Kudos, April 2020

New books, service, SEC and Honors Week highlights dominate the recent accolades for Franklin College faculty, postdocs and graduate students. A sample:

The Poetry Society of America published  “Someone’s Getting the Best, the Best, the Best of You . . .”  a poem by Ed Pavlić, professor of English and creative writing on poem from and short essay about his new book. The poem is about Prince, on the fourth anniversary of his death

Jennifer Palmer, associate professor of history, has been named a 2020 recipient of an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship. The ACLS Fellowship program honors scholarship in the humanities and humanistic social sciences with the potential to make significant contributions to knowledge in their fields

Lynne Billard, University Professor, University of Georgia, has been named the 2020 IMS Carver Medalist. Dr. Billard receives the award for her outstanding service to IMS on a number of key committees, including publications, nominations, and fellows, for her extraordinary leadership as Program Secretary (1987-90) that culminated in forging a partnership with the Bernoulli Society that includes co-hosting the biannual World Statistical Congress, and for her advocacy of the inclusion of women and young researchers on the scientific programs of IMS sponsored meetings

Lillian Eby, a professor of psychology and director of the University of Georgia Owens Institute for Behavioral Research, has been named UGA’s 2020 recipient of the Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award

Franklin College Senior Associate Dean Kecia Thomas has been named dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Arts and Sciences following a national search

The Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) announced the addition of two members to its board of directors, including leading international expert in weather and climate, J. Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences

The Classical Association for the Middle West and South for the Ladislaus J. Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award has awarded the 2020 prize to Christine Loren Albright, associate professor of Classics, for her textbook Ovid’s Metamorphoses: A Reader for Students in Elementary College Latin (London and New York: Routledge, 2018)

John Knox, professor of geography, and Richard Morrison, associate professor of chemistry, are among five faculty members named Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professors for 2020. The professorship is the university’s highest recognition for instruction at the undergraduate and graduate levels

Tessa Andrews, associate professor in the department of genetics, and Jerry Shannon, assistant professor in the department of geography, are two of the three UGA faculty members who received a Richard B. Russell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2020. Russell Awards recognize outstanding teaching by faculty early in their academic careers

Sarah Shannon, associate professor of sociology, received a 2020 Service-Learning Teaching Excellence Award

Moon Jung Jang, associate professor of graphic design, and David Gay, professor mathematics are co-recipients of a Creative Teaching Award. They collaborated to enrich students’ learning experience by helping produce visual models that convey advanced mathematical concepts accessible to broad audiences. Amy Trauger, associate professor in the geography department received a Creative Teaching Award for innovative teaching practices to engage students. Elizabeth Davis, senior academic professional in the English department, received a Creative Teaching Award. She connects students with Archway Partners to address real-world needs throughout the state

2020 Postdoctoral Research Award recipient Lisa Limeri, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology, garnered extramural funding for an independent study of college students’ beliefs, or mindsets, about intelligence

Leslie Gordon Simons, professor of sociology, received a 2019 First-Year Odyssey Teaching Award in recognition of success as an outstanding teacher in the First-Year Odyssey Seminar program. Simons takes topics like eating, sleep and exercise and exposes the scientific research, some of it her own, that supports best practices for each in her seminar, “Come on, Get Happy: The Science of Happiness” 

The Excellence in Teaching Award (ETA), a highly competitive award sponsored by the Graduate School, recognizes teaching assistants who contribute to teaching at UGA beyond their own assigned classroom responsibilities. 2020 recipients of the ETA include Jhih-yin Diane Lee, Lamar Dodd School of Art, and Diogo Lemos Soares Cosme, Romance Languages

Katrien Devos, professor of plant genetics with joint appointments in Plant Biology and Crop and Soil Sciences; Jim Leebens-Mack, professor of plant biology; and Elizabeth Wright, professor of Spanish, were among who received the title of Distinguished Research Professor, awarded to faculty who are internationally recognized for their contributions to knowledge and whose work fosters continued creativity in their discipline

Richard Menke, associate professor of English, received the Albert Christ-Janer Award, given to recognize an outstanding body of nationally and internationally recognized scholarly or creative activities in the creative arts and humanities

Joshua Bynum, associate professor of trombone in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, was awarded the Creative Research Medal in Humanities and Arts

Natarajan Kannan, associate professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology and the Institute of Bioinformatics, and Bob Schmitz, associate professor in the department of genetics, were awarded the Creative Research Medal in Natural Sciences and Engineering

Zheng-Hua Ye, professor in the department of plant biology who developed a trait that reduces lignin content in alfalfa without reducing the cultivar’s strength with funding from the Department of Energy, was named the 2020 Inventor of the Year

Alexander Bucksch, assistant professor of computational plant biology, received the Fred C. Davidson Early Career Scholar Award

Dorothy R. Carter, assistant professor of industrial-organizational psychology, received the Charles B. Knapp Early Career Scholar Award

And Peter Van Zandt Lane, assistant professor of music composition in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, received the Michael F. Adams Early Career Scholar Award