AUBURN – Employers commonly examine an applicant's resume, cover letter, references and personality to evaluate how well the potential new employee may perform. Now, the applicant's Facebook profile may play a key role as well, according to an Auburn professor.

Kevin Mossholder, a professor in the Department of Management in the College of Business, is one of three researchers who recently published a study linking Facebook profiles to job performance. Mossholder, along with lead researcher Don Kluemper of Northern Illinois University and Peter Rosen of the University of Evansville, conducted two studies of more than 500 students to find links of Facebook profiles with personality, hiring potential and job success.

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AUBURN - A pair of iconic eagles that have stood watch for more than 50 years at the main gate to Auburn University, at Toomer's Corner, were placed back on their pedestals on Friday, April 13, after having been restored to their original stateliness with the assistance of the Auburn University Facilities Management staff and a local company which manages restoration projects.

With a missing beak on one and a damaged wing on the other, the weathered statues were removed from their brick pedestals in November. They have been repaired by The Lathan Company Inc., a Mobile-based firm specializing in the historic preservation of landmark structures and buildings

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AUBURN – Lego sculptures have entered our shared cultural experience, whether they are created by a 3-year-old building his first space ship, or a serious artist using millions of blocks to create a one-of-a-kind installation on a grand scale.

At Auburn University, Legos are being used to design and build vehicles, but with a twist. These vehicles can be produced at a rate of 70 cars per hour in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering's new automotive manufacturing systems laboratory, located on the ground floor of the Shelby Center.

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AUBURN – Tatiana Samoylova, an associate research professor at the Scott-Ritchey Research Center at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine, has received a two-year, $412,106 Michelson Grant from the Found Animals Foundation to continue her research to develop an alternative to surgical spaying and neutering of cats and dogs.

"To control the overpopulation of unowned animals, my laboratory, in collaboration with Drs. Nancy Cox, Valery Petrenko, Bettina Schemera, Frank Bartol and Mark Carpenter, is developing immunocontraceptive vaccines that are based on phage-GnRH constructs via phage display technology," said Samoylova. "Such vaccines are designed to be used primarily by animal shelters as cost-effective alternatives to surgical neutering."

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AUBURN – Most college students realize the old adage "practice makes perfect" is a good idea and it usually results in a good grade in the classroom. But when lives are on the line, the saying takes on a new significance.

For Auburn University flight management students, this means being able to pilot aircraft in dangerous situations and adverse weather conditions — using skills developed without ever leaving the ground. Auburn, in its eighth decade of flight education, has added a new, full-motion flight simulator that will complement its inflight training.

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AUBURN - A recent Auburn University study provides evidence that today's college students are heavier and, yes, fatter when they graduate than when they first arrived on campus. And that's true more so for the male student body than the female. The study tracked changes in male and female college students' weight, size, shape and body composition not just as freshmen but over the course of their four-year college careers.

Results from the in-depth research project that ultimately followed 89 females and 42 males from their first semester on campus in August 2007 to their last in May 2011 showed seven out of every 10 students participating in the study gained weight – an average of 13 pounds for males and 3.7 pounds for females – on their journey to a bachelor's degree.

More telling, however, were the changes in body fat percentages, which revealed that the average weight-gaining student in the four-year study had 4.7 percent more fat tissue as a graduating senior than he or she had as an incoming freshman. Body fat percentages increase not only with gain of fat tissue but also with the loss of lean muscle mass, so, although females in the study gained only 3.7 pounds on the scales, they had 8.5 more pounds of fat in the body at the study's end. For males, the higher body fat percentage translated into 11.1 additional pounds of fat.

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AUBURN – The first Forum on Sleep and Child Development at Auburn University, April 1-3, will bring together a select group of national and international scholars whose work demonstrates connections between family processes, pediatric sleep medicine and child development.

The forum was organized by Mona El-Sheikh, the Leonard Peterson Inc. Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Human Sciences, and Joseph Buckhalt, the Wayne T. Smith Distinguished Professor in the College of Education.

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AUBURN – Longtime ABC News correspondent Jim Wooten and widely regarded Auburn historian and activist Wayne Flynt are among the five honorees chosen to receive the 2012 Auburn Journalism Awards.

The other honorees are Valley Times-News publisher Cy Wood, Alabama High School Athletic Association Communication director Ron Ingram and al.com senior producer Vickey Hunt Williams. The awards will be presented at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center on Friday, April 27, at 11:30 a.m.

In presenting the annual awards, the Auburn University Journalism Advisory Council seeks "to recognize and honor the best professional performers in our field with Alabama roots," said Roy Bain, Auburn Journalism Awards committee chairman.

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AUBURN - Wild pigs have become a big problem in the Southeast as they destroy billions of dollars in crops annually, compete with other native wildlife species, and wreak havoc on forests, pastures and food plots. An Auburn University professor and his colleagues have created a book to help landowners manage the rapidly increasing population of wild pigs.

The joint publication of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and the Mississippi State University Extension Service provides practical information to landowners on managing wild pig populations.

The book, titled "A Landowner's Guide for Wild Pig Management: Practical Methods for Wild Pig Control," turns scientific research into proven techniques for reducing damage, according to Mark Smith, assistant professor and extension specialist at Auburn University and co-author of the book.

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AUBURN – Nearly 4,000 Auburn University students in 30 residence halls saved more than $12,000 in water and electricity costs in this year's Sustain-A-Bowl, Auburn's annual resource reduction competition. The goal of the competition was for each residence hall to reduce both its electricity and water consumption by 10 percent.

Twenty-three of the 30 residence halls participating reached the electricity reduction goal, while 22 halls reached the water reduction goal. Overall winners for the competition included Broun Hall in the Quad, Toomer Hall in the Hill and Tiger Hall in the Village.

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