Tags: faculty

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Shepherd attends White House climate event

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy holds a first-of-its-kind roundtable with some of the nation’s leading scientists on Thursday, including UGA atmospheric scientist J.Marshall Shepherd, to discuss the urgent need to combat the climate crisis and to counter arguments for delaying climate action: The event, which has not previously been reported, will bring together a diverse group of 17 climate scientists, social…

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When pollen comes of age

New research from the University of Georgia has determined when pollen comes of age and begins expressing its own genome, a major life cycle transition in plants. Each grain of pollen is actually its own multicellular organism – with two to 40 cells, depending on the species. Pollen expresses its own genome and is genetically distinct from its parent plant. That means pollen grains from a single flower can have different traits and…

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Agricultural fungicides may be driving resistance

New research from the University of Georgia has shown, for the first time, that compounds used to fight fungal diseases in plants are causing resistance to antifungal medications used to treat people. The study focused on Aspergillus fumigatus, the fungus that causes aspergillosis, a disease that causes life-threatening infections in 300,000 people globally each year. Published in G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, the study …

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Palmer earns prestigious NEH Fellowship

Jennifer Palmer, associate professor of history, has been awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities for 2022. The award was announced in January and will provide course release for a full academic year. Seventy-three fellowships were awarded by the NEH this year, among 208 grants worth $24.7 million for humanities scholarship and programming across the country: Palmer will use the fellowship for…

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Advisory Committee meeting re-cap

The Franklin Works Advisory Committee met on January 25, 2022 for a re-cap of progress during the Business Services Phase 1, since July 1.  A summary of these activities include: Onboarding 60 team members     All Franklin College units receiving business services from the college     Provided technology equipment to support mobile workforce in the FBSO   Conducted extensive technical and soft skills training to…

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How Black science majors succeed

University of Georgia life science and education researchers investigated the stories behind one of the most successful groups of science majors on campus: Black undergraduate students. Despite an array of additional challenges beyond their coursework, Black science majors are able to complete their science degree programs. Black students persist at a higher rate than any other racial or ethnic subgroup on campus for many of the science majors…

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New Athens Hip Hop Harmonic video

The Athens Hip Hop Harmonic will release a new video across all Hodgson School of Music social media channels on Wednesday, 2.2.22. Local rapper Kxng Blanco teamed up with composition faculty Peter Van Zandt Lane to create the piece performed by the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble.  "Getting to co-create a piece of music with Kxng Blanco and the students in Contemporary Chamber Ensemble was so rewarding. We all got dropped into a world where…

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Kissinger, Yager elected as AAAS Fellows

Jessica Kissinger, Distinguished Research Professor of genetics, and Patricia Yager, professor of marine sciences, are among three UGA faculty named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In a tradition stretching back to 1874, these individuals are elected annually by the AAAS Council for their extraordinary achievements leading to the advancement of science. Fellows must have been AAAS members for at…

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Noted and Quoted, January 2022

A variety of articles and columns, quoting or authored by Franklin Faculty members at the turn of the new year. A recent sample of insights and expertise: Photos, other mementos discovered hundreds of miles away after tornadoes – John Knox, professor of geography, quoted by KMOX in St. Louis, via Audacy Gerald Ford vowed to whip inflation; it whipped him instead – column written by Stephen Mihm, associate professor of history,…

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Xu elected a 2022 IEEE Fellow

Ying Xu, professor of biochemistry in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The IEEE publishes approximately one-third of the world’s literature in computer science and the electrical and electronic engineering fields. It also co-sponsors more than 1,900 international conferences annually. As the largest professional organization for the advancement of technology…

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Navigating to help

Happy 2022, and thank you for your patience and perseverance as we move through the implementation phases of Franklin Works. As a reminder to everyone, the FBSO homepage is up and running! Click on the Requesting Help button to filter by department and find your FAST representative and respective contact information. Ways to navigate to the homepage/request help page: Franklin Works project page > FBSO homepage…

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'Moonshot' for botany

A new Earth BioGenome Project paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences highlights the progress of plant genomics and includes a roadmap for the enormous task of sequencing the genomes of plants worldwide. The Earth BioGenome Project is a federated initiative promoting sequencing the genomes of all multicellular species on our planet. The paper, co-authored by professor of plant biology James…

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Third round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants awarded

How can nanotechnology and big data be used to improve diagnosis of infectious viruses like SARS-CoV-2? That’s one of the questions that will be explored through funding provided by a third round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants. Eleven grants totaling $1.5 million were awarded in November 2021 to recipients of the third round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants. Overall the awards went to faculty from 13 UGA departments,…

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2022 Grants and Fellowships Mentorship and Support program

The Willson Center announced the first cohort of faculty members in the humanities and arts for the Grants and Fellowships Mentorship and Support program. Offered in partnership with the Franklin College, the Office of Research, and the Office of the Provost, faculty who are admitted to the program receive $1,000 into their research support accounts. The program is designed to Create a supportive environment for critique and…

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Stepanova transcends barriers with music

Liza Stepanova, associate professor of piano in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, believes music transcends barriers and teaches her students the importance of collaboration and community outreach. Stepanova came to UGA in 2015 primarily to teach applied piano to a studio of undergraduate and graduate piano majors. Since joining the faculty, she has created new courses and promoted initiatives that go beyond this role. One of them has been the…

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Noel Fallows, 1961-2021

University of Georgia Associate Provost for Global Engagement Noel Fallows passed away December 29, 2021 after a protracted illness.  Noel Fallows contributed in myriad ways to the University of Georgia’s growing international profile and influence, while also participating in some of the most consequential scholarly conversations and debates within his primary academic field of medieval studies. In 1984, he arrived to the university’s…

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Saunt named Regents’ Professor

Claudio Saunt, Distinguished Research Professor and Richard B. Russell Professor of American History in the Franklin College, is one of two University of Georgia professors  named Regents’ Professors, an honor bestowed by the board of regents on distinguished faculty whose scholarship or creative activity is recognized as innovative and pace-setting. Saunt joins John Drake, Distinguished Research Professor in the Odum School of Ecology…

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UGA students learning on the set

The MFA Film program prepares students for careers in writing, directing, and producing by equipping them with a broad set of skills, connecting them with seasoned professionals, and giving them hands-on experience with Georgia’s multibillion-dollar film industry. With one year in Athens and the second year at Georgia's Trilith Studios, MFA students get the opportunity to create alongside – and learn from – the best: This fall,…

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Emotion regulation, coping with schizophrenia

A person with schizophrenia typically experiences more negative emotions and has more stressors than average. A new study by University of Georgia psychologists revealed a surprising finding that could help those who struggle with the illness: While people with schizophrenia tend to manage low-level negative emotions, they struggle to do so as those negative emotions increase. People regulate their emotions to get from one feeling to a more…

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Kudos, November-December 2021

Franklin students, alumni, and faculty distinguish themselves and the University of Georgia, across campus and around the world with their efforts, awards, new books and successful businesses. A roundup of recent honors and accomplishments: David Richards, a doctoral candidate in the department of geology, received the Mark Dawkins Leadership Award, and Gabriel Smallwood, a senior history major from Savannah, were among six UGA students and four…

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New I-STEM Research Building 1 opens

The University of Georgia held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the first phase of the Interdisciplinary Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Research Complex on Tuesday, Nov. 30. The 100,000-square-foot I-STEM Research Building 1 features flexible, open lab spaces designed to promote collaboration and elevate UGA’s expanding lab-intensive research activities, particularly within the disciplines of chemistry,…

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School of Music Annual Holiday Concerts, live and in person

The students and faculty of Hugh Hodgson School of Music help us start the holiday season off right in Hodgson Hall with the return of the live Hodgson School of Music Annual Holiday Concerts. Audiences will be able to enjoy a wonderful evening of holiday classics and more to get into the spirit of the season, with performances by multiple ensembles. The concerts are part of the Thursday Scholarship Series and will take place Dec. 2nd and…

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An artful influence

Professor of art Ted Saupe, who has built a career on campus that has inspired decades of students, embodies the spirit that fosters a community of ceramic artists. He is one of the one of many reasons why the ceramics program in the Lamar Dodd School of Art is so special: Together with fellow ceramicist and professor of art Sunkoo Yuh, they have built a program where students work side-by-side loading kilns, working with clay (either…

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Heroic archetypes and the silver screen

Despite the rise of feminism, a new UGA research study describes how romance films persist in stereotyping women’s roles. Based on a sample of 250 romance films—from “The Notebook” to “Up in the Air”—that were released between 2000 and 2014, the study found that many of those movies seem to initially question the gender status quo by positioning the female lead as adventurous and independent. But they typically end essentially the same way: with…

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Roth book wins 2021 McLeod Prize

"A Miscarriage of Justice," Women’s Reproductive Lives and the Law in Early Twentieth-Century Brazil by Cassia Roth, Assistant Professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies, has won the 2021 Murdo J. MacLeod Book Prize, sponsored by the Southern Historical Association, Latin American and Caribbean Section. A Miscarriage of Justice examines women's reproductive health in relation to legal and medical policy in Rio…
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