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Tags: geography

Every year, sports coaches have to navigate how to safely get their teams in shape to compete while temperatures during outdoor practices soar. New research from the University of Georgia aims to help them do just that Different states have different heat policies guiding outdoor practices. In areas less prone to extreme temperatures—Alaska, for example—strong heat guidelines aren’t as urgently needed as in hotter regions But for states…
The highest point in the state of Georgia, Brasstown Bald, is known to native Cherokee as Etonah and to many Georgians as among the best locations to view the changing fall colors. The term “bald” is used to describe deforested mountaintops in the southern Appalachians that have 360-degree unobstructed views. And the views can indeed be spectacular. But the high, grassland mountaintops, rather than naturally occurring, are part of a…
COVID-19, election news and analysis, personality traits, weather and climate round out the recent trending topics for Franklin College faculty expertise in the media. A sample of the many stories: Study links cognitive disorders with severe COVID-19 risk – research led by Kaixiong Ye, assistant professor of genetics, reported by Devdiscourse, News Break, and Postdoctoral Fellow Jingqi Zhou, Drugs.com Hot or cold, weather…
Inspired by Project Drawdown, Georgia is building a movement to accelerate progress towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions. It’s called Drawdown Georgia, and it launched October 17 statewide. Over 18 months, a team of the state’s best researchers and scientists from UGA, Georgia Tech and Emory University took a deep dive into the data to determine what it’s possible to achieve within the Drawdown framework, leveraging our state’s…
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Program Office’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) Program, in collaboration with the National Integrated Drought Information system (NIDIS) program has announcing 11 new 3-year projects that aim to advance our capability to more integrally characterize and anticipate U.S. droughts in the context of hydroclimatic…
Millions of Americans suffer from pain-inducing conditions such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. New research from the University of Georgia shows significant association between warm, tropical air masses and emergency room visits for these conditions. But not in the way we might think: The new research by Christopher Elcik, lecturer of geography and atmospheric sciences in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences,…
New research from the University of Georgia shows significant association between proximity to dollar stores and patterns of racial segregation in major U.S. metropolitan areas. Though the patterns vary across retail chains, the research shows racial classification to be a key predictor of store location. The new research by Jerry Shannon, associate professor of geography in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was published August 27…
Outbreaks of harmful algae have increased in recent years due to warming trends and longer summer seasons. Also called cyanobacterial algal blooms or CyanoHABs, these large-scale ecological disturbances are often caused by increased urbanization, nutrient pollution, poor waste management and warming weather. The algae can produce toxins that are harmful to humans, pets and aquatic ecosystems. The CyanoTRACKER project, a collaboration between…
Faculty awards during Honors Week include prestigious teaching professorships to five faculty members who were named Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professors for 2020, the university’s highest recognition for instruction at the undergraduate and graduate levels. One of the five is Professor John Knox of the department of geography: After eight years as a lecturer and associate research scientist, a tenure-eligible position in 2008,…
Tessa Andrews and Jerry Shannon are among three University of Georgia faculty members named recipients of the Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the university’s highest early career teaching honor: “By recognizing early career faculty for exemplary instruction, the University of Georgia communicates the high value it places on creating outstanding learning experiences and outcomes for students,” said S.…
J. Marshall Shepherd, a meteorologist whose diverse communication efforts engage a wide audience on weather, climate, and the relationship between science and society, will receive the 2020 Mani L. Bhaumik Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science: As the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor and director of the atmospheric sciences program at the University of…
Franklin faculty provided expert commentary and analysis as well as important new research in a strong start to 2020. Here are a few of the top stories so far this year: Voting rights restoration gives felons a voice in more states – associate professor sociology Sarah Shannon quoted by PEW,  St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Crime Report, KyForward Five social media posts about weather that need to go…
First-Year Odyssey Seminars are some of the most important early academic experiences students can have at UGA. Broadly-themed courses taught by senior faculty feed a sense of discovery in students about knowledge, about the world, and importantly, about themselves as students begin to learn and cultivate their own interests. Four UGA faculty members, two from the Franklin College have received a 2019 First-Year Odyssey Teaching Award in…
Franklin faculty contributed popular press articles about issues of the day and had their research reported around the world. A sample from over the past month: The grimy history of the Attorney General’s Office, associate professor of history Stephen Mihm in his regular column at Bloomberg Here’s your answer when someone asks “How can it be so cold if there’s global warming?”  Georgia Athletic Association…
When you think about content going viral, maps don’t typically come to mind, but “The Eclipse: Smothered and Covered,” a map with the 2017 eclipse path of totality overlaid with the best Waffle House locations for viewing, did just that. The map was created by University of Georgia assistant professor of geography Jerry Shannon. After being retweeted by Waffle House, Shannon’s map quickly went viral. Almost 200,000 people viewed the tweet, and…
Earth system scientists have identified another culprit (other than rain) that causes a river to overflow its banks: leafy plants. In a study published today in Nature Climate Change, the UCI researchers describe the emerging role of ecophysiology in riparian flooding. As an adaptation to an overabundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, trees, plants and grasses constrict their stomatal pores to regulate the amount of…
Franklin faculty continue to lead by sharing their expertise on many international issues of the day. A recent sampling: Greenland’s in the middle of a record melting event - Distinguished Research Professor and Franklin College associate dean Thomas Mote quoted in a widely circulated article, Science Alert Academics, sports or both? A personal reflection from an atmospheric scientist - Georgia Athletic Association…
Franklin College faculty and students continue to shine with distinguished accomplishments, honors, awards, prizes and fellowships. Congratulations and kudos to: Military historian and professor John H. Morrow is the 13th recipient of the Pritzker Military Museum and Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing  Professor of geography John Knox will receive the Edward N. Lorenz Teaching…
The American Geophysical Union has awarded its 2019 Climate Communications Prize to Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geography at the University of Georgia. The award for recognition of the communications of climate science is among the class of 2019 Union honorees announced August 22. An international nonprofit scientific association with 60,000 members in 137…
University of Georgia professor John Knox will receive the Edward N. Lorenz Teaching Excellence Award from the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the organization’s highest teaching award named for the renowned meteorologist who founded modern chaos theory. Knox, who was also selected as a Fellow of the society, will receive the Lorenz Award at the 100th Annual AMS meeting in Boston in January.  Knox is Sandy Beaver Teaching Professor…
The American Meteorological Society recognizes outstanding individuals and organizations of the weather, water, and climate community in its annual Awards and Honors program. 2019 recipients include current and former UGA geography students: Alexandra Mazurek, who graduated in 2019, is the recipient of an American Meteorological Society Graduate Fellowship. The award is a one-year, $25,000 stipend.  She will be…
More than 100 researchers gathered in Athens in May when the University of Georgia hosted the Radiocarbon and Archaeology 9th International Symposium. The symposium, held at the Classic Center, showcased current archaeological research that employs radiocarbon dating, as well as recent developments in the radiocarbon technique. Along with a full range of academic sessions and lectures, the symposium also included several social events and field…
Even during the quiet days of June, Franklin College faculty expertise never sleeps! Here are a few of the many articles written by or featuring the work of faculty members from across the college over the past month:   Meteorologists fear 5G network could take forecasting back to the 1980s, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geography Marshall Shepherd speaking on CBS This…
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a national consortium of academic and nonprofit institutions, with leadership from the University of Maryland College Park (UMD) and North Carolina State University focused on improving our understanding of how the atmosphere, ocean, land, and biosphere of Earth interact with each other and with human activity as an integrated system. The Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth…
With the 2019 hurricane season officially beginning June 1, there's another potential obstacle to predicting monster storms: the next generation of cell phones: On one side of the debate, scientists worry that future 5G networks will hurt satellite data they rely on. On the other side, federal regulators and cell phone companies are racing to deploy 5G technology, which will deliver information up to 100 times faster…

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