UW in the News

State, national and international media frequently feature the University of Wyoming and members of its community in stories. Here is a summary of some of the recent coverage:

Money gave UW four out of five stars in its list of “The Best Colleges in America 2023.” This year, Money used a new star rating system instead of a ranked list. The online magazine analyzed dozens of data points, including graduation rates, cost of attendance, financial aid and alumni salaries, to rate the 736 colleges on its list.

Laramie students had the opportunity last week to hear from NASA astronaut Steve Bowen aboard the International Space Station during the Cowboy State’s first Earth-to-space call. According to NASA, Bowen answered prerecorded questions from K-12 students. The Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium at UW and the local Big Brothers Big Sisters organization hosted the event. Laramie Live published a similar article.

Yahoo! Finance published an article noting that the Ramaco Research Rodeo, the world’s leading research conference focused on carbon and coal-to-products research, was held recently in Sheridan. Holly Krutka, UW School of Energy Resources executive director, was among the speakers at the conference.

UW College of Law Professor Jason Robison commented in a Breakthrough Institute article titled “Water Wars: The Southwest’s Procrastination Comes Home to Roost.” The article focused on the 1922 Colorado River Compact and how the vast basin’s water resources are shared. Robison is a water law and policy expert.

The Casper Star-Tribune published an article on a pilot program involving nine Wyoming school districts that aims to focus on more competency-based and student-centered learning. UW’s College of Education, the Wyoming State Board of Education and the Wyoming Department of Education also have been involved in efforts to move toward competency-based education, according to the piece.

According to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, approximately 800 Wyoming toads recently were released in a continued team effort to maintain a species endangered and exclusive to the Laramie area. The Wyoming Toad Recovery Team includes representatives from UW as well as state and federal agencies.

The National Association of Counties included comments from Travis Brammer, UW’s MacMillan Program Conservation Fellow, in an article that focused on the rising number of human and wildlife interactions in both rural and urban settings. Brammer recently presented his research at the association’s regional conference in Washington County, Utah.

During the recent UW Board of Trustees meeting, members discussed several items including declining enrollment, especially for out-of-state students, according to The Laramie Boomerang. The board discussed several reasons for UW’s decreased enrollment and retention rates, citing the nationwide downturn of college enrollment since the COVID-19 pandemic and a growing national sentiment that higher education holds less value.

E&E News added comments from UW energy economist Rob Godby for an article titled “How Wyoming’s Carbon County came to embrace renewable energy.” The article focused on the recent groundbreaking for the new TransWest Express transmission project north of Sinclair.

Wyoming Public Radio spoke with UW’s Elizabeth Case, scientific director of the UW Biocontainment Facility that is housed in the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory. The lab’s biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) necropsy facility recently was used to conduct a disease investigation for the first time. The BSL-3 facility is designed for diagnosing serious animal infections that can be transmitted to humans.

Wyoming Public Radio interviewed Eric Robertson, senior engineer in UW’s Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute (EORI), about the Wyoming Trails Carbon Hub, which will develop a design for a pipeline network that would be a crucial part of carbon capture, utilization and storage. EORI and Carbon Solutions, a low-carbon energy research group, are co-leading the project.

UW’s Center for Carbon Capture and Conversion is collaborating with Laramie’s Western Research Institute to develop a new coal-based product: asphalt. County 17 published UW’s release.

UW has been selected for the 2023 cohort of the Program to Enhance Organizational Research Impact Capacity (ORIC), joining seven other universities. ORIC is designed to assist institutions in building and expanding their capacity to support broader-impact efforts. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle published UW’s release on the announcement.

Teknologic published UW’s release announcing that the School of Computing has taken a major step toward its goal of creating a statewide, national and global impact with the hiring of six tenure-track faculty members. New faculty members are experienced in applied artificial intelligence/machine learning and big data research.

Sophia Smith, the U.S. women’s national soccer team’s rising star, who is currently playing in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, was profiled by The Washington Post and TODAY.com. Smith, of Windsor, Colo., is the daughter of former UW men’s basketball player Kenny Smith, who played point guard for two years for the Cowboys. The New York Post also featured Smith, who scored two goals and assisted in another in the U.S. women’s opening 3-0 win against Vietnam last Friday. Smith has received national and international attention from several media outlets leading up to the World Cup.