Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart is busy climbing one of the nation's tallest peaks for a great cause. Mitch is climbing Mt. Rainier, located just outside of Seattle, Washington, to raise money for the Lighthouse Ministries. The Lighthouse is in the process of raising funds for its new building that will allow it to expand its ministry and community outreach.

Mitch's climb is taking place July 27-30, and it is the second time he has ascended the Mt. Rainier. For more information about the climb, check out his website at http://www.mitchclimbs.com/.

To learn more about Mitch Barnhart, I encourage you to watch a recent interview that Mitch did with our Office of Marketing and Public Relations. It provides some great insight into the man who is leading UK Athletics to new heights. Click here to watch that interview.

For the first time in the University of Kentucky's storied history, the institution's annual research awards have broken the $300 million mark. Grants and contracts received through the UK Research Foundation for fiscal year 2010 (July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010) totaled $337,623,982, representing a whopping 31.5 percent increase over last year's $256,740,712.

UK's biggest gains came in the federal funding arena. UK faculty and staff successfully competed for more than $227 million in federal grants and contracts. Stimulus dollars, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), made up $64.5 million of the federal funding total during the past fiscal year. Overall, UK researchers have brought in nearly $90 million in ARRA grants.

Sometimes such large figures can be difficult to wrap your mind around, so I like to place such figures in a different context. If UK Research was a publicly held company, it would be the 16th largest company in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. (This is UK Research alone and would not include any other revenue generated by UK).

I applaud all of our faculty and staff involved in setting this impressive record. We've been attracting and retaining some of the nation's leading research talent for several years, and this research record shows that those efforts are paying off for Kentucky.

As excited as I am about the data, I am more excited about what this funding means to Kentucky's economy. Most of those dollars come from out-of-state sources, providing a major boost to the Commonwealth's economy. And with the university working harder than ever to commercialize our discoveries and innovations, the impact will be felt across the state for years to come.

The University welcomed the newest members of its "Class of Kentucky" program to campus on Friday, July 16. The program, now in its seventh year, recognizes academically talented and community-oriented high school sophomores from throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Class of Kentucky seeks to honor one top sophomore from each high school in Kentucky. Students are chosen by their respective schools and must demonstrate strong leadership and academic skills. The 2010 class honors 196 Kentucky sophomores.

The students and their families were honored at a luncheon, which was held at the Student Center. The students heard from a variety of UK student leaders – including Trustee Ryan Smith – as well as head football coach Joker Phillips. Patsy and I also spoke to the audience after lunch.

For a full list of the 2010 Class of Kentucky honorees, click here.

Much has been written about the athletic portion of John Wall’s career at the University of Kentucky. Not enough attention has been paid to his work in the classroom. John was one of 49 UK freshman student-athletes named to the 2010 Southeastern Conference Freshman Academic Honor Roll this week.

To earn Freshman Academic Honor Roll status, student-athletes must achieve a cumulative 3.0 grade-point average or above, complete 24 semester hours of non-remedial credit, and remain a member of the varsity team for the sport's entire NCAA Championship segment. Click here to see the full list of student-athletes who earned such an honor by their hard work on and off the field of play.

The number of UK student-athletes chosen for the SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll gives UK a total of 208 student-athletes who earned recognition from the league for their success in the classroom during the 2009-10 academic year.

Please join me in saluting these student-athletes for a remarkable accomplishment.

A long-time University partner provided UK with $2 million at a ceremony in Louisville earlier today. E.ON, parent company of Louisville-based E.ON U.S.,  donated the money to provide scholarships to our next generation of energy leaders, innovators, and researchers. 

E.ON has been a great UK partner over the years, collaborating with the University on a myriad of energy-related projects and initiatives. With today's gift supporting energy-related scholarship programs at UK, E.ON is making sure the energy leaders of tomorrow will be well-prepared to move this state and our nation forward.

The donation will help cement E.ON's legacy as an exemplary corporate citizen in Kentucky. It was announced earlier this spring that E.ON was being sold to PPL Corporation. According to the E.ON press release, "E.ON voluntarily committed, in recognition of the community relationships it has built as the parent company of LG&E and KU over the past decade, to award the $6 million in grants." In addition to UK's $2 million gift, the University of Louisville and E.ON US Foundation received $2 million, respectively. 

The E.ON donation also provides a significant boost to our recently-launched President’s Scholarship Initiative, a major University-wide fund-raising initiative aimed at making sure a UK education remains accessible to Kentuckians from all 120 Kentucky counties.