Tags: Human Nature

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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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Gender & Society named top scholarly journal

According to the most recent impact factor ratings, Gender & Society, co-edited by UGA faculty member Patricia Richards, is ranked #1 among Women’s and Gender Studies journals and — also #1 among sociology journals.   The ranking comes from the Journal Citations Report by Clarivate. The Impact Factor Report provides a measure of how much a given academic journal is cited — the higher the number the better. Gender & Society is 1 of…

Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

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Alumnus James Dunn Q & A

UGA alumnus and ESPN executive James Dunn visited the UGA campus in October and spent time with students in Communications Studies, his home department in the Franklin College. Hometown: From Atlanta, Georgia Currently: Work in Bristol, CT but lives in Farmington Degree from UGA: A.B. Speech Communications, '98 Title: VP of Production for ESPN Why did you attend UGA: When I was in high school, a recruiter spoke to my class and…

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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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Greg Lavender Returns to UGA

Greg Lavender, B.S. Computer Science ‘83, returned to the University of Georgia for the first time in nearly three decades. The last time he was on campus the 90’s were in full swing with the internet still in infancy and flip phones as the height of technology. Now, many years later, Lavender is the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Intel and AI is abundantly present in his day-to-day activities.  As CTO, Lavender is…

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School of Computing student interview with Intel CTO Greg Lavender

While on campus in November, UGA School of Computing students had the opportunity to network with distinguished alumnus Greg Lavender (B.S. Computer Science ‘83). Lavender’s Dr. Jeffrey W. Smith Undergraduate Scholarship recipient Hannah Le conducted a one-on-one interview with Lavender. Q: What’s your favorite memory from your time at the University of Georgia?A: Oh, that’s a good question! I actually never went to a single football game while…

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Book edited by UGA professor receives 2024 Josephine Roberts Award

A book project by University of Georgia faculty member Paola De Santo and her co-translator/editor Caterina Mongiat Farina of DePaul University has won the Josephine Roberts Award for a Scholarly Edition, granted by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender.  The award honors the publication of "Letters by Isabella Andreini" (Iter Press in 2023), a volume in the acclaimed series, The Other Voice in Early Modern…

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Math-letes in Action: Students across Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina compete for UGA’s Annual High School Math Tournament’s Title

On Oct. 26, UGA’s campus buzzed with excitement as nearly 400 students and math coaches gathered for the university’s annual High School Math Tournament. First launched over two decades ago by Professor Emeritus Ted Shifrin and Professor Valery Alexeev, the event has become a high point for budding mathematicians from Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. With help from over 60 faculty, staff and student volunteers, the event ran smoothly,…

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MFA Film program ranked in Top 50

The UGA Master of Fine Arts in Film, Television and Digital Media was named to the list of Top 50 Film Schools across the country by The Wrap, a leading publication in the media and entertainment industry. This is the first time the UGA MFA Film program, launched in 2020 as a joint program between the Franklin College and the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, has been named to a national list and it debuted at No. 43: “It is…

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Fish oil supplements bring a variety of health benefits

A new UGA study suggests the far-reaching benefits omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids may extend to lowering the risks of developing a variety of cancers: The study relied on data from a United Kingdom-based study of over 250,000 people who were followed for more than a decade. Of those participants, almost 30,000 developed some form of cancer during the study period. Some earlier research drew connections between levels of fatty acids and risk of…

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UGA researchers unveil the development of a novel quantum computing algorithm

A new quantum algorithm developed by University of Georgia statisticians addresses one of the most complex challenges in single-cell analysis, signaling significant impact in both the fields of computational biology and quantum computing. While traditional approaches struggle to handle the immense amount of data generated from measuring both RNA and protein expression in individual cells, the new quantum algorithm enables analysis of data…

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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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Phase 1 of Science Hill renovations

A central artery of campus and home to multiple Franklin College units for decades is in the process of significant renovation – and celebration: The University of Georgia held a dedication ceremony on Oct. 30 to celebrate the completion of the first phase of renovations to modernize research and instruction facilities and infrastructure on UGA’s Science and Ag Hill. This area of campus, located just south of Sanford Stadium, includes buildings…

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Protecting India’s tigers and wolves through art, collaboration and conservation

Integrative conservation starts with a paintbrush and glides its way between India’s tiger reserves and its indigenous communities.  Amit Kaushik, a PhD student in the Integrative Conservation and anthropology, is working on tiger conservation in India. He presented his work earlier this month at an Arts Collaborative Conversation at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, "The Gond Art and the Tiger: A Dialogue on Conservation, Displacement, and…

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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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Noted and Quoted, October 2024

With high hurricane season – and related disinformation circulating in the public – Franklin College faculty members stepped up and into the media spotlight. Special thanks to Associate Dean Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geography, and Pam Knox, Director of the UGA Weather Network and Agricultural Climatologist in the Atmospheric Sciences Program, for their tireless commitment…

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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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New study details open-source vision-language model for biomedical applications

The potential of applications using Artificial Intelligence is quickly venturing into the medical field, with implications for patients and practitioners. A new study published in Nature Medicine presents an open-source multimodal vision-language foundation model, BiomedGPT, for various biomedical applications. AI techniques have also demonstrated potential in solving a wide range of biomedical tasks, including radiology interpretation…

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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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Election 2024: four million disenfranchised due to felony convictions in the US

A new report published by the Sentencing Project documents the four million people who are disenfranchised due to felony convictions in the United States. Locked Out 2024 reports these Americans will be unable to vote in the upcoming 2024 election due to felony disenfranchisement laws: Laws in 48 U.S. states ban people with felony convictions from voting. In 2024, an estimated 4 million Americans, representing 1.7% of the voting-age population,…
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