UGA Columns Aug. 19, 2019

Periodicals Postage is PAID in Athens, Georgia

Division of Marketing & Communications University of Georgia 286 Oconee Street Suite 200 North Athens, GA 30602-1999

Provost S. Jack Hu shares his vision for the university’s academic enterprise CAMPUS NEWS

7

Georgia Museum of Art exhibition of Peter Aaron’s photos show a lost Syria Vol. 47, No. 4

August 19, 2019

www.columns.uga.edu

UGA GUIDE

5

Recipients of 2019 diversity, inclusion grant funding named

Andrew Davis Tucker

Academic enhancements over the past several years include experiential learning for all undergraduate students and initiatives to reduce class sizes and promote engagement, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Outstanding Class of 2023 Diverse incoming class continues tradition of academic excellence

By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

A record 29,300 students applied for admission to the University of Georgia this fall, and 5,500 outstanding students began their classes Aug. 14. Along with stellar academic credentials, the Class of 2023 brings to the birthplace of public higher education a commitment to academic excellence.

The rigor of students’ high school coursework relative to what is available at their school remains a key factor in admissions decisions, and the Class of 2023 brings an average weighted high school GPA above 4.0 and a record average of nine Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses. For comparison, the average weighted high school GPA of incoming

students was 3.91 just four years ago, and the average number of AP or IB courses was seven.

The standardized test scores of incoming students continue to place UGA among the nation’s most selective public universities.

The average SAT score is 1359 while the average ACT score of the incoming class is a record 31. The scores range from 29 to 33 on the ACT and 1260 to 1430 on the SAT for the middle 50%, which forms the majority of the incoming class.

“The high caliber of our student body is one of the many distinguishing features of the University of Georgia,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “As we continue to enhance the learning environment and set new standards in undergraduate education, we are ensuring that each student who graduates is ready to make a

positive impact on the world.”

The number of incoming students who are members of a racial or ethnic minority has risen by 14% since 2015, and one out of three students in the Class of 2023 is a member of a minority group. The Class of 2023 includes students from 43 states and more than 40 countries around the world.

Eighty-two percent of incoming students are Georgia residents, and they come from 91% of Georgia counties.

UGA’s nationally recognized Honors Program accepted 671 extraordinary students who boast an average weighted GPA of 4.24, an average SAT of 1505 and an average ACT of 34. Just over 1,400 transfer students began their classes at UGA this fall as well.

See CLASS on page 8

INNOVATION DISTRICT INITIATIVE

Beer, Handa chosen as UGA’s first Innovation Fellows to translate their research into solutions

By Michael Terrazas

michael.terrazas@uga.edu

Faculty members Jenay Beer and Hitesh Handa have been selected as UGA’s inaugural Innovation Fellows for fall 2019. Throughout the semester, the pair will receive a crash course in technology commercialization and learn how they can shape their research programs to more effectively align with industry priorities and, ultimately, serve the public’s needs.

Announced by President Jere W. Morehead in his 2019 State of the University Address, the Innovation Fellows program is intended not

only to help faculty commercialize their own research but also introduce them to UGA’s broader Innovation District initiative. After their fellowships end, participants will be encouraged to serve as informal “innovation ambassadors” in their home departments.

“The Innovation Fellows program is designed to help our talented faculty translate their bright ideas into solutions and products that will improve lives and communities around the world,” said Morehead.

“My congratulations to Dr. Beer and Dr. Handa on receiving the inaugural fellowship. I look forward to all that they will accomplish through this

exciting program.”

Beer is an assistant professor in the Institute of Gerontology, with a joint appointment in the College of Public Health and the School of Social Work. She designs assistive technologies for older adults that can help them manage life and health transitions as they age. Such technologies could include assistive robots, personal monitoring or communication systems, or other innovations.

“I am so grateful for being selected as an UGA Innovation Fellow—this is an amazing opportunity,” Beer said. “The skills I See FELLOWS on page 8

Twenty-six proposals have been funded through the second round of the New Approaches to Promote Diversity and Inclusion grants program, which was announced in January 2019 by UGA President Jere W. Morehead.

“This program was first introduced to encourage new initiatives that promote the recruitment, retention and success of underserved students,” said Morehead.

“The response to the first round of the program was overwhelmingly positive, and I look forward to the additional gains we will make in this important area from the second round of funding.”

Some of the $10,000 to $25,000

grants will go toward the development and adoption of new projects, while others will support the continuation of projects from the first round that have demonstrated the greatest promise for impact and a sustainable funding model.

All of the selected programs are dedicated to serving underrepresented, underserved and first-generation students at UGA. “The New Approaches to Diversity and Inclusion proposal process has once again delivered a group of exciting and innovative projects that will continue to move us forward in promoting these

See GRANT on page 8

INNOVATION DISTRICT INITIATIVE

New Startup Mentor to champion innovation ecosystem on campus

By Aaron Hale

aahale@uga.edu

As the University of Georgia continues to develop its vibrant innovation ecosystem, a new voice to inspire and consult with staff, student and faculty entrepreneurs is coming to campus.

David Salyers, the co-founder of several startups and nonprofits and former marketing executive at Chick-fil-A, will be UGA’s first Startup Mentor in Residence beginning this fall.

As the Startup Mentor, Salyers will act as a champion for innovation and entrepreneurship at UGA. He will speak and meet with faculty and students on campus to provide expertise, new insights

and encouragement for those looking to start new businesses and nonprofit ventures or otherwise commercialize their inventions and David Salyers ideas.

“David brings a wealth of experience about starting and operating a strong business,” said Derek Eberhart, director of UGA’s Innovation Gateway. “And if you talk with him, you will learn very quickly that he is passionate about both entrepreneurship and the University of Georgia. I can think

See MENTOR on page 8

PUBLIC SERVICE AND OUTREACH

UGA Tifton to host conference on workforce development Aug. 22

By Roger Nielsen nielsen@uga.edu

Employers, educators and workforce development professionals will gain new ideas for enhancing workforce initiatives at the University of Georgia’s inaugural Innovating Georgia’s Workforce Pipeline Conference.

The conference will be held Aug. 22 at the UGA Tifton campus. Hosted by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, a UGA Public Service and Outreach unit, the event kicks off with registration and networking at 8 a.m. Conference sessions begin at 9 a.m. and run through 3:30 p.m.

Registration is underway at www.cviog.uga.edu/tifton.

Tifton’s Innovating Georgia’s Workforce Pipeline features a program to help workforce professionals learn more about opportunities and challenges in rural Georgia and explore effective solutions, including the benefits of experiential learning and successful ways of building talent for small businesses. Speakers and breakout sessions will cover promising practices and emerging ideas for strengthening Georgia’s approach to talent development.

The keynote speakers, Jacqueline Ponti-Lazaruk, U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development chief innovation officer, and Connie ReimersHild, founder of the consulting See CONFERENCE on page 8

2 Aug. 19, 2019 columns.uga.edu

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, OFFICE OF SERVICE-LEARNING

Clarke County students get Bulldog welcome

FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Peter Frey

Annelle Brunson

History Fellows conducted their research in the archives at the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Library.

Summer History Fellows experience and engage in creative research

By Katie Cowart

klcowart@uga.edu

The history department hosted eight undergraduate students during July for the History Fellows Summer Institute.

The program is an opportunity to share the University of Georgia with college students from underrepresented groups attending schools around the region and to build better relationships with their institutions. The focus of the History Fellows Summer Institute is to create broad new inroads for underrepresented students from Georgia and beyond on campus, including women in STEM disciplines, older returning students, military veterans and first-generation college students.

“Very few history departments are running anything like our summer program, and we’re excited and optimistic about its potential. Diversifying higher education is a huge priority, and recent studies suggest that improving the pipelines into graduate school is the key to success,” said Stephen Berry, the Gregory Professor of the Civil War Era and faculty coordinator of the summer program. “Our program is also a lot of fun. It is an intensive residential experience, so we all get to know each other well, which gives us a chance to gel as a cohort. The talent and energy of these students is incredible.”

The Summer Fellows spent July at UGA living on campus and becoming immersed in the rigors of historical research.

Under the supervision of faculty, fellows learn how to work in archival materials, interpret photography and material culture, create digital projects, formulate arguments about the past and manage their own research projects. In addition to their time in the classroom, the group also spent time at historical landmarks in Georgia including the Chief Vann House, a brick home constructed in 1804 by James Vann, a Cherokee Native American leader and wealthy businessman.

Now in its second year, the program has evolved to include a specific research project for each of the students focused around a theme. This year’s theme was “The Water Project,” inspired by the Global Georgia Initiative at the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts.

Jacob Finegan, rising junior at the University of Central Florida, became interested in the association between population centers and waterways and the way technology allows populations to move away from waterways.

“For the scope of the project, I tried to determine how being away from natural water sources by using technologies like dams, canals and reservoirs affect demographic outcomes,” said Finegan. “To further my research, I want to do a development comparison of Atlanta, a city that formed at the cross-section of two railways, to Savannah, a city formed based on its proximity to a natural water source.”

Daniela Aguirre, rising senior at UCF and veteran, had a different take on water, taking the phrase “blood is thicker than water” as the center of her research project.

“My research shows how blood, specifically African blood, has been used to withhold, deny or undermine American identity, even in cases where citizenship was assured. Even in cases where one’s physiology was visibly white,” said Aguirre. “My research also shows where individuals have chosen their identity despite their blood, a theme that relates to the longer, original quote: ‘The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.’ These polar outcomes provide a degree of agency that exists in answering the loyalty question and reveal a tumultuous middle where one belongs to two worlds and none.”

The eight students, from University of Central Florida, Xavier University, Otterbein University, Mississippi State University and Pittsburg State University, lived in the residence halls and enjoyed campus amenities. The program, supported by Kay and John Parker, will continue in the summer of 2020. A UGA alumnus, John Parker graduated in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in history.

University of Georgia students traveled to Clarke Central and Cedar Shoals high schools Aug. 5 to welcome incoming students as they started their new year. This is the fourth year for the event, which is organized by the Office of the President, the Office of Service-Learning and student leaders from across campus.

The goal is to connect UGA with local high school students so they can begin to see the University of Georgia as a future destination.

President will receive experiential education award University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead has been selected as the 2019 recipient of the William M. Burke Presidential Award for Excellence in Experiential Education.

The Burke Award is presented by the National Society for Experiential Education and funded by The Washington Center for Academic Internships and Seminars in memory of TWC’s founder, William M. Burke.

The award recognizes a sitting college president who has made significant contributions to the field

and exemplifies Burke’s commitment to college students through entrepreneurial support of experiential education on campus and in the community.

The award includes a $2,000 scholarship to be awarded to a ­University of Georgia student who is involved in experiential learning.

Morehead will be honored at the 2019 NSEE conference awards luncheon on Sept. 24.

The University of Georgia has partnered with a wide range of organizations to create more than

1,700 opportunities for students to gain hands-on learning experiences, including internships, undergraduate research, community-based learning opportunities, international experiences, opportunities for leadership, entrepreneurship or creative projects.

This combination of academic instruction and hands-on learning is a defining feature of a UGA education and nearly 13,000 students completed experiential learning programs in the 2018-2019 academic year alone.

SCHOOL OF LAW

$1M gift to law school will support Family Justice Clinic

By Heidi Murphy

hmurphy@uga.edu

The memory of a domestic violence victim will have a lasting impact on the UGA School of Law as an anonymous donor has pledged $1 million to support the school’s Family Justice Clinic and create a Distinguished Law Fellowship, both bearing the victim’s name—Jane W. Wilson.

Wilson, a resident of rural Northern Georgia in her early 30s, was shot and killed by her second husband of just three days during August 1976. Her two young children, aged 10 and 8, witnessed the homicide.

By making this gift to the law school, the donor hopes to help “others similarly situated—in particular, victims and families who often find neither help nor hope.”

School of Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge said the school is both

humbled and honored by this gift. “We will work hard to honor the memory of Mrs. Wilson and help those affected by domestic violence. This donation will fund and expand essential legal work in a field that is often not discussed until something horrific occurs.This gift will help provide tomorrow’s legal leaders with the knowledge, experience and resources to combat family violence.”

The law school’s Family Justice Clinic—which opened in 1998 under the name Family Violence Clinic—provides survivors of domestic violence in Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties with direct representation as well as legal and extra-legal support free of charge. The clinic will now operate under the name Jane W. Wilson Family Justice Clinic and employ a postgraduate fellow to assist the clinic’s current director—clinical assistant professor Christine M. Scartz—in managing “litigation on behalf of

victims of intimate partner violence and abuse” and educating law students who work in the clinic.

This donation also will fund the Jane W. Wilson Distinguished Law Fellowship, a prestigious full-tuitionplus scholarship that will be awarded to an academically accomplished student with an interest in serving victims of domestic violence and other family justice issues.

The law school’s Distinguished Law Fellowship program, modeled after UGA’s Foundation Fellows initiative, was established in 2016 by a catalytic founding gift from The John N. Goddard Foundation. These fellowships offer law students full-tuition scholarships, professional development support and opportunities to meet some of the country’s top legal leaders. With the Wilson gift, the law school now boasts more than one dozen of these elite scholarships.

COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN

CED to kickoff 50th anniversary celebration on Aug. 22 In the summer of 1969, the University of Georgia founded the School of Environmental Design (later, the College of Environment and Design or CED)—a manifestation of the reformist environmental spirit of the 1960s.

By that time, UGA was already a pioneer in environmental design and landscape architecture; the first landscape design class was taught at the university in 1928. Since then, the faculty, students and alumni have dedicated themselves to bringing creativity, environmental stewardship and social responsibility to the planning, design and preservation of landscapes and communities.

This month, the college begins a 50th anniversary celebration that will feature an exhibition, a book, a website, a symposium, a series of high-profile lectures and additional public events.

“The 1960s were a time of hopeful achievement,” said CED Dean Sonia A. Hirt. “The era brought a series of

groundbreaking laws and practices that have shaped America and the world ever since. Among them were the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.” CED will host its 50th anniversary exhibit opening Aug. 22 from 4:306 p.m. at the college’s Circle Gallery in the Jackson Street Building.The exhibit explores the historical context and the evolution of the college, according to Melissa Tufts, director of CED’s Owens Library and Circle Gallery.

“It is not a conventional history, but rather a glimpse into the past decade by decade from 1969 to 2019, identifying trends, events and people who might have shaped our story,” Tufts said.

“Each of our programs—landscape architecture, historic preservation and environmental planning and design—is represented through work, research and the people of the college.”

The exhibit, which is on display

until Feb. 7, 2020, has three components: a timeline, a wall of curiosities in the tradition of “wonder rooms” that harken back to 16th-century Italy, and a rotating exhibit on three movable walls that will change throughout the coming year.

The year-long celebration also features a Signature Lecture on Oct. 1 by former Director General of UNESCO Irina Bokova titled “Preserving Global Cultural Heritage in Times of War and Conflict,” a digital symposium on American commercial architecture on Oct. 25, CED’s springtime 50th Celebration Weekend, which includes a lecture by world-renowned art critic Adam Gopnik on April 3 and an evening gala on April 4 at Herty Field.

“We look forward to welcoming the entire UGA community to join us in celebrating this important milestone in our history,” Hirt said.

For more information, see http://ced50.uga.edu/.

RESEARCH NEWS

columns.uga.edu Aug. 19, 2019

3

Digest Helpers needed Aug. 23-24 for Great Georgia Pollinator Census count

GREAT COMMITMENTS Andrew Davis Tucker

Emilie Smith assists 4-H students with STEM experiments at the J. Phil Campbell Sr. Research and Education Center in Watkinsville.

After-school specialist

College of Family and Consumer Sciences faculty member keeps kids out of trouble and engaged in STEM

By Leigh Beeson lbeeson@uga.edu

For this science experiment, the group of senior 4-H’ers would need to go outside.

Getting ready to present at her 4-H program, Kalani Washington and her classmates were practicing a chemical reaction that involved dropping Mentos mints into a bottle of Diet Coke. Things were about to get messy.

The Oconee County High School sophomore can tell you all about the chemical process that creates the geyser of cola foam. (Hint: It has to do with the mints releasing the carbon dioxide that gives soda its signature fizz.)

It’s messy and visually stimulating STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) experiments like this that can catch and hold a child’s attention, and it’s the kind of project the University of Georgia’s Emilie Smith encourages after-school educational programs to adopt. These simple but captivating experiences can spell the difference between an engaged and scientifically curious citizen and one without such a happy ending.

On the hot summer day of the Mentos experiment, Smith and Kasey Bozeman, 4-H science director, were visiting the Oconee County 4-H, directed by UGA alumnae Kelle Ashley,

Oconee County 4-H agent, and Allison Barnes, Oconee County 4-H program assistant. Smith is piloting a program to help the people who run after-school programs become more comfortable integrating STEM projects into their curriculum.

Smith, a professor of human development and family science, has spent her career working on local and national projects designed to promote positive parenting and youth development.

Ultimately, she wants to reduce youth substance abuse and problem behavior.

Because 70% of juvenile delinquency occurs after the final bell rings, Smith focuses on after-school activities.

After all, adolescent criminal activity isn’t just problematic; it’s expensive. According to a 2018 Justice Policy Institute report, it can cost upward of $300,000 to incarcerate a teen for a year.

After-school programs offer a means of keeping kids out of trouble while also helping them learn to give back to their communities. Smith’s research found that the most successful after-school programs—the ones that had the right balance of structure and child engagement in activities—had adult leaders who involved the children in defining the rules of the program. That way, children in the group held each other accountable for their behavior and learned to regulate their emotions and

behaviors without relying exclusively on adults to resolve conflicts. They also feel like they have a say in how their environments are regulated, giving them a sense of autonomy that further connects them to their group.

For the adults, who range from college students to retired teachers running groups like the Boys and Girls Club, learning how to facilitate this kind of development takes guidance.

Children do best with a mix of structure and support, but it can sometimes be difficult to strike that delicate balance.

So, using online training videos, text messaging and phone calls, “coaches” provide feedback to the group leaders and teach them how to mediate interactions rather than just control them.

Now, Smith is studying how those after-school programs can not only keep kids out of trouble but also encourage them in the STEM subjects that may have seemed daunting before and help students give back to their communities.

“Kids learn best in environments where they can experiment, lead activities, make mistakes and figure out what the right answer is,” Smith said.

Editor’s note: This story is part of the Great Commitments series, which focuses on cutting-edge research happening on UGA campuses. Read more about UGA’s commitment to research that changes lives at greatcommitments.uga.edu.

REGENERATIVE BIOSCIENCE CENTER

RBC study: Pigs help scientists understand human brain

By Charlene Betourney cbetour@uga.edu

For the first time, researchers in the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center have used an imaging method normally reserved for humans to analyze brain activity in live agricultural swine models. They have discovered that pig brains are even better platforms than previously thought for the study of human neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

One immediate potential application is in the study and diagnosis of CTE, a progressive brain disease caused by a series of blunt trauma usually seen in military veterans and NFL football players. Currently CTE can be diagnosed only through an autopsy. The new study strongly suggests that a translational swine model for mapping functional brain connectivity is a promising

approach to determine biomarkers or brain signatures that lead to CTE. Using this type of data, doctors would have the opportunity to diagnose CTE while a veteran or athlete is still alive.

By using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), the researchers demonstrated functional connectivity in sensorimotor regions of the swine brain that parallels to that of the human brain. These regions include those where all perceptions, feelings, movements and memories are encoded.

The similarities of these functional networks, as published in the journal Brain Connectivity, set the stage for targeted clinical applications in the treatment and prevention of neurological disorders.

Franklin West, associate professor of animal and dairy science in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and his RBC collaborator, Qun Zhao, drew comparisons between

sensory and cognitive relevance found in swine and those previously established in humans.

Previous research has shown that shape and exact location of brain regions interact strongly with the modeling of brain connectivity. For years, researchers have posited that the shape and size of a swine brain bears physiological and anatomical similarities to the human brain, and therefore swine are considered a good animal model for neurological disease.

Interrupted connections play a role in neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and autism. With any of these disorders, the RBC collaborators can now model a 360-degree view of which parts of the brain are no longer talking to each other and which centers in the brain are being reactivated and reconnected.

On Aug. 23-24, the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and State Botanical Gardens’ Protect to Connect program are hosting campus pollinator counts as part of the UGA Extension Great Georgia Pollinator Census.

The census is a statewide pollinator count that is modeled after the Cornell University Backyard Bird Count. Organizers have recruited citizen scientists from schools, garden clubs and conservation groups to spend 15 minutes on Aug. 23 and Aug. 24 watching one blooming plant and keeping track of the pollinators they see. This information will be compiled with data from observers from across the state to give researchers a clearer picture of pollinator health in Georgia’s cities, rural areas and suburbs.

Georgians can count by themselves in their back or front yards or join a group count. UGA group campus count will be held between 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the native pollinator garden between the Pharmacy South and Environmental Health Sciences buildings.

Protect to Connect will provide clipboards and identification help during the 15-minute count. Would-be counters can RSVP to Lauren Mueller at lvmuller@uga.edu.

State Department grant to strengthen UGA study abroad with new curricula

The Office of Global Engagement, as a division of the University of Georgia, has been selected to receive a grant as part of the U.S. Department of State’s 2019 Capacity Building Program for U.S. Study Abroad.

UGA, along with 20 other colleges and universities, was selected from more than 120 applications to create, expand and diversify American student mobility overseas in support of foreign policy goals. The Capacity Building Program for U.S. Study Abroad is a program of the U.S. State Department with funding provided by the U.S. government and supported in its implementation by World Learning.

UGA will use the capacity building grant to develop curricula for rising college freshmen who are statistically less likely to study abroad.

Brian Watkins, OGE director of international initiative, is principal investigator on the grant.

Georgia Review reading to feature Alberto Ríos, Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor

The Georgia Review will celebrate the launch of its summer 2019 issue Aug. 20 with an evening of poetry and music featuring poets Alberto Ríos and Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor and Athensbased musician Sarah Zúñiga. Open free to the public, this event will take place at 7 p.m. at Ciné, which is located at 234 West Hancock Ave. A reception with light refreshments will follow. Avid Bookshop will be selling copies of the poets’ books, and The Georgia Review will be available for purchase. ASL interpretation will be provided.

Ríos, Arizona’s first poet laureate, is the author of 13 books of poetry, three collections of short stories and a memoir. His work, which is regularly taught and translated, has been adapted to dance and both classical and popular music.

A chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Ríos resides in Chandler, Arizona.

Cahnmann-Taylor is a professor of TESOL and world language education in UGA’s College of Education. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Cream City Review, Barrow Street and Puerto Del Sol, among others.

The Georgia Review, an award-winning literary journal that publishes original poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews, as well as visual art, was founded at the University of Georgia in 1947.

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 Division of Marketing & Communications. Periodicals postage is paid in Athens, Georgia. Postmaster: Send off-campus address changes to Columns, UGA Marketing & Communications, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Athens, GA 30602-1999.

4 Aug. 19, 2019 columns.uga.edu

RESEARCH NEWS

FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Researchers start to use technology to predict schizophrenia in patients

By Alan Flurry

aflurry@uga.edu

Schizophrenia, a psychiatric disorder that affects about 1% of the population, is a leading cause of functional disability in the United States. Typically diagnosis has hinged on the display of visible “positive symptoms” such as hallucinations and delusions, but one key to earlier identification and treatment is a recognition of negative symptoms, and University of Georgia neuroscientists are developing novel technology-based tools to catch such symptoms and improve risk prediction.

Negative symptoms typically appear years before positive symptoms emerge and are often what first bring young people who later develop schizophrenia into contact with the mental health care system. These symptoms are characterized by reductions in emotion, motivation and expressive communication, and they include such behavior as avolition, or a lack of motivation to engage in goal-directed activities, and asociality, or decreased participation in social activity, among others.

“Historically, efforts at early identification and prevention of schizophrenia have focused on positive symptoms.

These symptoms are often disruptive and require urgent clinical attention when they emerge,” said Gregory Strauss, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “However, it is the negative symptoms of the disorder that may be even more important to focus on for early identification and prevention.”

Funded with $3 million from the National Institute of Mental Health, Strauss is principal investigator on a project that will collect data at UGA, Northwestern University and Emory University to evaluate novel risk identification methods such as digital phenotyping. The project capitalizes on a ubiquitous 21st century technology.

“We ask participants to record videos on their cellphones throughout the day, where they tell us about what they’ve been doing and how they’ve been feeling,” Strauss said. “Then we use automated algorithms to process the emotion in the face and in the voice of the participant to quantify negative symptoms.”

The videos can also be used for lexical analysis, determining whether certain keywords related to positive emotion are present or how tangential or incoherent the speech might be. These help identify other key symptoms such as speech disorganization or even suicidal thoughts.

“We believe these digital phenotyping variables may predict risk in a much more sophisticated way than what we can get through the traditional clinical rating scales,” Strauss said.

Video has long been part of methods used in a laboratory setting, often requiring painstaking, manual analysis. Strauss and colleagues want to automate the entire process and move it to the real world where emotions naturally occur.

“We’re developing a risk monitoring system in which a young person could use some of these measures to monitor their risk,” Strauss said. “If a phone could help monitor their symptoms and prevent them from having to return for frequent clinical re-evaluations, that represents a new level in using technology for mental health care.”

This work on assessment is part of a larger program of research in Strauss’ lab that focuses on determining the mechanisms underlying negative symptoms.

“My hope,” he said, “is that our findings on brain mechanisms will uncover new targets for treatment, as there are currently no medications capable of effectively treating negative symptoms. This is one of the biggest challenges in the field of psychiatry.”

Dorothy Kozlowski

Natarajan Kannan and Annie Kwon classified 31,520 pseudokinase sequences as part of a research study.

Filling in the gap Graduate student’s work on so-called ‘dead’ enzymes proves their significance

By Allyson Mann tiny@uga.edu

April was a big month for Annie Kwon. The Ph.D. student in bioinformatics successfully defended her dissertation, and she was listed as first author on a paper revealing that a class of enzymes previously thought to be useless is prevalent across all domains of life and in fact serves an important purpose in cell communications.

Kwon, working with UGA professor Natarajan Kannan and a team of researchers, conducted an extensive survey of these enzymes—known as pseudokinases—and revealed that they bring cell signaling partners together, helping them work more effectively.

The study, published in Science Signaling, evolved from Kwon’s research trip to the University of Liverpool, where she worked with Patrick Eyers, a longtime collaborator with the Kannan lab. Kwon was one of the first students to receive a fellowship through the UGAUniversity of Liverpool graduate exchange program, which funded her trip in April 2018.

The project grew out of conversations between Kannan and Eyers, the result of inter-institutional collaborations made possible through the UGAUniversity of Liverpool Pump-Priming Grant Program.

“Patrick is the pseudokinase expert, and after talking with him, we realized that there’s a big gap in the pseudokinase field,” Kwon said. “Some of them are

really well studied in humans, but no one’s really looked for them in other organisms. Just from an initial look, we found that they’re common in other organisms—especially in bacteria, which was unexpected.”

Finding so many pseudokinase sequences in bacteria led the team to keep looking, and the study became much more comprehensive. Eventually they classified nearly 30,000 eukaryotic, 1,500 bacterial and 20 archaeal pseudokinase sequences into 86 families, including about 30 families that were previously unknown.

“Our study was the first to show that pseudokinases are prevalent across diverse species and are well represented in plants and fungi,” said Kannan, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Protein kinases are a class of enzymes involved in a range of diseases, particularly in cancer. They turn signals on and off in cells—a critical part of how cells communicate with each other.

Pseudokinases are related proteins that lack the machinery needed to generate on and off signaling, and for many years they were considered to be evolutionary leftovers and ignored.

The survey by Kwon, Kannan and other graduate students in Kannan’s lab compared the genomes of diverse organisms and showed for the first time that these so-called “dead” enzymes are prevalent across multiple species. Subsequent research by the UGA-University

of Liverpool team and others has further revealed that pseudokinases play important roles by bringing other signaling partners together in a cellular context.

Even though pseudokinases themselves don’t provide on/off signaling, they help other enzymes work more effectively.

Pseudokinases in plants, fungi and bacteria have not received much attention, and Kannan believes there is enormous potential for drug discovery and biotechnology. For example, some have been shown to play a part in plant immunity and stress, a function that could be repurposed for biotechnology applications. He plans to explore how to target pseudokinases in plants and fungi and understand their functions, and he hopes to find UGA collaborators.

“UGA is a world leader in plant research, and there’s a large number of people working on fungal systems,” Kannan said. “There might be someone across campus who would find this information very valuable.”

Kwon, who graduated in May, is wrapping up research projects and applying for jobs. Her ideal position would be in drug discovery at a pharmaceutical company, and her experience with kinases and pseudokinases in the Kannan lab provides a strong foundation.

“There are a lot of interesting biological questions that are coming out of this field, especially from our study,” she said. “We see this research branching off in so many different ways, from drug studies to plant studies to figuring out more about how bacteria work.”

WARNELL SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Loggerhead turtles headed for record-breaking number of nests in 2019

By Kristen Morales kmorales@uga.edu

This summer is shaping up to be a banner year for sea turtles, according to data collected by University of Georgia researchers.

By early July, roughly halfway through the annual nesting season along the southeastern coast of the U.S., more than 10,000 loggerhead sea turtle nests have been logged by organizations and volunteers and reported to the Northern Recovery Unit Loggerhead DNA Project, housed in UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Before this year, the highest number of nests recorded was 11,321 in 2016—representing a full season of data.

“There’s no question in my mind that we will break that

record,” said Joe Nairn, a professor who, with assistant research scientist Brian Shamblin, developed a system of identifying and tracking female loggerheads by using the DNA extracted from their eggshells.

Nairn attributes this year’s success to two factors: Better nest protection efforts that began in the 1960s, as well as the increased use of “turtle excluder devices” in shrimp trawler nets.

Because it takes 30 to 40 years for a sea turtle to mature to reproductive age, better nest protections mean more turtles have been able to hatch and make their way back to the ocean, Nairn said. And with the increased use of the turtle excluder devices, he added, more turtles are able to survive longer into their reproductive years.

“So, with a reduced number of female deaths and an increased number of hatchlings in the water, we’re beginning

to see the results of those efforts,” he added.

Nairn and Shamblin collect turtle DNA through a partnership called the Northern Recovery Unit Loggerhead DNA Project, which has, for the past decade, collected DNA from eggshells and logged them into a database.As a result, researchers have data on more than 10,000 female loggerhead turtles who make nests between North Florida and the Mid-Atlantic region, one of two nesting grounds for loggerheads in the world.

The partnership represents a collaboration between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, UGA and state wildlife agencies in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Each state’s wildlife agency coordinates a network of turtle watchers who report nests and collect eggshells for research.

For more details on the project, visit seaturtle.org.

UGAGUIDE

columns.uga.edu Aug. 19, 2019

For a complete listing of events, check the Master Calendar on the Web (calendar.uga.edu/­).

The following events are open to the public, unless otherwise specified. Dates, times and locations may change without advance notice.

EXHIBITIONS

Larger Than Life: New Deal Mural Studies. Through Sept. 8. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

Women of the WPA. Through Sept. 8.

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

Celebrating Heroes: American Mural Studies of the 1930s and 1940s from the Steven and Susan Hirsch Collection.

Through Sept. 15. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

Color, Form and Light. Through Oct. 13.

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

Out of the Darkness: Light in the Depths of the Sea of Cortez. Through Oct. 27.

Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-1817. hazbrown@uga.edu.

The New South and The New Slavery: Convict Labor in Georgia. Through Dec. 13. Hargrett Library Gallery, special collections libraries. 706-542-6367. kdotson@uga.edu.

Moon Rocks! Through Dec. 24. Russell Gallery, special collections libraries.

706-542-5788. washnock@uga.edu.

Now and Then: 1979. Through Dec. 24. Russell Gallery, special collections libraries. 706-542-5788. washnock@uga.edu.

Storytelling in Renaissance Maiolica.

Through Jan. 5. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

MONDAY, AUG. 19 DROP/ADD Through Aug. 20. For fall semester undergraduate- and graduate-level courses.

GRADTEACH WORKSHOP: WELCOME TO TEACHING In this workshop, participants will discuss strategies for starting off the semester on the right foot, including overcoming anxiety, encouraging classroom community from day one, and discussing classroom and course expectations. Sample syllabi, handouts, worksheets and other resources will be provided. 2:30 p.m. 372 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-1355. gradteach@uga.edu.

BRAND TRAINING An overview of the University of Georgia brand for external agencies and vendors who want to work with campus units.

3:30 p.m. Suite 200N, Marketing & Communications Conference Room, Hodgson Oil Building. 706-542-8051. michele.horn@uga.edu.

TUESDAY, AUG. 20 GRADTEACH WORKSHOP: WELCOME TO TEACHING In this workshop, participants will discuss strategies for starting off the semester on the right foot, including overcoming anxiety, encouraging classroom community from day one, and discussing classroom and course

expectations. Sample syllabi, handouts, worksheets and other resources will be provided. 12:30 p.m. 372 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-1355. gradteach@uga.edu.

TOUR AT TWO Annelies Mondi, deputy director, will give a special tour of the exhibition Women of the WPA. 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art.

TUESDAY TOUR AT 2 Join a spotlight tour of the exhibit galleries of the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. Guides will highlight some favorite items on display and provide overview information about the Special Collections Building. 2 p.m. Rotunda, second floor, Special Collections Libraries. 706-583-0213. jhebbard@uga.edu.

WORKSHOP Beatrice Brown leads an exploration of natural sources that can be used in textile dyeing for personal and home use.

5:30 p.m. Visitor Center & Conservatory Front Fountain, State Botanical Garden.

706-542-6156. cscamero@uga.edu.

SUNFLOWER CONCERT Austin Darnell, formerly of the Darnell Boys, will be joined by Jojo Glidewell, formerly of Modern Skirts, and Dave Kirslis from Cicada Rhythm. Presented

by Friends of the Garden, Flagpole, Athens Coca-Cola and Northeast Sales & Distributing. $15, general admission; $10, members; $5, children ages 6-12. Season tickets are $50 or $35 for members. 7 p.m. Flower Garden Lawn, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6138. lpbryant@uga.edu.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 21 UGA RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVE 11 a.m. Memorial Hall.

DISEASE ECOLOGY SEMINAR “The Ecology and Control of Sarcoptic Mange in Wombats,” Scott Carver, University of Tasmania. RSVP for lunch.

12:10 p.m. 117 Ecology Building.

706-542-1930. tross312@uga.edu.

CONSERVATION SEMINAR “Burning for Biodiversity,” Shan Cammack, natural resources biologist III and fire management officer with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Conservation Section. This seminar series exposes undergraduate and graduate students to multiple aspects of the field of conservation ecology and sustainable development through speakers from different scientific disciplines and careers. It is designed to provide students with an integrative perspective that transcends interdisciplinary boundaries. 1:25 p.m.

Auditorium, Ecology Building.

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

THURSDAY, AUG. 22 ANNUAL MEETING The annual meeting of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art will include highlights from the group’s activities

Calendar items are taken from Columns files and from the university’s Master Calendar, maintained by Marketing & Communications. Notices are published as space permits, with priority given to items of multidisciplinary interest. The Master Calendar is available at calendar.uga.edu/.

5

and the presentation of the M. Smith Griffith Volunteer of the Year Award.

RSVP to gmoarsvp@uga.edu or 706-542-4199. To receive a copy of agenda items or bylaw revisions, email jointhemuseum@uga.edu or call 706-542-0830. 5:30 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art.

CLASS Learn the proper lighting and flash techniques for digital photography. Designed for beginners, this digital lighting/flash course will establish the basic terminology, equipment and techniques used in digital photography. Students will need to bring a digital SLR camera and shoe mount flash with the owner’s manual to class and be familiar with the camera and flash settings. The instructor will advise participants of any other needed equipment. $179. Tuesdays at 6 p.m. through Sept. 12.

Georgia Center. 706-542-3537. questions@georgiacenter.uga.edu.

Peter Aaron’s photograph of the Temple of Bel will be on display as part of a new exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art.

PETER AARON’S PHOTOGRAPHS SHOW A LOST SYRIA

By Claire Barrera

claire.barrera25@uga.edu

FRIDAY, AUG. 23 GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY Official groundbreaking ceremony for the Center for Art and Nature at the State Botanical Garden. 10 a.m. State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6014. connicot@uga.edu.

INTERNATIONAL COFFEE HOUR Hosted by Chinese Culture & Language Association. 11:30 a.m. Ballroom, Memorial Hall. 706-542-5867. bridget.webster@uga.edu.

DIGI COLLOQUIUM Seven undergraduates will discuss the projects they designed and created in the course of six weeks in the DH Summer Scholars program. 4 p.m.

DigiLab (Room 300), Main Library.

706-542-5998. digi@uga.edu.

SATURDAY, AUG. 24 CLASS In “Protecting Plant Diversity in the Garden and in the Wild,” learn about threats to biodiversity in Georgia and worldwide with examples of rare plant research, techniques for restoration and reintroduction, and the ways individuals and organizations are making a difference. Group discussions and tours of the Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plant Studies. $105, general admission; $94.50, members. 9 a.m. Mimsie Lanier Center For Native Plant Studies, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6156. cscamero@uga.edu.

DAWG DAY OF SERVICE Dawg Day of Service is UGA’s largest annual day of community service, providing a great opportunity to work with other students to make a positive impact in the community. Dawg Day of Service is hosted by ServeUGA, out of the Center for Leadership & Service. 9 a.m. Grand Hall, Tate Student Center. avery.moore25@uga.edu.

FAMILY DAY Help celebrate the contributions of women to WPA art. The Works Projects Administration was an American New Deal agency created in the 1930s to provide jobs for the unemployed, to

In 2009, while on a family trip to Syria, architectural photographer Peter Aaron shot dozens of images of historic sites. Two years later, as part of the Arab Spring uprisings, protesters demanded that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad step down. Thus began a civil war that has continued to the present day and resulted in the destruction of many of the sites Aaron photographed. Before the War: Photographs of Syria

by Peter Aaron will be on display at the Georgia Museum of Art from Aug. 31 through Dec. 1.

Over thousands of years, many cultures have fought over Syria, with the victors building massive architectural structures. For example, the Temple of Bel originally provided a place to worship a Mesopotamian god. It was closed when the Roman Empire occupied Syria, converted to a Christian church during the Byzantine era, then became a mosque in the 12th century. Combining classical Greco-Roman and Near Eastern architecture, it stood for almost 2,000 years but was destroyed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as ISIS) in 2015.

Aaron’s photograph of the Tetrapylon at Palmyra shows an intact platform built by the Romans in the second century CE. In 2017, ISIL intentionally demolished the ancient monument with explosives. Several other architectural monuments that have stood for centuries or longer have been damaged both intentionally and collaterally by the war.

Aaron’s black-and-white photographs of these buildings show the country’s complex sense of collective identity and serve as a reminder of what continues to be lost to war.

Ashlyn Davis, a UGA master’s student in history who has been interning at the museum, worked on organizing this exhibition. She hopes that those who view the exhibition not only appreciate the photographs as works of art, but leave the museum having learned more about the culture of and situation in Syria through educational programming coinciding with the show.

Related events at the museum include a gallery talk with Aaron and museum director William U. Eiland on Oct. 3 at 2 p.m.; 90 Carlton: Autumn, the museum’s quarterly reception, on Oct. 4 from 5:307:30 p.m. ($15, $10 for Friends of the Museum and supporters, free for current members; galleries open until 8:30 p.m.); a panel discussion with scholars and experts (date not yet confirmed); and a screening of the documentary The Road to Palmyra on Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. build infrastructure, to document American history and to create new works of art. Enjoy gallery activities and to learn more about printmaking in the Michael and Mary Erlanger Studio Classroom.

10 a.m. Georgia Museum of Art.

SUNDAY, AUG. 25 SOCCER vs. Binghamton. 1 p.m. Turner Soccer Complex.

MONDAY, AUG. 26 PEACH STATE LSAMP CEREMONY Opening ceremonies 6 p.m. Tate

TO SUBMIT A LISTING FOR THE MASTER CALENDAR AND COLUMNS 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.

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, Marketing & Communications, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Campus Mail 1999.

Reception Hall, Tate Student Center.

706-542-0058. pslsamp@uga.edu.

COMING UP FACULTY PERSPECTIVES Aug. 27. Join Akela Reason, associate professor of history, for a talk on the exhibition Celebrating Heroes: American Mural Studies off the 1930s and 1940s from the Steven and Susan Hirsch Collection. 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. TOUR AT TWO Aug. 27. Tour of highlights from the permanent collection led by docents.

2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art.

NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES Aug. 21 (for Sept. 3 issue) Aug. 28 (for Sept. 9 issue) Sept. 4 (for Sept. 16 issue)

6 Aug. 19, 2019 columns.uga.edu

FACULTY PROFILE

Marriages and money

Kristy Archuleta, an associate professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, was quoted in Grow from Acorns about a couple’s financial future.

Money is the No. 1 source of tension in marriages and a leading cause of divorce. Almost one in four millenials say financial issues caused their union to fall apart, according to a 2017 MagnifyMoney survey.

To get on strong financial footing with your partner: develop a joint budget, decide how much of your finances to combine, establish a management style, consider a prenup and start a wedding fund.

“There should be no restrictions and no questions asked about how you each use your ‘fun money,’ ” said Archuleta, who works in the college’s financial planning, housing and consumer economics department.

“There is typically one person who is more interested or experienced in overseeing the finances, but don’t make assumptions—talk about who is going to do what. Regardless, if one partner is going to be handling most of the duties, the other still needs to be well informed of what is going on.”

Frozen DNA

Franklin West, an associate professor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, was quoted in How Stuff Works about frozen animal DNA. Humans and the livestock they grow for food account for 96% of mammal biomass on Earth, which is driving wild animals into extinction. The concept of creating a repository for the genetic material of endangered species has been around for a while— projects have been cryogenically storing genetic material since the 1980s.

Cloning endangered species has proven possible—in the early 2000s, scientists successfully cloned a couple of them: an African wildcat and an Asian ox called a gaur. Cloning requires eggs from the animal, but obtaining gametes from a live animal can be extremely difficult.

“The problem with cloning is it’s highly inefficient—the process is tricky, even with animals that are well understood and described, like house cats, dogs, horses and cows,” said West, who works in the university’s Regenerative Bioscience Center. “So when you start talking about cloning endangered animal species, it gets tough because we just don’t have enough information about the animal.”

Endorphins make you happy

Patrick O’Connor, a kinesiology professor in the College of Education, was quoted in MyFitnessPal about exercise increasing happiness.

A new study published in The Lancet explored the connection between exercise and mental health. The researchers analyzed data from more than 1.2 million adults and found that those who got regular exercise experienced less stress, depression and emotional turmoil than sedentary adults.

While all forms of exercise were associated with increases in happiness, the biggest boosts came from team sports. The amount of exercise also had a significant impact on mood and the largest associations were linked with exercising for 45 minutes three to five times per week.

The connection between exercise duration and mood is not well understood, but O’Connor believes it could be a result of changes in the brain, including the activation of neurotransmitters like serotonin and norepinephrine that help decrease stress, anxiety and depression.

Training too hard could have the opposite effect.

“At high levels, physical activity can produce depression,” said O’Connor, who specializes in exercise and mental health. “Those are unusual cases; for most people, increasing the amount of physical activity will provide a nice psychological boost.”

Yohannes Abate, associate professor in the physics and astronomy department, works with materials on a nanoscale.

Andrew Davis Tucker

Franklin College faculty member’s research contributes to discoveries

By Alan Flurry

aflurry@uga.edu

Yohannes Abate established his expertise in experimental condensed matter physics focusing on fundamental studies of quantum materials at the nanoscale just as breakthroughs for next-generation materials proliferated.

“Curiosity itself is an venerable human trait,” Abate said. “Novel quantum materials that we experiment with in the lab do not seem to result in immediate application, and it’s important to develop a thorough understanding of their properties before we can imagine their possibilities and what we might do with them.”

One challenge of developing quantum materials means the next wave of innovative applications and technology rely on creative thinking and fundamental research prior to their association with specific applications and devices.

This order echoes many of the transformational eras in science and technology.

The nanoscale can blur distinctions between classical and quantum behavior of materials, opening an unprecedented opportunity for new physics.

“When the dimension of a material becomes smaller (for example, from three dimensions to two dimensions), the material becomes confined in one axis,” Abate said. “This confinement and modification of other internal properties (such as electron internal structure), can allow emergent electronic states with striking behavior on low dimensional quantum materials.”

Low dimensional materials refer to systems in which electronic state

wavefunction is confined in at least one of the three dimensions. These systems exhibit a range of intriguing possibilities including electronic, optical, thermal, mechanical and chemical properties that may result in their use in a range of nanotechnologies.

“My laboratory is interested in exploration of fundamental phenomena and elementary interactions in such materials using unique imaging techniques at very small (nanometer scale) spatial resolution,” Abate said.

A significant part of his research laboratory’s goal is to develop light-based tools that enable high-resolution imaging at wide frequency scales.

For example, the infrared and terahertz spectral regions span the energy scales of many fundamental excitations in solids that include superconductivity, electronic spin excitations, and polaritons, particles where light and matter become coupled and indistinguishable.

“The visible and near infrared frequency regions allow us to investigate the local nanoscale properties of individual quantum emitters that are at the heart of future quantum information, quantum sensing and quantum computing communities,” Abate said. “Our group has developed extensive capabilities in imaging and spectroscopy at small length scales in all of these energy scales.”

These tools open transformational fundamental science possibilities in physics, chemistry, biology and neuroscience as well as various novel applications in communication, defense, remote probing and noninvasive imaging.

Abate, who arrived at UGA in 2017, has been able to build his lab and has

FACTS

Yohannes Abate Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy Department Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Ph.D., Physics, University of Iowa, 2006 M.Sc., Physics, National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines, 2001 B.Sc., Physics, Addis Ababa University (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), 1995 At UGA: Two years

multiple, ongoing grants. One from the National Science Foundation was awarded to investigate the fundamental physics of quantum systems at the nanoscale in metamaterials, where light and matter coexist in the form of polaritons, whose propagation can be imagined in real-space.

“Metamaterials host unique properties not found in naturally occurring materials, that means there are novel properties which lead, ultimately, to novel devices that do not exist,” Abate said. “There is a whole new range of applications that are not yet imagined.”

What is important, Abate explained, is to focus on the discovery of these fundamental phenomena even when it seems void of applications at the moment. It takes time, but new uses and applications will arrive.

“We search for new materials and new properties with an eye for application in high-speed electronics and devices, but it takes a lot of exploring, and it is the journey that is exciting,” Abate said.

COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH New Holbrook Distinguished Professor in Global Health named

By Lauren Baggett lbaggett@uga.edu

Dr. Christopher Whalen, a leading international researcher on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis transmission in Africa, has been named to the Karen and Jim Holbrook Distinguished Professorship in Global Health.

Karen Holbrook served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Georgia from 1998 to 2002 before being named president of The Ohio State University. Jim Holbrook is a retired oceanographer and past deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental

Research Laboratory in Seattle.

The Holbrooks established the professorship to build upon existing strengths in global health research throughout the college, increase international collaborations and expand experiential learning activities for students in international public health.

“I was very fortunate to work with colleagues at UGA during a time of real transformation and expansion into new program areas,” said Karen Holbrook.

“It is so gratifying to see many of those ideas have taken root. Now seems like a good time to invest in realizing more of the college’s potential for conducting meaningful international research and to emphasize the impact this activity can

have for students.”

Whalen is the director of the Global Health Institute and a faculty member in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics Christopher Whalen in UGA’s College of Public Health.

His research and clinical activities focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, especially Uganda, where he aims to improve current methods and strategies for tuberculosis control and to improve clinical care for tuberculosis among HIV-infected persons.

columns.uga.edu Aug. 19, 2019

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

7

Continuous improvement Provost Hu shares his vision for UGA’s academic enterprise

By Sam Fahmy

by faculty and graduate students, so we need to strengthen graduate education and recruit the best faculty to UGA, mentor them, and keep them here at the university.

It’s also important that we continue to strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship. I think building a culture of risk-taking—trying things that are a little unconventional—is important for faculty and students. Faculty researchers have to be at the cutting edge, and they should be encouraged to explore different research areas or educational approaches and curricula.

In terms of entrepreneurship, that means taking an idea and moving it to the marketplace. That involves risk, also.

You may start a company and have it fail. But tenured faculty should not be worried if they try something different and their company fails. That’s what risk-taking is all about.

sfahmy@uga.edu

In the corner of Provost S. Jack Hu’s office in the Administration Building, just to the right of the window overlooking North Campus, is a framed print of elegant Chinese calligraphy.

It includes Chinese characters “kaizen,” as well as the names of cherished colleagues and mentors. “Kaizen” is a manufacturing approach that prizes continuous improvement. Hu, an engineer by training, began his tenure as the University of Georgia’s chief academic officer on July 1. He recently sat down to discuss his thoughts on fostering continuous improvement at the birthplace of public higher education in America.

You were at the University of Michigan for nearly 35 years, most recently as vice president for research. What attracted you to the University of Georgia?

This morning I was meeting with some faculty and administrators, and I thanked them and told them that they all played a role in bringing me to the University of Georgia.

This institution has risen so rapidly, and that’s because of the faculty, staff and leadership here.

Fortunately, the weather played a role, too. I’ll explain how: When the search firm called me, I showed some interest but also was a little reluctant. Then we had a twoday shutdown in Ann Arbor due to the polar vortex, so for two days I didn’t go into the office. I used that time to do some homework on UGA. I recognized the reputation of the university, particularly in undergraduate education, but also the aspiration of the faculty and leadership in wanting to achieve greater recognition and excellence in graduate education, research and service. I thought Georgia would be a great fit given my interest in building research, and the momentum and great reputation that we have in instruction and outreach.

What are some of the core values that have guided your career?

As a faculty member, the key is transforming people— transforming students, that is. I think the training of graduate students through mentoring in research and scholarship makes them more informed and helps them to become thoughtful and engaged citizens. The same is true for undergraduate education. I think the four years that an undergraduate student goes through in college are transformational.

As a leader in higher education, my core value is service.

Service leadership, supporting faculty, staff and students and making sure that they are empowered.

What do you want faculty and staff to know about you in your role as provost?

The provost sits at an interesting intersection. The provost represents the academic, faculty perspective but also has an administrative responsibility. I see my role as

And how do you effect change at an institution as large and complex as the University of Georgia?

Effecting change is not easy, right? UGA has a long history. We have systems and operating procedures, but I think change is about creating a culture. Fostering a culture of service, a culture of leadership, a culture of risk-taking and a culture of continuous improvement. All of those are important.

Provost S. Jack Hu

Peter Frey

supporting faculty and am, myself, a faculty member. So, it’s important for me to communicate closely with the faculty, the students and the staff and to make sure that they are heard and supported. This is for the benefit of students and for the benefit of the institution.

Tell me about your priorities for academics at the university for the coming year.

I’m still learning, and it will take time for me to fully understand the university and the aspirations of the faculty, the staff and the leadership. Based on my initial understanding of the institution, a number of areas will remain very important, like continuing to strengthen undergraduate education.

We’re already highly ranked, but we need to continue to strengthen this area for our students. That includes enhancing experiential learning and making sure that students have opportunities for engaged learning, whether through internships, research, service-learning or global learning and partnerships. All of those are important areas for students.

In research, I think it’s important to build our reputation as a global research university with impact. Research is done

WEEKLY READER

On a personal note, what do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I picked up the game of golf a few years ago, so I try to get out on a golf course on the weekend when I can. I grew up in China, so I appreciate Chinese literature and Chinese calligraphy. So usually in the wintertime when I was at Michigan—you can’t get out, right?—practicing calligraphy was something I enjoyed. I have the brush pens and ink, but they’re still in moving boxes now, and I hope to get them out soon. My wife is a pianist, and I enjoy going out with her to concerts and performances.

Is there anything else you’d like to add or say in summary about your role as provost?

The provost is the chief academic officer, so academic excellence is my priority. We should strive to be the best in education, in research and in service. I mentioned earlier our momentum in instruction and research, and UGA is exemplary in outreach. Among all the public institutions that I know of, UGA does an exemplary job in service and outreach.

We have to tell our stories to the citizens in the state, across the U.S. and beyond. Our story is about the value of higher education and how it transforms students. We need to tell the story of what our research and services provide for the state in terms of economic impact.

We need to keep telling these stories so that alumni, donors, foundations and elected officials will continue to support the University of Georgia and higher education in general.

CYBERSIGHTS

ABOUT COLUMNS

Book shares tools for interactive learning

With a Little Help from My Friends: Conversation-Based Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Classrooms Paula J. Mellom, Rebecca K. Hixon and Jodi P. Weber Teachers College Press Paperback: $32.95

Grounded in research-based practice, With a Little Help from My Friends helps teachers make classroom learning more interactive and conversation-based.

Drawing on their work with more than 800 teachers and administrators from more than 29 districts and two countries, Paula J. Mellom, Rebecca K. Hixon and Jodi P. Weber present a pedagogical model that challenges teachers to promote emotionally safe classroom environments, activate the assets they and their students bring to the classroom, and modify the way they plan and implement their lessons.

Mellom is the associate director of the Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education. Hixon is a postdoctoral research and teaching associate for CLASE. Weber is the assistant director of professional development for CLASE. CLASE is a research and development center housed within UGA’s College of Education.

Columns is available to the 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

UGA Arts website gets new look with redesign

arts.uga.edu

The University of Georgia’s Arts website has a new look to engage more people in the visual, literary and performing arts on campus.

The site acts as a gateway to each of the 12 units that comprise the UGA Arts Council, and it houses information on council initiatives, including the annual Spotlight on the Arts festival.

The site also features RSS feeds of news articles and events related to the arts, as well as links to the @UGA_Arts social media accounts. To have your event featured on the site, submit it to the UGA Master Calendar (calendar.uga.edu) and make a selection from among the arts and culture topic filters.

The site is maintained by the Office of the Provost.

Associate Editor Krista Richmond Art Director Jackie Baxter Roberts Photo Editor Dorothy Kozlowski Writer Leigh Beeson

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.

8 Aug. 19, 2019 columns.uga.edu

GRANT from page 1

CLASS from page 1 The number of applicants to UGA has risen by 40% over the past five years in conjunction with the university’s growing reputation for academic excellence. Academic enhancements over the past several years include experiential learning for all undergraduate students and initiatives to reduce class sizes and promote engagement, entrepreneurship and innovation.

To share information about college preparedness and the personalized learning environment that UGA provides, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the Office of the President and other campus units travel across the state of Georgia and beyond to meet with prospective students.

The university held more than 400 offcampus events over the past recruitment cycle that reached students in 146 of Georgia’s 159 counties. A program known as Road Dawgs, through which UGA students use their spring break to visit high schools and share their experiences, is now in its fourth year. This year, the group traveled to areas affected by Hurricane Michael—including Cairo, Bainbridge and Albany—and also visited schools in Norcross and Snellville.

“Demonstrated academic performance and rigor of high school curriculum are

primary factors in the admissions process,” said Patrick Winter, UGA’s associate vice president for admissions and enrollment management. “Beyond the numbers, which can fluctuate from year to year, factors like leadership, creativity, service and impact within their high school community are also given strong consideration in selecting a class.”

Members of the Class of 2023 begin their studies at a time when measures of student success, along with UGA’s national stature, are at record heights. Three out of every four UGA students earn their degrees in four years plus one semester, and the most recent data from the university’s career outcomes survey shows that 96% of recent graduates are employed or in graduate school within six months of graduation—a figure that is 12% higher than the national average.

“As educators, we are committed to providing students with learning experiences that facilitate transformative growth and discovery,” said S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “Our incoming students have demonstrated the potential to be leaders in a wide range of fields, and we are very pleased to welcome them to the University of Georgia.”

CONFERENCE from page 1

MENTOR from page 1

and coaching firm Wild Innovation, were selected for their expertise in working with rural communities.

Reimers-Hild has served as the chief futurist at the University of Nebraska’s Rural Futures Institute and is an expert in applying future-focused leadership and strategic foresight to workforce development issues. Ponti-Lazaruk leads the USDA Rural Development Innovation Office, which applies best practices and improved program delivery to enhance the quality of life in rural communities.

Breakout sessions will explore successful ways to build talent for small businesses and how to create an effective experiential learning program. In addition, a panel of experienced local leaders will share their knowledge about connecting people and organizations to build effective workforce pipelines.

The Institute of Government recognizes the importance of workforce development to Georgia’s economy and works closely with public and private organizations to help them develop effective workforce programs, said Laura Meadows, director of the Vinson Institute.

“Workforce development is a top issue cited by economic development professionals, business leaders and government officials in creating and retaining jobs. We’re working throughout Georgia to help communities build their talent pipeline,” Meadows said.

The Innovating Georgia’s Workforce Pipeline Conference draws on the Institute of Government’s wide range of services to equip attendees with successful, effective tools to help them reach their workforce development goals, according to institute faculty member Greg Wilson, conference convener.

of no better person to serve as our inaugural Startup Mentor.”

As the Startup Mentor in Residence, Salyers will conduct daylong visits to campus in the fall and spring semesters to meet with student and faculty entrepreneurs, deliver a campus-wide lecture and participate in university innovation activities.

Salyers said he’s dedicated to the idea that businesses should “improve the stories of those we do business with” and bring genuine value to customers and clients.

“The focus of my career has always been on helping to create value for other people, and entrepreneurialism is one the best ways to express that to me,” Salyers said. “I am excited about this opportunity to work with the University of Georgia’s thriving community of innovators and entrepreneurs. I expect that I have as much to learn from them as they do from me. I can’t wait to get started.”

Salyers, a 1981 UGA graduate and an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, has launched businesses and nonprofits including ROAM Innovative Workplace and Champion Tribes, which aims to help fathers and sons connect in meaningful ways. He co-wrote the book Remarkable!

A Leadership Parable with Randy Ross. His career at Chick-fil-A included leading the company’s iconic “Eat Mor Chikin” cow marketing campaign.

The Startup Mentor program, funded by the Office of the President and managed by the Office of Research’s Innovation Gateway, is part of a new, university-wide initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across campus.

For individuals interested in connecting with Salyers through this program, contact Ian Biggs (ibiggs@uga.edu).

Bulletin Board Prediabetes test

More than 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. have prediabetes, and 90% don’t even know they have it. Could you be one of them? There is an easy way to find out if you or a loved one may have prediabetes: take a 1-minute risk test at www.cdc.gov/prediabetes/takethetest/.

If you are at high risk, print or email your risk test results to share with your health care provider, who can confirm a prediabetes diagnosis with a simple blood test.

This fall, UGA Well-being in partnership with UGA Extension, the Georgia Department of Public Health and the CDC, will be offering

a free Diabetes Prevention Program on campus. If you are interested in reducing your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by participating in this program, attend an informational meeting at the Training & Development Center on Aug. 20 from 3-4 p.m. Register for the meeting through the Professional Education Portal at pep.uga.edu. If you are unable to attend the meeting, but are interested in participating, email wellbeing@uga.edu for additional information.

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

values across our institution,” said Michelle Cook, vice provost for diversity and inclusion and strategic university initiatives. “The success of this second round of proposals is a clear demonstration of our community commitment to making the University of Georgia an inclusive place for everyone.

We are not only living this commitment for ourselves but also serving as a leader in higher education.”

The program received 30 proposals for new projects from units across campus. In addition, 12 proposals were submitted to continue projects funded through the initial round of New Approaches grants. The proposals were reviewed by a five-member committee led by Cook.

The 14 new projects that have received funding include: • CAES Emerging Scholars Program­ — Victoria David and James Anderson, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

• CED Pre-Collegiate Summer Design Camp—Brad Davis and Rose Tahash, College of Environment and Design.

• Cultivating Community—Kecia Thomas, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

• Directions to the Graduate School—Lisa Sperling and Geovani Ayala, Graduate School.

• Enhancing Diversity in Fashion—Katalin Medvedev and Sha’Mira Covington, College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

• Georgia Undergraduate Veterinary School Scholars Program—Jennifer Smith-Garvin and Susan Williams, College of Veterinary Medicine.

• Greek Life Leadership Retreat—Claudia Shamp and Elizabeth Pittard, Office of Student Affairs.

• Increasing UGA’s Exposure to Professional Scientists from Diverse Backgrounds— Andrea Sweigart, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

• Peers and Professionals—Anne Marcotte and Sandie Bass-Ringdahl, College of Education.

• Ready Vet Go—Veronica Pennington and Kaori Sakamoto, College of Veterinary Medicine.

• Residential Faculty Mentors for FirstGeneration Students—Beate Brunow and Linda Kasper, Office of Student Affairs.

• The Robinson Scholars Program—Jenna Jackson, School of Law. • Training Diverse Natural Resource Professionals for the Future—Robert Bringolf, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.

• TRIO Expansion—Chase Hagood and Sherontae Maxwell, Division of Academic Enhancement.

The 12 projects that have received renewed funding include: • Advising and Mentoring of Minority Students for Success (AMMSS) Program— Velma Zahirovic-Herbert and Sophia Anong, College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

• CPH Pre-Collegiate Summer Institute— Brittani Harmon, College of Public Health.

• DawgTrails—Danielle Vitale and Veronica Pennington, College of Veterinary Medicine.

• Developing Diverse Talent for the Global Workplace—Marisa Pagnattaro, Terry College of Business.

• Early Start|Early Success—Chase Hagood and Lindsay Coco, Division of Academic Enhancement.

• Emerging Leaders Internship Program II—Matthew Auer and Paul Welch, School of Public and International Affairs.

• Gear Up 4 High School Program—Rosa Driggers and Jonathan Brunson, Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

• Navigating Graduate School Coaching Retreats—Kecia Thomas, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences; Anneliese Singh, College of Education.

• Opportunities to Explore Veterinary Career Options with Special Emphasis on Veterinary Laboratory Diagnostics—Hemant Nikare and Pedro Melendez, College of Veterinary Medicine (Tifton).

• The Pioneer Project: Outreach to Underrepresented and First-Generation Students—Judy Iakovou and Naomi Norman, Office of Instruction.

• RISE Scholars Program—Gabriel Jimenez-Fuentes, Office of Institutional Diversity.

• UGA-Grady High School Sports Broadcast Program—Vicki Machaelis and Carlo Finlay, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

FELLOWS from page 1

As Innovation Fellows, Hitesh Handa, left, and Jenay Beer will learn about technology commercialization.

will learn from this program will transform my research from formative investigations to full-scale commercial health interventions to improve the lives of older adults with dementia and their caregivers. Dementia caregiving is in need of a disruption. UGA is providing the tools and training so researchers, such as myself, can play a role in creating such disruptive innovative solutions.”

Handa, assistant professor in the School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, focuses on developing new biocompatible coating materials for medical implant applications. The recipient of an Early Career Scholar Award at UGA’s 2019 Research Awards, Handa and his research group have generated 12 patent disclosures in a three-year period, and in 2018 he founded his own startup, inNOveta Biomedical LLC. “My lab in the College of Engineering is committed to developing nitric oxide-based hemocompatible and antimicrobial coatings for medical device applications through highly interdisciplinary research,” Handa said. “The Innovation Fellows program will immensely help me in advancing my efforts to commercialize our technology and increase

Dorothy Kozlowski

our chances to partner with leading medical device companies in the country.”

Ian Biggs, senior associate director of Innovation Gateway, said the Innovation Fellows experience will help Beer, Handa and future participants create roadmaps for their personal industry interactions. Each participant receives up to $10,000 to support customer discovery and facilitate connections with industry partners. After an initial weeklong immersion in Gateway’s innovation curriculum, the fellows will commit eight hours per week to the program for the rest of the semester.

“We’ll teach them how industry thinks, what’s important to industry, what words they should use when talking to industry,” Biggs said. “We’ll help them work out the commercial value of what they do. If they can figure out what industry values and then lead their conversations with that, that will significantly improve their chances of bringing their innovations to market.”

The Innovation Fellows program will accept applications for spring 2020 until Nov. 1. For more information or to apply, visit the Innovation Gateway website at https://research.uga.edu/gateway/.