Tags: Human Nature
Lots of great coverage of the Franklin College in Columns this week, including a nice front page story on new faculty member Lawrence Sweet:
A clinical neuropsychologist whose research explores the relationship between physical changes in the brain and conditions as diverse as dementia, nicotine dependence and obesity has joined UGA as the inaugural Gary R. Sperduto Professor of Psychology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
Lawrence…
Judy I-Chia Wu, a recent doctoral graduate from the department of chemistry, was one of six young chemists recently honored by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
Wu, who earned her doctorate in 2011, was awarded the IUPAC Prize for her Ph.D. thesis work titled “Quantification of Virtual Chemical Properties: Strain, Hyperconjugation, Conjugation, and Aromaticity.” She was chosen from more than 40 applicants from 19…
Big congratulations to professor Greg Robinson:
Gregory H. Robinson, Franklin Professor and Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia, has been honored with a national award from the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.
Robinson will be presented with the F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry at the national ACS meeting in April. The award is given to one person…
'Data-heavy environments' characterizes our world perhaps like no other three-word combination can. Today it was announced that two Franklin College faculty members have received NSF Career Awards to support their work on the efficient management of large quantities of data:
University of Georgia researchers Daniel Krashen and Roberto Perdisci recently received National Science Foundation CAREER Awards to create nimble ways to analyze…
The physicist Richard Feynman gave his famous lecture, There's Always Room at the Bottom, in 1959, considered by many as the conceptual birth of nanotechnology. And ever since, nanotechnology has represented a very promising avenue for all manner of scientific research and application, from drug delivery to hydrogen fuel cell storage. As such it has attracted the attention of some of the world's premier researchers and we're now approaching, if…
We mention this periodically and should be gladdened at every occasion. University researchers and scientists from all over campus, from engineering to genetics, have been working on various aspects of creating renewable fuels for decades. Now, one group of UGA researchers has moved closer to producing biofuels from biomass, in this case by focusing on microbes in the fermentation process.
The single most important barrier to the use…
The Franklin College’s Department of Microbiology recently hired two senior faculty members, both of whom bring an impressive record of research and teaching to UGA.
Jorge C. Escalante-Semerena comes to UGA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his work focuses on a number of areas that impact human health. Among his interests are the use of vitamin B12 derivatives for cancer therapy and the modification of bacterial proteins to…
One idea that we've had in the Dean's office is to try to find ways to introduce our faculty members and what they do. Video can be a great tool for that. Here's another in an ongoing series, this time featuring psychology professor and department head, Keith Campbell.
A monograph by professor of romance languages and associate dean in the Franklin College Noel Fallows has been selected for the prestigious La corónica International Book Award:
La corónica is a refereed journal published every spring and fall by the Modern Language Association's Division on Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. It publishes groundbreaking articles written in English or Spanish on topics in medieval…
Overlapping constituencies have often been the bane of sustainable development practices. Even having the tools that allow different groups to share information and work together has long been a deficiency; and without them, marshalling agreement among competing interests has been that much more difficult and rare. Now, a new web tool from UGA researchers might begin to change that dynamic:
a team of University of Georgia researchers has…
Faculty appointments that facilitate collaborations across the UGA campus continue to pay off:
with the help of grants from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy, University of Georgia professors Chung-Jui Tsai and Andrew Paterson are conducting fundamental research to better understand the plants that may one day produce the fuel that powers our vehicles and homes.
Tsai, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and professor in the…
The Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development and technology transfer initiatives between the 1940's and the late 1970's that increased agricultural production around the world. This campaign disseminated U.S. agricultural methods, such as the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, hybrid seeds and the like to farmers throughout the developing world of the mid-twentieth century. Up to now, most scholars have credited the…
In widely reported findings, UGA climatologists and NASA independently confirm that during several days this month, nearly the entire ice sheet of Greenland experienced some degree of melting on its surface.
On average, about half of the surface of Greenland's ice sheet naturally melts in the summer. The new data—from three different satellites—show that an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface thawed at some point in mid-July.
"This is…
In a series of studies, UGA researchers have developed a single-step method that can detect viruses, bacteria and chemical contaminants:
"The results are unambiguous and quickly give you a high degree of specificity," said senior author Yiping Zhao, professor of physics in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and director of the university's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.
Zhao and his co-authors—doctoral students Jing Chen…
Students and faculty from the Franklin College and other units staffed UGA's bioenergy exhibit at the second annual USA Science and Engineering Festival, held this spring in Washington, D.C.
During the event, [associate professor microbiology Anna]Karls and five graduate students from the microbiology department in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences showed visitors how microbes convert garbage and waste into energy capable of powering…
Scientists at the University of Georgia, the University of California, San Diego, UCLA, California State Polytechnic University and the Australia National University have collaborated on a study, published in the journal Nature, suggesting new information on how planets are formed.
The study:
began with a curious and unexpected finding: Within three years, the cloud of dust circling a young star in the Scorpius-Centaurus stellar nursery simply…
Social media tools have the perception of keeping us all connected, but we probably shouldn't dismiss the extent to which they are also self-serving, so says a new study:
New research from the University of Georgia finds what people may really "like" about social networking are themselves.
"Despite the name ‘social networks,' much user activity on networking sites is self-focused," said Brittany Gentile, a UGA doctoral candidate who looked at…
How far removed are we from connecting a successful life with the ability to enjoy it?
It can be a painful question, one that seems like an assault on capitalism. But you would think that capitalism could withstand a vigorous debate on its ultimate purpose. As this essay In Praise of Leisure points out, it's a subject the great economist John Maynard Keynes was willing to contemplate even in 1930.
Imagine a world in which most people worked…
The UGA Office of the Vice President for Research has released the Spring 2012issue of Research magazine with several articles detailing the work of Franklin faculty, including:
Harry and Jane Willson Professor in the Humanities Bill Kretzschmar, on his work in language variations and complex systems.
Associate professor of psychology Adam Goodie on the nature of pathological gambling.
Responding to climate change as a research…
In the public realm at least, biofuels have been on a bit of a roller coaster ride over the last 12-15 years, as their promise becomes mired in politics and regional agriculture issues. But in research labs across the country and at UGA, scientists have held steady.
A newly published genetic sequence and map of foxtail millet, a close relative of switchgrass and an important food crop in Asia, is giving scientists working to increase biofuel…
Energy-related research, thankfully, continues to filter into numerous basic-science disciplines. Because it is going to take everything we know and more to make a decisive turn toward renewable fuels:
Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, two University of Georgia researchers will pursue innovative approaches to more efficient methods of energy transmission and storage that involve maneuvering microscopic particles. Tina Salguero and Gary…
Franklin Professor and Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry Gregory H. Robinson is among the awardees of the 2012 Humboldt Research Award.
The award, which is presented to up to 100 scientists worldwide annually, is granted in recognition of a researcher's entire achievements to date and is presented to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are…