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Advisor helps students find resources to ‘assist them at being successful’ CAMPUS CLOSEUP
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Spring’s last Faculty Series recital highlights Russian composers Vol. 43, No. 29
March 21, 2016
www.columns.uga.edu
jhataway@uga.edu
Peter Frey
Josh Putnam, a lecturer in the School of Public and International Affairs, said that small class sizes enable him to incorporate more discussion and simulations. “The smaller the class size is, the better the relationship you can develop with students and the more things you can do as a result,” he said.
Personal instruction Small class size initiative bringing 56 new faculty members to campus
sfahmy@uga.edu
In a world where information is just an Internet search away, assistant professor Rodney Averett— one of the new faculty members hired as part of UGA’s small class size initiative—sees his role as a guide who helps students develop their problem-solving skills. “Smaller class sizes allow students to have more hands-on interaction with the professor, and it gives the professor more leverage to create a problem-based learning environment,” said Averett, who joined the College of Engineering this spring and infuses his instruction with case studies from his biomedical research. A total of 56 faculty members will be hired to reduce class sizes. By
4&5
UGA research teams receive $19M in NSF grant funding By James Hataway
By Sam Fahmy
UGA GUIDE
fall 2016, 319 new course sections in 81 majors will be added, and the majority of the new course sections will have fewer than 20 students. The small class size initiative is part of a broader effort to give UGA students more interaction with faculty members and learning experiences that are tailored to their aspirations. Students at UGA already complete FirstYear Odyssey Seminar courses, which are limited to no more than 18 students, and in fall 2016 UGA will become the largest public university in the nation to ensure that each of its students participates in an internship, study abroad, service-learning, research or other form of hands-on learning through the new experiential learning requirement. Also in fall 2016, UGA will launch a campus-
wide entrepreneurship certificate program created for students who are interested in launching and growing businesses and nonprofit organizations. “The University of Georgia is unrivaled among large public universities in the learning opportunities it provides to students,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “Here, students have the kinds of personalized and hands-on experiences that are most commonly associated with elite private universities.” Whitten said that the new course sections added through the small class size initiative satisfy graduation requirements in 50 departments across campus. The course sections were chosen See INITIATIVE on page 8
UGA plant scientists have received more than $19 million in new grant funding from the National Science Foundation. Five research teams at the university will use these funds to explore the growth, development and behavior of a variety of plants, including sunflowers, maize, legumes, dogwoods, soybeans and tomatoes. Working as part of UGA’s Plant Center, the researchers hope that these projects will accelerate the development of improved plant varieties used in both agriculture and industry. “One of the strengths of our faculty is the diverse range of crop and tree species that we work on,” said C.J. Tsai, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and director of UGA’s Plant Center. “These
newly funded projects are a testament to the Plant Center’s breadth and the opportunities it affords, not only for basic science advancement and education, but also agriculture crop improvement.” A team led by John Burke, professor of plant biology in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, received $4.1 million to study sunflowers and the genetic processes that make plants resistant to drought, soil salinization and low nutrient availability. These stresses affect plant growth and development, and they reduce crop productivity. While wild plants like sunflowers have adapted to many of these challenges, crops are often less resilient. The research conducted in this project will have important practical outcomes that will ultimately facilitate the production of more resilient crop varieties.
See FUNDING on page 8
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
Noted Franklin College metals chemist named Regents Professor By Camie Williams camiew@uga.edu
Michael K. Johnson, an internationally recognized chemist at UGA whose work has implications for agriculture, energy and health, has been named a Regents Professor, effective July 1. Regents Professorships are bestowed by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia on faculty members whose scholarship or creative activity is recognized nationally and internationally as innovative and pace setting. “Dr. Johnson’s pioneering research methods and insights into the role that metals play in biological processes have earned him the respect of colleagues across campus
and around the world,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “The quality of his scholarship, which is Michael Johnson evident in his extraordinary record of continuous National Institutes of Health funding, is matched by his commitment to inspiring and mentoring the next generation of scientists.” Johnson, the co-director of the Center for Metalloenzyme Studies in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is a pioneer in the
See PROFESSOR on page 8
MARY FRANCES EARLY LECTURE
DIVISION OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
University exploring refreshing academic logo, Former college president will diversity in higher ed establishing easy-to-use visual identity system discuss In 1987, By Kristen Cameron By Aaron Hale
aahale@uga.edu
Think of an institution’s logo, or visual identity, as a flag. Strong visual identities are instantly recognizable and carry with them a sense of an organization’s best attributes, said Karri Hobson-Pape, vice president for UGA’s Division of Marketing & Communications. With this in mind, the university is exploring an update of its institutional logo, which will continue to
emphasize the Arch, and the possibility of establishing a well-defined, easy-to-use system to present UGA’s array of academic programs and services with greater consistency. UGA’s official academic logo features the university’s name, the Arch and the year the university’s charter was created—1785.The current logo was designed in 1988, long before digital and social media became the dominant form of communication, and is challenging in the digital format. In addition, UGA’s various
schools, colleges, departments and units use a variety of other logos on their websites and printed materials. “The goal of this project is to refresh and standardize the treatment of the Arch logo across our colleges, schools and units,” said HobsonPape. “A cohesive system will save time and resources by streamlining the design process. Our intention is to develop a transition plan which is realistic and cost-effective to implement.”
See IDENTITY on page 8
kcam@uga.edu
Johnnetta Cole, the president emerita of Spelman College and Bennett College for Women, will deliver the 16th annual Mary Frances Early Lecture March 29 at 3 p.m. in Mahler Hall in the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. She will speak on “The Case for Diversity and Inclusion in American Higher Education.” The event is open free to the public.
Cole became the first black woman to serve as president of Spelman College. She later served as president of Bennett College Johnnetta Cole for Women, making her the only person to serve as president of both historically black colleges for women.
See LECTURE on page 8
2 March 21, 2016 columns.uga.edu
Around academe
Chicago State University cancels spring break due to budget impasse
Illinois’ budget gridlock claimed the spring break plans of students at Chicago State University. An eight-month-long impasse over the state budget has held up funds for Illinois’ public colleges, causing a shortage on cash. To handle budget demands, Chicago State University canceled its weeklong break, instead holding a regular week of classes to shorten the semester and conserve funds for faculty payroll and student scholarships. The university also halted construction plans and shortened library hours, according to a story by CNN.
Ivy League head football coaches agree to ban tackling during practice
All eight Ivy League head football coaches have voted to ban tackling during regular season practice. Research shows that most sports-related concussions in college happen during practice, not in the games. “We’re not trying to change the nature of the game; we’re just trying to make it safer,” Robin Harris, the executive director of the Ivy League, told The New York Times. The move goes one step further from a decision by the management of NFL teams to limit full-contact practice during the regular season. The Ivy League presidents and athletic directors have to approve the decision before it takes effect.
News to Use
Establish a sleep ritual
Individuals regularly getting high quality sleep often have a sleep ritual. A sleep ritual is a routine that helps the mind and body wind down at the end of the day in preparation for a good night’s sleep. To get the best sleep, follow these tips: • Maintain a regular bed and wake time schedule, including on weekends. Sleeping more than 1-2 hours more on the weekend can wreak havoc on your circadian rhythms, so a regular wake schedule is important. • Establish a regular, relaxing bedtime routine such as soaking in a hot bath or hot tub and then reading a book or listening to soothing music. • Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool. • Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows. • Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex. • Finish eating at least 2-3 hours before your regular bedtime. • Exercise regularly. It is best to complete your workout at least 2 hours before bedtime, as exercising before you sleep can leave your body too energized to relax. • Avoid caffeine (coffee, tea, soft drinks, energy drinks, chocolate) 3-4 hours before bedtime. It can keep you awake. • Avoid nicotine (cigarettes, tobacco products). Used close to bedtime, these products can lead to poor sleep. • Avoid alcohol close to bedtime.
Source: University Health Center
INSTRUCTIONAL LABS
IN THE NEW
SCIENCE LEARNING CENTER Read more about research at UGA at discover.uga.edu.
FANNING INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, OFFICE OF UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSIONS
Embark UGA helps ensure at-risk students have resources to graduate By Beatriz Lima-Silva bea22@uga.edu
Anastasia Roberts is anything but a traditional college student. The 25-year-old single mother of two young children had just transferred to UGA when she was hit with a series of life-changing events that easily could have derailed her college career. She lost one of her jobs, which drastically reduced her ability to support her family, then totaled her car and was forced to move out of her apartment. Thanks to the help of a program called Embark UGA, Roberts was able to get her back on her feet, provide for her family and concentrate on her education. Embark is a statewide support network to support youth who have experienced foster care or homelessness and ensure they have ample academic, financial, social and emotional supports to access and complete a post-secondary education. Embark UGA, an outreach program based in the J.W. Fanning Institute of Leadership Development, strives to make college more accessible for students at risk for not considering college as an option or who have difficulty staying in college because of challenges meeting basic daily needs. As part of the public service and outreach mission at UGA, the Fanning Institute uses its leadership development and capacity-building expertise to strengthen networks across the state to meet the challenges that face young people who have experienced foster care or homelessness. This semester, Embark UGA teamed
up with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to launch an inaugural information session for at-risk high school students to learn about their options for college. Undergraduate Admissions already offers the First Look program, a series of information sessions offered to prospective high school students throughout the year, but none of the sessions address the specific needs of this population of students. In February, 18 high school students and their supporters from school systems and county offices attended the inaugural Embark First Look program, which included a full day with faculty, staff and students who shared their UGA experiences. They interacted with a panel of faculty and students about academic life at UGA, went on a walking tour of North Campus led by the Arch Society, ate lunch at Bolton Dining Commons and participated in panel discussions about campus resources, scholarships and financial aid as well as the admissions process. The message for these at-risk students was that college is a viable option and that UGA will support them by helping them overcome barriers to success in the face of life challenges. “We want you to consider UGA,” said David Meyers, a public service associate at the Fanning Institute. “Make no mistake, we want you to think of UGA as an opportunity.” Cindy Boyles Crawford, associate director and scholarship coordinator in Undergraduate Admissions, encouraged the high school students to share their stories on their college applications. “This helps us in understanding their unique situations as well as connecting
GLOBAL GEORGIA INITIATIVE
Former UGA history professor, author to speak at Cine March 24 By Dave Marr
davemarr@uga.edu
Paul Sutter, an associate professor of history and faculty affiliate in environmental studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, will give a talk at Cine at 234 W. Hancock Ave. in downtown Athens March 24 at 5 p.m. His visit is sponsored by the University of Georgia Press in partnership with the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts as part of the Willson Center’s Global Georgia Initiative. Sutter, who taught in the UGA history department from 2000 until 2009, is the author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Gullies: Providence Canyon and the Soils of the South, published by the UGA Press in 2015. Mick GusindeDuffy, editor-in chief of the UGA Press and the book’s editor, said it “explores themes that are important and familiar to the Athens and UGA communities: contested histories, willful forgetting and appropriate priorities for historical preservation. “Sutter explores how Georgia’s ‘little grand canyon’ has wrestled with something of an identity crisis over the years: Natural wonder? Man-made environmental disaster? Poster child for poor farming practice? Tourist attraction?” Gusinde-Duffy said. “That process of meaning making continues today. Nature and culture are deeply intertwined in Georgia, and the ‘soils of the South’ reveal the ‘soul of the South’ in Sutter’s capable hands.” Sutter was the founding editor of the Environmental History and the American South book series at the UGA Press, of which Let Us Now Praise Famous
Gullies is a part, and is the series editor for Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books, published by the University of Washington Press. He is the author of Driven Wild: How the Fight Paul Sutter against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement (University of Washington Press, 2002), co-author of The Art of Managing Longleaf: A Personal History of the Stoddard-Neel Approach (University of Georgia Press, 2010), and co-editor of Environmental History and the American South: A Reader (University of Georgia Press, 2009). He has published numerous articles and book chapters on the American wilderness movement, Southern environmental history, U.S. imperial environmental history and environmental historiography—including a recent state-of-the-field essay in the Journal of American History—and has held fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, the Huntington Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Institutes of Health, and he will be a Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment & Society in Munich in 2016. Sutter currently is working on a book, tentatively titled Pulling the Teeth of the Tropics: Environment, Disease, Race and the U.S. Sanitary Program in Panama, 1904-1914, which interprets American expansion and imperial public health through the lens of environmental history.
ON THE WEB
For more information about the statewide effort, visit www.embarkgeorgia.org. them to campus resources should they attend UGA,” Crawford said. Embark plays a key role in UGA’s efforts to foster an academic community that supports and values students from diverse backgrounds. The program has partnered with others on campus to enhance initiatives such as the hygiene pantry being developed by the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the textbook initiative developed by the Center for Teaching and Learning and a mentoring effort developed by the University Health Center. Through the Embark network of campus leaders, Roberts’ academic advisor connected her with Lori Tiller in the Embark UGA office, who worked with the Office of Student Financial Aid to identify an emergency scholarship fund that allowed Roberts to continue her education. Without this assistance, Roberts might have had lost hope for a college education instead of powering on to become a successful fourth-year marketing major getting ready to graduate in May and launch her own digital marketing business. “If more at-risk youth knew about Embark, they would come to UGA knowing that there would be a full force of support behind them,” Roberts said. If you know a student who would benefit from the Embark program, please contact Meyers at dmeyers@fanning.uga. edu or Tiller at lrl@fanning.uga.edu .
ODUM SCHOOL OF ECOLOGY Plant ecologist to deliver 2016 Odum Lecture March 29 By Beth Gavrilles bethgav@uga.edu
Ecologist Jonathan Levine will deliver the 31st annual Odum Lecture at the UGA Odum School of Ecology March 29 at 4 p.m. His talk, which will be followed by a reception, is open free to the public. Levine studies the community and population ecology of plants using mathematical modeling and field experiments to answer questions about the maintenance of species diversity, the control of plant invasions and plant community response to climate change. His work has included creating models showing how species invasions increase as international trade increases, how plant-soil interactions and competition within a species affect biological invasions and how a changing climate affects coexistence in various plant communities. A professor of plant ecology in the Institute of Integrative Biology, part of the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich, Levine is a recipient of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering, the Young Investigators Prize from the Society of American Naturalists and the George Mercer Younger Investigator Award from the Ecological Society of America. He is the author or co-author of more than 60 scientific papers published in peer reviewed journals including Science, Nature, Ecology, PNAS, American Naturalist and PLOS One. The annual Eugene P. Odum Lecture Series features speakers who address significant ecological questions in broad social and intellectual contexts.
RESEARCH NEWS
columns.uga.edu March 21, 2016
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Digest School of Accounting grads rank No. 1 for first-time CPA exam pass rates
Rhett Jackson, a professor in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, left, is the lead researcher on a project that found that stream channels become narrower and aquatic habitats are reduced by two-thirds without trees.
Change of scene Trees vital to improving stream quality, Warnell School study finds
By Sandi Martin
smartin@warnell.uga.edu
Want better streams? Plant some trees. Researchers from UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources found that where landowners cut down the forests that bordered streams—turning them into pastures or lawns—the structure and amount of aquatic habitat changes dramatically. The study, published in River Research and Applications, looked at 49 streams in the Upper Little Tennessee River Basin in the southern Appalachians. It found that, without trees, the stream channel becomes narrower, and aquatic habitats are reduced by twothirds in small fish-bearing streams. Part of the Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research Project, their work showed that streams surrounded by forestlands provided more complex habitats and supported more diverse aquatic wildlife than those in
the midst of pasture or grassland, said Rhett Jackson, lead researcher on the project and a professor in the Warnell School. Forested “riparian zones” are vital for providing woody debris that creates cover and complex habitats for aquatic animals like fish, salamanders and invertebrates. Removing forests from the stream banks also increases sunlight hitting the stream, raising summer water temperatures 2 to 4 degrees Celsius, Jackson said. “Trout and salamanders have adapted to cool, shaded and messy streams with lots of wood and nooks and crannies,” he said. “When you make that stream simple and warm, you favor fish that would normally dominate streams in the Piedmont, not in the mountains.” Simply put, trees make better streams, a fact that’s not very surprising, Jackson said, since the aquatic wildlife in the southern Appalachians has adapted to forested conditions. Even those with just a single tree acting as a buffer were
wider than streams with no trees at all. Jackson said many of the floodplains in the study area had been deforested for at least a century, but there has been a movement to encourage reforesting the pastures and grasslands, called riparian buffer restoration. And it would be very easy for landowners to do. “They just need to quit mowing,” he said. “Trees will grow back on their own.” But it might be an uphill battle to convince landowners to allow trees to grow back up around their streams. Some prevalent cultural beliefs among landowners have proven to impede reforestation efforts, Jackson said. Some believe they are improving stream quality by removing trees, as well as improving the aesthetics of the area. However, others are promoting riparian restoration. The Mainspring Conservation Trust, for instance, has been planting trees along streams and encouraging landowners to do the same.
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
UGA researchers trace peanut crop back to its roots By J. Merritt Melancon jmerritt@uga.edu
UGA researchers, working with the International Peanut Genome Initiative, have discovered that a wild plant from Bolivia is a “living relic” of the prehistoric origins of the cultivated peanut species. The peanut that is grown by farmers today is the result of hybridization between two wild species. The hybrid was cultivated by ancient inhabitants of South America and, by selection, was transformed into today’s crop plant. Comparisons of the DNA sequences of one of the wild species and the cultivated peanut showed that they are almost exactly same; in fact, they are 99.96 percent identical. It’s an unprecedented similarity. “It’s almost as if we had traveled back in time and sampled the same plant that gave rise to cultivated peanuts from the gardens of these ancient people,” said David Bertioli, an IPGI plant geneticist of the Universidade de Brasilia, who is working at UGA. This discovery forms part of a study that appears in Nature Genetics journal, published by the UGA-led IPGI. Scott
Jackson, director of the UGA Center for Applied Genetic Technologies in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, serves as chair of the IPGI. Bertioli is lead author on the paper. Because its ancestors were two different species, today’s peanut carries two separate genomes, designated A and B subgenomes.Their high similarity means they are difficult to map out separately when sequencing the cultivated peanut genome. So, as a first step, researchers built their models using the two wild, ancestral peanut species collected by botanists in the wooded foothills of the Andes in Bolivia and Argentina decades ago. The genome of one of them, Arachis duranensis, is about as similar to the A subgenome as could be expected. However, what really caught their attention was that the genome of the other species, A. ipaensis, was found to be virtually identical to the B subgenome. Soon after botanists collected A. ipaensis in 1971, they realized that it was peculiar.The population of A. ipaensis was very small and isolated, and its closest relatives grew hundreds of miles to the north. They questioned how it arrived in the location where they found it growing.
Prompted by the extraordinary DNA identity, the scientists used information from decades-old botanical collections, knowledge of the seasonal movements of ancient hunter-gatherer-farmers and molecular DNA clock calculations to work out that the plants’ seeds had almost certainly been transported by humans about 10,000 years ago. “Everything fit,” Bertioli said. “It’s the only place where A and B genome species have ever been found growing close together. The region is right next to the region where, even today, the most primitive types of cultivated peanut are grown, and the date is right in the time frame that plant domestication was happening in South America.” The movement of the B genome species into the range of the A genome species meant that the hybridization could happen, probably courtesy of a native bee, and the cultivated peanut species was formed. The rest is history, Bertioli said. The new peanut genome sequences were released in 2014 to researchers and plant breeders around the globe. The paper in Nature Genetics represents the first official publication of the IPGI.
Graduates of the Terry College of Business’ J.M. Tull School of Accounting ranked No. 1 among large programs and No. 2 among all programs for first-time pass rates on the Certified Public Accountant exams during 2015. According to the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, which proctors the test, Terry College students who took the CPA exam for the first time had an 88.4 percent pass rate. Students who pass the CPA on their first try are well positioned for the job market, said Terry College Dean Benjamin C. Ayers. This marks the fourth straight year that the college’s first-time pass rate has placed among the nation’s top five. The Terry College’s rankings are more impressive in light of how many graduates from the school took the test. With more than 270 students taking the test, the Terry College’s scores reflect more than 10 times the number of students of similarly ranked institutions.
Law school to host inaugural Rural Healthcare Symposium March 25
The UGA School of Law will present, in conjunction with the health law and consulting firm Boling & Company, the inaugural Rural Healthcare Symposium titled “Obstacles and Opportunities Going Forward” on March 25 at 9 a.m. in the Larry Walker Room of Dean Rusk Hall. The symposium’s keynote presentation will be given by Alan Morgan, chief executive officer of the National Rural Health Association. Morgan has more than 20 years of experience in health policy development, including tenures with the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and the Heart Rhythm Society. The daylong conference also includes four panel discussions centering on rural hospital consolidation, affiliations and closures; regulatory issues affecting rural health care and potential remedies; technological innovations addressing access shortages; and medical staff alignment and recruitment strategies.
Classics department to host two-day ‘Homerathon’ outside main library
In recognition of the longstanding presence of Homeric epic at UGA, the classics department in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences is sponsoring “Homerathon,” a two-day reading of Homer’s Odyssey, April 4-5 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. outside the main library. UGA students, professors, administrators and local community leaders will collaborate to read the entire 14,000-line poem in translation.
UGA alumnus to give Woodroof Lecture
UGA alumnus Donald W. Schaffner will deliver the 2016 J.G. Woodroof Lecture April 5 at 12:30 p.m. in Rooms K/L of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. His lecture, “Solving Food Safety Problems with Math and Statistics,” is open free to the public. Schaffner received his master’s degree and doctorate from UGA in 1985 and 1989, respectively. He is an Extension Specialist and Distinguished Professor in the food science department at Rutgers University. The author of more than 130 peer-reviewed publications, Schaffner was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists in 2010 and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2014. He is an editor for the American Society for Microbiology journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Schaffner also was the president of the International Association for Food Protection in 2013-2014. The Woodroof Lecture is co-sponsored by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ food science and technology department and the UGA Food Science Club.
PERIODICALS POSTAGE STATEMENT Columns (USPS 020-024) is published weekly during the academic year and biweekly during the summer for the faculty and staff of the University of Georgia by the UGA News Service. Periodicals postage is paid in Athens, Georgia. Postmaster: Send off-campus address changes to Columns, UGA News Service, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Athens, GA 30602-1999.
For a complete listing of events 7 8 5 at the University of Georgia, check the Master Calendar on the Web (calendar.uga.edu). I
The following events are open to the public, unless otherwise specified. Dates, times and locations may change without advance notice.
UGAGUIDE
Spring’s last Faculty Series recital highlights Russian composers
Sculptor Cavener to lecture at Dodd drema@uga.edu
ccschwabe@uga.edu
The final Hugh Hodgson Faculty Series recital of the season brings Shakhida Azimkhodjaeva, violin faculty member at the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music, to the Ramsey Concert Hall stage March 24 at 8 p.m. Accompanied by fellow School of Music faculty member Evgeny Rivkin, professor of piano, Azimkhodjaeva will perform works from a number of 19th and 20th century Russian composers. Tickets are $10 each or $5 with a UGA student ID and are available at pac.uga.edu, 706-542-4400 or by visiting the Performing Arts Center box office. The program begins with two sonatas, both composed early in their respective composer’s careers. Mikhail Glinka’s “Sonata for Viola and Piano” was first published in 1932, but its roots go back almost a century and highlight a raw talent. “He composed the first movement, Allegro moderato, in 1825, while living in St. Petersburg,” Azimkhodjaeva said. “He was, at this point in his life, only moderately trained in the arts of music, though passionately devoted to them.” Karen Khachaturian’s “Violin Sonata” was written in 1947, when the composer was a student at the Moscow Conservatory, and became an instant success. It would come to be performed by many great violinists, including David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan and Jascha Heifetz. “One can realize the reason for success: the innate natural musicality, an outstanding sense of proportions and quite fresh, though not so sharply innovative, musical language,” Azimkhodjaeva said. Perhaps the most well-known of the recital’s composers, Dmitri Shostakovich and his “Sonata for Violin and Piano” bring the program to 1968. This sonata was actually dedicated to the aforementioned Oistrakh, a frequent collaborator with Shostakovich, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Rodion Shchedrin’s “In the Style of Albeniz,” written in the 1950s, rounds out the program. The version performed by Azimkhodjaeva and Rivkin was arranged for violin and piano by Dmitri Tsyganov, Russian violinist and professor of the Moscow Conservatory, in 1973.
EXHIBITIONS Lucy Hargrett Draper Center and Archives Exhibit. Through March 31. Gallery hallway, special collections libraries. 706-542-8079, jclevela@uga.edu Pictures of Us: Photographs from the Do Good Fund Collection. Through March 31. Hargrett Gallery, special collections libraries. 706-542-8079, jclevela@uga.edu The Feminism Photo Project. Through March 31. Memorial Hall ballroom.* Cherokee Basketry: Woven Culture. Through April 17. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-1817, hazbrown@uga.edu Portraits of the Working Class: Trees. Through May 1. Visitor Center’s Greatroom, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6014, connicot@uga.edu David Ligare: California Classicist. Through May 8. Georgia Museum of Art. hazbrown@uga.edu Seeing Georgia: Changing Visions of Tourism in the Modern South. Through July 30. Special collections libraries. 706-542-5788, jhebbard@uga.edu
MONDAY, MARCH 21 WORKSHOP “Low- and Mid-Stakes Writing Assignments.” Integrating informal writing into a course has many benefits. Low-stakes writing helps students develop understanding of content and become more comfortable with writing, and it helps instructors identify problems in student learning and provide formative assessment. This workshop will help participants develop productive strategies for using low- and mid-stakes writing assignments in their courses. 1 p.m. Center for Teaching and Learning. 706-542-6603, ehoran@uga.edu FILM SCREENING* Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority. 6:30 p.m. 271 special collections libraries. 706-542-2846, tlhat@uga.edu. PERFORMANCE Recognized as one of the world’s finest solo, chamber and orchestral musicians, Anthony McGill was named principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic in 2014. $30. 8 p.m. Ramsey Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4400.
TUESDAY, MARCH 22 WITHDRAWAL DEADLINE FOR SPRING SEMESTER WORKSHOP “Introduction to Coding for Mere Mortals: Using LiveCode.” This workshop is designed for higher education faculty who have been wanting to learn
The Lamar Dodd School of Art will present a lecture by artist Beth Cavener March 29 at 5:30 p.m. in Room S151 of the art school. This lecture is part of the Visiting Artist/Scholar Lecture Series. The talk is open free to the public. A highly acclaimed sculptor, Cavener explores the intersection of instincts and human emotion through animal figures sculpted from clay. Cavener’s animals are frozen in the midst of conflicts between emotions and desires. Their eyes and postures are full of feeling and tension while also being captured within fired clay. The fluid forms of her figures are hand sculpted, their fur showing the gestural marks of Cavener’s technique. Many of the sculpted animals are life-size or larger, further reinforcing their sense of presence within the space of the viewer. Internal struggles of the sculpted animals are manifested in physical entanglements and gestures. Ropes, tree branches and other artifacts of the world detain, join, support or emanate from the animal forms. These elements along with a seamless integration of human anatomy and expression turn Cavener’s sculptures into vessels of empathy for the viewer. The animals typically are divided into the archetypes of the victim, the bully and the manipulator. While this sets the tone and the choice of animal Cavener will use, the state of being of each character is often complicated and even contradictory. Cavener explains that these manifestational sculptures are drawn from both her own experiences as well as the experiences of those around her.
how to code but figured they didn’t have the time, disposition or background. Many faculty have ideas for apps but don’t have funds to hire others to build them. Also, the rise of STEM education has seen renewed interest in promoting computer programming among all students, not just computer science majors. 10 a.m. 372 Miller Learning Center. 706-583-0067, tchagood@uga.edu. TUESDAY TOUR 2 p.m. Special collections libraries. 706-542-8079, jclevela@uga.edu. BOYD LECTURE Richard J. Roberts, chief scientific officer of New England BioLabs, will deliver the 2016 George H. Boyd Distinguished lecture. His lecture is titled “Exploring Bacterial Methylomes.” Part of the Signature Lecture Series. 3:30 p.m. Masters Hall, Georgia Center. 706-542-5988, cochran5@uga.edu. FACULTY AND STAFF GOLF CLINIC To include long and short game instruction. To reserve a space, contact Clint Udell via email at cudell96@uga.edu and indicate any need to borrow golf clubs. 5:30 p.m. UGA Golf Course. cudell96@ uga.edu.
PERFORMANCE Abigail Washburn, who has the sophistication of a postmodern, old-time singer-songwriter, and Bela Fleck, who has the jazz-to-classical ingenuity of an iconic instrumentalist, will perform. $25-$50. 8 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4400.
TOUR AT TWO Sarah Kate Gillespie, curator of American art, will lead a tour of David Ligare: California Classicist. 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu GENE BRODY LECTURE Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, director of the Ohio State Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, will deliver the 2016 Gene Brody Lecture. Topic: Marriage and Health. 3:30 p.m. 214 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-2983, jshaikun@uga.edu
Calendar items are taken from Columns files and from the Master Calendar, maintained by the Division of Marketing & Communications. Notices are published here as space permits, with priority given to items of multidisciplinary interest. The Master Calendar is available on the Web at calendar.uga.edu.
CONCERT The Hodgson Wind Symphony, led by Jaclyn Hartenberger, will perform. 8 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4752, ccschwabe@uga.edu PERFORMANCE New Play Festival. $12; $7 for students. 8 p.m. Also to be March 24-26, 30-31, April 1-2 at 8 p.m. and April 3 at 2:30 p.m. Cellar Theatre. (See story, top right). FULL MOON HIKE $5; $15 per family. 8 p.m. State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6156, ckeber@uga.edu
UGA GLOBAL EDUCATIONAL FORUM The 10th Annual Global Educational Forum will focus on Olympics and Development in Global Contexts. The forum will feature John Carlos, a 200 meter bronze medalist from 1968 Olympic games and an expert on the impact of sport on racial formation in U.S. and Jorge Doorman Knijnik, a Brazilian scholar whose work focuses on gender, sport and human rights. 8 a.m. Mahler Hall, Georgia Center. 706-542-4434, jchepyat@uga.edu
ITALIAN FILM SERIES How Strange to Be Called Federico is the last movie of four in the Italian film series Cinecitta 8: Remembering a Master of Italian Cinema: Ettore Scola (1931-2016). In Italian with English subtitles. 7 p.m. 248 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-9358, brcooper@uga.edu
HOLI Hindu religious observance.
CONCERT Representatives of the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s talented brass area, the UGA Trombone Choir will perform a spring concert. 6 p.m. Ramsey Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4752, ccschwabe@uga.edu
THURSDAY, MARCH 24
BASEBALL vs. Mercer. $5-$8. 6 p.m. Foley Field. 706-542-1231.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23
SOFTBALL vs. Georgia Southern. 6 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium. 706-542-1621.
LOUISE MCBEE LECTURE A lecture will be given by Earl Lewis, the president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Lewis, a noted social historian, was the former provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of History and African American Studies at Emory University. He is the author and co-editor of seven books. Sponsored by the Institute of Higher Education. Part of the Signature Lecture Series. 11 a.m. Chapel. 706-542-0570, sheffiel@uga.edu SEMINAR “Science Education at the AU/UGA Medical Partnership: Goals, Roles and Assessment.” In this brown bag seminar, participants will reflect on the main goals of the integrated curriculum, the roles basic scientists assume in large and small group educational settings and methods of assessment in light of the curricular goals and student-centered pedagogical methods that have been adopted. Noon. 201 Pharmacy South. 706-583-0067, t chagood@uga.edu
By Dina Canup dinac@uga.edu
Georgia Museum of Art to focus on Southern Printmakers Society By Madison Bledsoe madscb@uga.edu
In 1935, Frank Hartley Anderson founded the Southern Printmakers Society, the only major graphic arts society in the South at the time. For 10 years, the group circulated dozens of print exhibitions throughout the South, a region with few venues for viewing art, but its work was cut short by World War II. In celebration of the society, the Georgia Museum of Art will present the exhibition Frank Hartley Anderson: Forging the Southern Printmakers Society from March 26 to June 19. Organized by guest curator and scholar Lynn Barstis Williams Katz, librarian emeritus at Auburn University, the exhibition will display works made by a variety of artists who were members of the society. The exhibition reveals a range of print media, styles and subjects within traditional, realistic composition, from Lynd Ward’s wood engraving “Seedling,” of a man cradling a tender young plant, to HungarianCanadian Nicholas Hornyansky’s colorful aquatint of a busy harborside market. It includes a number of works by women, who were active in the printmaking world, such as Alice Standish Buell, Frances Gearhart, Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer, Ella Fillmore Lillie, Elizabeth Norton and Gladys M. Wilkins.
WORKSHOP “Let’s Go There: Addressing Controversial Topics in the Classroom.” Controversial topics are typically a part of every course, but fostering these conversations can be difficult for any instructor. This workshop will discuss how to handle some these topics and situations, whether it is an uncomfortable topic that is part of the course content or a discriminatory statement by a student in class. By the end of the workshop, participants will have tools and strategies to lead productive class discussions related to controversial and uncomfortable topics in the classroom. 2:30 p.m. Center for Teaching and Learning. 706-542-6603, ehoran@uga.edu GLOBAL GEORGIA INITIATIVE LECTURE Paul Sutter is an associate professor of history and a faculty affiliate in environmental studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his doctorate from the University of Kansas in 1997, and he was a member of the history department at UGA from 2000-2009. The event is part of the Willson Center’s Global Georgia Initiative. 5 p.m. Cine, 234 W. Hancock Ave. davemarr@uga.edu. (See story, page 2). VISITING ARTIST LECTURE Dave McKenzie is a New York-based artist working primarily in performance, sculpture and video. His conceptually driven work questions how social identities are created, and he uses cultural symbols to propose new representations of the self. 5 p.m. S151 Lamar Dodd School of Art. READING Catherine Taylor is a writer and editor who works on a range of nonfiction forms—from documentary and literary journalism to lyric essays, hybrid-genre writing, critical theory and poetics. 7 p.m. 214 Miller Learning Center. HUGH HODGSON FACULTY SERIES CONCERT Shakhida Azimkhodjaeva will perform in the final performance of the 2015-16 Faculty Recital Series. $10; $5 with a student ID. 8 p.m. Ramsey Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4752, musicpr@uga.edu. (See story, top left).
FRIDAY, MARCH 25 GOOD FRIDAY Christian religious observance. WORKSHOP “Introduction to ATLAS.ti.” This two-day workshop is designed for researchers, graduate students and faculty who have a basic foundation in qualitative research methods and would like to learn how to use ATLAS.ti qualitative data analysis software to its fullest potential. Participants will be introduced to the principles of five-level QDA for “harnessing ATLAS.ti powerfully.” $435. 8:30 a.m. River’s Crossing Annex. 706-542-4556, mbaer@uga.edu
University Theatre will present the New Play Festival, with seven short plays by students and alumni, under the executive direction of John Patrick Bray. Performances will be at the Cellar Theatre March 23-26, 30-31 and April 1-2 at 8 p.m. with a 2:30 p.m. matinee on April 3. Tickets are $12, $7 for students, and can be purchased at drama.uga.edu/ box-office, by calling 706-542-4400 or visiting the Performing Arts Center or Tate Student Center box office. The production includes plays, ranging in length from 10-15 minutes, all written by current UGA students and recent alumni. The plays revolve around the variety of human connection and disconnection—from the most fundamental levels to the supernatural. The pieces include: • Blue Light by Molly Pease (BA and JD 2014). In this play two spirits in the ether hope to find each other after they are born. • Phantom Tone Syndrome by Alex Cornell (BA 2015), which explores the difficulties two people have connecting with each other directly rather than through their smartphones. • Alice Captured by Grace Cole (theatre and English double major), which focuses on two people have a difficult discussion about an unborn child. • Magnolia Blossoms: A Civil War Melodrama by Angela Hall (MFA dramatic media student), which satirizes existing perceptions about the black experience and what constitutes a “black play.” • A Little Magic by Laura Sheridan (BFA 2015), which features a coven of witches and what happens when one loses her powers. • What’s My Spirit Animal, Mama? which is a story about a person who tries to communicate with someone on the other side. It was written by I.B. Hopkins (BA 2015). • Phantom Annihilators by Kati Gautreau (BA 2015), stars ghostbusters with a fake show who find themselves in a real haunted house. “The New Play Festival perfectly represents what University Theatre should be: new, fresh, exciting, original,” said David Saltz, head of the department of the theatre and film studies. “We’re incredibly proud to be using our stage to tell our own students’ stories and to give audiences chance to see some of the new generation of great playwrights before they become famous.”
RURAL HEALTHCARE SYMPOSIUM “Obstacles and Opportunities Going Forward” 9 a.m. Larry Walker Room, Dean Rusk Hall. (See Digest, page 3). INTERNATIONAL COFFEE HOUR This event is for those who enjoy good food, coffee, conversations with people who like exploring and learning about new cultures. 11:30 a.m. Memorial Hall ballroom. 706-542-5867, cheeia@uga.edu WOMEN’S STUDIES FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES LECTURE “Critical Sexuality Education Topics from a QueerAffirming, Sex-Positive Pedagogy,” Katy Janousek, University Health Center. 12:20 p.m. 248 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-2846, tlhat@uga.edu LARS G. LJUNGDAHL LECTURE The 2016 Ljungdahl Lecturer will be Volker Mueller from the Institute of Molecular Biosciences, GoetheUniversity Frankfurt, Molecular Microbiology and Bioenergetics. A reception will be held prior to seminar. 3:30 p.m. C127 Davison Life Sciences Complex. 706-542-4259, jtaylor@bmb.uga.edu CICR EMINENT SCHOLAR LECTURE “Grounding Traffic: How the Cocaine Commodity Chain Embeds in Central America’s Protected Spaces,” Kendra McSweeney, a professor in the department of geography at Ohio State University. 3:30 p.m. Ecology Building auditorium. talleyv@uga.edu CONCERT Caribbean sounds will come to the Performing Arts Center when the UGA Steel Band performs. 6 p.m. Ramsey Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4752, ccschwabe@uga.edu SOFTBALL vs. Texas A&M. 6 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium. 706-542-1621.
SATURDAY, MARCH 26 EXHIBITION OPENING Frank Hartley Anderson: Forging the Southern Printmakers Society. Through June 19. Georgia Museum of Art. (See story, above). SPRING BIRD RAMBLE The Oconee Rivers Audubon Society will lead a morning bird walk to look and listen for spring migrants. 8 a.m. State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6014, connicot@uga.edu FAMILY DAY Participants will learn about the traditions of Cherokee basket making in the exhibition Cherokee Basketry: Woven Culture, then head down to the Michael and Mary Erlanger Studio Classroom to try their hand at weaving their own basket. 10 a.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu
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4&5
University Theatre to present never-before-seen short plays
By Drema Nicole Montgomery
By Clarke Schwabe
columns.uga.edu March 21, 2016
Any additional information about the event may be sent directly to Columns. Email is preferred (columns@uga.edu), but materials can be mailed to Columns, News Service, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Campus Mail 1999.
SOFTBALL vs. Texas A&M. 2 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium. 706-542-1621.
SUNDAY, MARCH 27 EASTER Christian religious observance. SOFTBALL vs. Texas A&M. 2 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium. 706-542-1621.
MONDAY, MARCH 28 GSPS 2016 RESEARCH DAY Research Day is an opportunity for students to present posters and give talks on research that they are working for UGA. To include a keynote address from Dr. Todd McDevitt, a prominent scientist in the engineering technologies of stem cell research. Coverdell Center. gsps.uga@gmail.com SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS SEMINAR SERIES LECTURE “The Status of Organic Agriculture in the Southeast,” Jeanine Davis, North Carolina State University. 3:30 p.m. 103 Conner Hall. sustainag@uga.edu INNOVATION GATEWAY EVENT “From Idea to Marketplace: How UGA Discoveries Become Products and Companies.” More than 575 products and 130 start-up companies have originated from UGA research. Attendees will hear about these success stories and discover how UGA is moving ideas to the marketplace and learn how they can become involved. Part of Thinc. Week. 4 p.m. 128/130 CAGTECH. 706-542-8969, tduggins@uga.edu FILM SCREENING* Mountains that Take Wing: Angela Davis & Yuri Kochiyama A Conversation on Life, Struggles & Liberation. 6:30 p.m. 271 special collections libraries. 706-542-2846, tlhat@uga.edu
COMING UP MARY FRANCES EARLY LECTURE March 29. “The Case for Diversity and Inclusion in American Higher Education,” Johnnetta B. Cole, president emerita of Spelman College and Bennett College for Women and professor emerita of Emory University. Part of the Signature Lecture Series. 3 p.m. Mahler Hall, Georgia Center. 706-542-6416, ajewell@uga.edu (See story, page 1). VISITING ARTIST/SCHOLAR LECTURE Beth Cavener. 5:30 p.m. S151 Lamar Dodd School of Art. 706-542-0116, michelleegas@uga.edu (See story, above left). *PART OF WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES March 23 (for April 4 issue) March 30 (for April 11 issue) April 6 (for April 18 issue)
6 March 21, 2016 columns.uga.edu
CAMPUS CLOSEUP
Jennifer Graff, an associate professor in the College of Education’s language and literacy education department, will serve a three-year term on the committee that selects top nonfiction books for children. Established in 1989, the Orbis Pictus Award recognizes and promotes excellence in nonfiction writing for Jennifer Graff children and names a winner, up to five “honor” books and eight “recommended” books every year. Along with selecting annual winners for the Orbis Pictus Award, Graff and fellow committee members will organize nonfiction-focused sessions at the annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English and also work to promote the use of nonfiction children’s books in classrooms. The annual award is named in commemoration of the 1657 book Orbis Pictus, which is considered to be the first nonfiction book printed for children.
Between aiding students, working on his farm and creating art, Dave Evans, a UGA academic advisor, said he is “real happy where I’m at right now.”
The American Forest Foundation named Dale Greene, dean of UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, a board of trustee member. With more than 30 years of experience at UGA, Greene has been a leader in creating long-lasting collaborations with partners in both the private and nonprofit sectors. He continues to conduct research on methods to improve timber harvesting to reduce environmental impact and was recently honored by the Georgia Forestry Association for his service. The American Forest Foundation works with families, teachers and elected officials to promote stewardship and protect the values provided by the nation’s forest heritage. Josh Miller, a professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was awarded the 2016 Theodore Millon Award in Personality Psychology from the American Psychological Foundation. The annual award honors an outstanding earlyto mid-career psychologist engaged in advancing the science of personality psychology. As director of clinical training in UGA’s psychology department, Miller has focused his research on the idea that personality disorders can be conceived of, assessed and diagnosed using general trait models of personality—an approach that now is being recognized in the major psychiatric manuals used across the world. Gregory Seagraves, an academic professional associate in the College of Pharmacy, is the recipient of the Healthcare Georgia Foundation’s 2016 Joseph D. Greene Community Service Award. The first pharmacist selected for the award, Seagraves is being Gregory Seagraves recognized for his work as the director of the Hepatitis C Treatment Center at the Mercy Health Center in Athens. During his five years as the clinic’s director, Seagraves has treated more than 100 Athens-area indigent citizens infected with hepatitis C. He also is responsible for building the multidisciplinary team approach to treat the chronic disease, which has resulted in a 97 percent cure rate. The Healthcare Georgia Foundation has presented the Greene Award every year since 2003 to five individuals and one community collaborative for “passionate and unselfish service in the promotion of better health and health care for underserved individuals and communities.” Seagraves will receive the award March 29. Kudos recognizes special contributions of staff, faculty and administrators in teaching, research and service. News items are limited to election into office of state, regional, national and international societies; major awards and prizes; and similarly notable accomplishments.
Dorothy Kozlowski
Advisor helps students find resources to ‘assist them at being successful’ By Matt Chambers mattdc@uga.edu
A former high school science teacher, Dave Evans helped impart knowledge to his students for many years. He continues that today by helping UGA students stay on track and find the right resources on campus. “A lot of what I do is connecting students to things around campus,” said Evans, an advisor who works with students in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the Terry College of Business and the College of Pharmacy. “There are so many resources to assist students that you just really can’t get stumped and not know how to help a student.” Evans aids students in a variety of ways, each that helps them make academic progress. Often in meeting one-on-one with each of his more than 200 advisees, Evans helps students select the right classes, plan to study abroad or find research projects on which they can work. “The students here don’t need me as much as they needed me at the high school level,” he said. “They’re highly intelligent, highly motivated; and I don’t really have to push them to get them to do what they need to do. I just have to set them up with things to assist them at being successful.” Evans said he enjoys meeting with the students, talking with them and watching them succeed and move on after they earn 60 credit hours and transfer to a
departmental advisor. “The students here are really, really great,” Evans said.“They’re academically very capable, they’re extremely polite and they’re motivated. They recognize that they have an opportunity to do something here that’s going to lead them to bigger things.” Outside of work, Evans keeps even busier than when he’s working with students. On top of being a father, husband and artist, he’s also a farmer. A few years ago, Evans purchased an eight-acre tract of land that was a farm 70 years ago. Since then, he’s been working to turn it back into a farm. “I have a well dug, put up a fence, planted an orchard and blueberries, built a chicken coop, cut down two acres of wood to sell as firewood and added two boxes of honeybees,” he said. Evans got the inspiration for his farm from his brothers in Alabama who did similar things. “I saw them and what they were doing and just how rewarding it was for them,” he said. “It gave me the spark to get my own.” On top of working the land, Evans spends much of his time creating art. He draws and creates art prints, something that started when he was teaching in Walton County. “Back when I was teaching, we would have movie day … so I would end up watching the same movie for eight hours,” he said. “After the first time I’d seen it, I
FACTS
Dave Evans
Academic Advisor I Franklin College of Arts and Sciences M.S., Agricultural Sciences, UGA, 2000 B.S., Biology, University of Alabama, 1996 At UGA: Four years
didn’t want to see it any more, so I’d sit there and doodle all day long on a drawing. At the end of the day I had done kind of a cool drawing.” The students, some of whom rarely interacted with Evans, would always be impressed by the drawings and ask if they could keep them. “They even would fight over it a bit,” Evans said. “That positive feedback from people really encouraged me to put effort into my art.” Since those days, Evans has made art, created T-shirt designs and even rented booths at AthFest and other events around town to sell his work. “It’s been real rewarding,” he said.“To be around town and see someone with one of my T-shirts or work kind of trips me up—it’s wild.” Between his work and hobbies, Evans said he is living a blessed life full of happiness. “I’m real happy where I’m at right now, I have this life, I’m healthy and have my family,” he said.
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Faculty honored with Presidential Early Career Award By Jessica Luton and Mike Wooten jluton@uga.edu, mwooten@uga.edu
Two UGA professors are among 105 professors named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professors in the early stages of their research careers. Established in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education or community outreach. The recipients receive the awards in person each spring at the White House. The UGA recipients of the awards this year are Danny Krashen, an associate professor in Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ mathematics department, and Joachim Walther, an associate professor
Danny Krashen
Joachim Walther
in the College of Engineering. “Dr. Krashen and Dr. Walther combine innovative research with a passion for inspiring and mentoring young people, and they are a testament to the extraordinary quality of STEM education the University of Georgia provides,” said Pamela Whitten, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. Krashen joined the UGA faculty in 2008 following postdoctoral positions at the University of California, Los Angeles, Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania.
He began studying math more in depth to better understand physics, he said, and was quickly captivated by the beauty of its internal structure and ideas. With an interest in researching the interface of abstract algebra and geometry, his research focuses on the use of shape and geometry to gain insight into problems whose origins lie in algebra and arithmetic. Walther joined the UGA faculty in 2009. His National Science Foundation CAREER project, which focuses on how to improve the quality of qualitative research in engineering education, has been an instrumental part of his efforts to build an innovative, collaborative and highly interdisciplinary research program. Walther and close collaborator Nicola Sochacka, a research professional and instructor in the UGA College of Engineering, have traveled across the nation and abroad to facilitate workshops based on their framework for qualitative research quality.
QUESTIONS&ANSWERS
Opening doors
columns.uga.edu March 21, 2016
McGill Medal awarded to journalist who was jailed in Iran
New director of Discovery and Innovation Partnerships will connect industry with UGA researchers
By Stephanie Moreno s.moreno@uga.edu
By Terry Marie Hastings thasting@uga.edu
Crystal Leach joined UGA in February as the founding director of Discovery and Innovation Partnerships, a new initiative jointly supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research and the College of Engineering. The Ohio native earned her master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Akron and her doctorate in textiles and polymer science at Clemson University. For the majority of her career, she worked at Kimberly-Clark, a Fortune 500 global health and hygiene company, in positions ranging from materials research to leading a global innovation and product development team. “Increasing the level of industry-funded research at UGA is a high priority for OVPR,” said Vice President for Research David Lee. “But it needs a point person who gets up every day thinking about how to connect industry with relevant UGA researchers. We are excited to now have Crystal Leach in this role. “Her extensive background in industry research means that she’ll have instant credibility with her peers in industry as well as with our faculty. She can talk the talk and walk the walk,” he also said. “This partnership between OVPR and the College of Engineering makes sense because, we while we expect considerable activity involving engineering faculty, we want Crystal to be available to help faculty in other units who already conduct, or wish to conduct, industry-sponsored research.” Columns: University-industry collaborations are on the rise. What’s the value to UGA? To industry? Leach: Industry collaborations offer faculty the opportunity to extend the impact of their research through an additional external funding stream. Through these partnerships, UGA researchers can directly contribute to the economic growth of our community, which is central to our mission as a land-grant institution. For industry, the value of these partnerships extends beyond the specific outcomes of the research project. They gain access to technical capabilities they don’t have in-house and expand their resources without adding infrastructure. Identifying and partnering with faculty members who are on the leading edge of science is key for industries that want to be first to market with new technologies.Additionally, our industry partners tell us they highly value the ability to engage with students so that they have access to the pipeline of talented graduates. Columns: What kinds of UGA collaborations exist already?
Andrew Davis Tucker
Crystal Leach, UGA’s new director of Discovery and Innovation Partnerships, will help faculty connect with industry partners.
Leach: I’m lucky to have a great foundation to build from in this new role. UGA has a strong history of collaborating with industries across the biological and agricultural sciences ranging from fundamental exploration to applied research resulting in new products and services. Although relatively new, the College of Engineering is quickly building a portfolio of industrial partners across its research specialties, and it has the potential to greatly accelerate this within the next few years. The basic building blocks are in place to significantly expand UGA’s presence in this area: faculty with strong research portfolios, administrators who are engaged and supportive and systems that enable collaboration. I’m excited to tap into all of this potential to build new industrial collaborations and strengthen our current partnerships. Columns: How can faculty start collaborations with industry? Leach: Let’s talk! The first step is working together to outline the type of industry collaboration that best fits their research efforts and area of expertise. I’m happy to help faculty research target companies or sectors that would be a fit for their work. I would encourage them to check out the resources available on the OVPR website and talk with colleagues who are currently involved in industry-funded research projects. The most important thing
WEEKLY READER
Book by former professor explains physics
From Newton to Einstein: Ask the Physicist about Mechanics and Relativity By F. Todd Baker Morgan & Claypool Publishers Paperback: $20 E-book: $16
7
From Newton to Einstein is a book devoted to classical mechanics. “Classical” here includes the theory of special relativity as well because, as argued in the book, it is essentially Newtonian mechanics extended to very high speeds. The book draws from UGA Professor Emeritus of Physics F. Todd Baker’s popular questionand-answer website. The site is aimed primarily at readers who are curious about how physics explains the workings of the world. Hence, the answers emphasize concepts over formalism. Students new to physics will find discussion and quantitative calculations for areas often neglected in introductory courses. Professional scientists will find topics that they may find amusing and, in some cases, everyday applications that they had not thought of.
is that we start the dialogue so we can begin crafting the right strategy for their specific research efforts. Contact me at csleach@uga.edu. Columns: What kinds of assistance can you offer? Leach: I’m so impressed with the faculty here at UGA and the research I see taking place across multiple disciplines. My role is to help faculty identify and engage industry partners, leveraging my own industry experience to assist them in understanding corporate culture, decision-making processes and research models. Columns: What will success look like? Leach: Of course we want to increase UGA’s overall level of industry funding, especially for growing engineering programs, but there are additional factors that I will use as a measure of success. I’m especially interested in increasing our number of strategic collaborations—those long-term industry partners who engage with us across multiple fronts: research, recruitment and philanthropy. Also, I think there’s great potential for building research collaborations that span departmental and college boundaries, that is, bringing together the breadth of UGA capabilities to provide a complete solution for the challenges industry partners bring forward.
A journalist who endured 545 days of imprisonment in Iran is the 2016 recipient of the McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage. Jason Rezaian, a correspondent for The Washington Post in Tehran from 2012-2016, will receive the medal from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and its McGill Program in Journalistic Courage. “We are humbled to have the opportunity to honor Jason Rezaian,” said Janice Hume, head of the UGA department of journalism. “What an amazing role model he is for our students who are just beginning to understand the nature and historic significance of journalistic courage.” While he was working as The Post’s Tehran bureau chief in July 2014, Iranian authorities raided Rezaian’s residence and took Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, into custody. Salehi, also a journalist, was released in early October of that year, but Rezaian remained in custody in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. It was made public in April 2015 that Iranian authorities had indicted Rezaian on four charges, including espionage. Iranian officials announced on Nov. 22, 2015, that he had been sentenced to a prison term—the length of which they would not disclose. Rezaian was held for 545 days, the longest detention for a Western journalist in Iran, and no charges of wrongdoing were ever released. The McGill Medal is named for Ralph McGill, the late editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution. The selection of Rezaian was made by the 2015 class of McGill Fellows, 12 undergraduate and graduate students chosen for academic achievement, practical experience and leadership. The McGill Medal, now in its eighth year, is part of the McGill Program for Journalistic Courage at UGA’s Grady College.
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http://students.caes.uga.edu
Relaunched in fall 2015, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences students’ home page offers up-to-date information about lectures, job fairs, college announcements and scholarships. Staff in the college’s Office of Academic Affairs are able to update content on a daily basis, according to Robby Thrift, who works with the CAES Web team and helped design the
website’s bones. While dynamic content and a mobile-friendly design were key to making the website useful for current students, the site is much more than an online bulletin board. It also helps prospective students learn about CAES majors, possible careers and hosts the first-person accounts of life at CAES from current students and recent alumni.
Senior Reporter Aaron Hale Reporter Matt Chambers The University of Georgia is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action. The University of Georgia is a unit of the University System of Georgia. I
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8 March 21, 2016 columns.uga.edu
FUNDING
A BIG IMPACT—This year as
part of IMPACT Service Breaks, 370 students went to 20 locations in the U.S. to work on service projects dealing with topics from urban environmental awareness to Native American cultural awareness and advocacy. Above: A group of students worked to build a house with Habitat for Humanity in Asheboro, North Carolina. Above right: UGA students helped frame a house in Immokalee, Florida. Right: Students volunteered at the Wade Center after-school program in Bluefield, West Virginia.
INITIATIVE from page 1 based on enrollment trends, with an eye toward high-demand courses and challenging courses where students would benefit from more personalized attention. New course sections range from “Basics of Chemistry,” a core requirement in the physical sciences, to “Computational Engineering Methods,” which counts toward the graduation requirements of six majors. “Increasing the number of small class sections in critical instruction areas will improve student learning and success as well as help keep students on track for graduation,” said Rahul Shrivastav, vice president for instruction.
The full impact of the small class size initiative won’t be felt until fall 2016, but the nine students in a campaign politics class taught by Josh Putnam in the School of Public and International Affairs have already given it a unanimous vote of approval. “In smaller classes you get to know the professor better and more quickly,” said Caroline Kaltz, a junior Honors student pursuing a degree in mass media arts from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “You also get to know your classmates better, which creates a more comfortable atmosphere for speaking up in discussions.”
Bulletin Board Records retention schedule
The University System of Georgia has revised its Records Retention Schedule. The schedule determines how long official records at USG institutions, which includes UGA, are to be retained and what kinds of records should be held permanently. The retention schedule has legal and organizational implications for all UGA faculty and staff and is particularly important to those who directly oversee records for their department or unit. View the revised schedule at http:// www.usg.edu/records_management/ schedules. Departments may also contact Venus Jackson, records manager, at vjackson@ uga.edu, or Steve Armour, university archives and electronic records archivist, at sarmour@uga.edu.
CTEGD symposium
Registration is open until April 27 for the 26th annual Molecular Parasitology/ Vector Biology Symposium, which will be held May 3 at the Georgia Center. This daylong regional conference, hosted by UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, on parasites and host/parasite interaction routinely draws more than 120 attendees from many departments in at least four colleges or schools at UGA as well as colleagues from other institutions. John Boothroyd from the Stanford University School of Medicine will be the keynote speaker. His research focuses on
the pathogenesis of parasitic infections, most notably Toxoplasma gondii. There is no cost to attend the symposium, or the full catered lunch, but registration is required. For more information and to register, visit http://t.uga.edu/27N .
Research participants needed
The Department of Health Promotion in the College of Public Health is conducting a study to learn more about how intermittent physical activity helps control blood sugar. Researchers are seeking men and women ages 40-64 who are overweight or obese and able to perform exercise for two to four minutes at a time. Participants will wear a glucose monitor for three days and will be provided meals during this time. They also will climb stairs on a stair climber machine for two to four minutes at a time, several times per day on two days. Participants will be given information about their body composition and health and also receive a financial incentive valued up to $270 for completion. For more information, contact Jennifer Gay at UGAWHG@gmail.com or jlgay@uga.edu , or by phone at 706-542-6698.
Senior Signature deadline
Students who graduate in May or December have until March 31 to make their Senior Signature donations to secure their names on the Class of 2016 Senior Signature plaque in Tate Plaza. UGA faculty and staff are
from page 1 Kelly Dawe, a Distinguished Research Professor of Plant Biology and Genetics, received $4.6 million to lead a team that hopes to better understand the critical role of centromeres, which are the structural regions of plant genomes that ensure chromosomes segregate properly during cell division. A research team led by Scott Jackson, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and professor of crop and soil sciences in UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, received $742,000 to understand the genetic basis of adaptation in common beans and runner beans. James Leebens-Mack, a professor of plant biology, is leading a team that will create the first complete genome sequence for dogwoods.They received a $1.4 million grant that ultimately will help plant breeders use genetic
markers to guide cultivation of new dogwood varieties that are both beautiful and strong. A team led by Wayne Parrott, a professor of crop and soil sciences, received $3.4 million to create molecular tools that will make it easier for geneticists and plant breeders to identify and study the function of genes associated with desirable traits in soybeans. Esther van der Knaap, a professor of horticulture who recently joined UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is using a $4.9 million grant to continue research she began at Ohio State University on tomato fruit quality. Her laboratory will analyze genome sequence data for a mixture of wild, semi-domesticated and cultivated tomatoes to identify the genes that control important fruit traits such as flavor, size, color and firmness.
IDENTITY from page 1
LECTURE
In a review of 60 universities, including UGA’s peer and aspirational institutions, all have a unified visual identity system in place. To inform and guide development, the division is seeking input from the university community concerning the preferences for logo elements and the functional needs of a system for its use. Structured public listening sessions continue to be held in March, and the remaining sessions are listed on the Master Calendar. (See Bulletin Board, below). Targeted sessions with staff, students and alumni will take place in April, in addition to focus groups with faculty moderated by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. Input is welcome from all stakeholders in the UGA community. Questions, comments and recommendations can be directed via email to visualidentity@uga.edu. The Division of Marketing & Communications is working closely with the Division of Development and Alumni Relations on this process as UGA prepares to launch the public phase of a comprehensive capital campaign. Based on the input from the university community, the division will determine key strategies to develop creative concepts for an enhanced visual identity system for the university. Those concepts will then be tested with key stakeholder groups to evaluate their effectiveness before a decision is made about the refreshed logo.
Cole additionally is professor emerita of Emory University, from which she retired as Presidential Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Women’s Studies and AfricanAmerican Studies. Cole is a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was appointed director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in March 2009 and currently serves on the Scholarly Advisory Board for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is also the president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, and she is on the board of Gregory University in Uturu, Nigeria. Cole has been awarded 63 honorary degrees and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the TransAfrica Forum Global Public Service Award, the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for Community Service from United Way of America, the Joseph Prize for Human Rights presented by the Anti-Defamation League and the AlstonJones International Civil and Human Rights Award. The Mary Frances Early Lecture honors the legacy of the first African-American to earn a degree from UGA. Early graduated with a master’s degree in music education in 1962 and completed her specialist in education degree in 1967. The lecture series recognizes Early’s dedication toward making UGA an institution of higher learning for all people. It also strives to demonstrate the progress that has been made in achieving her vision as well as to identify the work that remains to be done.
encouraged to remind students about this important deadline as it will be the last time graduating students have the opportunity to be included on the plaque. Senior Signature is the university’s class gift program through which students make a $50 gift to UGA, $20 of which is an unrestricted gift to the Georgia Fund, UGA’s annual giving fund. The other $30 may be designated to a school, college or other unit on campus about which the student is passionate. To make a gift or learn more about this important fundraising opportunity, visit alumni.uga.edu/seniorsignature . Questions? Email alumni@uga.edu .
‘Listening’ sessions
UGA is exploring an update of its visual brand identity and logo system and invites members of the UGA community to participate in a series of open, public input meetings in March. (See story, page 1). The meetings will be structured “listening” sessions led by the Division of Marketing & Communications that will explore the preferences and needs of faculty, staff, students and alumni and discuss opportunities to establish a university-wide system for logos and to make it more relevant for digital media use. To sign up to attend, go to http:// goo.gl/forms/ko7ph97ySb . Bulletin Board is limited to information that may pertain to a majority of faculty and staff members.
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PROFESSOR from page 1 development of methods for investigating the biological properties of metals that are essential to life processes in plants and animals. Many of his discoveries have “set up their own subfields of research worldwide,” said Brian Hoffman, the Morrison Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University, in his nomination letter. Johnson’s work has garnered $12.3 million in external funding, including a $3.3 million NIH MERIT award, which provides longterm grant support to investigators “whose research competence and productivity are distinctly superior.” He has published more than 235 peer-reviewed journal articles with an average of 48 citations per article. He has presented his work at more than 100 regional, national or international conferences. In addition, he has chaired numerous national and international meetings and created a series of Summer Inorganic Biochemistry Summer Workshops that trained graduate and postdoctoral students from across the U.S. at UGA. Johnson received a UGA Creative Research Medal in 1995, was named Distinguished Research Professor in 1998 and was an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow from 1986 through 1988. Department head John Amster and five other colleagues in UGA’s chemistry department wrote in their nomination letter, “His performance during his 28 years at the University of Georgia has been remarkable by any criterion, and all indications suggest that this research excellence will continue and even accelerate in the future.”