Tags: Earth
The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences is excited to announce the 2026 Franklin College Alumni Awards! These awards honor a group of distinguished alumni who exemplify the characteristics of the Franklin Spark that unite us across the arts and sciences. These traits are undeniably ambitious, exceptionally curious, wildly creative, incredibly innovative, and tomorrow’s leaders. When the arts and sciences come together, innovative multi-…
On June 26, a fireball streaked through the daytime sky. After catching eyes across the Southeast US, the extraterrestrial fragments crash landed in Atlanta.
Multiple fragments tore through a residential roof in Henry County, later turned over to a UGA planetary geologist and impact expert to determine their origin and classification:
And it turns out these new chunks are actually quite old.
“This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere…
The story of how the steel industry in the United States was caught flat-footed by foreign competition as well as a nascent environmental movement embraced by their labor union represents a fascinating turn in the historical arc of American industrial development. It was also sufficiently captivating to power Louise Milone to get her doctorate degree after age 75.
“The real history of the 1950s is how US steel and the other major companies…
Neil Lyall, associate dean for physical and mathematical sciences and professor of mathematics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is one of four accomplished University of Georgia faculty members named as Fellows of the 2025-2026 Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program:
The program, which launched in 2007, seeks to prepare campus leaders for executive careers in higher education. Fellows are selected through a…
Oxford American features UGA art faculty member Marni Shindelman, whose work investigates the impacts of ambient LED lighting on our views of the night sky – and our perceptions of the light sources.
Associate Professor in the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia where she heads the photography area, Shindelman brings a keen eye to the effects of a networked world, connecting the invisible to actual sites, anchoring the…
A new research study led by UGA anthropology alumna Katherine Napora (Ph.D. '21) reveals how dramatic shifts in climate can have long-lasting effects on even the toughest, most iconic trees – and offers a glimpse into the powerful forces that shape our natural world.
Researchers from Florida Atlantic University and the UGA Museum of Natural History studied bald cypress trees from a buried subfossil deposit at the mouth of the Altamaha River near…
UGA goes Beyond the Arch to feature alumna Beth Shapiro (BS ’99, MS ’99), MacArthur Fellow, author, and chief science officer of the “de-extinction” startup Colossal Biosciences, where she works the front lines of possibility and ethics in utilizing gene editing to re-introduce an extinct wolf species:
For her part, Shapiro addressed these questions in her 2015 book How to Clone a Mammoth, a sort of how-to manual that also…
One of the elevated dangers of global climate change is discoveries outside the boundaries of expected changes – whether temperature, sea level and other predicted results of higher atmospheric carbon concentrations. UGA scientists now have added plants to net contributors to rising global temperatures.
The scientists detail the findings in a study published in the Nature journal Climate and Atmospheric Science documenting the impact of…
The swath of US coastline that extends from Cape Hatteras, NC to Cape Canaveral, FLA, known as the South Atlantic Bight, is a broad but relatively shallow section of the Atlantic that reaches to the gulf stream. Situated near its coastal midpoint, the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography houses a research hub into the bight that allows marine scientists and oceanographers near-constant access to this dynamic biological…
The University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the College of Engineering in partnership with the Rowen Foundation has launched a two-year Hydrometeorology and Land Cover Change Observational Study (HALOS) that will begin this summer.
HALOS will generate critical baseline data to monitor how large-scale development impacts local weather, geography and watershed…
UGA goes Beyond the Arch to the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography to catch up with graduate student Grace Mann, whose childhood ocean adventures drive her marine science research:
She spent her first 16 years exploring the reefs, sailing the waves, and walking the shores of the Turks and Caicos Islands. These experiences instilled in Mann a love for the ocean and, eventually, a calling to protect it.
Her English-born dad and Texas-bred…
A career of investigation and groundbreaking discovery in maize genetics has helped Kelly Dawe, Distinguished Research Professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, reshape how researchers understand—and improve—a vital crop. Through the rich genetic diversity of corn, Dawe has unlocked pathways to long-sought breakthroughs with cross-scale impacts in genetics, cell biology and genome evolution. Our colleagues in Research…
Vesta, one of the largest bodies in the asteroid belt, has long occupied human imagination – from Roman mythology to 20th century science fiction.
The protoplanet's Divalia Fossae, massive surface troughs comparable in size to the Grand Canyon, encircle two-thirds of Vesta's equator. Rather than erosion, these deep basins were the result of large meteorite impacts that changed the asteroid’s gravitational field which, in turn, affected…
Scientists from Colorado State University, Georgia Southern, the University of Georgia and the University of Texas at Austin developed a model to provide an early warning and opportunity to protect an ecosystem that serves as the first line of defense against coastal flooding. By using satellite observations, the model identified vulnerable marshes along Georgia’s coast by locating declining root production – a harbinger of marsh failure.
The…
Alex Music, a 2025 master's degree alumna in geography in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is a recipient of an AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship. The 10-week summer program places science, engineering, and mathematics students at media organizations nationwide to use their academic training to research, write, and report on pressing issues, sharpening their abilities to communicate complex scientific issues to the…
Spring 2025 Capstones included computing, history, Statistics, and criminal justice
A wide array of capstone opportunities across Franklin College – ranging from data-driven projects in statistics and data science to history students curating a Special Collections exhibition – produced outstanding work and provided many opportunities for student learning and career readiness this spring.
As part of the Academic Innovation Initiative of the…
Inseok Song, associate professor of astronomy in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of physics and astronomy, has revived a grant from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Song's JWST program, "JWST Mid-IR Observations of Warm Debris Disks around Nearby M-dwarfs", will observe 19 M-type stars, the lowest mass stars that are the most common in the Universe.
"M-dwarf stars are the most common type of…
A distinguished scholar and prominent researcher with more than two decades of experience in the field of artificial intelligence, Prashant Doshi has been appointed the inaugural executive director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IAI) at the University of Georgia following a national search:
The Institute for Artificial Intelligence is an interdepartmental research and instructional unit jointly supported by the Office of the…
One of the 15 barrier islands on the Georgia coast, Sapelo Island in McIntosh County is the home of the last known Gullah community as well as the University of Georgia Marine Institute.
In partnership with Sapelo resident Maurice Bailey, researchers from the University of Georgia Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land, Sea and Agriculture are testing nature-based solutions — like restoring oyster reefs. The hope is that oyster reefs can shield…
The complex and dynamic microbial communities and microbially-mediated processes that occur in the ocean help stabilize the earth's climate.
Far below the ocean's surface, along the seafloor, hydrothermal vents release heat and chemicals into the deep water that fuel vibrant, breathtaking ecosystems. The microbial communities associated with hydrothermal vents are hot spots of biological production in the deep sea. In shallow waters and…
The NOAA Office of Education has selected two University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences students, Margaret Needham and Adam "Grayson" Smith as Ernest F. Hollings undergraduate scholars for the class of 2025. Needham and Smith join 130 winners out of 820 applicants this year.
The Hollings Scholarship Program provides successful undergraduate applicants with awards that include academic assistance (up to $9,500 per year…
Funded by a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at the University of Georgia and Texas A&M are using improved detection and treatment methods to understand Chagas disease – a serious, often overlooked illness affecting both dogs and humans.
Rick Tarleton, UGA Athletic Association Distinguished Professor, will co-lead a new project focused on strategies to detect, treat and monitor treatment outcomes in…
An emerging international leader in volcanology, Franklin College faculty member Mattia Pistone serves as a principal investigator on research projects underway in Sicily, Ecuador, the Arctic poles, and the Italian Alps.
For Pistone, assistant professor of petrology and volcanology in the Department of Geology, drilling into the Earth to understand the past and future of its processes is a mission he takes seriously – and passion he shares…
Extending the reach of its talented faculty and curriculum, Franklin College is introducing three new online master's programs: Applied Data Science, Environmental Geology, and Art Education. Programs start August 2025 and will provide career advancement opportunities for busy, working individuals seeking to earn a master’s online in two years. These three new online master’s degrees join Franklin’s successful Online Master of Music Education…
The UGA Office of Transfer Services announced the winners of the 2025 Transfer Advocate Awards. Each year students nominate advisors, staff, and faculty who have made an incredible impact on the transfer student experience at UGA. The 2025 first place winner is Ryan Smith of the Franklin College Office of Student Academic Services.
The winners were chosen based on student nominations that detailed how these individuals went above and beyond to…