Tags: Earth

A team led by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Georgia provides thousands of researchers around the world with access to the Eukaryotic Pathogen Genomics Database (EuPathDB.org), a collection of resources for analyzing large-scale datasets associated with microbial pathogens. These include the parasites responsible for malaria, sleeping sickness, and toxoplasmosis; the fungi responsible for thrush, aspergillosis and…
The spread of agriculture from the Near East and Fertile Crescent through Turkey and into Europe around 10,000 years ago was a complex and multifaceted process, one that archaeologists are trying to understand using one of the latest scientific techniques: stable isotope analysis.  A new paper published in the journal PLOS One by Suzanne Pilaar Birch, assistant professor of geography and anthropology at the University of Georgia, and…
From art students who need paint, brushes and paper to create their works, to chemistry students needing chemicals and test tubes to complete experiments in labs, starting in spring 2020 UGA students will not have to pay additional laboratory and supplementary course material fees for those supplies: “All students at UGA should have the same access to the classes required for their degrees,” said UGA President Jere W.…
When Hurricane Dorian roared up the East Coast during the first week of September, the places where people live and work in several states were under threat. The first line of protection against storm damage was made up of coastal vegetated ecosystems, including nearly 300,000 acres of salt marshes in Georgia. The salt marsh, seagrass, and mangrove ecosystems that bore the brunt of pounding waves are not, however, immune from damage.…
Biochemist and Franklin College alumnus Marion Bradford spent most of his career developing new ways to use a common item found in kitchens and nurseries around the world—cornstarch. He is also the author of one of the most cited research papers in history: He was part of a team recognized in 2003 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the American Chemical Society for creating an organic compound from corn sugar used in…
For plant biology major and Goldwater Scholar Sarah Saddoris, research has played a primary role in defining her goal to improve the production of the global food supply: As my primary focus, research has played a defining role in my studies. I have spent my fair share of Friday nights in the lab finishing experiments at 2 in the morning and many game days in Davison Life Sciences (benchwork waits for no man!). I have…
Fulbright grants, SEC Leadership Development and excellence in research, visual art and career experiences for graduate students highlight Franklin College awards and achievements in September. Congratulations all: Get Installed: Installation at Valdosta State University by Jon Swindler, associate professor of art and associate director of Lamar Dodd School of Art, and Mike McFalls, professor of art at Columbus State University…
A few of the top stories featuring the scholarship and expertise of Franklin College faculty members during September: Tiny Albino lizards are the first gene-edited, mutant reptiles, research by associate professor of genetics Doug Menke reported in Newsweek, Courthouse News Service, News Atlas, Science Codex, Earth.com, EcoWatch, Sci-News, The Scientist Magazine   Evacuating for a hurricane…
The University of Georgia Bulldogs and the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish will meet in Athens on Saturday, September 21 for the second leg in the home-and-home series between two college football powers. Off the field, the two universities share a vision for scholarly collaboration also in its second year: the Berlin Seminar in Transnational European Studies. A joint initiative of the Franklin College and the Willson Center…
Sarah Deer, 2014 MacArthur Fellow, Chief Justice for the Prairie Island Indian Community Court of Appeals, and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies professor at the University of Kansas, is the featured speaker for the fifth annual American Indian Returnings (AIR) lecture September 19, 4:30 p.m. in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium at the Georgia Museum of Art. Th event is supported by the Eidson Foundation Fund, the…
In the world of climate change studies, there are extensive global and regional models but fewer site-specific models. Lindsey Cochran, a postdoctoral research associate with the University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology, is working with digital data from the Georgia coast to recreate models that simulate site-specific changes from now until 2100. “Archaeologists care a lot more about the context in which an artifact was found than the…
Goldwater Scholar, chemistry major and Chicago native Kaitlin Luedecke is on track to become a chemistry professor and hopes to inspire a new generation of scientists both in the classroom and in the laboratory: University highlights, achievements, awards and scholarships: Spring break 2019 I traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Colonia, Uruguay, with some other UGA Foundation Fellows, and I had the time of my life! I attended some…
Our colleagues in the UGA College of Education share a story about the new ways students study science and also, appropriately enough, about football: As it turns out, laws of physics that apply to gases are a difficult topic—students in the university’s General Chemistry class often find themselves fumbling the topic. But in the past year, students in the College of Education and the Franklin College of Arts and…
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…
Bioinformatics doctoral candidate Annie Kwon, working with UGA professor Natarajan Kannan and a team of researchers, is first author on a recent paper revealing that a class of enzymes previously thought to be useless is prevalent across all domains of life in fact serves an important purpose in cell communications: The study, published in Science Signaling, evolved from Kwon’s research trip to the University of…
The history department hosted eight undergraduate students during July for the History Fellows Summer Institute. The program is an opportunity to share the University of Georgia with college students from underrepresented groups attending schools around the region and to build better relationships with their institutions. The focus of the History Fellows Summer Institute is to create broad new inroads for underrepresented students from…
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…
It's the first day at UGA for many, including 5,500 incoming freshman in the Class of 2023. Welcome to all and good luck on a day that can be exhilarating, intimidating and yet joyous all the same. The journey metaphor is appropriate, as students begin a profound and lasting experience, determined as much by how as where the journey takes them. In that spirit, we offer encouragement for embracing healthy habits toward…
A big week on campus, as fall semester begins and so many new students begin a great journey. Physics and astronomy major and Goldwater Scholar Mackenzie Joy shares a few insights about her path to a successful future: I chose to attend UGA because … The first time I came to UGA was in February 2016 when I was interviewing for the Foundation Fellowship. I had never really considered UGA my top choice of where…
After a successful first round of grants, seven new faculty teams - and six that include faculty from the Franklin College - have been awarded funds through a second round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants: When the Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants were first awarded in 2017, 12 faculty teams received funds totaling some $1.37 million. The work enabled by those seed grants supported subsequent applications…
Merryl Alber, professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of marine sciences, will receive the 2019 Margaret A. Davidson Award for Stewardship from the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF), a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the understanding and stewardship of estuarine and coastal ecosystems worldwide.  The Davidson Award recognizes an individual who demonstrates extraordinary leadership,…
Two graduate students from the University of Georgia have been selected as finalists for the 2020 John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, sponsored by the National Sea Grant College Program. The finalists will spend one year in Washington, D.C. in marine policy-related positions in legislative and executive branches of the federal government. The students will join 69 other finalists in the 2020 class representing 27 of the 34 Sea…
The Periodic Table of Chemical Elements is one of the most significant achievements in science, a common language for science capturing the essence not only of chemistry, but also of physics, medicine, earth sciences and biology. 1869 is considered as the year of discovery of the Periodic System, and Dmitri Mendeleev was a major discoverer. 2019 will be the 150th anniversary of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements and has…