THE LATEST NEWS FROM U OF I | Meet Amy Ash Pohl: 1880 Society Inductee and Heritage Society Member Amy Ash Pohl ’84, already a Heritage Society member at U of I, was inducted this fall into the 1889 Society. “It was my privilege and remains a distinct honor to have been educated at this very fine institution,” Ash Pohl said. “Standout professors in my areas of study are largely responsible for what I became and who I am today. I owe any successes to them.” Ash Pohl earned a landscape architecture degree at U of I in 1984, laying the foundation for diverse and successful careers as a landscape architect, an environmental scientist and resource economist, and most recently, a restaurateur. She has earned a Sigma Scholar award and a landscape architect award. The Heritage Society recognizes alumni and friends who have made planned gifts; the 1889 Society honors cumulative gifts and pledges to U of I. “Amy’s Heritage Society plans will make a transformational difference for the Landscape Architecture department and the College of Art and Architecture,” said Shauna Corry, CAA interim dean. “We thank Amy for her generosity that will support others seeking a great education.” For more information on giving to the College of Art and Architecture, contact Jim Zuba at 208-885-4142 or jzuba@uidaho.edu. | | | 2018 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival Headliners Announced The University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival will continue its legacy of honoring traditional jazz music while highlighting the best performers on the current jazz scene during the 2018 festival, Feb. 23-24. Joey DeFrancesco + the People headlines this year’s festival on Saturday, Feb. 24. DeFrancesco is a three-time Grammy nominee with more than 30 albums, including recordings with Miles Davis and Jimmy Smith. Following DeFrancesco’s performance, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival Big Band will feature vocalist and U of I jazz instructor Kate Skinner and Tanya Darby, lead trumpet and assistant professor at the University of North Texas. On Friday, Feb. 23, alto saxophonist Antonio Hart, joined by trumpeter Terell Stafford and vocalist Brianna Thomas, will lead a special tribute to the classic 1961 jazz record, “Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley,” giving it a modern twist. Also performing during the 2018 festival is the U of I’s Lionel Hampton School of Music Jazz Choirs I and II directed by Dan Bukvich, Jazz Band I directed by Vern Sielert, and solo and combo winners from the festival’s competition. The full concert schedule is available at www.uidaho.edu/class/jazzfest/calendar. Tickets go on sale Nov. 6 (series) and Nov. 17 (individual) and can be purchased at 208-885-7212 or online at www.uidaho.edu/ticketoffice. | | | U of I Researchers Among Top 10 for $10 Million Prize A University of Idaho team won recognition for its innovative water treatment technology with a top-10 finish in the latest round of an international competition to reduce water pollution linked to toxic algae blooms. U of I College of Agricultural and Life Sciences researchers Greg Moller, Dan Strawn and Martin Baker were honored by The Everglades Foundation last week in Chicago. The event concluded the second preliminary stage of the $10 million George Barley Water Prize competition. The U of I Clean Water Machine that Moller, Strawn and Baker are developing can reduce phosphorus levels in polluted waters to below the most stringent federal and state water quality standards. The U of I technology mimics the soil’s natural ability to clean water, Moller said. It uses air, rust, sand, charcoal and electricity to remove fertilizers and other contaminants from polluted water. The Barley Prize entry by the U of I team was a cooperative project with Nexom, a wastewater treatment company that licenses U of I technology, and Cool Planet, a company that produces biochar, tiny particles of charcoal from agricultural and forestry residues. | | | Geography Without Sight: UI Doctoral Student Creates Curriculum for Visually Impaired Travis Cowles’ Physical Geography class focuses heavily on the visual elements of planet Earth. He flips through pictures of Pangea and how continents formed. He displays graphic tables that highlight average annual rainfall of different terrains across the globe. Cowles has long relied on photos, graphs and PowerPoint slides to help his students comprehend basic concepts of the world’s physical features. That all changed in fall 2016. After his first Geography 100 lecture of the semester, a student approached him. “Someone came up to me and said, ‘I just registered for your class, and by the way, I’m blind,’” Cowles said. “I realized that the majority of what I do will not work for her.” Alana Leonhardy, 23, was looking for another lab science to satisfy requirements of her bachelor’s degree in psychology and picked geography as a last-minute selection. She is completely blind without any light perception, so even larger-print graphics that are used by low-vision students weren’t useful to her. “We had to think of other ways to get that in my brain,” she said. Read more. | | | | | |