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UNLV Newsmakers 2022: August

A roundup of prominent news stories highlighting university pride, research, and community collaboration.

UNLV's fall semester classes resumed Aug. 29 (Josh Hawkins/UNLV).

August signaled the start of a new academic year at UNLV. And while classes are just getting underway, UNLV's faculty experts have been hard at work all summer long sharing insight with journalists on local and global issues, research breakthroughs, and community engagement. 

From the future of energy production and the local economy to our evolutionary past and emerging health concerns, UNLV students and faculty appeared in hundreds of news stories around the globe.

Here are just a few that were covered by journalists in August.

Back to School

UNLV started the new academic year with a host of new academic programs, a new smoke- and vape-free campus policy, and renewed enthusiasm as the campus and surrounding community continue to ease out of pandemic restrictions.  

  • UNLV President Keith E. Whitfield gave Las Vegas Sun (twice) readers an inside look at recent student and faculty successes, and outlined the university’s plans to partner with community members and private industry in our quest to produce a new generation of leaders who’ll improve the region and world.
     
  • KSNV-TV: News 3 (twice) (thrice), KLAS-TV: 8 News Now, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal were among outlets that covered the excitement of freshmen and parents during residence hall move-in day.
     
  • Outlets including KSNV-TV: News 3, KLAS-TV: 8 News Now, KTNV-TV: ABC 13, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and the Nevada Independent outlined the School of Public Health effort that launched UNLV’s new smoke-free campus policy.
     
  • KSNV-TV: News 3 reported on new wireless access points planted around the main campus that will expand outdoor WiFi access.
     
  • The Nevada Department of Education presented UNLV/CSUN Preschool kindergarten teacher and UNLV College of Education master’s student Carl Esteban with the Nevada Early Educator of the Year award during a surprise celebration: KSNV-TV: News 3
     
  • College of Education dean Danica G. Hays penned a Las Vegas Sun guest column about innovative UNLV programs aimed at attracting more teachers to the profession. 

Big Brains

A UNLV-led team of anthropologists made international headlines for a paper that takes aim at a popular scientific claim that modern humans experienced an evolutionary decrease in brain size around 3,000 years ago. The evidence doesn’t support it, according to anthropology professor Brian Villmoare, who doubled down to say it may not have happened in the last 30,000 or even 300,000 years.

Discover Magazine, Haaretz, Advanced Science News, Frontiers Science News, Yahoo!, Europa Press, IFL Science, Laboratory Equipment 

Record-Breaking Physics Find

Tired of high electric bills and energy grid blackouts? Dream of an efficient bullet train system between Southern Nevada and California? A group of UNLV physicists may have a fix for that. Less than two years after shocking the science world with the discovery of a material capable of room-temperature superconductivity, a team from UNLV's Nevada Extreme Conditions Lab has upped the ante once again by reproducing the feat at the lowest pressure ever recorded. In other words, science is closer than it’s ever been to a usable, replicable material that could one day revolutionize how energy, people, and goods are transported as well as change how everyday technological devices — from laptops to MRI machines — are powered.

Yahoo! (twice), KTNV-TV: ABC 13, Nevada Independent, KSNV-TV: News 3, KVVU-TV: Fox 5, Science Magazine 

Health Happenings

Just when we thought we were out of the woods on COVID-19, media outlets began reporting a rise in reinfection cases nationwide — and news about polio and monkeypox outbreaks also took center stage. Journalists also updated readers and viewers on construction of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine’s new medical education building, as well as plans to build an ambulatory care clinic and pathology lab.

Population Forecast

The Center for Business and Economic Research in August released its annual population forecast, which found that Southern Nevada is still on track to add more than 1 million residents in coming years — bringing the population to an estimated 3.39 million by 2060. CBER director Andrew Woods and research director Stephen Miller told journalists that they expect strong economic activity, such as an anticipated high-speed light rail project and new hotel rooms, to drive the population growth. As Southern Nevada’s population ages, they also predict a shift away from reliance on the hospitality sector to other industries, such as health care.

KSNV-TV: News 3, KVVU-TV: Fox 5, KTNV-TV: ABC 13, City Cast Las Vegas, The Regulatory Review, Telemundo

General Roundup

  • Longtime UNLV Rebels public address announcer Dick Calvert retired: Las Vegas Review-Journal (twice), Las Vegas Sun, KLAS-TV: 8 News Now, KSNV-TV: News 3, KTNV-TV: ABC 13, LVSportsBiz
     
  • Political scientist Austin Horng-En Wang shared his expertise on Taiwan-China tensions and the U.S.’s role with the Washington Post, Politico, and TV Europa.
     
  • In Science, UNLV Music Lab director Erin E. Hannon offered commentary on research into the ability of people without musical training to improvise melodies similar to those composed by professional musicians.
     
  • Gaming historian David G. Schwartz spoke to NBC News about the potential impact of measures to reduce Southern Nevada casinos’ and homeowners’ water consumption on tourism.
     
  • Labor expert Ruben Garcia’s expertise was featured on a CBS News piece about unionization efforts by Chipotle and Trader Joe’s employees.
     
  • Lee Business School professor Ian McDonough, who researches the economics of food insecurity, spoke to Bloomberg for a story on the end of pandemic-era free school lunch programs.
     
  • Newsweek and Agence France-Press called on Brookings Mountain West disinformation researcher Mary Blankenship regarding the Russia-Ukraine war and Kenyan election.
     
  • English professor Roberto Lovato’s comments on media bias surrounding Latinos were featured in the Los Angeles Times.
     
  • The Las Vegas Review-Journal is among outlets that turned to higher education policy expert Federick Ngo and political scientist Dan Lee for insight on President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.
     
  • Telemundo Las Vegas (twice) quoted economist Nicholas Irwin in stories about top Las Vegas Valley water consumers and affordable housing.
     
  • Psychologist Stephen Benning and communication studies professor/misinformation expert Emma Frances Bloomfield appeared on a KNPR segment about local panic caused by several recent false alarm shootings.
     
  • Two professors spoke to media outlets about children’s health. The Nevada Current and KLAS-TV: 8 News Now covered a study by social work professor Katherine Marçal that examined links between affordable housing and child abuse. Sociologist Elizabeth Lawrence wrote a column for the Population Reference Bureau about addressing the youth mental health crisis to stop preventable deaths.
     
  • The Street shared International Gaming Institute distinguished fellow Alan Feldman’s comments about a potential extension of the Las Vegas Strip. He and Bo Bernhard, vice president of economic development and IGI executive director, also participated in a KNPR panel discussion about Las Vegas’s 24/7 party “fun economy” reputation.
     
  • In a column for Zócalo Public Square, history professor Carlos S. Dimas wrote about his research into past pandemics and the implications for the current COVID-19 outbreak.
     
  • Historian Michael Green spoke to Bloomberg and NBC News about the U.S. West drought uncovering weird finds at Lake Mead.

Topics:

newsmakers

Campus Units:

Office of the President,  Housing & Residential Life,  Division of Student Affairs,  School of Public Health,  Office of Information Technology,  UNLV/CSUN Preschool,  College of Education,  Graduate College,  Department of Anthropology,  College of Liberal Arts,  Department of Physics and Astronomy,  College of Sciences,  Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV,  Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics,  Lee Business School,  Department of Economics,  Center for Business and Economic Research,  Intercollegiate Athletics,  Department of Political Science,  Department of Psychology,  Department of History,  William S. Boyd School of Law,  Brookings Mountain West,  Greenspun College of Urban Affairs,  Department of English,  Department of Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education,  Department of Communication Studies,  School of Social Work,  Department of Sociology,  International Gaming Institute,  Office of Economic Development

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