Kudos, Nov-Dec 2020

An  extraordinary array of honors and accomplishments among our students, alumni and colleagues were announced over recent weeks. Congratulations to each and all – your excellence inspires us as it propels the campus community to ever-greater heights:

The Curtis Institute of Music has appointed Vince Ford as senior vice president of digital strategy and innovation, executive director of the Performance Innovation Lab, and, in a faculty role, as the Field-McFadden Chair in Digital Studies. Ford holds aBachelor of Music from the University of Georgia, where he studied horn with Jean Martin-Williams and Richard Deane

The University of Georgia’s Zakiyya Ellington, a senior from Allen, Texas, was one of 154 students selected internationally for the Schwarzman Scholarship, a graduate fellowship designed to prepare the next generation of leaders with an understanding of China’s role in global trends. UGA's sixth Schwarzman Scholar, Ellington is an Honors student, Foundation Fellow and Stamps Scholar, currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Arabic with a minor in Spanish in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences in addition to a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in business analytics in the Terry College of Business

The UGA Alumni Association unveiled the 2021 Bulldog 100, a list of the 100 fastest-growing businesses owned or operated by UGA alumni, with 26 Franklin College alumni honorees representing 24 businesses

Four University of Georgia faculty members, three from the Franklin College, have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science(AAAS), an honor bestowed by their peers for “scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.”

UGA moved up eight spaces to rank sixth in the nation for the number of students who study abroad, according to the latest Open Doors ranking from the Institute of International Education. UGA is the top-ranked institution in the Southeastern Conference and the only institution in the state of Georgia among the top 10

UGA student Phaidra Buchanan joined recipients from 64 countries around the world this weekend as a 2021 Rhodes Scholar, bringing the total number of UGA Rhodes Scholars to 25. Ms. Buchanan, an Honors student in the Mary Frances Early College of Education with a minor in German, works to make a difference in the Athens community

The UGA Teaching Academy launched the 10th cohort of early-career fellows program in August. Like previous years, the program brings together promising instructional faculty with experienced mentors across campus to promote excellence in the classroom

A team of University of Georgia faculty, staff and administrators led by Gregory Robinson, UGA Foundation Professor of Chemistry, are in the early stages of a comprehensive effort to increase faculty diversity and the use of inclusive teaching practices in STEM fields

A new $11.7 million project by UGA researchers, led by Jeff Bennetzen, Norman and Doris Giles Professor in Genetics and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, will explore the largely unknown relationship between plants and soil microbes

UGA geneticist Jessica Kissinger has been elected a 2020 American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Fellow

Associate professor of art Mark Abbe, aspecialist in Greek and Roman antiquity, has been named as a resident research scholar at the J. Paul Getty Museum for his work in ancient polychromy

Image: Vince Ford, courtesy of the Curtis Institute of Music