Category: Alumni

Ten current or former UGA students have been awarded graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation. Six of the ten are from the Franklin College:

[The fellowships will allow students] to conduct research while working on their master's and doctoral degrees. The awards provide students with up to $126,000 during a five-year period to conduct research in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Eleven students and alumni also received honorable mentions.

This year's Fellows include:

Cameron Brown, of Savannah, GA

Kao-Wie Chua, of Johnson City, TN

Caitlin Elizabeth Conn, of Port Royal, Penn.

Chelsea Cunard, of Warren, R.I.

Caitlin Ishibashi, of Camarillo, Calif.

Uma Jyothi Nagendra, of New Orleans, La.

and from the Odum School of Ecology:

Daniel Joseph Becker, of West Chester, Penn.

Doug Booher, of Dalton, Ga.

Robert Daniel Harris, of the Drumkeerin area in County Leitrim, Ireland,

Carly Phillips, of Columbus, Ohio

Congratulations to these students and alums. Read more at the link about the work these fellowships will support.

The University is celebrating outstanding students, staff, faculty and alumni at events throughout this week. Among these events is the Faculty Recognition Banquet, which was held on Monday evening:

Sponsored by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, the event will recognize the winners of this year's awards for teaching excellence, including the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorships and the Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching as well as faculty and staff who will be acknowledged as outstanding advisers and mentors.

The Franklin College was well represented in each award area, with five faculty members garnering the distinction of Outstanding Teaching Faculty:

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Yuri Milner jointly established a foundation to reward excellence in life sciences, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation. And a Franklin alumna is among the 11 inaugural winners of the $3 million award:

The newly created Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation on Wednesday announces the first 11 winners of an award intended to inject excitement into the sometimes lonely, underfunded quests to understand and combat cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and other maladies.

Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook; Brin, who co-founded Google; and Milner, a venture capitalist, have dipped into their fortunes to sponsor awards worth $3m each, compared with a Nobel prize's monetary value of $1.1m.

Cori Bargmann (BS '81) is the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor at Rockefeller University and head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior who studies how animals detect and respond to a sensory stimulus. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience. She received her degree in biochemistry at UGA and as an undergraduate, studied with former Franklin College Dean Wyatt Anderson:

"I had to sit down on the floor for a while. I thought it must be a practical joke or a Nigerian scam," said Cornelia Bargmann, 51, who has pioneered work on neural circuits and behaviour at the Rockefeller University. "The scale of this is so outsized I think it will have a huge impact on the life sciences." Asked how she would spend the money she hesitated. "It's so far outside my normal planning I don't know. Get the car fixed?"

Congratulations, Cori. Your alma mater is proud and we know you'll find some great ways to put the money to use.

Hugh Hodgson School of Music graduate Richard Gnann (BMus, MMEd) is the author of Dreaming of the Redcoat Band, the true story of one child’s Bulldog dream — to march in Sanford Stadium with the University of Georgia Redcoat Band. The story personifies the Redcoat Marching Band legacy and experience for the hundreds of Franklin and UGA students who have comprised its ranks over the years. The book inspires children to follow their dreams and inspires parents to encourage childhood dreams. It is also an opportunity to support the band, as all profits generated from the book will be donated to the Redcoat Band.  

Gnann will be doing a guest storytime at Avid Books in Athens on Prince Avenue this Saturday, Dec. 8 at 1 pm.

Image: sample of artwork from the book (by Art Roche, Lamar Dodd School of Art BFA graduate).

There's a really good rule of thumb in the Franklin College - one of many, to be sure - that says our graduates are who we are. At the Inaugural Alumni Awards dinner at the Classic Center last night (Oct. 18), the Franklin College honored six of our alumni, whose success speaks to the breadth of our mission as a college of arts and sciences:

“These outstanding graduates have distinguished themselves in their careers and highlight the many contributions that Franklin College alumni make to improving health, enriching quality of life and even answering fundamental questions, such as whether we’re alone in the universe,” said Franklin College Dean Alan T. Dorsey.

The winners of the 2012 Franklin College Outstanding Alumni Award are:

Jennifer Holloway of Athens, a mezzo-soprano vocalist, earned her bachelor’s degree in music from UGA in 2000 and a specialist degree in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music. She has performed significant leading roles in major opera houses in North America, South America and Europe, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Maggio Musicale in Florence, Italy.  Her voice has been described by The Classical Review as “liquid, lambent and lit from within.”

Roger Hunter of San Jose, Calif., is a project manager for NASA’s Kepler Project. Hunter, who earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1978, is leading NASA’s mission to determine the frequency of planets that have the potential to harbor life. The mission began in 2009 and already has led to the identification of hundreds of Earth-size planet candidates.

James N. Ihle of Memphis, Tenn., is the Edward F. Barry Endowed Chair in Biochemistry at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Ihle, who earned his doctorate from the department of biochemistry and molecular biology in 1971, is a highly cited researcher who has published more than 350 scientific articles, including a landmark paper in Nature that revealed a key step in the process the body uses to rid itself of faulty or unneeded cells.

Melissa Kirkpatrick of Hidden Hills, Calif., is a noted fabric designer. Kirkpatrick, who received her bachelor’s degree in printmaking in 1989, launched her MK Collection line of fabrics, rugs and wall coverings in 2011. Her work has been featured in publications such as Elle Decoration, Interior Design and House Beautiful. The magazine Garden and Gun noted that she “subjects each design to an uncommon level of thought and scrutiny.”

Judith Mank of London, England, is a professor who holds the chair of evolutionary and comparative biology at University College London. Mank, who earned her doctorate in genetics in 2006, is working to understand how evolutionary pressures differ between females and males and how this ultimately results in the differing observable characteristics that so many animals exhibit based on sex.

Christopher Todd Wells of Playa Del Rey, Calif., is a filmographer known for his visual effects work. Wells, who earned his bachelor’s degree in theatre and film studies in 2010, has created visual effects for more than 50 major movies, in many cases serving as visual effects supervisor. Among his credits are “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Toy Story 3,” “Avatar,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “300” and “X-Men: The Last Stand.”

Franklin College alumnus Ed Moritz (B.S., Geology, '82) returns to campus next week to give a talk about his work on oil and gas projects in Afghanistan. His talk, "Afghanistan's Mineral Endowment: Example Projects from the Hydrocarbon and Mining Sectors," will be held at 3:30 pm on Thursday, October 11 in room 200A of the Geography and Geology Building. The talk is free and the public is invited to attend.

Mr. Moritz joined Gustavson Associates in September 1989 and became President of the firm in August 2007. Since that time he has been involved in and personally conducted numerous oil, gas, and mineral fair market appraisals, reserve and economic studies. These studies involved properties in all major producing regions in the U.S. and includes properties in the Anadarko, Permian and East Texas Basins of the Mid-Continent region as well as properties located in the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. Recent emphasis has been placed on international properties and on oil and gas provinces in the Rocky Mountains.  He has worked on numerous unconventional oil and gas projects that include basin-centered gas accumulations and coalbed methane.

The City of Washington, Ga., will unveil a new monument featuring a scultpture by UGA instructor Kinzey Branham that honors American patriots who fought in the Revolutionary War - including African Americans and Native Americans - on Aug. 11 at 10 a.m. on the square in downtown Washington.

Branham created a three-piece granite and bronze monument with the bust of American spy James Armistead Lafayette as its centerpiece. The monument also will tell the story of Wilkes County slave Austin Dabney and honor the estimated 5,000 to 8,000 African-American soldiers who served in the Revolutionary War.

“My family has been in Wilkes County since the late 1700s, so being involved with this monument on the square in Washington has added meaning for me,” said Branham, who found the image of Lafayette to use for the bust. “Using that picture, I was actually able to put a face on all those black slaves who served, and it was his face.”

Wilkes County was the site of the Battle of Kettle Creek on Feb. 14, 1779, when militia forces led by Col. Andrew Pickens of South Carolina attacked an expedition of British Loyalists. While not a major event in the overall war, the victory served to boost patriot morale and prolong the British effort to gain control of the Georgia backcountry, becoming one of the most important revolutionary war battles to be fought in Georgia.

While accurate numbers for percentages and participation of all populations in the colonial armies are elusive, African Americans and Native Americans were regularly conscripted to serve in the patriot army and militias. Dabney, who fought against the British, was the only African American to be granted land by the state of Georgia in recognition of his bravery and service. Lafayette was the first African-American spy, who joined the army under Gen. Marquis de Lafayette and posed as a runaway slave to supply information on British troop movement and arms.

University of Georgia alumni artists present the 4th Annual UGA Alumni Art Showcase with an opening reception from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, August 3 at the Winsor Gallery in McDonough Georgia.

The show will be on display through the month of August. The show featuring metro Atlanta artists is sponsored by the UGA Alumni Association Metro Atlanta Chapter, the UGA Lamar Dodd School of Art, the McDonough Arts Council, and the Winsor Gallery.

Alumni from the Lamar Dodd School of Art are a very prolific group who support the school as they keep their ties to UGA near and dear, and this is especially true of those based in and around Atlanta. Thanks to the UGA Alumni Association for their support for this event, which is free and open to the public.

Students and alumni from the Franklin College are doing great things all over the world, here are examples from just two of those we heard about today:

Jason Carter, a BFA student in painting and drawing at the Lamar Dodd School of Art has spent the summer working as a studio assistant for Berlin-based artist Michael Markwick. A selection of Jason's most recent works on paper will be on display July 22-23 at Studio M3 in Berlin, Germany. For more information about Carter, his work and this international show, visit this site.

And

It's the medium of the internet age, but still one we don't take enough advantage of: blogging.

A funny argument to make on a blog, sure; but here I'm thinking specifically of a weblog as a kind of informational travelogue for students when they study abroad. Not only can you share photos and written descriptions of your experiences with family, friends and colleagues; a blog helps us all piece together and understand the story of what it is you are doing. Case in point: this blog by UGA students participating in a study abroad program in Tanzania.

Another, written by a recent alumna who is serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco.

Check them out. And if you are some place fun and exciting, start blogging. Oh, and send me a link.