Tags: Earth

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UGA projects spotlight strategies to integrate the arts into team research

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…

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The pesky business of pesticides

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…

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Noted and Quoted, January 2025

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 –…

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Kudos, January 2025

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…

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UGA's Schroeder elected MSA Fellow

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…

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UGA student wins Radiolab contest to name one of Earth's quasi-moons

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…

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New tools for finding the right whales

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…

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Two UGA students finalists in Radiolab contest to name one of Earth's quasi-moons

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…

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Art + Math make a GROVI connection

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…

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Noted and Quoted, November – December 2024

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…

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Kudos, November - December 2024

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…

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UGA plant biologist leads new advances in biotech

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.…

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New research connects peach reach to indigenous communities

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…

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Franklin hosts inaugural faculty research mixer

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…

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Art in the Field: UGA students explore mining and ecology in Georgia

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.  …

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UGA's Dorsey selected to receive Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship

University of Georgia faculty member Alan T. Dorsey is one of eight 2024 Simons Foundation Pivot Fellows. The program supports researchers who have a strong track record of success and achievement in their current field, as well as a deep interest, curiosity and drive to make contributions to a new discipline. Professor of physics in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Dorsey serves as associate chief information officer for…

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Students journey across America through UGA's Interdisciplinary Field Program

From Sapelo Island, Georgia to Yosemite National Park in California, UGA’s Interdisciplinary Field Program mixes geology, ecology, and anthropology into a 60-day road trip across America: They travel through 20 states and to 23 national parks and monuments—including the Grand Canyon, Muir Woods, Mount Saint Helens, and Yellowstone National Park—and log nearly 12,000 miles on the road, and then tack on another 100 miles or so hiking on foot.…

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Ancestry of Sanford Stadium hedges goes into the lab

In a terrific story combining genome analysis, a love for the hedges and UGA history— a Franklin College faculty member and his students found that the same family of hedges have stood tall for nearly 100 years: Plant biology professor and hedges researcher James Leebens-Mack decided to sequence the genome of the Sanford Stadium hedges. His goal was to combine service-learning with his own areas of research, comparative genome biology and the…

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Alumnus named UTK Chancellor’s Professor

Derek Alderman, Franklin College alumnus and Board of Advisors member, earned his MA (`93) and PhD (`98) in Geography and was recently named Chancellor’s Professor at the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville. This distinction honors the highest standards of academic excellence at UT and is awarded based on outstanding scholarly achievement and contributions to their fields. Alderman, a professor of human geography in the Department of…

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Kudos, October 2024

Faculty, students and alumni of the Franklin College shine all year long and October is no exception. A sample of the featured good work and achievements during the eighth month of the calendar of Romulus: UGA celebrates 40 years of AI  at Oct. 28 conference Alchemy, co-founded by Raj Shingadia (AB ’01, Philosophy, BS ’03, Psychology), designs and installs breathtaking water worlds through Southeast Aquariums & MRC and set design for…

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Sensing a new understanding of the world

Since 1985, the UGA Center for Geospatial Research has been dedicated to advancing remote sensing, mapping, and geospatial research. Along with the technological changes over that nearly 40 year history, the center's technical capacities have grown to reflect the advanced capabilities of today in environmental remote sensing and GeoAI, photogrammetry, small satellite development, and graduate and undergraduate training. In service of promoting…

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National Transfer Student Week

Transfer students currently make up nearly 18% of the UGA student body, arriving from 800 different colleges, 134 Georgia counties, 44 states, and 60 different countries around the world. Campus grows more diverse in every way thanks to so many different students following their academic dream to UGA. As a part of our commemorations for National Transfer Student Week (Oct. 21-25), Franklin College communications writer intern Mianna Lotshaw, who…

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GenAI Competition 2.0

Franklin College faculty announce the return of the Generative AI Competition for its second year. GenAI Competition 2.0 will be facilitated by Lindsey Harding, director of the UGA Writing Intensive Program, and Aaron Meskin, professor and head of the department of philosophy, and sponsored by the Office of Instruction. Students are encouraged to submit projects between now and March 14, 2025. Guidelines: Use generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT,…

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PBS series Weathered features UGA's Shepherd

A new PBS production WEATHERED: EARTH’S EXTREMES, a six-part docu-series debuts in October on YouTube, and PBS stations (check local listings). In 30-minute episodes, audiences follow host and science communicator Maiya May as she delves into the impacts of climate change and meets with the people inside communities on the frontline of extreme weather events. Throughout the series, Maiya May introduces audiences to scientists and community…

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Holland named Shellebarger professor in Geology

Steven Holland, paleobiologist and expert in stratigraphy, has been selected as the Shellebarger Professor in Geology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. The professorship is supported by a gift from Sydney (BSHE ’79) and Jeff (BS ’78, MS ’80) Shellebarger, former president of Chevron’s North American exploration and production operations. Jeff Shellebarger currently serves on the executive committee of the UGA Geology Alumni Board.…
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