Tags: faculty

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New Faculty Tour 2018: A statewide look at UGA

The 2018 UGA New Faculty Tour wraps up today, after a five-day journey around the state showcasing agriculture and agritourism, industry, the Georgia coast and its rural communities. The tour stopped in 15 cities and passed through 48 counties, introducing faculty who have been at UGA for two or fewer years to the geography, culture, history and economic engines of the Empire State of the South: The tour began with a welcome from UGA…

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The Ocean Plastic Pollution Problem

Plastic waste has been a growing focus of attention from UGA researchers for some time, and their work along several lines of inquiry is drawing important coverage to a serious problem. Marine sciences faculty have also been studying the problem near the Georgia coast and one of them was invited share some of that expertise at a congressional briefing this summer:  University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography…

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Scholarship Series subscriptions through July 27

Hugh Hodgson School of Music Thursday Scholarship Series and Create Your Own Season subscriptions are available for purchase and renewal now through Friday, July 27th: Whether you are a long-time patron, or a newcomer to our concert halls, we hope you will join us for what promises to be an outstanding year of classical favorites and exciting contemporary works. From Beethoven to Big Band, our talented students and faculty will inspire…

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Experiential Learning: connecting coursework beyond the classroom

The thriving Experiential Learning initiative at UGA provides arts & sciences students and faculty members the opportunity to reach higher: While experiential learning has long been part of many of UGA’s pre-professional programs, there was initial concern about the feasibility of ensuring science and humanities majors had a diverse range of opportunities. In STEM disciplines, undergraduate research is the most coveted EL experience.…

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How corn breaks genetics laws

In a new paper published in the journal Cell, genetics professor Kelly Dawe solves a long-sought mystery: Modern genetics is based on the idea that genes are passed on to progeny in a predictable fashion, as first described by 19th-century Austrian botanist Gregor Mendel. He determined that genes exist in pairs, and each one of the two has an equal chance of being transmitted to the next generation. However, in rare exceptions, chromosomes…

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Microbes and a changing environment

A striking new study published in the journal Cell shows details how ancient microbes that thrive in some of the world’s most extreme environments and modern-day humans have more in common than meets the eye—namely, they both respire and conserve energy using a similar molecular mechanism, one that has adapted to changing environmental conditions over billions of years: "Nature is really good at finding molecules that work and then modifying…

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Great Commitments: Roberto Perdisci

UGA's recently established Institute for Cybersecurity and Privacy uses anti-malware software developed by the institute’s network security expert, associate professor of computer science Roberto Perdisci, to detect malware downloads on its own networks - a model other institutions are begiining to follow: “Your antivirus software installed on your computer to protect against malware attacks will always be behind,” Perdisci says. Such software…

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Focus on the faculty: Jin Xie

Associate professor of chemistry Jin Xie is using nanotechnology to make chemotherapy and radiation therapy more effective while minimizing their toxic side effects: What are your favorite courses and why? I redeveloped the nanomaterials course, and I enjoy teaching it. Nanotechnology, especially nanobiotechnology, is a highly interdisciplinary field, and it is rapidly evolving. In this course, I not only introduce basic nanoparticle synthesis…

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Three faculty members awarded NEH support

Three Franklin College faculty members have been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The awards, announced April 9, are among $18.6 million in NEH grants for 199 humanities projects across the country: Professor of Spanish Elizabeth Wright and associate professor of French Rachel Gabara of the Romance languages department were awarded $6,000 each for summer stipends, highly competitive grants that provide full-…

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Noted and Quoted, April 2018

Franklin faculty members, students and alumni have been featured in a broad variety of media this month. A sampling: IRS computer glitch caused by "master file" issue – associate professor of history Stephen Mihm quoted on NPR  Voting laws for felons can be hard to follow – assistant professor of sociology Sarah K.S. Shannon quoted in the New York Times The 2018 hurricane season looms but Hurricane Maria still…

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Kudos, April 2018

Awards season celebrates many of our best and the accolades continue for Franklin College faculty and students. Among the many honors, inductions and elections: Janet Westpheling, professor of genetics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is president-electof the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. SIMB is a nonprofit, international association dedicated to the advancement of microbiological sciences,…

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2018 Josiah Meigs Teaching Professor Michael Marshall

The Franklin College is home to two of the three 2018 Josiah Meigs Teaching Professors, profiled in the Honors & Awards issue of Columns. One of three is photography professor Michael Marshall: Michael Marshall believes that artists should have a role in facilitating change and shaping the world around them. He has put that philosophy into practice and guides others to do the same. “Change can be difficult, and I am consistently…

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Mellon grant will strengthen humanities programs

A $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will enable the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts to expand its Global Georgia Initiative, a public humanities program in place since 2013: In its first six years, the Global Georgia Initiative has engaged the humanities and arts in exploring global issues of public concern in a diversity of local contexts, serving audiences at UGA and throughout the Athens community…

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Westpheling elected SIMB president

Professor of genetics Janet Westpheling has been elected president of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology in the 2018 SIMB Board of Directors election. The Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (SIMB) is a nonprofit, international association dedicated to the advancement of microbiological sciences, especially as they apply to industrial products, biotechnology, materials, and processes. Founded in…

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Thank a Donor

  UGA students are gathering Thursday at Tate Plaza from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for Thank A Donor Day to show their appreciation for support of alumni and friends. At this celebration, students will have creative opportunities to thank those donors who have enriched their experiences at UGA. There will be prizes, photos with Hairy Dawg, music and more. It's another beautiful spring day on campus. Our students make it all the better by…

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Moran receives SEC Faculty Achievement Award

Distinguished Research Professor Mary Ann Moran has earned a number of honors over the course of her career. The latest is being named UGA’s recipient of the 2018 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award: The SEC award, which is administered by provosts at the 14 universities in the conference, recognizes professors with outstanding records in teaching and scholarship who serve as role models for students and other faculty members…

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Johnson-Bailey named University Professor

Congratulations to professor and director of the Institute for Women’s Studies Juanita Johnson-Bailey, who has been named University Professor, an honor bestowed on faculty members who have made a significant impact on the University of Georgia: Johnson-Bailey is a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of Lifelong Education, Administration and Policy in the College of Education, in addition to her appointment to the…

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Thursday Scholarship Concert honors Women’s History Month

In celebration of Women’s History Month, the faculty, students and alumni of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music bring to the stage Woman to Woman, the next performance in the Thursday Scholarship Series, on Thursday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall. “Women’s history will come alive in this concert,” says faculty member and harpist Monica Hargrave, who decided last year she wanted to present a concert during Women’s History Month…

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Kudos, March 2018

Awards season is always a time of celebration for the Franklin College, and we congratulate our colleagues (and students) on recent recognition, grants and professorships: Half of the six recipients of UGA’s highest recognition for excellence in instruction are from Franklin faculty members – Christine Alright from the department of Classics received the Russell Award for Excellence in Teaching – Athens CEO, UGA Today. Professor of…

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Noted and Quoted, March 2018

Great diversity of subjects, opinions, expertise and sources in this month's round-up faculty, students and alumni appearing in the media: Can narcissists actually change their ways? We asked the experts – professor of psychology  Keith Campbell quoted in Huffington Post Researchers receive $10M to create computational and informatics tools for glycoscience – project co-led by Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology …

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UGA and Athens, working well together

Finding good internship opportunities is a focus for many UGA students, but the Clarke Central High School Odyssey news magazine features a story (and video) about the student-led Small Satellite Research Lab providing work-based interships for high school students. The new issue of Odyssey also features a story on philosophy professor (and 2018 Democratic Congressional Candidate) Richard Winfield: Although Winfield sees social mobility as…

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UGA-Minas Gerais partnership receives NAFSA 2018 Spotlight Award

Building on interdisciplinary collaborations across campus made possible through the Portuguese Flagship Program, UGA is one of eight universities nationwide to be recognized for its exemplary international programs and partnerships by NAFSA, a nonprofit association dedicated to international education: The university’s network of partnerships within the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais received NAFSA’s 2018 Senator Paul Simon…

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Focus on the faculty: Hilda Kurtz

Professor of geography Hilda Kurtz has a strong belief in educational equity and diversity, as well as a great ability to tap into students’ curiosity in the classroom: My responsibilities include research, teaching and service. My research concerns alternative food politics, and more recently, organic certification. I currently teach courses in human geography at the introductory, upper-division and graduate levels. In addition to…

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Battling neglected diseases

Great overview of the work by Franklin College faculty in the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, where multi-track efforts are yielding gains against some of the world's worst scourges: Founded 20 years ago by Regents Professor of Cellular Biology Rick Tarleton, CTEGD consolidates UGA’s extensive, campus-wide tropical disease knowledge and drug discovery expertise into an interdisciplinary research unit that focuses on…

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Adams receives 2018 DuPont award

Michael W.W. Adams, Distinguished Research Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is co-recipient of the 2018 DuPont Industrial Biosciences Award in Applied and Environmental Microbiology from the American Society for Microbiology: He shares the award with Robert Kelly of North Carolina State University. They were recognized for their groundbreaking use and genetic manipulation of…
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