Tags: Earth
Leigh Spann (BS '01) served as the morning meteorologist for WFLA, Tampa Bay’s NBC affiliate, for the last 17 years. Over that time, she and her community weathered sunny days and severe storms like Hurricane Milton, which packed 100+ MPH winds and a possible storm surge of more than 15 feet:
A storm like Milton could wipe out large portions of a metro area that numbers 3 million residents.
“I try to keep that thought in my head when I’m talking…
On February 1, 2025, UGA faculty members Patricia Medeiros and Renato Castelao took part in a National Geographic-Lindblad Expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula as part of their Visiting Scientist Program. Medeiros and Castelao, both professors in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of marine sciences, boarded the National Geographic Endurance in Ushuaia, Argentina, bound for the White Continent, along with…
The 2025 Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Award winners highlight leaders in their industries, creating new ways of conducting business, collaborating on innovations, maintaining their curious nature and making an impact in their communities and around the world. This January we introduced the Franklin Spark - characteristics that unite us across the arts and sciences. These traits are undeniably ambitious, exceptionally curious…
Two University of Georgia faculty members, including Franklin College professor Andrew Herod, have been named Regents’ Professors in recognition of their innovative and pace-setting research. The honor is the highest professorial recognition bestowed by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
The university’s 2025 Regents’ Professors are Andrew Herod, Distinguished Research Professor in the department of geography in the Franklin…
From individual achievement and career success to community impact, Franklin College faculty, students, staff and alumni were recognized for excellence. Tapping into their Franklin spark, these individuals demonstrated their ambition, curiosity, creativity, and innovative spirit. Congratulations to:
Community
UGA boosts Georgia’s economy by $8.4 billion – UGA Today
The Athens Wellbeing Project transforms data into change – R&B
UGA tops…
The benefits of vacations, global dust and the Georgia Museum of Natural History headline the top February features of work and engagement from our faculty colleagues and outstanding alumni.
Did we mention vacation? Those stories plus few more:
The best thing you can do for your well-being on vacation, according to science — and the worst – research led by Ryan Grant, doctoral student in the department of psychology, reported by the New York…
On February 8, Mackenzie Britt, (BS Mathematics `20, MS Business Analytics `21), spoke to mathematics students at the UGA Department of Mathematics’ Industrial Mathematics Day.
Britt, currently a senior business analyst at Capgemini in Austin, Texas, specializes in business-to-business commerce. Prior to Capgemini, she worked at Ad Victoriam Solutions and was a part of the Elevate Program. At Ad Victoriam Solutions, she was promoted three…
Leading a record number of inductees for the institution, four Franklin College faculty are among eight University of Georgia researchers selected by the National Academy of Inventors as 2025 NAI Senior Members, surpassing the record number of five inductees set last year. UGA now has 24 Senior Members overall:
NAI Senior Members are distinguished faculty, scientists and administrators who have demonstrated success in patents, licensing…
Academic advisors help guide students at every point on their academic journey. The sustained depth and professionalism of the Franklin College Office of Student Academic Services has resulted in a near sweep of the 2024-2025 University of Georgia Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advising Awards.
Alexandria Brock, Tashia Caughran, and Greg Kline of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Office of Student Academic Services received…
With 33 study abroad programs across five continents and 57 countries, the Franklin College is a significant driver of international UGA student experiential opportunities. As the home of many of UGA's longest-standing programs, our faculty and advisors remind students at every turn to dial-up their campus learning experience by integrating one or more of these well-established programs into their university. That's one reason why we are so…
The UGA Arts Collaborative helps support faculty and graduate students across the Franklin College and the entire campus to advance interdisciplinary projects through engagement with the arts. UGA Research Communications spotlights the Arts Collaborative as a catalyst for creative research, the program launched a new, multi-year partnership with the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts:
Three UGA projects, all supported by funding from…
Pesticide-resistant crops create prosperous opportunities but spark concern about health for both humans and the environment.
Agricultural biotechnology has created pesticide-resistant crops that are central to many Argentinian farmers. Franklin College faculty member Pablo Lapegna, associate professor of Sociology and Latin American and Caribbean Studies, explores the way these farmers view the pesticides sprayed on their crops and…
Across the New Year, Franklin faculty remained constantly engaged in research, scholarship and media outreach around the globe.
A few of the many stories that framed the calendar change over the previous month:
2024 likely the warmest year on record — why it matters to you – Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences Marshall Shepherd writing at Forbes
The Semester at Skidaway study program shines –…
Start the year off with excellent news from the UGA campus:
English faculty member Chigozie Obioma honored by New Africa Magazine in its list of the most influential Africans of 2024
The Lamar Dodd School of Art Dodd expands its public art instruction with the UGA Community Art School, featuring ten-week courses for adults seeking to learn new skills, hone techniques, and expand their artistic expression
UGA student wins Radiolab naming…
University of Georgia faculty member Paul Schroeder is among the 2025 Fellows of the Mineralogy Society of America.
Schroeder, professor of geology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is an expert in Clay Mineralogy and a Registered Professional Geologist. Research by his group focuses on understanding clay minerals and the detailed crystal-chemical characterization of their structure, particularly as they are found associated in the…
Look to the sky – and ask Bulldog nation for support – and one of Earth's quasi-moons gets a cool new name, thanks to UGA student Clay Chilcutt.
In May 2024, the science podcast Radiolab and the International Astronomical Union joined forces to launch a contest that invited listeners to help name one of Earth’s quasi-moons. Close to 3,000 people from more than 90 countries submitted entries.
UGA faculty member Hina Shaikh…
North Atlantic right whales, hunted to extinction by the end of the 19th century, return to the Georgia Bight for calving. Marine scientists search the large ocean sector stretching from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to Cape Canaveral, Florida to document the number of new calves, which remains below average. Franklin faculty at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography are using a new technology to help track conservation and rebuilding of the…
Though they might not be seen, they can be named – voting is open through Dec. 31.
Asteroids orbiting the sun in a similar path to Earth's, quasi-moons escort our planet on its journey a few centuries at a time. The science podcast Radiolab and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) — the organization that assigns official names to quasi-moons and their surface features — announced a contest earlier this year to name the…
Creative ingenuity at the faculty level and across Franklin units provides the spark for an innovative new partnership – and the NSF support to expand the collaboration:
Designer and artist Moon Jung Jang met mathematician David Gay through the UGA Arts Collaborative, a research incubator that encourages collaboration across the arts and sciences, and between the university and the Athens community. Since 2017, the two professors have engaged in…
From comment and opinion to groundbreaking work on reviving heritage crops and fighting disease, Franklin faculty expertise informs and leads by a continual presence in media around the globe. A sampling of the numerous stories over the previous few weeks:
We knew lead pipes were bad 140 years ago – Stephen Mihm, professor of history and associate dean, writing in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
UGA researcher links broken corn chromosomes to cancer…
From rankings to renovations of beloved campus buildings to welcoming award-winning new faculty colleagues, a rich cohort of accolades and good news ushered in late fall on campus.
A sampling of the terrific stories about our colleagues and alumni:
UGA dedicates first phase of Science and Ag Hill modernization
Nathan Lewis, a professor of pediatrics and bioengineering at the University of California San Diego, joined UGA as the new Georgia…
The evolutionary lineage leading to Amborella diverged from all other flowering plant lineages approximately 150 million years ago. In 2013, an international research team co-led by UGA Plant Biology faculty member Jim Leebens-Mack and collaborators announced the newly sequenced genome of the Amborella trichopoda plant became the foundation for comparative analyses of genes tracing back to the origin of flowering plants and earlier.…
Long before there was a Peach State, indigenous communities saw the promise of peaches – originally introduced to North America by Spanish explorers. A new study published in Nature Communications shows that Indigenous political and social networks and land use practices played key roles in the peach’s adoption and dispersal across the continent:
The researchers analyzed historical documents that mentioned peaches, such as the travel writings of…
The Franklin College hosted the first-ever faculty research mixer on Nov. 14 at Normal Bar in Athens, bringing together faculty across the university who share research affinities to build multidisciplinary research and teaching teams.
The evening featured seven brief research presentations and a social mixer of faculty interested in collaborating on areas related to "Health, Gender, & Equity."
"There was an energy about collaboration…
Mines in Southeast Georgia can conjure many images — swamps, pits, pines, machinery. A band of artists may not be at the top of this list. Nevertheless, University of Georgia Professor of Art Michael Marshall and 14 students were invited to don hardhats and visit the Chemours Mission Mine in the Altamaha River Basin this past September to contemplate the setting through different eyes and tell a greater story of this region. …