis, Kaylana Nations and Matthew Lesh were all recently awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, which supports students studying abroad.

UAF civil engineering students placed fourth at the 2025 national Student Steel Bridge Competition, earning top honors in construction speed and structural efficiency with an innovative, student-led design.

FAIRBANKS - Gustavs Davis Grigals and Markuss Komuls were selected to Team Latvia for the start of the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Herning, Denmark.

Students from the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Business and Security Management returned from New York City with national honors after placing second in the Undergraduate Growth Portfolio category at the Quinnipiac University Global Asset Management Education Forum.

Sam Simon, a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, has been selected as a co-recipient of the 2025 Angus Gavin Memorial Migratory Bird Research Grant. Simon is pursing a master's degree in wildlife biology and conservation.

Schools and colleges at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have named their outstanding students for the 2024-2025 academic years. Students are selected for a variety of accomplishments, including exceptional academic achievement, leadership, contributions to their field or community.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks honored its 2025 outstanding undergraduate degree recipients and commencement speaker at a ceremony on Friday, May 2.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks team placed second overall in the Pacific Northwest regional Student Steel Bridge Competition earlier this month in Portland. The team also secured first place in construction speed and first in structural efficiency.

A University of Alaska Fairbanks engineering student who is researching highly efficient insulation placed among the top nine at a recent regional thesis competition. Micah VanderHart, who won first place in UAF's Three Minute Thesis competition in February, went on to a regional competition in Denver, Colorado, in March. 3MT participants present their theses in three minutes with only one PowerPoint slide.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture NextGen Program has awarded 55 scholarships worth a total of $525,000 to undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The Great Northwest Athletic Conference announced its Academic All-Conference selections for volleyball, with eight University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks named to the All-Academic team. To qualify for academic all-conference, student-athletes must maintain a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.20, be in at least their second season competing for their team and have competed on the court during the 2024 campaign. A total of 63 student-athletes received the honor.

A University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate student researcher has been named one of 20 recipients nationally of a top award from the American Chemical Society. James Campbell, a doctoral student at the UAF Geophysical Institute and College of Natural Science and Mathematics, will receive the 2025 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry.

Two mountaineers who are also University of Alaska Fairbanks students were successful in their attempt to reach the top of North America's highest peak in summer 2024.

Sixteen early-career scientists and professionals were selected for the 2024-2025 Alaska Sea Grant State Fellowship. These Fellows will start this summer and fall, working around the state in support of Alaska's coastal communities and marine reso...

The Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity congratulates those who received an URSA 2024 Fall Student Project Award.

The Rural Alaska Honors Institute will hold its 42nd annual graduation July 11 from 1-2:30 p.m. in Schaible Auditorium on the University of Alaska Fairbanks Troth Yeddha' Campus. The ceremony will stream live on Facebook. RAHI, a competitive program offered by the UAF College of Indigenous Studies, lets rural and Alaska Native students discover what it's like to attend college.

The Great Northwest Athletic Conference announced its recipients for the 2023-24 GNAC Faculty Athletic Representative Scholar-Athlete Awards, presented presented by Barnes & Noble College.

FAIRBANKS - Eight Nanook hockey players were named 2023-24 Men's Division I Krampade All-American Scholars.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks team placed fourth overall in the 2024 Student Steel Bridge Competition national finals on June 1 in Louisiana. The competition, sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction, brought together students from 49 universities to assemble their scaled steel bridges.

The Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity has named recipients of the URSA spring 2024 internship awards.

FAIRBANKS - The Alaska Nanooks bookended their 2023-24 athletics year with the Nanooks Awards Ceremony at the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel on Wednesday, April 17.

University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate student Jorda Kovash was recently awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She is one of two graduate students in the state of Alaska who received the prestigious award in the 2024 cycle.

FAIRBANKS - The University of Alaska Fairbanks celebrated their 102nd commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 4, at the Carlson Center. Thirty-one student-athletes celebrated at the ceremony.