University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) is the research university of the University of Alaska System based in Fairbanks. It houses the Geophysical Institute, which monitors earthquakes, volcanoes and auroras, and the International Arctic Research Center. UAF researches Arctic food and energy systems.
uaf.edu ↗505 S Chandalar, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
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Fairbanks economic panel could recommend changing its role in sister city ties
The Fairbanks North Star Borough Economic Development Commission could recommend changes to its role in the borough's sister city relationships when it meets Nov. 20, according to the meeting agenda.
Under borough code, sister city ties are meant to develop international trade and tourism, educate residents and build cultural awareness. The borough formally became a sister city of Mombetsu, Japan, in 1991, according to the Consulate-General of Japan in Anchorage.
The code also created a separate, nine-member Sister City Commission in 2004. It is to advise the mayor and Assembly on new sister city affiliations, develop a sister city program and review proposals from citizen committees.
In July, Tom Hewitt, special assistant to Mayor Grier Hopkins, asked for the economic development commission's feedback on updating its own responsibilities for sister city relationships. Members discussed the Sister City Commission's history, incorporating new duties and possible relationships with other countries, according to the July minutes. They planned to come back with more research and a draft recommendation.
Any recommendation would go to Hopkins, who chairs the commission. He could then propose changes by ordinance for the Borough Assembly to consider.
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2026 Bristol Bay Youth Leadership Forum
Bristol Bay students can apply for a December leadership forum
Bristol Bay high school students have until Oct. 9 to apply for a youth leadership forum in Anchorage in December.

Latest
November 2026
Fort Wainwright is extending free Wi-Fi to all of its permanent party barracks
Fort Wainwright is rolling free Wi-Fi out to all its permanent party barracks. In 2020, internet in a barracks room could run as much as $175 a month.

UAF men's and women's basketball teams each open with two 100-point wins
UAF's men's and women's basketball teams each opened with two 100-point wins, and the women forced 61 turnovers in one game. Next stop: Hawaii.

Tlingit scholar to speak in Juneau on Tlingit knowledge and climate change
Tlingit scholar Aandax̱joon Sabena Allen speaks Tuesday at Sealaska Heritage Institute on Tlingit knowledge, the Raven Cycle and adapting to climate change.

October 2026
Fairbanks police will hand out glow sticks to trick-or-treaters Halloween night
Fairbanks and North Pole police will hand out glow sticks to trick-or-treaters Saturday night to keep kids visible to drivers. Alaska logged 15 pedestrian deaths in 2024, up from 13 the year before.

Bristol Bay red king crab move farther west in warmer years, satellite study finds
NOAA satellite tags show Bristol Bay red king crab shift farther west in warmer years. That could reshape how fixed trawl closure zones protecting the crab are managed.

Multi-vehicle crash shuts roads near West Tanana Drive before UAF police give all-clear
UAF police shut roads near West Tanana Drive Thursday night after a multi-vehicle crash, then gave the all clear. It capped a third straight day of icy-road warnings in Fairbanks.

New book on Alaska's microgrids collects stories of the people behind them
A new book profiles Alaska's microgrids and the people behind them, including a woman who signed her letters for village power "Housewife, Stony River."

UAF honors Cordova Electric CEO Clay Koplin for microgrid work in Cordova
UAF honored Cordova Electric CEO Clay Koplin for microgrid work in a town with no outside power line, a few months before he takes over Matanuska Electric.

Military test used HAARP and Cold Bay receivers to detect aircraft beyond the horizon
The military paired UAF's HAARP transmitter with receivers in Cold Bay and spotted aircraft over the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, past the horizon.

Magnitude 5.6 earthquake near Lake Minchumina is felt in Fairbanks and Wasilla
A magnitude 5.6 quake hit near Lake Minchumina early Thursday and was felt from Fairbanks to Wasilla. USGS gives a magnitude 4 aftershock 7% odds within a week.

September 2026
UAF gets federal award to run Alaska Native elders resource center
UAF won a $215,343 federal award to run a resource center training Alaska's 43 tribal elder-service programs in dementia care, disaster prep, and healthy aging through 2029.

Northern lights outshine a nearly full moon over Fairbanks as solar wind keeps the aurora active
Northern lights over Fairbanks outshone a nearly full moon this week. Officially it wasn't even a storm, but one guide called it the best show of the season.

Kotzebue gets $1.5 million to keep growing food above the Arctic Circle
Kotzebue gets $1.5 million for Alaska Native food sovereignty work. The USDA calls it national security. The people doing it call it something else.

Arctic's warmest summer since 1950 included the rain that flooded the Susitna Valley
The July rain that flooded the Susitna Valley is now logged as an extreme event of the warmest Arctic summer since 1950, according to a new climate review.

The University of Alaska owns the look of a Fairbanks man's pliers
A Fairbanks man designed a pair of pliers and the university owns how they look for 15 years. If it passes on selling them, he gets them back.

Two Arctic climate-data sources lose federal funding, kept alive by others
Two Arctic climate-data sources Alaska relies on lost their federal funding this past year. Both are now kept alive by universities and private groups.

Coming up
Lost Girl by Kimberly Belflower
UAF Lee H. Salisbury Theatre, 1718 N Tanana Dr., Fairbanks, AK 99775
Performance
Fairbanks North Star Borough — Economic Development Commission
Meeting
Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks Hockey vs. University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves Hockey
Sports event
Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks Hockey vs. University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves Hockey
Sports event
UAA Seawolves Hockey vs. UAF Nanooks Hockey
Sports event
About University of Alaska Fairbanks
uaf.edu ↗505 S Chandalar, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) is the research university of the University of Alaska System, based in Fairbanks. It houses the Geophysical Institute, which monitors earthquakes, volcanoes and auroras through units such as the Alaska Earthquake Center, and the International Arctic Research Center.
Much of its work is research funded by federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation. Recurring subjects include glaciers and permafrost, wildfire and fire weather, sea ice and coastal flooding, marine mammals and fisheries, critical minerals, and diesel and battery microgrids for rural villages.
UAF's programs reach far beyond Fairbanks, into Alaska Native elder care and food sovereignty work and energy research in rural communities. The university also runs its own police force on its Fairbanks campus.
More from University of Alaska Fairbanks
Magnitude 6.3 quake off Nikolski sets off dozens of Aleutian aftershocks
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck offshore in the central Aleutians early Thursday, setting off dozens of aftershocks — but no tsunami and no expected damage.

Dozens of earthquakes struck one patch of seafloor near Nikolski
Three dozen quakes struck one patch of seafloor southwest of Nikolski in about a day. No tsunami danger, and the Aleutians are not in Alaska's warning system.

Alaska's smallest fire year since 1995 was also one of its most destructive
Alaska's quietest fire season in 30 years still took 50 homes at Tok, in a fire a climate specialist calls among the most destructive in state history.

UAF launches a fellowship to grow Alaska Native leaders in food and agriculture
UAF is launching a program to grow Alaska Native leaders in food, farming and natural resources — fields where Native people are badly underrepresented.

Four quakes off Nikolski, largest magnitude 5.3; no tsunami danger
Four earthquakes struck offshore southwest of Nikolski late Monday, with the largest at magnitude 5.3, but the National Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami danger.

August 2026
Researchers get $812,016 to study Glacier Bay's iceberg seal habitat
Glacier Bay's harbor seals pup on icebergs. The glacier making those icebergs slowed 45 percent, and researchers got $812,016 to study what that means.

Anchorage wildfire mitigation would be paid for citywide, researchers say
UA researchers will recommend all of Anchorage pay for wildfire mitigation, not just high-risk neighborhoods. Their full report is due in October.

UAF is buying an instrument its accredited chemistry program has gone without
Alaska's only accredited chemistry program has been operating without a standard mass spectrometry system. A $250,000 federal grant will finally buy one.

A UAF mathematician builds software to untangle interbreeding species' family trees
A UAF mathematician won a grant to build software untangling interbreeding species' family trees — the same math used to trace viruses like COVID-19.

UAF's satellite water-depth mapping wins NSF money to test whether it can become a product
UAF won a $50,000 NSF award to test whether its satellite water-depth mapping can become a product, a cheaper way to chart the many U.S. waters still unmapped.

Bristol Bay 2027 sockeye forecast to fall below 50 million, ending an 11-year run
Bristol Bay's sockeye run is forecast at 44.2 million for 2027, which would end an eleven-year streak above 50 million. The state still grades that strong.

UAF will study the landslides thawing under Alaska's pipeline
A UAF researcher will study why landslides start deep in thawing permafrost, aiming to protect Alaska's infrastructure — including the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

A UAF fix for the battery-and-generator clash in village grids
When villages add batteries to diesel plants, the two can 'fight' and destabilize the grid — a UAF researcher is testing a fix to cut rural diesel use.

Can a bacterium pull rare earths out of coal waste? Alaska researchers just got $4.7M to find out
Can a microbe mine coal waste for rare earths? Alaska researchers got $4.7M to find out — chasing a domestic source for minerals the U.S. mostly imports.

A UAF mathematician is building better tools for understanding networks
A UAF mathematician won a $150,000 NSF grant to build better tools for understanding complex networks, from how they're structured to faster ways to solve problems on them.

As Alaska's glaciers retreat, new carbon-storing bogs are forming behind them
As Alaska's glaciers retreat, new carbon-storing peat bogs are forming on the bare ground behind them. A UAF grant will map how they form and how long they last.

Students get to fire the HAARP transmitter at UAF's summer school
An NSF grant funds UAF's HAARP summer school, where students actually get to run experiments on the Gakona array most people only know from conspiracy theories.

A $1.6 million grant to help Alaska burn on purpose, before wildfire does
A $1.6 million grant would build Alaska the fire-weather forecasting tool it lacks, so managers can safely burn off wildfire fuel before the wildfires arrive.

July 2026
A federal minerals program is funding science on the seafloor mining wants to dig
An NSF grant is funding UAF-run science at a Pacific seamount through a "critical minerals" program — on the same mineral-rich seafloor that deep-sea mining wants, and that scientists call living habitat.

To understand today's coastal flooding, a UAF scientist will study an ancient one
A UAF scientist will spend two years studying how the sea drowned the Bering Land Bridge — because the same western Alaska coast is flooding again, and the ancient record is a forecast.

UAF grant aims to read what a volcano is doing while it does it
A UAF grant aims to turn a volcano's rumble and infrasound into a live readout of how hard it's erupting, with Aleutian air traffic as the stakes.

NSF backs UAF-led critical minerals coalition with $15 million
Alaska holds 56 of the 60 minerals Washington calls essential. NSF is putting $15 million behind a UAF-led coalition to figure out how to get them.

Mercury in Western Aleutian sea lion pups exceeds safety thresholds, prompting $1.5M NSF study
Mercury in endangered Aleutian sea lions has doubled in a decade, and pups now top safety limits. Scientists want to know why before it reaches people.

NSF awards UAF $877,501 for mass spectrometer to support fisheries and minerals research
NSF awarded UAF $877,501 to buy a high-precision mass spectrometer for fisheries, minerals, and ocean research starting August 2026.
