University of Arizona in the News

A building in the Bronx partially collapsed Monday. New York City officials say they're still investigating the cause of the collapse. "The cracks in the façade may have exposed some of the underlying structural elements of the building, and perhaps accelerated some of the degradation that could have potentially contributed to the collapse of the building," said Sammy Tin, a structural engineering expert with the University of Arizona.

Sen. Mark Kelly has teamed up with former NFL and University of Arizona player Rob Gronkowski to promote legislation that tackles Valley fever, a type of fungal disease that has greatly affected Arizona.

The University of Arizona holds the No. 1 ranking in astronomy and astrophysics expenditures at more than $123 million, which represents 15% of all expenditures in this category across all U.S. colleges and universities, according to the National Science Foundation. UArizona has ranked No. 1 in this category each year since 1987. "I think the reason we're number one on the NSF list and not as high as Colorado on the NASA list is that our portfolio is more diverse," said Buell Jannuzi, head of the Department of Astronomy and director of Steward Observatory.

The Best of Design Awards honor outstanding built and unbuilt architectural projects across a diversity of categories and typologies. The University of Arizona's ENR2 building was among the honorees in the landscape category.

The scientific community got its first description of material from asteroid Bennu, revealed by the mission's top scientist, Dante Lauretta, at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Lauretta, a planetary scientist and a University of Arizona Regents Professor, showed slides with a long list of intriguing molecules, including carbon-based organics, in the grains and pebbles retrieved from Bennu. They will shine light on the molecular building blocks of the solar system and "maybe — still early phase — maybe insights into the origin of life."

The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum last week added Wilbur and Wilma Wildcat to its ranks, unveiling officially licensed, limited-edition statuettes of the University of Arizona mascots.

Research co-authored by University of Arizona associate professor of finance Scott Cederburg concludes investment portfolios that include a mix of half domestic, half international equities actually beat more diversified, blended portfolios in both money made and capital preserved. "As long as the equity investors are able to stick it out, they end up being better off with very high probability than somebody who's trying to smooth out those short-term movements by diversifying into bonds," Cederburg said.

Sonia Colina, a professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Arizona, writes that non-English speakers are frequently excluded from clinical trials and research studies in the U.S. and that one way to eliminate language barriers is by translating research documents.

The University of Arizona marching band – "The Pride of Arizona" – won the 2023 Sudler Trophy, awarded biennially by the Sousa Foundation to a collegiate band that demonstrates "the highest of musical standards and innovative marching routines and ideas, and which has made important contributions to the advancement of the performance standards of college marching bands over a number of years."

After dropping off a sample of the asteroid Bennu just over two months ago, the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission got a new name – OSIRIS-APEX – and a new mission: To observe the near-Earth asteroid Apophis.