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…
Tags: faculty
Roberto Perdisci, Patty and D.R. Grimes Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Director of the UGA Institute of Cybersecurity and Privacy, was selected as a recipient of an Amazon Research Award.
Amazon Research Awards (ARA) provide unrestricted funds and AWS Promotional Credits to academic researchers investigating various research topics in multiple disciplines. This cycle, ARA announced 73 award recipients who represent 46…
A career of investigation and groundbreaking discovery in maize genetics has helped Kelly Dawe, Distinguished Research Professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, reshape how researchers understand—and improve—a vital crop. Through the rich genetic diversity of corn, Dawe has unlocked pathways to long-sought breakthroughs with cross-scale impacts in genetics, cell biology and genome evolution. Our colleagues in Research…
Vesta, one of the largest bodies in the asteroid belt, has long occupied human imagination – from Roman mythology to 20th century science fiction.
The protoplanet's Divalia Fossae, massive surface troughs comparable in size to the Grand Canyon, encircle two-thirds of Vesta's equator. Rather than erosion, these deep basins were the result of large meteorite impacts that changed the asteroid’s gravitational field which, in turn, affected…
Ninghao Liu, assistant professor in the UGA School of Computing, is UGA’s first Google Research Scholar Award recipient.Liu's proposal, "Enhancing Medical Knowledge in Multimodal Foundation Models through Self-Synthesized Data," was awarded $60,000 by the Google Research Scholar program after review by several teams of Google engineers and researchers.
"The project explores a new framework to enhance medical understanding in multi-modality AI…
Scientists from Colorado State University, Georgia Southern, the University of Georgia and the University of Texas at Austin developed a model to provide an early warning and opportunity to protect an ecosystem that serves as the first line of defense against coastal flooding. By using satellite observations, the model identified vulnerable marshes along Georgia’s coast by locating declining root production – a harbinger of marsh failure.
The…
Inseok Song, associate professor of astronomy in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of physics and astronomy, has revived a grant from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Song's JWST program, "JWST Mid-IR Observations of Warm Debris Disks around Nearby M-dwarfs", will observe 19 M-type stars, the lowest mass stars that are the most common in the Universe.
"M-dwarf stars are the most common type of…
A distinguished scholar and prominent researcher with more than two decades of experience in the field of artificial intelligence, Prashant Doshi has been appointed the inaugural executive director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IAI) at the University of Georgia following a national search:
The Institute for Artificial Intelligence is an interdepartmental research and instructional unit jointly supported by the Office of the…
A new book by Joseph Kellner, assistant professor in the department of history, tells the complicated life story of Soviet Communism.
The Spirit of Socialism, published this week by Cornell University Press, presents the powerful story of Soviet collapse in all its rich complexity:
The Spirit of Socialism is a cultural history of the Soviet collapse. It examines the millions of Soviet people who, during the cascading crises of the collapse…
UGA faculty member But Samarchith “Sam” Kurup is determined to strengthen immune defenses against malaria. Now, thanks to a prestigious Investigators in Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH) award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, his lab is one step closer.
Burroughs Wellcome recently announced its 2025 cohort of eight innovative scientists. Kurup is the first University of Georgia faculty member to receive this highly competitive…
The complex and dynamic microbial communities and microbially-mediated processes that occur in the ocean help stabilize the earth's climate.
Far below the ocean's surface, along the seafloor, hydrothermal vents release heat and chemicals into the deep water that fuel vibrant, breathtaking ecosystems. The microbial communities associated with hydrothermal vents are hot spots of biological production in the deep sea. In shallow waters and…
Funded by a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at the University of Georgia and Texas A&M are using improved detection and treatment methods to understand Chagas disease – a serious, often overlooked illness affecting both dogs and humans.
Rick Tarleton, UGA Athletic Association Distinguished Professor, will co-lead a new project focused on strategies to detect, treat and monitor treatment outcomes in…
An emerging international leader in volcanology, Franklin College faculty member Mattia Pistone serves as a principal investigator on research projects underway in Sicily, Ecuador, the Arctic poles, and the Italian Alps.
For Pistone, assistant professor of petrology and volcanology in the Department of Geology, drilling into the Earth to understand the past and future of its processes is a mission he takes seriously – and passion he shares…
Research production in psychology, sociology and communications continues to secure UGA's place among the nation’s top research institutions. According to the 2025 College and University Rankings for Federal Social and Behavioral Science R&D Funding, released by the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), UGA ranks 10th nationally, with $37.3 million in federal funding for research in these fields during fiscal year 2023. This…
The University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Department of Psychology offers transformative study abroad programs that immerse students and faculty in diverse cultures, fostering personal growth, academic enrichment, and global perspectives. From Tanzania’s savannas to Italy’s historic hills, these experiences blend psychology with cultural exploration, leaving lasting impacts on participants’ academic and career paths. We…
A session organized by UGA faculty at the Society for American Archaeology Meetings in early May discussed the ways recent innovations in radiocarbon dating are rewriting the history of Indigenous sites.
Many of these new histories are challenging conventional wisdom about Indigenous persistence, or the lack thereof, in the face of European contact, researchers reported during a session co-organized by Jennifer Birch, professor of…
A new research study found that Black Americans diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension in midlife had significantly higher levels of a dementia-related biomarker more than a decade later. The study followed more than 250 participants with high blood pressure, diabetes or both conditions. The researchers found that while one diagnosis alone did not indicate a dramatic neurological effect, having both led to striking results:
“This matters. This…
Fuad Elhage, a senior lecturer of Spanish in Franklin College’s Romance languages department, has taught Diversity Through Dance since 2010. The course allows students to spend each class period connecting to the Spanish language and culture through music and dance:
However, for two semesters, the course has been adapted to integrate a service-learning component, giving students the chance to expand their participation beyond the music. Service-…
New research from a team led by University of Georgia scientists from the Franklin College and the Odum School of Ecology reveals that even common plant species with a broad geographic distribution are at risk of decline based on climate change, potentially contributing to a loss in biodiversity.
Published in Science , the study integrates ecological and evolutionary approaches to model past, present and projected climatic tolerances…
David Shaffer, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus in theDepartment of Psychology, has made an indelible mark through his passion for teaching, innovative research, and generous philanthropy. In an April 15, 2025 interview with Rich Slatcher, Gail M. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Shaffer shared insights into his journey in psychology, cherished memories from UGA, and the motivations behind his…
University of Georgia Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Gregory Robinson has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Robonison joins an illustrious list of 250 members elected in 2025, including renowned figures like CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper, actor and humanitarian Danny Glover, filmmaker Ava DuVernay and World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés.
A UGA faculty member since 1995, Robinson has conducted…
Franklin faculty led into spring and beyond with news and expertise across the media.
A sample of the stories available in media across the globe:
Wildfires are burning across the South. Here’s why more could be on the way – Pam Knox, faculty member in the Atmospheric Sciences Program, quoted by the AJC
Lunar sample research could help protect astronauts and uncover origins of water on the moon – research co-authored by professor of…
Part 2 of 3 – Research Partnerships and Public Engagement
Franklin College has introduced a three-part Innovation Initiative guiding its efforts and focus into the next era of American higher education. The initiative consists of three pillars designed to complement each other and work together: 1) Academic Innovation, 2) Research Partnerships and Public Engagement, and 3) Student Success. In the second of a three-part series of interviews,…
New research from the University of Georgia suggests our familiarity with yeast traces back to the footsteps of our ancestors.
Humans domesticated baker’s yeast as early as 7000 BCE to make bread, beer, wine and sake. However, wild varieties of the same yeast species also live on trees. These domesticated and wild yeast look different genetically, but UGA researchers wanted to explore possible links between the two:
“Other studies had just…
A collection of articles in a special feature published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Economic Inequality Over the Very Long Term, released findings of a large, international research team that includes University of Georgia faculty member Jennifer Birch. An expert on the archaeology of Indigenous societies in eastern North America, Birch is co-author on 4 of the eleven articles comprising the April 14 special feature…