Kudos, September 2015

Great work and career accomplishments by Franklin College faculty and alumni were celebrated widely in September. Here are just a few:

Four UGA faculty members, including professor of genetics Jessica Kissinger and Franklin College associate dean Kecia Thomas were selected as the university's 2015-2016 SEC Academic Leadership Development Program Fellows. Created by the Southeastern Conference in 2008, the fellowship program seeks to identify, prepare and advance academic leaders for roles within SEC institutions and beyond. The participants will work with senior administrators at UGA based on their areas of interest and attend two SEC-wide workshops that include lectures, panel discussions and opportunities to interact with their counterparts from other SEC institutions.

Franklin Professor in the department of chemistry Geert-Jan Boons was selected to receive the 2016 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award by the American Chemical Society, which will be presented at the Fall ACS meeting in Denver.

A book written by Claudio Saunt, Richard B. Russell Professor in American History and chair of the history department, is among the six finalists for the 2015 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature. West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 is published by W. W. Norton & Company. Winner of the Cundill Prize, the world’s most lucrative international award fro a non-fiction book, will be announced in early November. 

Who Can Afford to Improvise? James Baldwin and Black Music, the Lyric and the Listeners by Ed Pavlić, professor of English and Creative Writing, was published by Fordham University Press in September.

J. Marshall Shepherd, UGA Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences, will present a special lecture – Communicating About Climate Change, 50 Years Later – at the AAAS event Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the
First Official Climate-Change Warning to a U.S. President

And 15 of the University of Georgia alumni celebrated at the fifth annual 40 Under 40 Awards Luncheon at the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta on Sept. 10 graduated with Franklin College degrees. They are:

1.            Meaghan Goodwin Boyd, AB '01 History

2.            Emily Hammond Cook, AB '07 Theatre

3.            Ashley Edmonds, AB '05 Honors Interdisciplinary Studies

4.            Curtis Franks, BS '02 Psychology

5.            Brian Fuller, BS '98 Psychology

6.            Holly Gooding,BS '00 Genetics

7.            Molly Kordares, AB '05 English

8.            David Lasseter, AB '02 History

9.            Andy Roddenbery V, Cell Bio

10.          Christina Sass, AB '02 Philosophy (also With Honors in Astronomy)

11.          Deep Shah, BS '08 Biology

12.          Jacinta Smith, BS '01 Microbiology

13.          Julie Smithwick, , AB '97 Area Studies (also 2nd major Spanish)

14.          Baxter Tharin, BS '98 Chemistry

15.          Becky Winter, AB '98 Psychology, Certificate '98 Women's Studies

Image: 2015-2016 SEC Academic Leadership Development Program Fellows Kecia Thomas, Erica Hashimoto, Jessica Kissinger and Mark Wilson  Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski