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West Virginia University has more than two dozen experts who can offer insights into different aspects of the Russia-Ukraine war, including faculty and students who have lived in Ukraine.

An avian influenza strain found in migratory wild bird populations has been confirmed in commercial and backyard poultry flocks in neighboring Kentucky and Virginia, as well as in Maine, New York, Delaware, Indiana and Michigan. While no cases have been confirmed among West Virginia’s commercial poultry industry and backyard birds at this time, West Virginia University poultry expert Joe Moritz reminds all flock owners of the importance of continual biosecurity practices and steps they can take to help protect our state’s poultry population from HPAI and other diseases.

West Virginia University is building a pipeline of nurses to fill the shortage in health care systems across the country. On multiple campuses, the School of Nursing is meeting students where they are, from Morgantown to Keyser, Beckley to Charleston and Keyser, including undergraduate programs, online graduate programs and continuing education.

“Health in the Hills: Understanding the Impact of Health Care Law in Rural Communities” hosted by the West Virginia Law Review will take place on Feb. 24, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Feb. 25, 9 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.

Nearly 50 WVU undergraduates will present their work to lawmakers in Charleston at Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol Friday (Feb. 18) from 9-11 a.m.

Award-winning books by Black authors on a variety of topics will help shape perceptions of Appalachia, of West Virginia and of West Virginia University, according to Derek Krissoff, director of WVU Press. The University’s publishing company has a collection of books relating to Black history and Black experiences that provide readers with an opportunity to explore Black stories.

As Russia proliferates international tensions with troop movements to its borders, West Virginia University expert Erik Herron, who has studied politics in Ukraine for decades and has served as an international election observer there, said the military threat not only endangers people in Ukraine, but the “system that has supported European security since the end of World War II.” Herron is part of a panel that will discuss recent events in the region tonight at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom.

This event is part of the “First Amendment: Year of Reckoning” series presented by the WVU Reed College of Media. Ari Fleischer and Ashton Marra will discuss polarization and distrust in media, the First Amendment and public perception of free speech and how media and the political climate have changed in the last 20 years. "A Conversation with Ari Fleischer" will be held in the WVU College of Law Fitzsimmons Event Hall at 7:30 p.m. Monday (Feb. 7).

As crews clean up the bridge collapse in Pittsburgh today (Jan. 28), West Virginia University infrastructure expert Hota GangaRao says measures can be taken to prevent similar structural failures in other locations at a lower cost than total replacement. GangaRao also outlines possible causes for bridge failures.

While the aftermath of an undersea volcanic eruption and the following tsunami garner much attention as the waves crash around inhabited islands, an expert at West Virginia University says the combination of those hard to predict eruptions and climate change will eventually erase island nations and their cultures in the Pacific and western Indian oceans.