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:

Vatican News reported that 19-year-old UW student Wyatt Olivas, from Cheyenne, asked Pope Francis to sign a letter requesting that he be excused from his classes for a short period to rest after four weeks of work at the Synod General Assembly -- a three-year process of listening and dialogue involving Catholic churches around the world at the Vatican. Olivas, the youngest participant in the Synod on Synodality, represented Wyoming. The pope signed Olivas’ letter with one name -- Francis. The letter has received international and national media attention.

Anastasiia Pereverten, a UW student from Kyiv, Ukraine, was in Washington, D.C., last week with other activists opposed to Russia’s invasion of her country more than a year ago. According to Insider, Pereverten and the activists attempted to draw support from skeptical lawmakers, who want the U.S. to stop providing military aid to Ukraine.

KUNR carried a Mountain West News Bureau-produced piece titled “Want to manage wolves in the West? How you do that depends on where you’re standing.” Temple Stoellinger, an associate professor in the UW College of Law, provided comments for the piece.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle published a news release from Gov. Mark Gordon’s office noting that a recently released report on Phase I of the Wyoming Innovation Partnership (WIP) highlights the partnerships that have led to early success. UW, state entities and Wyoming community colleges are among WIP’s collaborators.

Cowboy State Daily reported that the UW Geological Museum began a campaign to acquire a skeleton of an 8-foot-long bottlenose dolphin. The aquatic mammal skeleton will help tell a 2.5-billion-year-old story of the state’s underwater worlds.

Penelope Shihab, director of UW’s Wyoming Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, was profiled in an article by Wyofile. Shihab is helping lead entrepreneurial efforts at UW, encouraging students to build new businesses in the state. WyoFile also interviewed UW botany Professor Dan Laughlin for a piece titled “Sagebrush is suffering, even in Wyoming. Saving what’s left is complicated.”

Marketplace included comments from Eugene Holubnyak, director of UW’s Hydrogen Energy Research Center, for a piece focusing on the Biden administration’s investment in hydrogen hubs to help bring the American economy to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

County 17 published an article noting that UW is part of two tech hub projects designated by the federal government. Parag Chitnis, UW’s vice president for research and economic development, said the university is honored to be part of the two tech hubs. Collaborating with Colorado for quantum computing and Idaho for nuclear energy will support economic development in Wyoming.

Driven by higher-than-expected mineral revenues, Wyoming’s economic forecast appears positive, according to the latest Consensus Revenue Estimating Group report. WyoFile noted that, each January, representatives from several state offices and UW work together as part of the state’s official estimating process.

Laramie Live published UW’s release announcing the “Good Medicine” program this week to recognize Native American students for their excellence and accomplishments in education during an awards ceremony and cultural event.

An investment by Casper’s Double 4 Foundation and Dave and Melanie True will help support the Difference Makers Campaign. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle published UW’s release noting that the campaign is UW Athletics’ drive to raise millions in private support to renovate the west side of War Memorial Stadium and build a new competition pool facility.

Wyo4News reported on a recent town-hall meeting in Rock Springs that focused on Project Bison, a partnership between CarbonCapture Inc. and Frontier Carbon Solutions. The project will deploy CarbonCapture’s direct air capture modules atop Frontier’s CO₂ transportation and storage infrastructure in Wyoming. The article noted that UW’s School of Energy Resources (SER) was awarded $40.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop the Sweetwater Carbon Storage Hub, which is expected to hold more than 350 million metric tons of CO₂ eventually. Frontier Carbon Solutions is a partner and collaborator of SER.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) has updated its blow-over risk messaging during high-wind events to include specific weights that are most at risk. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle cited recent research from UW as a contributing factor in the latest updates from WYDOT.

Wyoming Public Radio featured “The Wyoming Betabeleros’ News: La Pagina Espanol of The Powell Tribune (1927)” exhibition at UW’s American Heritage Center. In the 1920s, the newspaper published a special page entirely in Spanish for its Mexican and Mexican American readers, many who were “betabeleros,” sugar beet laborers in the area.