Tags: Four Towers Building

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TrowelBlazers - Raising Horizons

An international collaboration dedicated to outreach activities aimed at encouraging participation of women and underrepresented groups in archaeological, geological, and palaeontological science, Trowelblazers has convened and participated in panels discussing women in science at the Royal Society and the London Feminist Conference, and a wide variety of events and activities including the Cambridge Science Festival, Skeptics in…

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Noted and Quoted, January 2017

Franklin College faculty engage in public scholarship by offering comments, regular columns and sharing expertise across a variety of media. A sample from just this month: Five big mysteries about CRISPR's origins, Distinguished Research Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Michael Terns quoted in Nature  The top nine weather or climate events of 2016, column by Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor Marshall…

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GIS Day at UGA

It's only been a few years now that practically everyone has been walking around with super computers in their pockets - answers to everything, weather anywhere, oh and maps - lots of maps, any maps - all centered on where you are at any given moment. How does all of that work? Georgraphic information systems are designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographical data. The acronym GIS…

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SNAP helps support retail sector

The purpose of government is a much more essential question than the framing we more often use to describe it, much less the criteria we use to select our leaders. But a new study from an interdisciplinary team of UGA researchers sheds some light on the positive effects of a supplemental program as much more broad than typically considered: Increased enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Georgia contributed to the growth…

climate statistics
Noted and Quoted, October 2016

New research, stormy weather and narcissism were some of the headlines featuring Franklin faculty during October, among many others. A sampling of the many media stories: Could You Spell that for Me, Please? Psychology professor W. Keith Campbell quoted in a San Diego State University News story on unique American bay names Can familiarity build trust? A white cop moves into black Atlanta neighborhood. Geography professor Steven Holloway quoted…

ancient hand-drawn map in color
Noted and Quoted, September 2016

Research and expertise of Franklin faculty members mentioned widely in the media in September (plus a few notable examples from August): University researchers discover remains of 16th century Spanish fort associate professor of anthropology Victor Thompson mentioned in multiple outlets – R&B, Beaufort Gazette, The Atlantic, Kokomo Tribune, ABH, Ancient Origins HyperSolar names chemistry professor John Stickney as scientific advisor –…

man outdoors
Amazing student: Jonah Driggers

For St. Simons Island native Jonah Driggers, the ecology of the small island community has instilled a sense of mission that has been shaped by his UGA experiences: Although I began my freshman year with vague intentions of pursuing a career in business, I always harbored a love of the outdoors that was developed over years of Scouting and working in the garden with my dad. Experiences made possible through the Foundation Fellowship, like taking…

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Noted and Quoted, summer 2016

Expert voices and new research had Franklin faculty featured in the media on a range of subjects from climate change to the 'love hormone' to the discovery of a Spanish fort on the South Carolina coast. A sampling (only through July!): Just a few more bites: Defining moderation varies by individual, study finds (Michelle vanDellen, psychology) – ScienceDaily You can't lose weight with moderate eating – Times of India Study reveals that eating "…

people with bounce house outside
Heat dangers of bounce houses

A nearly ubiquitous sight on the suburban landscape, inflatable bounce houses mark the fun and frivolity at children’s parties and other events practically year round. But a new study from Andrew Grundstein and Marshall Shepherd in geography examines the heat safety issues that can put children in danger amid all the innocent play: Expanding on the concept of microclimates like those in parked vehicles that cause serious injuries to children,…

algal bloom on a pond
Citizen science smartphone app: Cyanotracker

In order to download the CyanoTRACKER app on Android devices, you should first locate the 'Google Play Store' launcher on your device. If you cannot locate the icon on your home screen you may need to click the "Apps" icon and search through the list there. From the Google Play Store you may search for "cyanotracker" (without quotes) to bring up the app information and installation page.  Click install.  You may be prompted regarding…


Greenland ice melting and arctic amplification

Clear skies and warmer weather in northern Greenland from this high-pressure system resulted in record setting surface temperature and meltwater runoff in the northwest. With less summer snow falling and melting underway, northern Greenland's reflectivity also decreased and the water absorbed more heat from the sun, further increasing melting.  It is unclear whether this set of circumstances will continue to hold true this summer, or in…

four people in a lab, with model
Dawn Of the DAWGSat program

The time when UGA did not have a space program is soon to be ending, thanks to some truly ambitious and imaginative undergraduate students and an interdisciplinary faculty team: A University of Georgia project led by a team of undergraduate students and including faculty from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering was recently selected for funding by NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative. The UGA proposal, "CubeSat…

glacier melting, with people
Tracking the Greenland meltwater

Very interesting work in the context of a significant increase in the melting of glacial land ice on the island of Greenland due to atmospheric warming: a team of researchers led by faculty at the University of Georgia has discovered the fate of much of the freshwater that pours into the surrounding oceans as the Greenland ice sheet melts every summer. They published their findings today in the journal Nature Geoscience. "Understanding…

researchers in b/w photo
Noted and Quoted, March 2016

Franklin faculty expertise continues to gain influence in the media on a wide variety of crucial issues affecting American society and the world. A sample from the month of March: The Washington Post files an editorial written by professors Marshall Shepherd and John Knox. The post is about “the unfortunate demise of the National Achievement Scholarship Program.” U.S. News map: What going viral looked like 120 years ago. An interactive map,…

U.S. map with coastal counties highlighted
Study predicts impacts of sea level rise

Assessing the risk from rising seas using year 2100 population forecasts for all 319 coastal counties in the continental U.S., a new UGA study predicts that more than 13 million American homes will be threatened by rising sea levels by the end of the century: The study is based on analyses by Mathew Hauer for his doctoral work with the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences; Deepak Mishra of the UGA department of geography; and Jason…

man with Earth orbiting graphic
Leaplings

Faculty members Marshall Shepherd, Danny Krashen and Kevin Moore, along with a few UGA students, explain why today is Leap Day:  

map with colored regions
New method for calculating Urban Heat Island intensity

The urban heat island effect describes how the spatial configuration of cities, the materials in them (such as asphalt), lack of vegetation and waste heat can modify temperature. A new study from reseachers in the department of geography using a new method for calculating urban heat island intensities clarifies the conflict on whether urban density or sprawl amplify these effects more: It also provides a ranking of the top urban heat…

glacier with ice melting
NASA Research on Sea Level Rise in Greenland

A NASA Interdisciplinary sciences project by UGA faculty lead by Thomas Mote and including Patricia Yager and Renato Castelao collected data this summer at the top of the world: On Greenland’s ice sheet, a vast icy landscape crisscrossed by turquoise rivers and dotted with melt water lakes, a small cluster of orange camping tents popped up in late July. The camp, home for a week to a team of researchers, sat by a large, fast-flowing river. Just…

two men in a TV studio
Shepherd and Knox on the Weather Channel

If you have to fly for work or pleasure, you will enjoy this show and its really cool images and videos.  We were burning up the Twitters with this all weekend, but such is our pride and not just for this example of fantastic expertise that is important to the public. We're continually humbled by Dr. Shepherd's ability to share his scholarship in a wide variety of media. And now that he has a regular broadcast perch at The Weather Channel…

woman outside day
Voarintsoa awarded Faculty for the Future Fellowship

Geology doctoral student Ny Riavo Voarintsoa has been selected for the Faculty for the Future Fellowship Award, sponsored by the Schlumberger Foundation to support talented women from developing and emerging countries who are pursuing advanced degrees in science and engineering at leading universities: Recipients are chosen based on their leadership qualities, academic ability and engagement toward science and education as a development tool in…

people with inflated bounce house
Weather-related accidents and conditions

Great demonstration at the geography building yesterday, and our colleague Jessica Luton shares the story: The UGA Geography building lawn looked more like a setup for a child’s birthday party or a carnival than a research project Thursday afternoon as students gathered around a red and yellow bounce house. The students, who are both undergraduate and graduate students studying atmospheric science, are taking a summer geography class meant to…

sun set over water
The Climate for Climate News

Whatever the curent state of the art on presenting/denying/affirming the realities and consequences of a changing global climate, UGA and Franklin College scholars have long been a trustworthy source of expertise on the subject. And it is a complex subject, which is why it calls for scholarship from such a wide range of fields from marine sciences to geography and atmospheric sciences to microbiology, forestry, ecology and the biological…

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UGA grad Wx Challenge Champ

UGA graduate Jordan McLeod recently took home top prize in the 2014-2015 WxChallenge, an annual national collegiate weather forecasting competition: McLeod, who was earning his master's degree at UGA when the forecasting competition began in fall 2014, beat out nearly 2,000 participants ranging from undergraduates to tenured professors from over 100 colleges and universities. ...   To compete, participants forecasted the weather conditions-…

map of Georgia
Climate change vulnerability assessment

Yesterday, The Guardian and ABC News quoted geography professor Marshall Shepherd about a study showing population concentrating into areas facing significant temperature rises. Today, we released news about a study authored by Shepherd and his colleagues about vulnerable populations in Georgia that are highly susceptible to climate change: The study, published May 18 in Applied Geography, examines not only the sensitivity and…

Tornado in manitoba
Climatology Research Lab looks into the future of storms

Statistical techniques like downscaling allow climate researchers to peer across extraordinarily large amounts of different kinds of data to give us a better idea of what to expect in terms of the broader changes in the climate and how those may translate into recurring weather events in the future. Researchers from the department of geography recently published an unequivocal new study: More tornadoes will be commonplace by the year 2080 as a…
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