Tags: Human Nature

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UGA welcomes 2024 Ramsey Scholars, Foundation Fellows

UGA announced 20 new Foundation Fellows and seven new Ramsey Scholars today, the highest academic scholarships and grants the university awards. While the combined lists reflect a healthy geographic variety, with Georgia's finest high school scholars well-represented, both are also predominately Franklin College majors, which is precisely as it should be at a top-tier major research university. The great diversity of…

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Focus on the Faculty: Lisa Fusillo

Professor of dance in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Lisa Fusillo loves seeing students thrive and excel, and witnessing their successes as artists and as individuals, is her greatest joy: My favorite courses are dance history, ballet technique, pointe and First-Year Odyssey seminars. These topics encompass everything that I love to teach! My teaching is greatly informed by my professional experience and training in classical ballet…

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Saunt named finalist for National Book Award

***Update***  Saunt named a finalist on Oct. 6. Final announcement 11/18 Claudio Saunt’s book, Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory, has been named to the 2020 longlist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction. “It’s a great honor to be one of the 10 authors selected for the National Book Award longlist. The category is nonfiction, not just history, and it is really…

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Dawgs in Space

UPDATE: Launch re-scheduled for 9:16 EST Oct. 2 – A Franklin College-student-led effort to get the University of Georgia’s first research satellite into space is ready for launch. The small satellite SPOC, short for Spectral Ocean Color, is due for takeoff at 9:38 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1. That's tonight: The satellite will be on board an Antares rocket set to launch from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia…

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Noted and Quoted, September 2020

Elections and hurricanes led the media coverage featuring Franklin faculty expertise during September. A sample of the many recent stories in print, on the air and screen: Mathematicians open a new front on an ancient number problem – mathematics professor Paul Pollack quoted by Quanta Magazine, Wired Flooding, blackouts in the wake of Laura – Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor …

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Dodd October exhibitions

The Lamar Dodd School of Art presents four new exhibitions at the Dodd Galleries that will run through October 9. In Tony Cokes: Five Weeks, the Dodd galleries present a new video by the seminal conceptual and video artist every week, spanning his decades-long career. Disarticulate Ground, a solo show by Dodd graduate candidate, Annie Simpson, deconstructs historic Georgia roadside markers through photography, video, and…

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Kudos, September 2020

Congratulations to our many colleagues on recent accolades and achievements, inspiring our work with their excellence in teaching, research and outreach: Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt, Richard B. Russell Professor in American History, was named to the nonfiction Longlist for the 2020 National Book Award Three University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and…

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UGA part of $52M NIH study on early detection of schizophrenia in young people

Researchers from the University of Georgia are part of an international investigation led by the Yale Department of Psychiatry to better understand the cause and effect of schizophrenia in some high-risk adolescents and young adults. The research, funded by a $52 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, will fund the development of the Psychosis Risk Outcomes Network, or ProNET. The consortium will be based at 27 institutions, where…

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The Invisible Backpack We Carry

The UGA Graduate School magazine features one of our newest colleagues in the Franklin College Office of Student Academic Services and 2019 TEDxUGA Student Idea Showcase presenter Kestrina Shrestha, who took the TED stage with a black backpack that she had carried into the Annapurna Himalayas during an ambitious climb in December of 2017: Taking the stage at UGA’s Fine Arts Theater, Shrestha plunked down a large backpack. She…

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Religion & Common Good Seminar: Disrupting Racism

The department of religion presents the next Religion & Common Good seminar on Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. with Jerry Taylor, director of the Center for Race Studies and Spiritual Action at Abilene Christian University. Dr. Taylor's presentation is “The Influence of White Supremacy on the Church in the South.” Founding Director of the Carl Spain Center, [Taylor] is Associate Professor of Bible, Missions and Ministry at Abilene…

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Amazing student Alec Murphy

From teaching paddleboarding on Lake Herrick to leading trips through the Outdoor Recreation Center, Franklin double-major Alec Murphy (biology/psychology, Spanish minor) is committed to improving the lives of people around him. A future physician, he hopes to incorporate positive psychology research with medicine to make others happier and healthier: I volunteered at St. Mary’s Hospital in radiology and neurology departments and the wound…

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The color of food deserts: dollar store locations track real estate redlining practices

New research from the University of Georgia shows significant association between proximity to dollar stores and patterns of racial segregation in major U.S. metropolitan areas. Though the patterns vary across retail chains, the research shows racial classification to be a key predictor of store location. The new research by Jerry Shannon, associate professor of geography in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was published August 27…

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Two professors elected to NAI

The National Academy of Inventors has named two Franklin College faculty members to the 2020 class of NAI Senior Members. Richard Meagher, Distinguished Research Professor of Genetics, and Ronald Orlando, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and chemistry, are the first UGA researchers to receive the senior membership distinction. They join a new class of 38 prolific inventors representing 24 research universities along…

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German/Engineering program receives new support from The Halle Foundation

The University of Georgia Dual Degree Program in Engineering and German, one of the university’s signature initiatives combining Humanities and STEM disciplines, has been awarded a new grant from the Atlanta-based The Halle Foundation—named after the late Claus M. Halle, a German native who had a brilliant career with the Coca-Cola company—to support international engagement and recruitment initiatives. The grant of $280,000 will support…

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Noted and Quoted, August 2020

From debunking COVID myths to explaining its real impacts on work, play and even dining, Franklin faculty have stepped up to supply expertise across numerous fields on issues throughout the media. A sample from this summer: When schools closed in 1916, some students never returned – associate professor of history Stephen Mihm at Yahoo! News Remote work is here to stay – associate professor of psychology Kristen Shockley in…

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Kudos, August 2020

Congratulations to the many Franklin College faculty, students, and alumni on awards, grants, fellowships and other recognition of scholarly activity we learned about over the summer. A sampling of recent accolades for our terrific colleagues: Lisa A. Fusillo, professor of dance in the Franklin College, has been selected by The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi—the nation’s oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor…

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UGA welcomes the Class of 2024

The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences joins the university in welcoming the Class of 2024. More than 5,600 first-year undergraduate students who make up the UGA Class of 2024 are beginning their studies at an unprecedented time in the institution’s history. Yet like the students who came before them, they bring an extraordinary record of academic success and boundless aspiration to the birthplace of public higher education. UGA is…

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New Research Reveals Effect of Global Warming on Greenland Ice Melt, Consequences for Sea Level Rise

New analysis of almost 30 years’ worth of scientific data on the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet predicts global sea level rise of at least 10 centimetres by the end of the 21st Century, per global warming trends. The estimates, which scientists warn are “conservative” given the powerful effects of changes in weather systems and possible ways of accelerating ice loss, are broadly consistent with recent predictions reported by…

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100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment

On August 18, 1920, the United States ratified the #19thAmendment guaranteeing all American women the right to vote. We celebrate the suffragists who bravely fought the fight for equality, as well as the many women leading our country today. Our most important right and duty as citizens depends on full participation. This historic centennial offers an unparalleled opportunity to commemorate a milestone of democracy and to explore its…

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Alumnus awarded prestigious Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship

UGA Franklin alumnus Chip Chambers will attend medical school as a recipient of a Marcus L. Urann Fellowship by The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi—the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines: Chambers is one of only six recipients nationwide to receive the prestigious $20,000 fellowship, named for the society’s founder. As a Urann Fellow, Chambers, of Watkinsville, …

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The toll of video fatigue

Something most everyone can relate to in our extended, present moment – Zoom Fatigue – has entered the lexicon to capture the emotional exhaustion, anxiousness, and worry that may accompany the high volume of virtual meetings. Kristen Shockley, associate professor of psychology, unpacks the HR impacts and how professionals can help in a new article: Understanding the physical and psychological factors behind video…

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$23M NSF grant accelerates glycomaterials research

Glycomaterials are produced by every living organism. They contain chains of sugars, called glycans, that have critical roles in health and disease. Of the four building blocks of life — glycans, proteins, lipids and nucleic acids — glycans are the most complex and most challenging to understand. The tool set for understanding these glycans, so crucial to life itself, lags far behind those available for understanding DNA, RNA and proteins.…

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Physical basis of language comprehension

With an assist from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, researchers are getting a better handle on where and how the brain assembles individual words into full sentences when a person listens to a story being read. In a new study, an international team of researchers, including a UGA cognitive scientist, report that a computational model based on the concept of "phrase structure” most closely matches functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)…

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2020 40 Under 40: Ginny Barton Bowen (BS '04)

The University of Georgia Alumni Association unveiled its 40 Under 40 Class of 2020. This annual recognition program celebrates the personal, professional and philanthropic achievements of successful UGA graduates under the age of 40. This year’s honorees work in a variety of industries and include 12 UGA alumni with Franklin College degrees. Today we feature Ginny Barton Bowen (BS '04), Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Centers for Disease…

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John Lewis (1940-2020)

One of the greatest Americans of his or any other time, U.S. Congressman John Lewis passed away at the age of 80. Lewis represented Georgia's 5th congressional district since 1987 and has positively impacted American life in countless ways. We are indebted for his selfless acts of courage, perseverance and generosity in service of fulfilling our nation's highest ideals. Lewis presented the 2011 Mary Frances Early Lecture at UGA.…
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