Gora, a Pennsylvania native, has spent years studying tropical rainforests and the impact of lightning on forests. His accolades and awards include a $138,000 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship grant. He has also received a National Geographic Young Explorer grant and a fellowship from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.Ěý

During his graduation speech, Gora said he plans to encourage students to be unafraid to fail and take risks.Ěý

“I will urge students to apply that mentality both professionally and personally so that they can enact real change in their life and in their community,” he said.Ěý

Gora, who earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, chose to attend UofL for his graduate work so he could study with Steve Yanoviak, a biology professor and the Tom Wallace Endowed Chair of Conservation.Ěý

He said his most memorable experience at UofL was when he was in Panama studying tropical trees in the canopy with Dr. Yanoviak.Ěý

“Although you may expect the view from a treetop to be expansive, this tropical rainforest is so dense that it is generally impossible to see more than a few dozen feet,” he said. “One day in 2014, I climbed a large Jacaranda tree along a ridge in the Barro Colorado Nature Monument. I suddenly emerged into a completely open area of the canopy. This tree stood taller than all of its neighbors and I had a clear view from this high point on the ridge. The forest extended through valleys and over ridgetops in all directions and in the distance I could see the Panama Canal. The view was breathtaking and this experience is never too far from mind when I climb a tree to do my research.”

Gora’s research on how lightning affects the trees in the tropics is part of a relatively new direction that Yanoviak has been developing throughout the past three years. There’s still not an understanding of how lightning functions ecologically. Researchers like Yanoviak and Gora are learning that, in some instances, what is thought to be the death of a tree brought about by disease is actually caused by lightning – and lianas may act as natural lightning rods.

“Dr. Yanoviak is a classical tropical field biologist with an exceptional ability to perceive how life functions in nature,” Gora said. “The opportunity to develop my own research under his mentorship drew me to attend UofL for my doctorate … I have followed my passion for ecology and never looked back.” 

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Of the more than 1,300 students on track to graduate this semester, 875 plan to take part in the Dec. 14 ceremony, which is at 7 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center downtown. UofL President Neeli Bendapudi will preside. .Ěý

From the ecology of the rainforest canopy to the promise of astrosurgery to an arts-based approach to improving community health, UofL projects are among the highlights of the first ACCelerate: ACC Smithsonian Creativity and Innovation Festival in the Washington, D.C. museum’s west wing Oct. 13-15. Virginia Tech is presenting the festival with the Smithsonian.            

The festival showcases “creative exploration and research at the nexus of science, engineering, arts and design” among the 15 participating ACC schools, according to the festival . Organizers project as many as 30,000 visitors could attend during the weekend.

“I think it certainly shows that we have work going on here that has huge public impact,” said Paul DeMarco, associate dean of UofL’s School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies and a professor of psychological and brain sciences. DeMarco, who plans to attend, organized UofL’s involvement and oversaw the proposal process for the student-faculty teams involved.

Although the ACC is known widely for athletic achievements, “the intent here is to show these schools have research and work that’s being done by faculty, staff and students,” DeMarco said. “It was important for us to get the students involved.”

The festival will offer 15 dramatic and musical performances, including the 4 p.m. Oct. 14 performance about the intersection of art and public health by . The project leader is graduate student Tasha Golden, a former touring songwriter who directs the Center for Art + Health Innovation within the Commonwealth Institute of Kentucky, an entity of UofL’s School of Public Health and Information Sciences. The multidisciplinary presentation of works that reveal how arts address environmental and social toxins will include Smoketown poet Hannah Drake and Justin Golden.

Biologist Steve Yanoviak from the College of Arts and Sciences and George Pantalos, bioengineering and surgery professor with UofL’s Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, will be featured with their students in interactive exhibits and also as Oct. 14 panelists on the general theme of “Interdisciplinary Thinking and Collaboration.” There are 48 total exhibits.

Pantalos and students Audrey Riggs and Justin Heidel will exhibit two projects: the pediatric cardiovascular simulator designed to train critical care pediatric hospital staff and a joint UofL and Carnegie Mellon project intended to help treat trauma and other disorders surgically in reduced gravity during space missions. Pantalos’ Oct. 14 talk (12:30 p.m. panel on health and body) will focus on the KardioKid.

Yanoviak, whose panel on environment and sustainability begins at 4 p.m., will exhibit with students Max Adams and Evan Gora about their work on the examining forest structure, lightning and insect diversity. The collaboration with other scientists from various disciplines is done primarily at the Barro Colorado Island field station in Panama administered by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.  

The museum site for the ACCelerate Festival is on the National Mall on Constitution Avenue between Twelfth and Fourteenth streets NW. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday-Sunday.