By bringing nonprofit organizations to campus, the Drop-In Community Service program makes it easier for student-athletes to volunteer their time. "Our community supports our Wildcats so much by coming to our games and meets," says Natasha Harrison, assistant director for community relations for Arizona Athletics. "So we encourage our student-athletes and our staff to take every opportunity to give back."

Frederic Zenhausern from the College of Medicine – Phoenix discusses his work on cutting-edge technologies for astronaut health and performance. "The latest funding will allow researchers to develop a diagnostic tool – a miniature syringe-like device that can detect bio-agents and hundreds of biomarkers in blood or saliva – and test it in space," Zenhausern says in this Q&A.

Spencer R. "Spence" Titley, professor emeritus of geosciences and a world-renowned geologist who trained Apollo space program astronauts in geology before their missions, died on Aug. 18 at the age of 90. "Spence Titley is truly one of the most extraordinary economic geologists in the world," said College of Science Dean Joaquin Ruiz. "He also has a legacy of educating students so that they themselves have become leaders in their fields."

Leaders of two shared governance councils representing nonfaculty employees said their primary focus this year is figuring out what representation will look like once the University Career Architecture Project has been completed. Guiding the work are the results of a survey sent out to employees over the summer about shared governance. The biggest challenge will be developing a group "that adequately represents the breadth of University Staff," says Jennifer Lawrence, chair of the Appointed Professionals Advisory Council.

A nationally recognized scholar on teaching and learning offered faculty advice on stoking students' curiosity, fostering community in the classroom, building patterns and structure in teaching routines and more during presentations on campus last week. "Because of the fact that we are at least partially built to have dispersed awareness, you might actually say that dispersion and distraction are the normal state of the human mind, and attention rises out of that like an island or like the tip of the iceberg," James Lang said during one talk. "Attention is an achievement."

William H. Wing was a professor emeritus of physics and optical sciences who created two fields of spectroscopy that opened new ways to examine atoms and ions. He had a lifelong interest in the impact of science and technology policy on society, which led to fellowships from the American Association for the Advancement of Science to act as a science adviser to the U.S. State Department and Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C.

Women Also Know Stuff, an online database founded by associate professor Samara Klar, promotes the work and expertise of women scholars in political science. The site has made waves in political science circles and in other academic fields, and has been mentioned in The New York Times and The Washington Post. "We think part of its success is that it helped change the norms," says Klar, who teaches in the School of Government and Public Policy. "In addition to working with students, Women Also Know Stuff is probably the most fulfilling thing I've done since I became a professor."

Out of a period of transition that had UA South assistant professor Ryan Straight feeling overwhelmed came a podcast that has earned national praise. "I got it in my head that I can't be the only person that's trying to navigate this space at this point in their career," he told himself, "but I don't see anybody having that conversation." He's having it now, in his "The New Professor" podcast.

Professor Donald Slack – a global expert in on-farm water management practices, irrigation systems and technologies, watershed hydrology and erosion control – has received two honorary degrees. The first was presented by a princess. The second was presented by an alumnus of a university in Mexico that has been part of an agricultural engineering partnership Slack created almost 30 years ago.

A group of UA researchers is leading a grassroots effort to provide skills training designed to increase data literacy among researchers. "From the arts to the sciences and engineering, data science is quantitatively and qualitatively transforming research," says Vignesh Subbian, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering who has been instrumental in expanding data literacy at the UA. "However, it is upon us to increase capacity among our students and faculty and help them to take advantage of the expanding landscape of data science tools."