Tags: Earth

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UGA’s Small Satellite Research Lab showcases student-powered space innovation

To mark a major milestone of the fifth anniversary of launching UGA’s first satellite into orbit — and the lab’s 10th anniversary fast approaching in 2026 – the University of Georgia’s Small Satellite Research Lab welcomed UGA President Jere W. Morehead; Marisa Pagnattaro, vice president for instruction and senior vice provost for academic planning; and Anna Stenport, dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, for a special visit on Oct…

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UGA doctoral student wins atmospheric sciences award

University of Georgia doctoral candidate Ashley Cornish received the 27th annual Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences from the Desert Research Institute. An award ceremony commemorating her achievement was held at the DRI campus in Reno on Oct. 7, 2025. The Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences is an annual competition recognizing the published works of women pursuing a…

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Three Franklin faculty members named 2025-2026 Aspire Fellows

The University of Georgia has named 11 faculty members – including three from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences – to the 2025-2026 Aspire Fellows cohort. The Fellows represent seven UGA schools and colleges as well as the Center for Teaching and Learning. Established in 2017, the Aspire Fellows program is designed for mid-career and senior faculty on any career track to complete a signature project that extends their professional impact…

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UGA, Duke collaborate with insurers to rethink climate resilience

Funded by a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, a new partnership between the University of Georgia, Duke University and leaders from the insurance and climate data industries will launch the Center for Innovation in Risk, Catastrophes, and Decisions (CIRCAD),  a new initiative focused on insurance innovation and large-scale climate risk mitigation research. CIRCAD will convene researchers, insurers,…

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A place at the table

UGA researchers from across campus are deeply engaged in food systems and agricultural sustainability issues around town and around the globe. UGA Research Communications offers an updated look at the social connections that provide the foundation for a wide variety of efforts to support a healthy ecosystem. The largest remaining Saltwater Geechee community in the nation has lived in Sapelo Island’s Hog Hammock community for centuries. Today,…

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Franklin College launches Franklin CREATE! startup initiative

The Franklin College has partnered with The Marcus Foundation to launch Franklin CREATE!, a new initiative designed to build students’ entrepreneurial confidence and to help them create successful startup companies. Funded by a $3 million grant from The Marcus Foundation, Franklin CREATE! will establish a robust three-phase model that allows arts and sciences students to gain hands-on experience, mentorship and access to the resources needed to…

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Ten years in the Top 20

The University of Georgia has placed in the top 20 among the nation’s best public universities for the 10th consecutive year, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 rankings. UGA and Georgia Tech remain the only two Georgia institutions in the top 20, making Georgia and California the only two states with multiple universities ranked in that tier. Among private and public universities, UGA placed No. 46 in the nation: The USNWR…

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NSF project to peer into deep space, observe rapid planet formation

University of Georgia faculty member Cassandra Hall is a co-principal investigator on a new project supported by $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to learn more about planetary formation by studying a star system over 500 light-years away. The grant funds a three-year collaborative research project between principal investigator New Mexico State University Astronomy Associate Professor Wladimir Lyra, co-principal investigator…

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International expedition tracks East Greenland Coastal Current

Nick Foukal, assistant professor in the UGA Department of Marine Sciences is co-leader of an international research project focused on oceanography and current measurements in the East Greenland Coastal Current. The team’s observations aboard the Research Vessel Thorunn Thordardottir from August 29 through September 12 aim to help determine how the East Greenland Coastal Current may influence the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning…

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Original Space Dawg achieving lift-off at NASA

As founding ringleader of the UGA Small Satellite Research Lab, Franklin alumnus Caleb Adams (BS ’18, MS ’20) displayed an early knack for tackling tech and software conundrums, as well as putting teams together. Today, those skills, intuition and creativity are hard at work in helping lead efforts in Silicon Valley at NASA’s Ames Research Center to develop automated spacecraft to manage traffic in Earth’s low orbit and perhaps one day…

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Noted and Quoted, summer 2025

Throughout the summer quiet and into the busy fall, Franklin faculty expertise and research findings continues to resonate broadly across the global media. A few of the many recent stores we've been following: How it’s not about the place — it’s about the people – research lead by Daisi Brand, graduate student in the department of psychology, reported by Health Medicine Network   New research illustrates how live events foster social…

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New Faculty Tour lets professors get to know Georgia

28 University of Georgia faculty members toured the state in early August on the 2025 New Faculty Tour. The immersive five-day trip introduces new faculty to UGA’s statewide mission and helps them connect their academic expertise to the real-world needs of Georgia communities.  The tour provided a thorough introduction to UGA’s vital role in the state as participants traveled through 45 counties and 15 cities: Tour stops included the UGA…

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Jack Hartpence: Supplying Water, Serving Humanity 

In this seven-part series, we’re excited to highlight our 2025 Franklin alumni award winners—showcasing their accomplishments and providing some insights as we seek this year’s nominations. The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Awards honor a group of outstanding alumni across various categories. These individuals exemplify The Franklin Spark, the characteristics that unite the arts and sciences: ambition, curiosity, creativity,…

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Welcome, Class of 2029!

It's that time – crowded buses and sidewalks, nervous energy and general wonderment of students back on campus for the fall of 2025. Welcome to the Class of 2029 – the next in a distinguished line of high-achieving, ambitious, creative freshmen entering UGA and the Franklin College with big dreams: This year, every measure of the incoming class’s academic profile increased. These first-year students arrive with an average of 11 Advanced…

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Three Franklin professors named as UGA Faculty Innovation Fellows

The University of Georgia Innovation Fellows Program, a university-wide initiative to provide the UGA community with improved, peer-delivered access to information, training, and assistance related to innovation and entrepreneurship, announced its first cohort of Faculty Innovation Fellows. The program recruited faculty members from select colleges to act as peer-liaisons and ambassadors between researchers and innovation programs…

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Chemistry doctoral student awarded prestigious DOE fellowship

University of Georgia Ph.D. student Troy Smith is among thirty students selected for the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) program, which emphasizes the use of computing and mathematics. The DOE CSGF ranks at the top of the most competitive fellowship programs offered by the NSF and DOD. The 2025-2026 incoming fellows will attend 21 U.S. universities as they learn to apply high-performance computing (HPC)…

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Alumni Awards are open!

The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences is excited to announce the 2026 Franklin College Alumni Awards! These awards honor a group of distinguished alumni who exemplify the characteristics of the Franklin Spark that unite us across the arts and sciences. These traits are undeniably ambitious, exceptionally curious, wildly creative, incredibly innovative, and tomorrow’s leaders. When the arts and sciences come together, innovative multi-…

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Geology steps up to identify Georgia meteor

On June 26, a fireball streaked through the daytime sky. After catching eyes across the Southeast US, the extraterrestrial fragments crash landed in Atlanta. Multiple fragments tore through a residential roof in Henry County, later turned over to a UGA planetary geologist and impact expert to determine their origin and classification: And it turns out these new chunks are actually quite old. “This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere…

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Thirst for history always ripe for discovery

The story of how the steel industry in the United States was caught flat-footed by foreign competition as well as a nascent environmental movement embraced by their labor union represents a fascinating turn in the historical arc of American industrial development. It was also sufficiently captivating to power Louise Milone to get her doctorate degree after age 75. “The real history of the 1950s is how US steel and the other major companies…

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Lyall among new SEC leadership fellows

Neil Lyall, associate dean for physical and mathematical sciences and professor of mathematics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is one of four accomplished University of Georgia faculty members named as Fellows of the 2025-2026 Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program: The program, which launched in 2007, seeks to prepare campus leaders for executive careers in higher education. Fellows are selected through a…

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Art professor works to help 'Restore the Night Sky'

Oxford American features UGA art faculty member Marni Shindelman, whose work investigates the impacts of ambient LED lighting on our views of the night sky – and our perceptions of the light sources. Associate Professor in the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia where she heads the photography area, Shindelman brings a keen eye to the effects of a networked world, connecting the invisible to actual sites, anchoring the…

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Ancient bald cypress trees archive climate secrets, future clues

A new research study led by UGA anthropology alumna Katherine Napora (Ph.D. '21) reveals how dramatic shifts in climate can have long-lasting effects on even the toughest, most iconic trees – and offers a glimpse into the powerful forces that shape our natural world. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University and the UGA Museum of Natural History studied bald cypress trees from a buried subfossil deposit at the mouth of the Altamaha River near…

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Geology, anthropology guided alumna toward science career

UGA goes Beyond the Arch to feature alumna Beth Shapiro (BS ’99, MS ’99), MacArthur Fellow, author, and chief science officer of the “de-extinction” startup Colossal Biosciences, where she works the front lines of possibility and ethics in utilizing gene editing to re-introduce an extinct wolf species:   For her part, Shapiro addressed these questions in her 2015 book How to Clone a Mammoth, a sort of how-to manual that also…

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Higher CO2 levels leading plants to contribute to warmer temperatures

One of the elevated dangers of global climate change is discoveries outside the boundaries of expected changes – whether temperature, sea level and other predicted results of higher atmospheric carbon concentrations. UGA scientists now have added plants to net contributors to rising global temperatures. The scientists detail the findings in a study published in the Nature journal Climate and Atmospheric Science documenting the impact of…

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The South Atlantic Bight: a living laboratory

The swath of US coastline that extends from Cape Hatteras, NC to Cape Canaveral, FLA, known as the South Atlantic Bight, is a broad but relatively shallow section of the Atlantic that reaches to the gulf stream. Situated near its coastal midpoint, the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography houses a research hub into the bight that allows marine scientists and oceanographers near-constant access to this dynamic biological…
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