UGA Columns November 10, 2014

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UGA launches CURO Research Assistantship to expand opportunities CAMPUS NEWS

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The University of Georgia Hot Sardines to perform jazz music Nov. 17 in Hodgson Concert Hall

Vol. 42, No. 16

November 10, 2014

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$1.37M grant will help train behavioral health care counselors

By Michael Childs mdchilds@uga.edu

Camie Williams

Cynthia Johnston Turner, director of bands at UGA, will conduct the first composition inspired by, written for and performed with Google Glass Nov. 12.

Through the Google Glass

Bernadette Heckman and Jolie Daigle, faculty members of the College of Education, have received a three-year, $1.37 million federal grant to recruit and train more than 100 UGA master’s degree students in school counseling to help increase access to mental and behavioral health services for children in Northeast Georgia’s K-12 schools.

The program will provide $10,000 stipends to school counseling students in their second year of the two-year program. The admissions deadline for the first cohort is Dec. 1. Review and selection of students will be in February.

Applicants to the program will be notified of their acceptance by April and admitted into the program in the summer.

“Not only will our master’s students receive training in school counseling, they also will receive training in integrated behavioral health that will enable our team to contribute to Georgia’s behavioral health workforce and help meet the psychosocial needs of at-risk K-12 youth in the state,” said Heckman, principal investigator of the project and an associate professor and director of clinical training in the counseling and human development services department.

Today, about 85 percent of Georgia counties are federally designated as Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The disparity of available mental and behavioral health professionals and services results in many children and families not receiving psychosocial services they

UGA professor uses latest technology to enhance learning in Hugh Hodgson School of Music UGA Obesity initiative with “I would live video feed concerts

By Camie Williams Google Glass lab, using the new device to teach and explore music from the conductor’s point of view” Researchers to study cause camiew@uga.edu in ways Beethoven never imagined. and “I would wear it in conducting At a Nov. 12 Spotlight on the lab to give immediate feedback to of obesity-related inflammation Who said classical music had to Arts event, Turner will conduct the students,” which resonated with be old-fashioned?

Cynthia Johnston Turner, director of bands at UGA, may conduct music written 300 years ago, but she is a 21st century kind of professor.

Turner has coupled her teaching—and research—with technology, sharing the musical score with musicians on an iPad to help them understand the music more and experimenting with a wearable technology called Lumo Lift to help improve posture for conductors.

When Turner arrived at UGA’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music from Cornell University this summer, she brought with her a

first composition inspired by, written for and performed with Google Glass — the public premiere of the piece she commissioned from Kevin Ernste, a former colleague at Cornell University.

“The idea of wearable technology and virtual reality is really compelling these days,” Turner said.

“I think we have to pay attention to that.”

Turner became a beta tester for Google Glass a year ago, after winning a contest on Twitter to complete the hashtag #ifIhadGlass. The professor of conducting completed the sentence

Google and allowed her to become one of the first 8,000 people to try out the technology.

Funded by a Consortium of College and University Media Centers grant,Turner has been working with graduate student Tyler Ehrlich to create music applications for the Google Glass.

A metronome app has been extremely successful, Turner said, mentioning that the speaker behind the ear creates a vibration that helps “feel” the beat.

“When you are teaching conductors about getting the beat in your body, it’s one thing to hear it and it’s another to feel it,” she said.

A reverse metronome—where Glass would determine a tempo See GLASS on page 8

Not all fat is made the same.

Scientists have observed that fat cells in an obese person produce more molecules called adipokines, which catch the attention of the body’s immune system, causing them to invade fatty tissues.

The flood of immune cells normally reserved for fighting infection can lead to disease-causing inflammation and the kinds of abnormal cell growth that causes cancer. But it’s difficult to study this phenomenon, because scientists don’t have an easy way to separate fat cells from other cell types and study them in the lab.

Now, thanks in part to a $670,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at UGA, Emory University and Abeome Corp. are working on a new method

See GRANT on page 8

to isolate these troublesome fat cells and analyze the genetic changes in obese fat that may contribute to diabetes, cardiovascular Richard Meagher disease, cancer and other obesity-related diseases.

“It’s very clear that an obese individual’s fat has been reprogrammed in a way that’s quite pathological,” said Richard Meagher, Distinguished Research Professor of Genetics in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and principal investigator

See OBESITY on page 8

Academic Affairs

Campus-wide initiative underway to improve grants management

By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

UGA is undertaking a largescale effort to streamline and enhance the way that grants for research and other sponsored projects are managed, with the ultimate goal of boosting faculty productivity.

“I have heard repeatedly from faculty that pre- and post-grant support services must be improved to ensure that faculty are able to focus on their research,” said Pamela Whitten, senior vice president for academic affairs and

provost. “That message has been heard loud and clear, which is why multiple units are working together to improve the way that we manage grants here at UGA.” Shortly after Whitten took office earlier this year, she charged a nine-member team of deans— chaired by Donald Leo in the College of Engineering and Phillip Williams in the College of Public Health—with creating a strategic plan for significantly enhancing the research enterprise at UGA. In April, she hosted the inaugural LEAD meeting, which brought more than 130 school and college

faculty leaders and other administrators together to gather input on ways to improve UGA’s research productivity.

Separately, a 14-member work group on research administration composed of faculty and grants administrators began meeting in fall 2013. In March 2014, the group submitted recommendations for improving customer service among grants administrators, providing consistent levels of service across campus and enhancing communication.

“Nearly 250 people—including VPs, deans, department heads,

directors, faculty and staff—have devoted countless hours toward this initiative,” Whitten said.

“Thanks to their dedication, we have laid the groundwork for significant improvements.”

A consistent refrain from faculty has been the need for functional integration of pre-award services provided by the Office for Sponsored Programs—a unit of the Office of the Vice President for Research—and post-award services provided by Contracts and Grants, a unit of the Division of Finance and Administration.

See INITIATIVE on page 8

“Giant Step” to improved grants administration

UGA is implementing a series of changes to improve the management of grants and other sponsored projects.

Improvements • Better customer service • Enhanced outreach and communication Outcomes • More efficient grants administration • Increased research productivity

2 Nov. 10, 2014 columns.uga.edu Medical college enrollment rises

Around academe

The Association of American Medical Colleges announced that student enrollment in medical colleges increased by 1.4 percent this fall.

A total of 20,343 students, a record number, enrolled in medical colleges, the group reported.

The number of Latino enrollees increased 1.8 percent, and the number of African-American enrollees was up 1.1 percent.

Nearly half of top schools have tanning facilities on or near campus

Authors of a study published in the journal JAMA Dermatology found that a fair amount of colleges and universities have tanning beds and booths on or near campus. The study found that of the top 125 colleges and universities, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, 12 percent have tanning beds on campus, and 48 percent have tanning facilities either on or near campus.

“We encourage universities to adopt a ‘tan free campus’ policy by prohibiting tanning beds and booths from campuses and discouraging housing facilities from having beds,” said Sherry Pagoto, the lead author and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts. “Universities should instead court new students with enticing health facilities such as gyms, swimming pools and healthy dining options.”

Apply bait, treat for fire ants in fall

News to Use

Fall is the perfect time to treat your yard for fire ants. Tackling the stinging pests now will cut down on the number encountered next spring and summer, according to UGA entomologists.

“When fire ants sting, they release toxins that cause blisters, prolonged agony and even ­possible allergic reactions,” said Wayne Gardner, a research entomologist with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

The ants tend to be most active when ­daytime temperatures are between 70 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Fire ant colonies reach their peak in the fall having grown throughout the summer months. In the fall, they spend a lot of time foraging for food. Actively foraging ants will pick up bait and carry it into the nest within the first hour or two.

UGA specialists recommend treating fire ants by first broadcasting a fire ant bait. Apply the bait either across the home lawn or in a 4-foot circle around each fire ant mound. Use care not to disturb the mounds. Wear gloves and use only a new spreader dedicated to treating fire ants.

After seven to 10 days, apply a second treatment to get the remaining ants. Kick the ant mounds and pour the insecticide quickly as the ants will scatter once the mound is disturbed.

Source: UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

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For more information about the arts at UGA, visit discover.uga.edu.

Internal Auditing Division

Internal auditors help departments, units get better at managing risks

By Aaron Hale

aahale@uga.edu

UGA is committed to preserving an ethical working culture for faculty and staff.

As part of that commitment, the university’s Internal Auditing Division provides independent, objective assurances that UGA’s financial and operational activities comply with university, University System of Georgia Board of Regents, state and federal guidelines.

The division, which reports to the UGA Office of the President as well as the Office of Internal Audit and Compliance for the University System, annually performs about 35 compliance audits to provide such assurances.

The division also is responsible for conducting investigations, or forensic audits, if there are complaints of fraud.

But the division isn’t just about ensuring that everyone follows protocol. Matthew Whitley, director of the UGA Internal Auditing Division, said the broader goal of auditing is to help academic units at UGA better meet their goals.

Simply put,Whitley said, the Internal Auditing Division’s nine-person staff is focused on risk analysis.

“To me the real value of how we help the university is helping these departments and units get better at managing risk,” Whitley said. “The more we can reduce the risks of various processes in an organization—that’s risk through waste, fraud, abuse or inefficiency—the more it helps the organization meet the goals that it has set.”

Sooner or later, each of the university’s over 200 auditable units gets selected for auditing. Each year, units are chosen for scheduled audits based on a number of considerations including risk factors and the length of time since a unit last was audited.

However, Whitley estimates that 40 percent of his division’s annual audits come through requests from unit and department heads who want to ensure that proper controls are in place and policies are working.

The eagerness for directors to request an audit may have something to do with the type of auditing the division offers.

Whereas an old-fashioned audit, or a compliance audit, would include a standard list of questions for a department to check off, the Internal Auditing Division also offers a different kind of audit, called an operational audit. These audits look for positive ways to improve processes.

“We’re trying to do more operational auditing, which allows us to really structure an audit more toward the needs of the organization we are auditing,” Whitley said. “It gives us a lot more flexibility. We can customize that audit more specifically to their areas of

Paul Efland

Matthew Whitley, director of the UGA Internal Auditing Division, said the broader goal of auditing is to help academic units at UGA better meet their goals.

International Fraud Awareness Week: Nov. 16-22 An initiative by the University System of Georgia known as the Spirit of USG is bringing awareness to fraud prevention on its campuses the week of Nov. 16-22 in partnership with International Fraud Awareness Week.

At the University of Georgia, recognizing International Fraud Awareness Week means the Internal Auditing Division’s staff is taking stock of the ethical accomplishments across the many parts of UGA’s campuses—its four extended campuses, 155 Extension offices, programs along the coast and research stations around the state—255 auditable entities in all. It also means bringing awareness to the issues common on any USG campus.

“We take the responsibility of maintaining integrity in our processes very seriously at the University of Georgia,” said President Jere W. Morehead.“The Internal Audit Office reports jointly to the UGA President and the USG Chief Auditor for that very reason.

It provides a consistent and objective check on what we are doing so that we concern and hopefully make the audit more useful to them.”

University departments can request audits from the Internal Auditing Division to help improve efficiency and reduce risk.

To focus more on operational audits, the division has implemented more efficient ways to monitor financial transactions. Whitley said they have implemented a program that uses computer data analytics to pinpoint high-risk transactions for university

always support a culture of honesty on all of our campuses.”

The university employs about 10,000 people, including seasonal, temporary and student staff. Part of its educational approach is teaching individuals the value of an ethical environmental and also showing them where problems could lie.

On Nov. 17 from 2-4 p.m. in Room AB of the Training and Development Building, Whitley will be leading a class on “Why Ethics Still Matter.”

The course, open to anyone and offered twice annually, will look at trends in unethical behavior, corresponding responses in ethics training and why ethical issues continue to plague institutions.

“The problem occurs when people start graying the lines between what is ethical and what is not,” Whitley said.

“You can never do that. We maintain a tough standard at UGA, but it is a good standard to be constantly checking your own motives.”

—Stephanie Schupska purchasing credit cards. The program leaves the division staff with more time to help the university improve in other areas.

Whitley said he is pleased that most academic units that undergo audits are accommodating to the Internal Auditing Division staff. The collaboration leads to a more productive audit.

“The cooperation level at UGA is very high,” Whitley said. “Folks look at an audit as an opportunity to get better at what they do.”

College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Education Magazine list highlights company founded by UGA professors

By Kat Yancey Gilmore kygilmor@uga.edu

IS3D LLC, a company founded

by UGA professors in the College of Veterinary Medicine to create interactive learning tools, has been named to Atlanta Magazine’s Groundbreakers Class of 2014.

IS3D was one of 11 finalists from a field of more than 100 entries to be recognized.

“Being chosen as a finalist for this award is great recognition of all the hard work the team has put into

growing IS3D over the past year,” said Tom Robertson, CEO of IS3D. “This includes all of our partner teachers in Atlanta and across Georgia, and the researchers in UGA’s department of mathematics and science education in the College of Education.”

The groundbreakers program was launched in 2012 to honor the people and projects that make Atlanta a better place to live. The program focuses on innovation. In 2014, the specific emphasis was on education and learning.

IS3D was founded in 2010 by eight UGA faculty and staff members who

shared a dream of improving science comprehension and inspiring young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math, known as STEM fields.

Through partnerships with more than a dozen school districts, IS3D’s team of artists, designers and programmers have developed a robust catalog of products based on student and teacher feedback.

Their products are being tested in classrooms throughout Georgia and will be marketed under the brand Cogent Education.

RESEARCH news

columns.uga.edu Nov. 10, 2014

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Digest Physicist to discuss ‘systems view of life’ at Nov. 13 lecture in Chapel

Cal Powell

Ruthann Swanson, an associate professor in the foods and nutrition department of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, is leading a team of researchers that found consumers perceive peanut butters that contain some peanut skin particles to be more natural.

Waste not

Researchers experiment with new uses for peanut skins

By Cal Powell

jcpowell@uga.edu

The U.S. grows about 3 million metric tons of peanuts per year and uses 60 percent of that amount to make nearly 1.2 billion pounds of peanut butter. Typically, before the legumes are ground to a spreadable consistency, machines first shake off each peanut’s thin, papery skin.

The skins are then thrown away.

A new UGA study published in the journal LWT-Food Science and Technology has found a way to incorporate peanut skins—which are high in antioxidants and dietary fiber—back into peanut butter.

Ruthann Swanson, an associate professor in the foods and nutrition department of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, is leading the team of UGA researchers that found that peanut skins can be incorporated into traditional peanut butter with potentially surprising results.

“What has happened in recent years

is a movement toward healthier products in general, including nut butters, and an increased emphasis on natural products, and the peanut butters that contain some skin particles are perceived to be more natural by the consumer,” Swanson said.

The researchers include food scientists William Kerr and Ron Pegg in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and James Hargrove, a professor emeritus in the foods and nutrition department.

The article, “Peanut skins-fortified peanut butters: Effects on consumer acceptability and quality characteristics,” focused on a project that assessed the effects of peanut skin incorporation on consumer acceptability, with measurements of appearance, flavor, texture, spreadability and overall satisfaction.

“We found we can do this, and people found it to be acceptable,” Swanson said.

The study also looked at skins that had been heated to different extents during processing: blanched (the mildest heat

treatment), light roasted and medium roasted.

Swanson’s team tried various levels of peanut skin incorporation, going as high as 5 percent, with no difference from the control samples on acceptability of samples that included blanched skins.

Swanson said the findings suggest a food company could attempt to diversify its product line by incorporating peanut skins into production and even could use them in other food products such as cookies.

Historically, consumers have found the presence of particulates in peanut butter to be objectionable. Also, most peanut butter consumers tend to be very brand loyal, she said, making new products difficult to market.

“This generation does not seem to be as brand loyal and they want products that are closer to their original state,” she said.

Additional study authors are Cloviece T. Sanders and Christa L. DeMasiea of the foods and nutrition department.

Discovery opens doors to boosting biofuels, medicine jhataway@uga.edu

The survival of most plants, including those that people rely on for food, depends on their ability to build strong but flexible cell walls. A key component of these walls is a molecule called xylan.

Now, UGA researchers have discovered two proteins that play a critical role in the formation of this fundamental component of plant life, opening the doors for a new toolkit that one day may help scientists engineer improved plants for biofuels, construction materials, medicine and food production.

“The scientific community has identified a large number of proteins that the plant uses to assemble its cell walls, but it has been very difficult to identify those few proteins that are directly involved in the construction of key polysaccharide (molecules) like xylan,” said Will York, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in UGA’s Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and principal investigator of a CCRC research team that recently published the paper describing its results in The Plant Journal.

“The work we’ve done gives us the fundamental knowledge we need to manipulate plants for industry and agriculture,” said York, who is a member of the Bioenergy Science Center.

Plants that don’t make enough xylan have weak cell walls, so they don’t grow normally and cannot transport life-giving water from the roots to the leaves. Xylan is the third most abundant glycopolymer on Earth after cellulose and chitin, and it forms a major component of wood, forage, biomass and dietary fiber.

The construction of plant cells and fibrous tissue is an extraordinarily complicated process involving a huge number of genes that dictate every minute detail of plant growth and development. In that immense sea of biological data, however, are specific genes that are directly responsible for the development of polymers like xylan.

Through collaborations with other researchers at the CCRC, the team was able to identify two proteins, IRX 10-L and ESK1/TBL29, that directly are involved in xylan synthesis.

These genetic processes are not only

Second annual criminal justice conference to be held on Griffin campus

The UGA Griffin campus will present its second annual CJ Day @ UGA Nov. 14 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the UGA-Griffin Student Learning Center.

The mini-conference will include a keynote address by Steven Teske, Clayton County’s chief juvenile court judge.

The theme of this year’s conference, “After Mass Incarceration: Charting a Path to the Future,” is an opportunity for professionals from varied areas of criminal justice—law enforcement, law and the courts, corrections and the faith community—to convene and discuss these reforms and their impact on communities and to suggest alternatives to incarceration. Registration is free, but seating is limited. The full list of speakers and registration information is at http://www.ugacjday. com.

Additional presentations will explore new directions in prosecutions—especially drug offenses, evidence-based strategies to reduce recidivism, innovative practices for strengthening inmates’ parental ties, the toll of human trafficking on communities, forensics and the need for broadly trained criminal justice professionals.

Annual Law School Fair to be held Nov. 17

Complex Carbohydrate Research Center

By James E. Hataway

Physicist and systems theorist Fritjof Capra will discuss the “Scientific Understanding of Living Systems and the Systems View of Life” Nov. 13 at 3 p.m. in the Chapel.

His visit is hosted by the College of Engineering, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Environment and Design. A reception will be held immediately after the lecture in the Jackson Street Building. The lecture and reception are open to the public.

Capra is a theoretical physicist, system theorist, environmental activist, educator and author of several international bestsellers including The Tao of Physics, The Web of Life, The Hidden Connections, Learning from Leonardo and The System View of Life: A Unifying Vision, which he has coauthored with Pier Luigi Luisi. He is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, and has lectured widely around the world.

In addition to the lecture, Capra will discuss Leonardo di Vinci’s work in the synthesis of art, science and technology and its relevance with 20 UGA students from 13 colleges and the Honors Program. He also will hold a special session with 20 UGA faculty members to exchange views on systems thinking and the science of living systems.

important for understanding how plants grow, but also how they can be more easily broken down into useful products like biofuels.

Through millions of years of evolution, plants have developed rigid support structures that allow them to grow tall enough for their leaves to efficiently harvest sunlight.These structures are strong and flexible because they contain xylanrich cell walls. For the plant to survive, these cell walls must also be resistant to attack by insects and microbes.

Overcoming this inherent strength is a major obstacle to the fledgling biofuel industry, because it makes it more difficult to extract the energy-rich sugars locked inside the sturdy plant cells walls. Xylan plays a major role in this resistance, and the researchers hope that their discovery could help alternative energy companies make fuels more efficiently.

But an improved understanding of xylan stands to benefit other industries as well.

Ultimately, more work is needed before their discovery turns into a marketable product or process, but York and his colleagues are optimistic about the future.

UGA’s Pre-Law Advising Program will hold its annual Law School Fair Nov. 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the fourth floor rotunda of the Miller Learning Center.

The event will give students and alumni considering law school the opportunity to meet directly with recruiters from more than 85 law schools. Some of the schools represented include UGA, Boston College, the University of California-Irvine, Duke University, Emory University, Georgia State University, Charleston School of Law, George Mason University, Mercer University, Notre Dame University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Richmond, the University of Texas, Vanderbilt University, Wake Forest University, the College of William & Mary and Washington and Lee University.

Visit http://prelaw.uga.edu/2014lawfairparticipants for a full list of schools as well as test ­preparation companies in attendance.

Registration will be held in the east wing entrance of the rotunda. Students will be required to show a UGACard. Dress is professional/business casual.

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For a complete listing of events 7 8 5 at the University of Georgia, check the Master Calendar on the Web (calendar.uga.edu/­).

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The following events are open to the public, unless otherwise specified.

Dates, times and locations may change without advance notice.

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Russian State Symphony Orchestra to perform Nov. 13

History faculty organize roundtable discussion at Margaret Mitchell House

By Dave Marr

By Bobby Tyler

davemarr@uga.edu

The Performing Arts Center will present the Russian State Symphony Orchestra Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall. Artistic Director Valery Polyansky will conduct the orchestra in an all-Russian program that includes Glinka’s “Overture to Ruslan” and “Lyudmilla” and Rachmaninoff’s “Symphony No. 1.” Award-winning pianist Vladimir Feltsman will join the orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s “Piano Concerto No. 1.”

Tickets for the concert are $25-$62 with discounts for UGA students; they can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center, online at pac.uga.edu or by calling the box office at 706-542-4400.

Founded in 1957 within the All-Union Broadcasting System, the Russian State Symphony Orchestra now ranks among the finest Russian symphony orchestras. The orchestra is a frequent visitor to international festivals throughout Europe and the Far East with recent tours to Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Croatia, South Korea and Taiwan.

The Performing Arts Center will offer a pre-concert lecture at 7:15 p.m.

It is open free to the public.

Beginning at 6 p.m., the Georgia Museum of Art (located next to the Performing Arts Center) will hold “Make It an Evening” with gallery tours before the concert. Jittery Joe’s coffee and desserts by Cecilia Villaveces’ Cakes will be available for $5 per person.

The concert is part of Spotlight on the Arts festival at UGA.

Artists, musicians and scholars will convene for a free-ranging discussion of the meaning and continuing resonance of the Civil War and the civil rights movement. “Been in the Storm So Long: Remembering 1864 and 1964 in 2014” will be held Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. at the Margaret Mitchell House, 990 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta.

The panel discussion is organized

by Stephen Berry, the Gregory Professor of the Civil War Era, and Stephen Mihm, an associate professor, both in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ history department.

The event, a special addendum to UGA’s Spotlight on the Arts festival, is co-sponsored by the history department, the Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library at Emory University, the Atlanta History Center and the Jane and Harry Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at UGA. It is open free to the public.

Rickey Bevington of Georgia Public Broadcasting will host the far-reaching roundtable discussion of the coincident anniversaries of the 1864 Battles of Atlanta and 1964 Civil Rights Act. Panelists include former U.S. Poet Laureate and UGA alumna Natasha Trethewey; artist Robert Morris; singer-songwriter Caroline Herring; and historians Robert Pratt, Brett Gadsden and Joseph Crespino.

“We wanted to sponsor a deeply reflective discussion about race in America that acknowledges both how far we’ve come and how far we have to go,” said Berry, co-director of the Willson Center Lab for Digital Humanities.

btyler@uga.edu

Red Priest to give ‘Viva Baroque’ concert at Performing Arts Center

By Bobby Tyler btyler@uga.edu

The Performing Arts Center will present Red Priest Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall. Known for flamboyant and theatrical performances, Red Priest will offer a program called “Viva Baroque,” featuring music

by Bach, Handel and Vivaldi.

Tickets for the concert are $25-$35 with discounts for UGA students, and they can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center, online at pac.uga.edu or by calling the box office at 706-542-4400.

Red Priest is the only early music group in the world to have been compared in the press to the Rolling Stones,

EXHIBITIONS XL. Through Nov. 16. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu.

Jackson Pollock, the Marx Brothers, Spike Jones and Cirque du Soleil.

Founded in 1997, Red Priest is named after the flame-haired priest,Antonio Vivaldi.The group has performed throughout Europe, Japan, Australia and North and Central America with regular appearances at international festivals that include the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Moscow December Nights Festival, Schwetzingen Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Ravinia Festival and Bermuda Festival.

In 2008, Red Priest launched its own record label, Red Priest Recordings. Recent releases have included a swashbuckling collection titled “Pirates of the Baroque” and the all-Bach “Johann, I’m Only Dancing.” The group’s

latest release, “Handel in the Wind,” is a tribute to another baroque master.

The Performing Arts Center will offer a pre-concert lecture at 7:15 p.m.

The lecture is open free to the public.

Red Priest’s concert will be recorded for national broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today.

Red Priest also will be in residence to perform a Young People’s Concert for area public school children. The performance and residency are made possible in part by a grant from the Jane and Harry Willson Center for Humanities and Arts.

The Red Priest concert is part of Spotlight on the Arts festival at UGA.

prizes of $433 each, will give the campus community insight into the scholarship and research in the arts conducted by graduate students at UGA. 5 p.m. Chapel.

essays published by UGA Press and coedited by UGA history professor Kathleen Clark and Ann Short Chirhart of Indiana State University. 3 p.m. 285 special collections libraries. 706-542-8079, jclevela@uga.edu.

Wild Flowers, Wild Places. Through Nov. 23. Visitor Center and Conservatory, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6156, ckeber@uga.edu.

DJs in the Dining Hall** 6 p.m. Snelling Dining Hall with WUOG disc jockey Sean Polite.

An Archaeologist’s Eye: The Parthenon Drawings of Katherine A. Schwab. Through Dec. 7. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu.

Short Play Readings** 7 p.m. 201 Fine Arts Building. Athens Playwrights’ Workshop will present 10-minute play readings for the Spotlight on the Arts festival. JohnPatrickBray@yahoo.com.

Vince Dooley: A Retrospective, 1954-1988.

Through Dec. 15. Special collections libraries. 706-542-7123, hasty@uga.edu.

Preferred Parking Comedy Tour** $5; free for students with valid UGACards.

7 p.m. Tate Theatre.

Boxers and Backbeats: Tomata du Plenty and the West Coast Punk Scene. Through Jan. 4. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu.

Documentary Screening COWSPIRACY: The Sustainability Secret.

7 p.m. 171 Miller Learning Center.

706-224-3796, sos@uga.edu.

The ... of E6, part of Athens Celebrates Elephant Six. Through Jan. 4. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@ uga.edu.

Poetry Reading* Irish stage, film and television actor Barry McGovern will read from the poetry and prose of Samuel Beckett. 8 p.m. Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave. wsmith78@uga.edu.

Emilio Pucci in America. Through Feb. 1.

Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662, hazbrown@uga.edu.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10 Vice President for Instruction Finalist Presentation Presentation by Robin Wright, candidate for UGA vice president for instruction. Wright is a professor and head of the department of biology teaching and learning and senior associate dean for undergraduate initiatives at the University of Minnesota. 9:30 a.m. Grand Hall, Tate Student Center.

Experience UGA Field Trip** 10 a.m. Stegeman Coliseum. As part of the Experience UGA field trip, students in Emily Sahakian’s Community-Based Theatre class will introduce 10th-grade students to theater for social change.

Induction Ceremony* The annual induction of new members of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, based at UGA Libraries, will be held for Mary Hood, Alfred Uhry and the late Olive Ann Burns. 10 a.m.

Special collections libraries auditorium.

706-542-8079, jclevela@uga.edu.

Guest Lecture “Beckett’s Crossing,” Nels Pearson, Fairfield University. 3 p.m. 148 Miller Learning Center. wsmith78@uga.edu.

Scholarship competition** 4 minutes 33 seconds: Spotlight on Scholarship. The event, which will award two

Thalian BlackFriars** Through Nov. 11. 8 p.m. Cellar Theatre, Fine Arts Building. The student-run theatrical company will perform Fright Night, two one-act shows featuring the classic stories of Dracula and Frankenstein.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11 Empty Bowls Painting* Participants are invited to create their own designs with glazes on preformed ceramic bowls to be used in the annual Empty Bowls Luncheon. A donation of $7 is required.

10 a.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-9078, mlachow@uga.edu.

Experience UGA 10th-Grade Field Trip** 10 a.m. Stegeman Coliseum.

Lecture “Why Did Medieval Monks Draw So Many Obscene Cartoons?” Jamie Kreiner, history.

Part of the Lunchtime Time Machine Lecture Series. 12:30 p.m. 101 LeConte Hall.

706-542-2053, history@uga.edu.

Presentation “State of Technology at UGA,” Timothy M. Chester, vice president for information technology. 2 p.m. Room K-L, Georgia Center.

706-542-3106, kerriuga@uga.edu.

Book Discussion* “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History: Georgia Women Shape the Twentieth Century.” A discussion on a collection of

Calendar items are taken from Columns files and from the university’s Master Calendar, maintained by University Public Affairs. 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/.

Ecology Seminar “Battles and Skirmishes: Controversy over Nutrient Pollution,” Walter Dodds, Kansas State University. 4 p.m. Ecology building auditorium. 706-542-7247, bethgav@uga.edu.

Guest Lecture “Crisis Texts: Staging the Wartime Woman,” Paula R. Backscheider, Auburn University.

4:30 p.m. 265 Park Hall. cws3@uga.edu.

‘Peabody Decades’ Screening* The George Foster Peabody Awards is continuing the second season of The Peabody Decades with the program Watching the ­Detectives. 7 p.m. Special collections ­libraries auditorium. 706-542-4789, mlmiller@uga.edu.

Green On the Screen Film TINY: A Story about Living Small. Part of University Housing’s sustainability film series.

7 p.m. Fireside Lounge, Rooker Hall.

706-542-8325, carrie.campbell@uga.edu.

Panel Discussion* “​Surviving Outside the Box: A Conversation with Athens-based Visual Artists.” Painters Jill Biskin, Andy Cherewick and Jim StipeMaas discuss visual art as a way of life.

7 p.m. Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave. dbultman@uga.edu.

Concert * UGA Wind Ensemble. $10; $5 with a UGACard. 8 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall. 706-542-4752, musicpr@uga.edu.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12 lecture “The Castaway, the Message and the Bottle,” Maria Navarro, agricultural leadership, education and communication. 1 p.m.

Presentation room, Four Towers Building.

Part of the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Award-winning Faculty Series.

706-583-0067, tchagood@uga.edu.

Ecology/ICON Conservation Seminar “Conservation and Public Lands,” Theresa Thom, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

1:25 p.m. Ecology building auditorium.

706-542-7247, bethgav@uga.edu.

Concert** SCREAM, the Student Composers for the Research of Electronic and Electro-Acoustic Music, will present a concert. 6 p.m. Dancz Hall, Hugh Hodgson School of Music.

4&5

DJs in the Dining Hall** 6 p.m. Snelling Dining Hall with WUOG disc jockey Trevor Adams.

Collegetown Gospel Choir** 7 p.m. Location to be announced.

film screenings Harun Farocki: Four Approaches, four short films by Harun Farocki, the German ­avant-garde filmmaker and video artist.

7:30 p.m. Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave. mary.scherer@gmail.com.

By Bobby Tyler

btyler@uga.edu

The Performing Arts Center will present the Hot Sardines Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall.

The Sardine sound—wartime Paris meets New Orleans—is steeped in hot jazz, stride piano and the kind of music Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller used to play.

Tickets for the concert are $30-$35 with discounts for UGA students. They can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center, online at pac.uga.edu or by calling the box office at 706-542-4400.

The Hot Sardines were born when a Parisian singer,“Miz Elizabeth” Bougerol, met a stride piano player, Evan “Bibs” Palazzo, at a Manhattan jam session they found on Craigslist. The two discovered a mutual love for songs from group based out of UGA, will perform an hour of improv, ranging from short form Whose-Line-Is-It-Anyway-type games to more lengthy long form improv comedy scenes. 2:30 p.m. Tate Student Center Plaza.

Black Theatrical Ensemble** A performing arts student group. 3:30 p.m.

Tate Student Center Plaza.

Concert* Red Priest, baroque quartet. $25-$35.

8 p.m. Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4400, ugaarts@uga.edu. (See story, above left).

Next Act** A performing arts student group. 4 p.m. Tate Student Center Plaza.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13 Operation Safe Drive 10 a.m. Tate Center parking deck.

706-542-7275, parking@uga.edu. (See Bulletin Board, page 8).

UGA’s Children’s Theatre Troupe** 10 a.m. Caity Johnson’s play: Parrot: A Folktale. Tate Student Center Plaza.

Workshop “Connecting Content to Students’ Lives,” Adel Amer. 10:30 a.m. Instructional Plaza, Center for Teaching and Learning.

706-583-0067, tchagood@uga.edu.

‘Conduct Us’** Noon. This is for those who have ever wondered what a conductor of a musical ensemble does or ever wanted to give it a try. The internationally acclaimed Hodgson Wind Ensemble is at the ready and waiting for participants. They will provide the music; participants will provide the inspiration. Tate Student Center Plaza.

Seminar Renowned trumpeter Stephen Burns will lead a seminar on professional selfdevelopment as part of his five-day residency with the Hugh Hodgson School of Music Trumpet Studio. Noon. Edge Recital Hall, Hodgson School of Music.

706-542-4752, musicpr@uga.edu.

Improv Athens** Improv Athens, an improvisational comedy

Hot Sardines to perform jazz music in Hodgson Concert Hall

Guest Lecture Fritjof Capra will give a lecture on scientific understanding of living systems and the systems views of life. Capra is an internationally acclaimed physicist, system theorist, environmental activist, educator and author.

3 p.m. Chapel. bverma@engr.uga.edu. (See Digest, page 3).

Film** The Muslims Are Coming! $5; free for students with valid UGACards. 7 p.m. Tate Student Center Theatre.

solo performance** Singer-songwriter Kimberly Simpson will perform a set of original compositions.

1:30 p.m. Tate Student Center Plaza.

The Hot Sardines will perform Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall.

‘Saturday Night Live’ Athens Edition The Black Theatrical Ensemble, a registered student organization, will partner with local comedy troupe SHARKwiNG for an evening of sketch comedy based on the long-running television show Saturday Night Live. Tickets are available at the Tate Student Center cashier’s window. $2; free for students with a UGACard. 7 p.m. 148 Miller Learning Center.

706-542-5773.

Johnstone Lecture “Frederick Law Olmsted in the Southeast.”

Hear Frederick Law Olmsted (as interpreted

by Kirk Brown of Philadelphia) speak about design and his fascinating and influential life. RSVP requested. 7 p.m. Visitor Center’s Gardenside Room, State Botanical Garden.

706-542-9353, mmccoy1@uga.edu.

Concert* Moscow’s Russian State Symphony Orchestra. $25-$62. 8 p.m. Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4400, ugaarts@uga.edu. (See story, above left).

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14 Southern Garden Heritage Conference* “Olmsted’s Legacy in the South.” The fullday conference will include presentations by Lucy Lawliss of the National Park Service, Bill Alexander of the Biltmore Estate, Spencer Tunnell of Tunnell and Tunnell in Atlanta, Andrew Khor and others. $115. 9 a.m. Visitor Center’s Great Room, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-9353, mmccoy1@uga.edu.

Lecture “Recasting Franco-Caribbean Women’s Plays on the New York Stage: Transnational Performances of Race and Gender,” Emily Sahakian, Romance languages and theatre and film studies. 12:20 p.m. 250 Miller

the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s that no one plays anymore. Or if they play them, “they handle them with kid gloves, like museum pieces,” Palazzo said. “This music isn’t historical artifact. It’s a living, breathing, always-evolving thing.”

The Hot Sardines performed their first gig at a coffee shop on the last Q train stop in Queens. In a short time, they were selling out New York’s famed Joe’s Pub and headlining at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing.

The ensemble features a blustery brass lineup and a rhythm section led by stride-piano virtuoso and bandleader Palazzo. Frontwoman Bougerol, who writes songs in both French and English, adds a Parisian flavor to the performances. The band also includes a tap dancer whose feet count as two members of the rhythm section.

Learning Center. Part of Women’s Studies Friday Speaker Series. 706-542-2846, tlhat@uga.edu.

Equestrian vs. Auburn. 1 p.m. Equestrian Complex.

706-542-1621.

Lecture “Creating Rights: Human Rights and Literature in Conceição Evaristo’s Ponciá Vicêncio.” This presentation will examine how Evaristo’s novel Ponciá Vicêncio exemplifies the connection between human rights and the formation novel in that it denounces human rights abuses and, at the same time, proposes ways to counteract said abuses.

1:15 p.m. 115 Gilbert Hall. clira@uga.edu.

Saxophone Studio Flash Mob** 1:25 p.m. East Campus, Ramsey, Georgia Museum of Art. Live music in unexpected places and performers emerging from behind walls and staircases. conniefrigo@gmail.com.

Geography Colloquium “Exploring Community Perspectives of Greenscape (In)Accessibility in Atlanta, Georgia,” Timothy Lee Hawthorne, Georgia State University. 3:15 p.m. 200C Geography and Geology. 706-542-2856.

Willson Center Cinema Roundtable “The Superhero Movie: Past and Future.” A discussion of screen adaptations of superhero comic books, moderated by Chris Sieving, an associate professor in the theatre and film studies department. 4 p.m.

148 Miller Learning Center. wsmith78@uga.edu.

Women’s Basketball vs. Morgan State. $5; $3 for youth. 7 p.m.

Stegeman Coliseum.

Post event information first to the Master Calendar website (calendar.uga.edu/). Listings for Columns are taken from the Master Calendar 12 days before the publication date.

Events not posted by then may not be printed in Columns.

UGA Hockey vs. Alabama. $7-$25. 7:30 p.m. Classic Center, 300 N. Thomas St. Recital* Stephen Burns’ five-day residency with the Hugh Hodgson School of Music Trumpet Studio culminates in this free recital. 8 p.m.

Ramsey Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4752, musicpr@uga.edu.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15 International Tailgate This event will start two hours before kickoff. Participants will get to meet and relax with international campus community

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.

UGA Hockey vs. Auburn. $7-$25. 7:30 p.m. Classic Center, 300 N. Thomas St. Football vs. Auburn. Time to be announced. Sanford Stadium. 706-542-1231.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16 Women’s Basketball vs. TCU. $5; $3 for youth. 1 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17 Parade of Flags The Parade of Flags is an annual event where students, faculty and staff carry a national flag of their home country—or a country with which they have a significant connection—from the Arch to Tate Student Center Plaza. 11 a.m. The Arch.

706-542-5867, ugaisl@uga.edu.

WorldFest WorldFest is a cultural education festival that highlights the various cultures represented in the UGA student body through live performances such as cultural dances and martial arts demonstrations, interactive table displays and variety of free food from all over the world. 11:30 a.m. Tate Student Center Plaza. 706-542-5867, ugaisl@uga.edu.

Guest Lecture “The Challenge of Restituting Art Stolen during the Holocaust,” Marc Masurovsky, co-founder of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project. 4:30 p.m. 250 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-2445, pettik@uga.edu.

Recital Jonathan Whitaker, who teaches trombone at the University of Alabama. 5 p.m. Edge Recital Hall, Hugh Hodgson School of Music.

706-542-4752, musicpr@uga.edu.

Fall Concert UGA African American Choral Ensemble.

7:30 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall.

706-542-4752, musicpr@uga.edu.

To submit a listing for the master calendar and columns

­ embers. Reed Hall quad. 706-542-5867, m jsj@uga.edu.

Concert The Hot Sardines. $30-$35. 8 p.m. Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center.

706-542-4400, ugaarts@uga.edu. (See story, above left).

Coming Up University Council meeting Nov. 19. 3:30 p.m. Tate Theatre, Tate Student Center. 706-542-6020. * A 2014 Spotlight on the Arts event ** A 2014 Student Spotlight on the Arts event

Next columns deadlines Nov. 12 (for Dec. 1 issue) Nov. 19 (for Dec. 8 issue) Dec. 10 (for Jan. 12 issue)

6 Nov. 10, 2014 columns.uga.edu

Ron Courson, the Athletic Association’s senior associate athletic director for sports medicine, received the Tim Kerin Award from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute. The award is presented annually to an athletic trainer who is not only skilled at keeping athletes safe and at their best, but also exhibits integrity, Ron Courson character, devotion to the community and, like its namesake, works tirelessly to improve the athletic training profession.

In addition to his athletic training duties at UGA, Courson is an adjunct instructor in the College of Education’s kinesiology department where he teaches in the nationally accredited athletic training education program. He also works as a clinical instructor teaching student physical therapists from various institutions and is active in research and education in the field of sports medicine.

Bonnie Cramond, a professor of gifted education, received the 2014 Yes Award from the Future Problem Solving Program International.

The award is given annually to someone who consistently says yes to creativity. It was created by E. Paul Torrance, the late UGA Distinguished Professor who was known as the “Father of Creativity” for his pioneering research in the field.

Juli Morgan Fields, director of alumni relations for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, received the Professional Achievement Award during the 2014 National Agricultural Alumni and Development Association conference held at Penn State University.

The award is presented to inJuli Morgan Fields dividuals with significant career activities and accomplishments who lead activities in professional and community organizations and have received other awards and recognitions.

During her 18 years as alumni director in the agricultural and environmental sciences college, Fields has transformed the alumni programs and restructured the CAES Alumni Association into a more efficient organization, recruiting and maintaining more than 75 CAES alumni volunteers annually.

Lester D. Stephens, emeritus professor of history in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, received the Georgia Historical Society’s 2014 E. Merton Coulter Award for the best article published in the Georgia Historical Quarterly in 2013.

His article, “John Ruggles Cotting and the First State Geological Survey of Georgia,” appeared in the summer 2013 issue.

Jimmy Williamson, a faculty member in the College of Education, was named the 2014 Postsecondary Teacher of the Year by the Georgia Association for Career and Technical Education.

An academic professional associate in the career and information studies department, Williamson also was named the 2014 Postsecondary Teacher of the Year by the Georgia Association of Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences, a division of GACTE. Williamson now will represent Georgia in the Association for Career & Technical Education Region II competition next fall. The region winners will then compete at the 2015 national conference held in December.

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.

Faculty Profile

Andrew Davis Tucker

Amara Ezeamama, an assistant professor of epidemiology in the College of Public Health, studies global infectious diseases. Her research findings are used to plan and evaluate strategies to prevent illness and manage treatment.

Epidemiologist studies global diseases

By Rebecca Ayer alea@uga.edu

Amara Ezeamama always had assumed she would go to medical school.

Her “crisis of confidence” about that direction arose after a trip to Louisiana to present her undergraduate research at an Association of Minority Health Profession Schools symposium. There, Ezeamama got the chance to meet Dr. David Satcher, the U.S. surgeon general under then-President Bill Clinton.

She found herself inspired by Satcher’s long and distinguished career in public health, a field she had been unaware of up until that point.

“At that meeting, I realized there was another world of health-related work beyond biomedicine and clinical practice,” Ezeamama said. “I was fascinated by research, but studying neurotransmitters in mice had only made me realize how much I enjoyed some level of human interaction. I wanted to spend my time doing something that came to me more naturally and that had more direct impact on human health.”

Now an assistant professor of epidemiology in the College of Public Health, Ezeamama engages in a field of research considered the cornerstone of public health—examining the patterns, causes and effects of health and disease conditions.

Ezeamama studies global infectious diseases, such as HIV, malaria and parasitic worms, with a particular interest in understanding and describing syndemics, which are the condition of

multiple, synchronous infections in often socially and economically disadvantaged settings.

Her findings are used to plan and evaluate strategies to prevent illness and manage treatment.

“All things considered, the goals that lured me toward medicine are being realized much more than I thought possible in epidemiology,” Ezeamama said. “I am incredibly fortunate to wake up each day knowing that what I am thinking about matters to millions of people around the world.”

In a recent study, Ezeamama took a closer look at HIV and malaria coinfection in a group of 2,386 pregnant, HIV-positive Tanzanian women and their infants from pregnancy to six weeks post-delivery. Her aim was to tease out a connection between maternal diagnosis of malaria in pregnancy and child HIV infection.

As expected, Ezeamama found that HIV-positive mothers with malaria were more likely to transmit HIV to their children within six weeks of birth. This risk was particularly strong for women with two or more malarial episodes during pregnancy. The findings, which were published in the journal HIV Medicine in May, suggest that malaria prevention and treatment may enhance the effectiveness of programs aimed at preventing motherto-child transmission of HIV. For her next project, Ezeamama has her sights set on an “awesome set of studies” that she hopes will answer some more of her pressing questions about HIV infection in children. The studies

Facts Amara Ezeamama

Assistant Professor Epidemiology College of Public Health Ph.D., Epidemiology, Brown University, 2006 B.Sc., Neuroscience, University of California Los Angeles, 2000 At UGA: Two years

will use data provided from funding from the UGA Research Foundation and the College of Public Health.

The data was collected over a fourmonth period from 150 mother-child pairs in Uganda with HIV infection or exposure. The children, who are age 6 or older, will provide Ezeamama and her team with a unique opportunity to examine the long-term status of children who were exposed or infected with HIV in the weeks after birth.

“In the past, a child with HIV died quickly. Today, transitions in the HIV/ AIDS epidemic are such that we are now beginning to see HIV-infected children entering the school system, ” she said.“But are these children functional? Are they able to learn as well and have a quality of life similar to children born to women without HIV?” For epidemiologists like Ezeamama, this new demographic of children living with HIV presents a lot of unknowns to study.

“While more remains to be done, in many ways, we are beginning to encounter challenges borne out of success,” she said.

Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Associate dean for leadership development, diversity appointed

By Alan Flurry

aflurry@uga.edu

Kecia Thomas, a UGA faculty member, has been appointed associate dean for faculty leadership development and diversity in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

A professor of industrial/organizational psychology,Thomas has served on the UGA faculty since 1993.

“As associate dean, Dr. Thomas will have a portfolio that is well-aligned with her academic and professional expertise as an industrial/organizational psychologist who is an award-winning graduate mentor and instructor, an internationally recognized scientist/ practitioner in the psychology of

workplace diversity and a certified executive coach,” said Alan T. Dorsey, dean of the Franklin College.“Given her scholarship, dedication to the college and to the Kecia Thomas university, and her extensive leadership experience, I am pleased to have Dr. Thomas serve in this important role.”

Thomas has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, one textbook and four edited volumes.

Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the American

Psychological Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as by school districts, nonprofits and other national organizations.

Thomas has provided leadership for Franklin College in several roles, including as graduate coordinator for psychology, interim director for the Institute for African American Studies and interim associate dean. She has been a member of the dean’s staff since 2007, serving as senior adviser to the dean and director of the Office of Inclusion and Diversity Leadership. In that role, Thomas launched a number of successful diversity initiatives and provided consultation on diversity matters to the college and other units on campus.

honors program

Expanding opportunities CURO Research Assistantships and Honors Program provide unsurpassed learning experiences

By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

For second-year student Blake Mathews and hundreds of other students at UGA, the new CURO Research Assistantship has provided the kind of experiential learning opportunities that only a major research university can offer.

Mathews, an economics major in the Terry College of Business, is analyzing data on financial stress in students under the mentorship of Professor Brenda Cude in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

“It’s been exciting for me to work with the data I was given and try to use my research in order to make sense of all of it,” Mathews said.

“It necessitates a kind of divergent thought that is hard to find inside the classroom.”

The CURO Research Assistantship provides a $1,000 stipend to 250 outstanding undergraduates who work alongside faculty on research projects. It was launched this fall as part of a series of academic enhancements announced by UGA President Jere W. Morehead and Provost Pamela Whitten. The CURO Research Assistantship expands on the highly successful Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities at UGA, which is administered through the Honors Program but is open to all students.

“CURO is much bigger than the research assistantships, but the research assistantships are an important new factor,” said David S. Williams, associate provost and Honors Program director. “Since the assistantships are limited to one semester and not repeatable, in large measure they are meant to expose students to the research mission and get them engaged with undergraduate research.”

UGA is one of the few institutions nationwide that gives undergraduates the opportunity to engage in research as early as their first semester. Williams noted that numerous studies have linked

weekly reader

Political Culture, Political Science, and Identity Politics

By Howard J. Wiarda Ashgate Publishing $104.95

Andrew Lowndes

Blake Mathews, an economics major in the Terry College of Business, right, is analyzing data on financial stress in students under the mentorship of Brenda Cude, a professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, through the new CURO Research Assistantship.

participation in undergraduate research with positive learning outcomes such as increased problem solving ability, higher GPAs and more timely graduation.

When Williams was named Honors Program director a decade ago, CURO participation was limited to Honors students. CURO began serving all students in 2010, and the expansion has increased participation by 20 percent.

“At last year’s CURO Symposium, not only did we break 250 presenters, but 40 percent of them were non-Honors students,” Williams said. “That took a lot of effort on a lot of people’s part, but it also took a lot of buy-in from faculty and students.”

‘More access, more opportunities’

The expansion of CURO is one of the many ways in which the Honors Program supports campus-wide academic priorities. The Honors Program coordinates student applications for major scholarships,

New book takes on identity politics

Political culture—defined as the values, beliefs and behavioral patterns underlying a political system—has long had an uneasy relationship with political science.

Identity politics is the latest incarnation of this conflict.

In Political Culture, Political Science, and Identity Politics, Howard J. Wiarda traces the long and controversial history of culture studies and the relations of political culture and identity politics to political science. The Dean Rusk Professor of International Relations, Wiarda is head of the international affairs department in UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Today, political culture, now updated to include identity politics, stands as one of these great explanatory paradigms in political science.

which has helped dramatically increase the number of highly competitive awards that UGA students receive. UGA had three recipients of the U.S. Student Fulbright Scholarship in 2004, for example, but this year had 14. Over the past decade, UGA students—all but one of whom were Honors students—received 51 Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell, Gates Cambridge, Goldwater, Truman and Udall scholarships.

“The success of our students in earning nationally and internationally competitive scholarships really sets the University of Georgia apart, and it reflects the quality of our students and comprehensive range of world-class learning experiences that our Honors Program provides,” Whitten said.

Private support has played a significant role in expanding the opportunities that the Honors Program provides. Over the past decade, the Honors Program has raised more than $7 million in gifts and pledges that have supported travel-study opportunities and

funded scholarships. The Foundation Fellowship, the university’s premier undergraduate scholarship, now attracts students to UGA from across the nation and from around the world.

Honors students also have the opportunity to intern through signature programs in Washington, D.C., New York and Savannah, and the past decade has seen the establishment of new career development and civic engagement programming. The business-oriented Corsair Society, for example, has placed more than 100 UGA students in fulltime analyst positions in top-tier investment banks and management consulting firms, making UGA one of the most well-represented public universities on Wall Street.

Students can participate in tutoring and mentoring programs for local school children through the Thomas Lay After School Program and MathCounts, and the Honors Program helps students build a sense of community through book discussions in faculty members’ homes and strong peer, faculty and alumni mentoring networks.

Williams emphasized that, at its core, the Honors Program aims to give students learning opportunities that enable them to reach their full potential. The Honors Program sponsors a chapter of the Roosevelt Institute, a student-run think tank, that helps make applications for scholarships such as the Rhodes and Truman more competitive, for example. Similarly, engaging in undergraduate research gives students an edge as they apply for competitive scholarships, apply to graduate school or begin their careers.

“Ten years ago I hoped that we would end up in a situation where students would have so many opportunities that no one Honors student could do it all,” Williams said. “We weren’t there then, but we are now.

“I’m often asked what I want to see next for the Honors Program,” he added. “I want to see more students have more access to more opportunities.”

columns.uga.edu Nov. 10, 2014

Grady College

Cox International Center hosts 14 Murrow Fellows

By Stephanie Moreno s.moreno@uga.edu

For the sixth consecutive year, UGA’s James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research hosted traveling journalists through the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists. Sponsored by the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program, the journalists were on campus Nov. 3-4. While in Georgia, they also met with editors from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and CNN. Fourteen journalists from French-speaking countries including Burundi, Chad, Comoros, Mali, Mauritania and Togo came to the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication to discuss media election coverage and the role of social media in the U.S. society. None of the visiting journalists hailed from countries currently affected by the Ebola outbreak.

“Across the years of this program, University of Georgia students have learned a lot about the media and political systems in a variety of countries,” said Tudor Vlad, associate director of the Cox International Center.

While they were on campus, the Murrow Fellows met with Grady College Dean Charles Davis and participated in discussions about social media led by Karen Russell, a Jim Kennedy New Media Professor and an associate professor of public relations, and Itai Himelboim, an associate professor of telecommunications. They observed the college’s digital and broadcast journalism majors in the newsroom of Grady Newsource as the students covered the Nov. 4 election—a session coordinated by David Hazinski, a Jim Kennedy New Media Professor and an associate professor of telecommunications, and lecturer Dodie Cantrell-Bickley. The visiting journalists discussed U.S. elections with Charles Bullock, the Richard B. Russell Professor in Political Science at UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs, and attended a session at UGA’s African Studies Institute.

ABOUT COLUMNS

Cybersights

Columns is available to the campus community by ­subscription for an annual fee of $20 (second-class delivery) or $40 (first-class delivery). Faculty and staff members with a disability may call 706-542-8017 for assistance in obtaining this publication in an alternate format.

Columns staff can be reached at 706-542-8017 or columns@uga.edu

Editor Juliett Dinkins Art Director Kris Barratt Photo Editor Paul Efland

USG Perks accessible online https://usg.affinityperks.com

On Nov. 1, the University System of Georgia launched USG Perks for its employees, which include UGA faculty and staff. The free, savings enrollment program provides special employee pricing for purchases at a variety of stores as well as discounted pricing at hundreds of manufacturers, retailers and brands. For every dollar spent,

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employees will get points and get even more items for free.

To activate an account, visit https://usg.affinityperks.com/login and click “Account Setup.”

Employees also can invite up to five family members or close friends to access USG Perks.After enrolling, employees will be able to start saving on their new purchases.

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 Nov. 10, 2014 columns.uga.edu

OBESITY from page 1

Copyright Meredith West Photography

WINNING PET PICTURES—More than 125 clients of the UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital

submitted nearly 350 entries of their furry, hairy, scaly and feathery friends for the 2014 Picture Your Pet Photo Contest. The entries were divided into four categories (cats, dogs, horses and miscellaneous pets) and critiqued by a panel of judges. The finalists were chosen based on overall photo quality, creativity and the sense of emotion and/or personality exhibited.

Among this year’s winners are, clockwise from top left, Tango, a horse owned by Samantha Barton of Colbert; Cartman, a turtle owned by Wai Hung of Athens; Riker, a puppy owned by Justin and Shana Biggs of Athens; Aurelius, a cat owned by Leo Sage of Athens; and Sophie, a dog owned by Holly Downey of Atlanta. Visit www.vet.uga.edu/photo-contest to watch a slideshow of all 23 winning entries. Printed and framed photographs of the winning entries will be displayed in the new UGA Veterinary Teaching Hospital when it opens in March.

GLASS from page 1 based on taps to the CPU—is in the works.

Glass’ video component has been successful, especially in the conducting lab, although Turner noted that the live feed during a concert didn’t work perfectly because of a slight delay between the music and the picture.

“Best teacher ever,” she said of the importance of video in learning to conduct. “I can go up to a student to make adjustments to their wrists and shoulders, and they see that from my point of view (through the Glass video).

They see it up close and personal from the teacher’s perspective. It’s very helpful.”

Ehrlich, who is in Turner’s conducting graduate seminar, said the video helps him learn. “It’s almost like Dr. Turner exists on your computer screen,” while you watch the video. “You can see your problem in action.”

Another student, Jack Eaddy, said he was surprised to find that level of technology in the classroom. “To get that experience with her, especially while she is in the test phase, and learning from her with it, I’m so excited,” he said. “It’s awesome.”

An idea to place a musical score on the Google Glass prism (screen) has not gone as smoothly, although Turner said she is not giving up on the idea.

“That’s the beauty of research, that you get the idea and you try it out and it may not work,” she said, adding that the idea is to free the conductor from looking down at a music stand. “You can look through the music at the musicians. It sounds like a really cool idea, but in fact, when the full score is there, you get ‘the Glass look.’ You are looking up (into the prism), which is just as annoying as looking down.”

But Turner and Ehrlich still are committed to finding a solution.

“I’ve always liked the idea of limitations freeing you up,” she said of adapting to the

small screen and other idiosyncrasies. “It’s counterintuitive, but in fact limitations can free you up to think differently, and that’s what happened.”

Now, the pair are working on what they call a “salient score” app, which would remind the conductor of key information but would not contain the entire musical score.

For “Adwords/Edward,” the piece Ernste composed for Glass, the small score does work well with the prism, Turner said, adding that a winking app allows for the one page turn.

“Musically speaking, it’s modern; it speaks to technology; it has a cool groove; it’s really hip. It’s an interesting genre-bender. I like music that does that. Is it pop music? Is it serious modern so-called classical music?

Do those pillars of genres matter anymore?”

Turner said, describing the composition written for bass clarinet, piano and drums, with an electronic component and vocals. “It’s still classical music in the sense that it is minimalist, but it also has this kind of neat groove. And it has a message.”

“Adwords/Edward” is dedicated to Edward Snowden, who is heralded by some and vilified by others for leaking classified information from the National Security Agency about online intelligence surveillance.

“This is a piece for our time that speaks to the concept of privacy. Is privacy an outdated concept now? I don’t know,” Turner said. “Every time we put Google Glass on, is Google listening? Yes. Every time you do a search with Google, are they listening? Yes. Are they taking our data? Yes. We are in very interesting, scary, provocative times, and that is what this piece is about.”

The Spotlight on the Arts event, which will include discussion of Turner’s Google Glass lab, is scheduled for Nov. 12 at 3:30 p.m. at the Georgia Museum of Art.

Bulletin Board Vehicle safety inspections

As part of “Operation Safe Drive,” Parking Service will perform free vehicle safety inspections for all UGA students and staff Nov. 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Tate Student Center parking deck. The first 350 visitors will receive a free Chick-fil-A sandwich coupon courtesy of Food Services.

Mechanics from Campus Transit and Facilities Management will top off fluids, check belts and wiper blades, pressurize tires and perform a quick visual inspection of vehicles. The Office of Sustainability also will offer bicycle safety inspections and tune-ups.

For more information, call Laura Pratt at 706-542-7275.

Tobacco use status

During benefits open enrollment, UGA employees who choose healthcare coverage must certify their tobacco use status. Those who do not certify their status will default to “tobacco user,” and a $75 monthly surchage will be added to their premium beginning in January. The tobacco user status of an employee’s covered dependents will default to “no.”

Employees may make changes to their tobacco use status at any time, and the change will be effective the first of the following month. However, there will be no refunds of the $75 surcharge so employees should certify their status correctly during open enrollment,

for the project. “And the trouble is that even if you start to lose weight, these cells remain reprogrammed, so we’re trying to find ways to change that.” A single fat sample contains a variety of cell types normally found in the human body, which can interfere with tests designed to analyze the tissue.

Meagher and his colleagues are exploring a technique known as “capture by nuclear antibody,” or CANA, which uses specially designed antibodies to locate the nuclei from specific cell types and pull them away from the otherwise garbled mess of cells.

“Fat cells are big and clumsy, and if you isolate them and let them sit in a tube for an hour, a little while later it looks like butter is coating the edge of the tube because they are all breaking open and the fat is sticking to the sides of the glass,” Meagher said. “We started thinking of ways to get around all these

problems so we can analyze the cell types.”

The technology targets the nucleus of cells, where important genetic instructions are stored. The surface of each nucleus is coated with proteins called antigens, and each antibody their laboratory creates will be designed to recognize a specific antigen.

He hopes to identify antibodies that can distinguish between different kinds of fat cells and isolate them. He will then analyze the DNA from cells to see what changes have led to an increase in inflammation.

His laboratory is teaming up with Abeome, a biotech company founded by Meagher and housed in UGA’s Georgia BioBusiness Center, to create hundreds of different antibodies that can potentially target unique antigens on the fat nuclei. One day, Meagher hopes to use this technology to develop clinical diagnostics and drug therapies that target specific fat cells.

GRANT from page 1

INITIATIVE from page 1

may need.

Many of the schools targeted in this project are located in the 13 counties served by the Northeast Georgia Regional Educational Service Agency, about half of which are in shortage areas. They include Barrow, Clarke, Elbert, Greene, Jackson, Madison, Morgan, Oconee, Oglethorpe and Walton county school districts as well as Commerce, Jefferson and Social Circle city schools.

Some communities across the state have fragmented mental health care systems, insufficient funding for basic mental and behavioral health services, too few mental health providers, restricted insurance coverage and many barriers to advancing economic and personal well-being, according to Heckman and Daigle.

“School districts typically do not hire behavioral health counselors, but each public school has at least one school counselor,” Daigle said.

“The project could lead to a sustainable model of integrated behavioral health care that can be adopted by other RESAs throughout Georgia,” Heckman said.

Daigle also said that once behavioral health service gaps can be closed, the gaps in academic achievement, school completion and college-going rates would close as well.

Daigle, co-principal investigator of the project, is an associate professor and program coordinator of the master’s in school counseling program in the counseling and human development services department. She currently serves as professor-in-residence with Northeast Georgia Regional Educational Service Agency and Rutland Academy, the region’s designated Georgia Network of Educational and Therapeutic Support facility where she coordinates a two-semester academic service-learning program.

The research team includes Georgia Calhoun, a professor, and Laura Dean, an associate professor, both in the counseling and human development services department in the college. Calhoun and Dean will assist with student training and the formal evaluation of the project’s large-scale efforts to increase the behavioral health workforce in Georgia.

“We have committed, hard working staffs in the pre- and post-award units, and elsewhere in research administration,” said David Lee, vice president for research. “We want to make it easier for them to offer the best possible service, which is certainly what they wish to provide and surely what our world-class researchers deserve.”

Earlier this semester, the staffs from the two offices increased the frequency of their regular meetings to improve coordination, and a shadowing program between the two units is scheduled to be launched next semester.

Plans are being made to house the two units in the same building beginning spring 2015, and they have increased their outreach to departments through presentations that update faculty on new regulations and other issues.

In addition, staff members in the preand post-award units are working with other grants administrators from across campus to modify and improve business processes. Several process changes already have been implemented, and work groups are addressing additional opportunities for improvement.

Several steps are being taken to improve customer service in grants administration. A new training program will be implemented later this semester, and feedback buttons are being added to websites and to the email signatures of Contracts and Grants staff.

The OVPR website has been redesigned to enhance communication, and Contracts and Grants is redesigning its website.

The university is considering additional changes as well. The Huron Consulting Group, which has worked with more than 350 universities and research institutions nationwide, is conducting an independent review of the administrative operations that support research and other sponsored activities at UGA. Huron’s work has included interviews with faculty and staff, assessments of organizational structure and benchmarking against aspirational institutions. In December, the consulting group will present a report that will provide recommendations and an implementation plan.

Ryan Nesbit, vice president for finance and administration, emphasized that the review of research support functions has been a collective undertaking among faculty, staff and administrators.

“As we move through this process, I am very appreciative of how our teams continue to demonstrate their dedication to service excellence,” he said. “We look forward to receiving Huron’s recommendations and suggestions for how we can all work together even more to implement additional, transformational improvements.”

Whitten noted that the improvements in grants management are part of a broader “Giant Step” initiative to advance research at UGA. “We have some of some of the world’s best researchers and scholars on our campuses,” she said. “By enabling them to devote more time to research—and less to research administration—we’re creating an environment that allows faculty to maximize their productivity and scholarly impact.”

which ends Nov. 14.

Columns deadline reminders

The deadline to submit news items for the final two fall issues of Columns are Nov. 12 (Dec. 1 issue) and Nov. 19 (Dec. 8 issue) by 5 p.m.

Columns will not be published Nov. 24. Regular weekly publication of the newspaper will resume Jan. 12. The deadline for that issue is 5 p.m. on Dec. 10. News items may be emailed to columns@uga.edu.

Bulletin Board is limited to information that may pertain to a majority of faculty and staff members.