Next week, UGA will host the world premiere of a new musical work by professor emeritus Roger Vogel:
"Things Fall Apart," a song cycle by University of Georgia's Roger C. Vogel based on excerpts from Chinua Achebe's novel of the same name, will premiere Sept. 6 at 8 p.m. in the Ramsey Concert Hall of the UGA Performing Arts Center. The concert is free and open to the public.
The University of Georgia department of physics and astronomy in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences will host its monthly observatory open house Sept. 7 from 9-10:30 p.m. on the fourth floor of the physics building.
The distant planets of the solar system, Uranus and Neptune, will be visible if the sky is clear. The Andromeda Galaxy, which is 2 million light years away and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, will be readily visible through the observatory’s telescopes.
Visitors can view the objects through the 24-inch telescope in the dome on top of the building as well as through several smaller telescopes on the roof. Faculty and students from the department will be on hand to point out the various celestial objects and to answer questions.
Public domain image of the Andromeda Galaxy created by NASA.
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 annually and recognizes lifetime achievements and distinguished work in synthetic inorganic chemistry with a particular emphasis on creativity and imagination.
'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 mathematical problems and combat computer viruses in data-heavy environments. The two will also conduct workshops and lead mentoring activities to develop student interest and skills in these fields.
“The success of professors Krashen and Perdisci in winning prestigious NSF CAREER Awards underscores the very high quality faculty UGA has hired in recent years,” said Charles Kutal, director of the Office of STEM Education at UGA who serves as associate dean and chemistry professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “It also demonstrates the commitment of these individuals not only to undertake cutting-edge research, but also to engage in instructional and outreach activities that help to prepare the next generation of scientists, engineers and mathematicians.”
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 not arriving at, the point where the promise and the payoffs may be beginning to merge:
University of Georgia researchers have employed specially designed nanomaterials to develop a new, label-free DNA detection method that promises to reduce the cost and complexity of common genetic tests.
Their discovery may be used to help clinicians diagnose certain cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. It can detect the presence of viruses in tissue. And it can be used for a variety of forensic applications, such as paternity testing or crime scene DNA analysis.
Led by 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, and Ralph Tripp, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine, the researchers proved the efficacy of their new DNA analysis method by experimenting with short strands of RNA called microRNA. While their approach may be used on all forms of DNA and RNA, researchers focused on microRNA because it holds great promise as a target for future therapeutics.
It's another banner year for UGA students as a record number have been awarded Fulbright scholarships. And counting double-majors, it was practically a clean sweep for the Franklin College:
For the past 66 years, the Fulbright Program has provided students, scholars and professionals an opportunity to pursue advanced research projects, graduate study and teaching assistantships worldwide. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright Program is the largest U.S. international exchange program. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards approximately 1,700 grants annually to U.S. undergraduate and graduate students.
"The record number of UGA Fulbright grants awarded again this year demonstrates the continued commitment of our students, faculty and staff to international education," said Maria de Rocher, campus Fulbright U.S. Student Program adviser and program coordinator in the Honors Program. "It has been a great pleasure to get to know these students, each representing such different academic interests and backgrounds, but all of whom are clearly devoted to serving as cultural ambassadors and deepening our understanding of the wider world."
Arnold, who graduated from UGA with bachelor's degrees in international affairs and Japanese, will work on a documentary about environmental activism among Buddhist nuns in South Korea. While at UGA, Arnold worked closely with professors Hyangsoon Yi and Han Park to develop a research plan and in-country contacts. After the Fulbright, he hopes to pursue a career in documentary filmmaking.
West, who graduated from UGA with a bachelor's degree in English, will research art and architectural history at the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest, Hungary. Her focus will be national identity among contemporary Hungarian artists, which she hopes to document through the creation of an accessible online resource. West has accumulated experience writing about art, first as a communications intern at the Georgia Museum of Art and most recently as a freelance writer in New York City.
Comparative studies disciplines and languages dominate the offers for Fulbright awards, as they should. So many of our students are truly outward-looking, internationally focused people, and this will serve them very well in life, not to mention any job market you want to imagine. This is another of the real and actual advantages of a liberal arts education: the well-rounded person will always be in demand - these are our leaders, our visionaries, our thinkers, our influential people, our dignitaries, our prominent citizens. These are our students.
One additional point on this post; when I was trying to verify a portion of Dr. Farmer's original quote about a mural in an old biology lecture hall on campus, a colleague in the University Architect's office sent me this:
Biology was in Meigs at the turn of the century after the first “Science Building” (now where Terrell Hall is) burned 1903/04. At that time Meigs Hall was called Leconte Hall. The new Leconte Hall was built with New Deal funds in 1938, but was called (again) the Science Building. I [think] the name Leconte moved from Meigs to Leconte in the 1950s, probably when the sciences moved to South Campus and the history department moved in.
This is very much 'inside baseball' about the UGA campus, but also hints at the very rich history all around us. Not only that but this brief aside reminds us that the campus has long been in a state of change and flux, responding to new instructional needs and opportunities. We think of all the new buildings around campus - from the MLC to the East campus arts complex, and new dorms - but moves and construction on campus have probably been more the norm than anything over the last 150 years.
That said, the North campus quad still looks very similar to this photo from around 1900.
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 of lignocellulosic biomass such as switchgrass, populous, sorghum and miscanthus for production of biofuels is the resistant nature of the biomass itself. The problem lies in the conversion or degradation of complex biomass to make products of interest.
New research from scientists at the University of Georgia who are members of Department of Energy's BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) provides a genetic method for manipulating a group of organisms, called Caldicellulosiruptor, that have the ability to use biomass directly at temperatures over 160 Fahrenheit. The ability to modify the microbes to make the needed fuel products is a required first step for modern industrial fermentations. This allows researchers to combine the natural ability to consume renewable plant materials with an altered improved ability to make what is needed.
"The most formidable barrier to the use of biomass, such as switchgrass, to biofuels is the ability to break down the biomass. Plants have evolved over millions of years to resist degradation by microbes, and that is exactly what we want to do," said Janet Westpheling, a microbial geneticist in the department of genetics in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and a scientist of BESC. "The ability to manipulate the genetics of organisms that can use biomass directly is essential to making them useful. We began with a group of bacteria that can use biomass for growth and will use genetics to teach them to make ethanol."
A collaboration between the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences division of biological sciences, Lamar Dodd School of Art and the department of marine sciences, a new “Seascape” mural in the Biological Sciences building, will be formally unveiled on Friday August 31 at 4 p.m. in the third floor hall of biological sciences.
Joe Brent, a DMA student, in the Hodgson School of Music, traveled to San Francisco last week to sing the national anthem at AT&T park before the Giants-Nationals game.
A talented tenor who has sung principal roles in many UGA opera productions, Brent is a member of the first-ever graduating class of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, New York. Founded by world-renowned entertainer Tony Bennett, and his wife Susan Benedetto, to honor the late Sinatra. The school offers many opportunites for its students, even after graduation. Bennett's Exploring the Arts program, which helps provide funding for the school and scholarships for the students, connected Brent with the San Francisco Giants.
"The event went really well," Brent reported. "40,000 people were screaming and the SF Giants staff expressed sincere gratitude.""They brought me to the Tony Bennett suite, where I stayed with members of the Sinatra family/estate and it was all surreal. Then, if it couldn't be any more amazing, Willie Mays walked in and signed baseballs for all of us in the suite. I left San Francisco with an open invitation to return to AT&T Park anytime as a guest of the SF Giants!"
Now there's your amazing student.
