Tags: faculty

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Thomas to become Dean of Arts and Sciences at UAB

In her 27-year UGA career, Thomas has distinguished herself as an outstanding classroom teacher, graduate student mentor, and researcher. Her work on the psychology of workplace diversity has gained national attention, and she is an elected fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race. Thomas has also held several…

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Pollack named 2025 AMS Fellow

University of Georgia faculty member Paul Pollack is one of forty-one mathematicians from around the world named Fellows of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for 2025, the program's thirteenth year. AMS members designated as Fellows of the AMS have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics.  Pollack, professor in the Franklin College of Arts…

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Math-letes in Action: Students across Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina compete for UGA’s Annual High School Math Tournament’s Title

On Oct. 26, UGA’s campus buzzed with excitement as nearly 400 students and math coaches gathered for the university’s annual High School Math Tournament. First launched over two decades ago by Professor Emeritus Ted Shifrin and Professor Valery Alexeev, the event has become a high point for budding mathematicians from Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. With help from over 60 faculty, staff and student volunteers, the event ran smoothly,…

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MFA Film program ranked in Top 50

The UGA Master of Fine Arts in Film, Television and Digital Media was named to the list of Top 50 Film Schools across the country by The Wrap, a leading publication in the media and entertainment industry. This is the first time the UGA MFA Film program, launched in 2020 as a joint program between the Franklin College and the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, has been named to a national list and it debuted at No. 43: “It is…

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UGA's Dorsey selected to receive Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship

University of Georgia faculty member Alan T. Dorsey is one of eight 2024 Simons Foundation Pivot Fellows. The program supports researchers who have a strong track record of success and achievement in their current field, as well as a deep interest, curiosity and drive to make contributions to a new discipline. Professor of physics in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Dorsey serves as associate chief information officer for…

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Fish oil supplements bring a variety of health benefits

A new UGA study suggests the far-reaching benefits omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids may extend to lowering the risks of developing a variety of cancers: The study relied on data from a United Kingdom-based study of over 250,000 people who were followed for more than a decade. Of those participants, almost 30,000 developed some form of cancer during the study period. Some earlier research drew connections between levels of fatty acids and risk of…

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Ancestry of Sanford Stadium hedges goes into the lab

In a terrific story combining genome analysis, a love for the hedges and UGA history— a Franklin College faculty member and his students found that the same family of hedges have stood tall for nearly 100 years: Plant biology professor and hedges researcher James Leebens-Mack decided to sequence the genome of the Sanford Stadium hedges. His goal was to combine service-learning with his own areas of research, comparative genome biology and the…

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Kudos, October 2024

Faculty, students and alumni of the Franklin College shine all year long and October is no exception. A sample of the featured good work and achievements during the eighth month of the calendar of Romulus: UGA celebrates 40 years of AI  at Oct. 28 conference Alchemy, co-founded by Raj Shingadia (AB ’01, Philosophy, BS ’03, Psychology), designs and installs breathtaking water worlds through Southeast Aquariums & MRC and set design for…

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Noted and Quoted, October 2024

With high hurricane season – and related disinformation circulating in the public – Franklin College faculty members stepped up and into the media spotlight. Special thanks to Associate Dean Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geography, and Pam Knox, Director of the UGA Weather Network and Agricultural Climatologist in the Atmospheric Sciences Program, for their tireless commitment…

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Sensing a new understanding of the world

Since 1985, the UGA Center for Geospatial Research has been dedicated to advancing remote sensing, mapping, and geospatial research. Along with the technological changes over that nearly 40 year history, the center's technical capacities have grown to reflect the advanced capabilities of today in environmental remote sensing and GeoAI, photogrammetry, small satellite development, and graduate and undergraduate training. In service of promoting…

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New study details open-source vision-language model for biomedical applications

The potential of applications using Artificial Intelligence is quickly venturing into the medical field, with implications for patients and practitioners. A new study published in Nature Medicine presents an open-source multimodal vision-language foundation model, BiomedGPT, for various biomedical applications. AI techniques have also demonstrated potential in solving a wide range of biomedical tasks, including radiology interpretation…

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Holland named Shellebarger professor in Geology

Steven Holland, paleobiologist and expert in stratigraphy, has been selected as the Shellebarger Professor in Geology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. The professorship is supported by a gift from Sydney (BSHE ’79) and Jeff (BS ’78, MS ’80) Shellebarger, former president of Chevron’s North American exploration and production operations. Jeff Shellebarger currently serves on the executive committee of the UGA Geology Alumni Board.…

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NSF grant to explore philosophical perspectives of human and machine translation

A new interdisciplinary project at the interface of philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence seeks to explore the complicated relationship between human and machine translation. The project, led by professor of philosophy Yuri Balashov, is supported by an NSF Scholar's Award. "Translation from one language into another is a difficult and cognitively intense process requiring a broad set of linguistic and non-…

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kudos, September 2024

We welcomed new faculty and staff colleagues into the Franklin College, celebrated new professorships, a Hall of Fame induction and so much more in this first month of the fall semester 2024. Congratulations to our colleagues for outstanding contributions and career achievements: Kelly Dyer, professor in the department of genetics, director of the Integrated Life Sciences Program and co-director of the NIH T32 Genetics Training Grant program, is…

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Noted and Quoted, September 2024

Fantastic start to the fall semester, with excellent research stories and expert comment alike finding purchase in media around the world. Great job by Franklin College scholars in a wide range of disciplines, prepared with authority, ready to share. A sample of stories from recent weeks: There might be more than one way to make a planet – The New York Times reports on new research from Cassandra Hall, assistant professor of computational…

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Psychology professor embodies interdisciplinary approach

Drew Abney, associate professor in the department of psychology, has blended his interests in statistics and engineering to forge a multifaceted psychology research career. Our colleagues in UGA Research Communications share the story of how Abney's journey informs his scholarship: While working on his master’s in education, Abney took a statistics class that, surprisingly, made his passing interest in psychology seem like a possible career…

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UGA's Knox receives USG Hall of Fame Faculty Award

UGA faculty member John Knox was among three USG faculty honored with the Felton Jenkins, Jr. Hall of Fame Faculty Award at the University System of Georgia (USG) 20th annual Regents’ Scholarship Gala on September 12. The black-tie gala, hosted at Town Stage at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, GA, honored faculty, alumni and friends while raising $1.85 million from generous sponsors to support and provide need-based scholarships for…

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CyanoTRACKER partnering on algal blooms across the U.S.

The CyanoTRACKER project, a collaboration between University of Georgia researchers, collects and integrates community reports, remote sensing data and digital image analytics to detect and differentiate between regular algal blooms and Cyanobacyerial Harmful Algal Blooms (CyanoHABs). As the frequency and magnitude of CyanoHABs have grown, particularly in the summer months, CyanoTRACKER offers accurate, cost-effective, and targeted…

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UGA Volcanologist to serve as Geological Society of America Distinguished Lecturer

Mattia Pistone, assistant professor of Petrology and Volcanology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of geology will serve as the 2024-2025 Distinguished Lecturer of the Continental Scientific Drilling Division of the Geological Society of America. Director of the MAGMA MIA Laboratory, Pistone is one of the seven PIs leading the ICDP DIVE (Drilling the Ivrea-Verbano zonE) project, and an enthusiastic researcher investigating…

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New research challenges long-standing paradigm on planet formation

Two theories of planet formation have long-dominated astronomy - the first theory, “core accretion,” posits that planets grow slowly from particles of dust ultimately forming pebbles, then boulders, which coalesce to form planets over tens of millions of years.  The second theory – “gravitational instability,” in which planets form quickly from direct collapse of gas and dust, requiring hundreds to thousands of years instead – received new…

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Celebrated novelist Obioma joins UGA faculty

Nigerian novelist Chigozie Obioma has been appointed the Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor of English in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of English. Born in Akure, Nigeria, Obioma is the author of three novels, "The Fishermen" (2015), "An Orchestra of Minorities" (2019), both shortlisted for The Booker Prize, and "The Road to the Country” (2024), a novel about the Nigerian Civil War published in…

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Thursday Scholarship Series: Birth of the Cool

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music brings out the greats as our faculty performers kick off the 2024-25 concert season with The Birth of the Cool: A collection of pieces written by Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis and John Lewis from 1948-50, that was expanding past the “Be-Bop” hard driving small group Jazz music of the time. This encore performance features nine of the UGA performance faculty including senior lecturer in Jazz David D’…

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Kudos, Summer 2024

The awards, scholarships, and achievements by Franklin College students, alumni, faculty, and staff don't stop for summer. Congratulations to the members of our community whose individual honors bring great distinction to the college and the University of Georgia. A glimpse of the excellence that shined through the summer months: Jordyn Faucette, a senior philosophy, English, and political science major, was one of 19 students across the nation…

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Noted and Quoted, Summer 2024

As campus winds into fall semester, Franklin College faculty have been working all summer – sharing, expertise, informed opinion and new research findings in media around the world. From cosmic rays to hurricanes to workaholism, a sample of the stories we saw this summer: John Knox, professor geography and associate director of the atmospheric sciences program, comments on how Project 2025 would impact the National Weather Service – AJC Dawdling…

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Inaugural Athens Film Festival features MFA Film students, faculty

Several UGA faculty, alumni, and MFA Film students will screen films and lead discussions during the inaugural Athens Film Festival which takes place at downtown venues in Athens Aug. 15-17.  As the local film industry grows, the UGA MFA in Film, Television, and Digital Media is right in the thick of making this creative engine go: For Alex Thomas (MFA ‘23), coming back to Athens to premiere his MFA thesis film, “The School Mistress,” is a…
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