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Danú brings ‘An Emerald Isle Christmas’ to Athens for Dec. 5 performance
December 2, 2019
Vol. 47, No. 18
www.columns.uga.edu
UGA GUIDE
4&5
University receives $15.75M to combat human trafficking By Laurie Anderson laurie@uga.edu
Photo illustration by Lindsay Robinson
Cori Bargmann’s research has led to several discoveries, and she now heads the Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative.
Reshaping science to save lives
UGA alumna is revolutionizing research on brain, diseases
By Jill Neimark
columns@uga.edu
In the summer of 1979, neurobiologist Cori Bargmann scored her first science job in a biology lab at the University of Georgia. She spent each day preparing fly food from cornmeal and molasses. “You cannot imagine a less intellectually challenging job,” she laughed. Nevertheless, the undergrad was soon hooked on science. “I loved these smart people talking about really deep, interesting questions. I loved how concrete the work was, and I especially loved how interested the UGA professors were in their students.” Little did she know her future held extraordinary achievements that would reshape scientific knowledge and inquiry—from research that led to an important breast cancer drug; to deep, broad discoveries about how nervous systems are built and work; to her position now as head of the ambitious Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative. Funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, its mandate is to support the science and technology that would make it possible to cure or manage all diseases by 2100.As impossible as that sounds, Bargmann takes the task seriously, and even believes it’s possible to achieve. Bargmann is “a scintillating polymath” who is up to the task, explained neuroscientist MarcTessier-Lavigne. He is now president of Stanford University, but for 10 years had an office next to Bargmann at the University of California at San Francisco, and they even collaborated on some projects. “She has a breadth of knowledge both in science and outside it in literature and art that is just astonishing.” Erin Dolan, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Innovative Science Education in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, did her dissertation work in Bargmann’s lab at the University of California at San Francisco. “I had heard her at our program retreat and I just knew I wanted to work with her,” Dolan said. “She is
provocative and succinct at the same time. She has the ability to think in ways that are just unparalleled. She can connect ideas and communicate them in a way that drives everyone’s thinking forward.” Bargmann grew up in Athens, Georgia, the third of four sisters, in what she fondly referred to as “an insanely overeducated family.” Her parents, who met as translators in Nuremberg after World War II, emigrated to America, and her late father became a professor of statistics at UGA (the Bargmann Computer Lab is named after him). She was raised bilingual—her father spoke to her in English, her mother in German. “Like many immigrants, my parents believed in education. We were immersed in music, art, math and science,” Bargmann said. She loved growing up in a college town, and to this day feels most at home on a campus. At 20 she was a First Honor Graduate at UGA, and she went on to become a graduate student at the laboratory of biologist Robert Weinberg at MIT.Weinberg
See GROUNDBREAKER on page 8
The University of Georgia has been selected to receive $15.75 million from the U.S.Department of State to expand programming and research to measurably reduce human trafficking. The new award, funded by the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, or TIP Office, will scale up the UGA-based African Programming and Research Initiative to End Slavery current anti-human trafficking work in Sierra Leone and Guinea, as well as expand efforts
to Senegal. As part of the funded project, APRIES will also launch the Prevalence Reduction Innovation Forum. The forum—the first of its kind—will enlist scholars from universities around the world to test and develop the best ways to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking. “In addition to strengthening current anti-trafficking efforts, the goal of APRIES is to build a global community of researchers and learners in the science of estimating human trafficking prevalence,” said David Okech, an associate professor of social work at UGA who is See GRANT on page 8
OFFICE OF INSTRUCTION
Early action admissions to UGA hold strong at more than 7,000 By Khristina Gallagher kgallagher@uga.edu
More than 7,000 students received the thrilling news of their acceptance to the University of Georgia as part of nonbinding early action admission. “The University of Georgia congratulates the stellar group of young scholars admitted to the Class of 2024 through early action,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “We look forward to welcoming them to our extraordinary academic community next fall.” Nearly 17,000 students applied for early action admission to become members of the Class of 2024, a 25% increase compared to five years ago. This year’s applications came from 39 countries, 50 states and 3,450 high schools.
As in previous years, students who were offered early action admission enrolled in rigorous coursework relative to what is available at their school and also earned outstanding GPAs and SAT or ACT scores. Students who received a deferral to regular decision are still being given full consideration for admission to UGA. “We understand that the months preceding application submittal can be very challenging for students,” said Patrick Winter, associate vice president for undergraduate admissions and enrollment management. “Deferral provides those students a chance to submit their updated grades from the fall term and any new test scores for review.” See APPLICATIONS on page 8
GRADUATE SCHOOL
2019 FALL COMMENCEMENT
Regent, IHE director to address fall graduates UGA tripling size of Graduate Regent Kessel D. Stelling Jr., chairman and CEO of Synovus Financial Corporation and a member of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, will deliver the fall undergraduate Commencement address at the University of Georgia on Dec. 13 in Stegeman Coliseum. The ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m., with the graduate ceremony to follow at 2:30 p.m. Libby V. Morris, Zell B. Miller Distinguished Professor of Higher Education and director of the University of Georgia’s Institute of Higher Education, will deliver the address at the graduate ceremony. “Regent Stelling is an exemplary business leader and an inspiring public servant,” said President Jere W. Morehead.“His sound judgment
Kessel Stelling Jr.
Libby Morris
helped to preserve Georgia’s banking industry during the Great Recession, and he continues to make a positive impact on our state and nation in so many ways. We appreciate his long and dedicated leadership as a member, and previous chair, of our governing board, the University System Board of Regents. Our undergraduate students and their families
are sure to benefit from his advice.” Stelling began his career with Synovus, a $48 billion asset bank based out of Columbus, Georgia, in March 2006 and was named president and CEO in 2010. In 2012, he was elected chairman of the company. Under his leadership, Synovus has been named one of American Banker’s most reputable banks for four consecutive years. In 2008, Stelling was appointed to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, representing Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, and served as chair in 2016. He also serves as a board member for REACH (Realizing Educational Achievement Can Happen) Foundation, Georgia’s first needs-based See COMMENCEMENT on page 8
School Emergency Fund
The University of Georgia will triple the size of a special emergency fund to support critical and unexpected financial needs of graduate students. UGA President Jere W. Morehead has announced that he will set aside $100,000 this year, and another $100,000 next year, in private funding to support the Graduate Student Emergency Fund. The fund provides one-time financial assistance to enrolled graduate students facing temporary hardship related to an emergency situation. “When some of our graduate students encounter significant and unforeseen hardships, the University of Georgia needs the
ability to provide support and assistance,” said Morehead. “We are a student-centered institution, and this additional investment in our graduate students is consistent with our mission.” Over the last six years, the university has demonstrated its commitment to graduate students by consistently increasing the rate of the graduate stipend. Effective this fall, the university has raised its subsidy to cover half of the cost of the premium for eligible students who are required to enroll in the graduate student health insurance plan. These collective increases have totaled more than
See FUND on page 8
2Dec. 2, 2019 columns.uga.edu
DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS
OFFICE OF GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT UGA 13th in nation for study abroad participation By Stacey Casuccio
STACEY.CASUCCIO@uga.edu
The University of Georgia is ranked 13th in the nation for the number of students who study abroad, according to the latest Open Doors ranking from the Institute of International Education. UGA was one of only two Southeastern Conference universities and the only institution in Georgia to be ranked in the top 20. Every year, with the backing of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, IIE conducts a survey on U.S. students studying abroad for academic credit and publishes the results in the Open Doors Report. In addition to ranking 13th overall, UGA was ninth in short-term study abroad programs. “We at the Office of Global Engagement are thankful to the UGA leadership for the support of student global experiential learning,” said Yana Cornish, director of global education. “We are proud to support a culture of study abroad among students, faculty and staff and are committed to expanding global experiential learning opportunities to all students, with particular consideration for underrepresented, rural, first-generation and other underserved students.” More than 2,600 UGA undergraduate and graduate students studied abroad in programs facilitated UGA Office of Global Engagement during the 2017-2018 academic year. “UGA’s position in the national rankings reflects the growing demand among students for a study abroad experience, the increased availability of scholarship funding provided by the university and individual donors and the tireless dedication of our faculty, who are committed to offering academically rigorous programs,” said Noel Fallows, associate provost for the Office of Global Engagement. “Although many of our programs take place during the summer months, they are a year-round commitment for faculty, who work behind the scenes developing cost-effective budgets and preparing culturally immersive courses to create optimal, memorable and transformative international experiences.” Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, added that UGA’s Open Doors ranking underscores the institution’s stature as a national leader in experiential learning. “The University of Georgia is one of the nation’s largest public universities to ensure that all of our undergraduate students benefit from learning opportunities such as study abroad, internships, service-learning and research,” Hu said. “These experiences position students for career success and lay the foundation for a lifetime of engaged citizenship.”
OFFICE OF RESEARCH UGA professor headlines first NIH Rural Health Seminar By Michael Terrazas
michael.terrazas@uga.edu
Gene Brody, director of UGA’s Center for Family Research and a Regents’ Professor in the Owens Institute for Behavioral Research, delivered the keynote address on Nov. 18, at the National Institutes of Health’s inaugural Rural Health Seminar in Bethesda, Maryland. Roughly one-fifth of U.S. citizens—about 60 million people—live in rural areas. These Americans have less access to health care and have higher mortality rates for such health conditions as heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic lower respiratory disease. The Rural Health Seminar brought together researchers, medical practitioners and others to explore topics in rural health and to share research ideas for how innovations in clinical and translational science could improve rural health outcomes. Brody’s talk, “Resilience to Adversity and the Early Origins of Disease,” examined how living in conditions of economic hardship and other stressors particularly influence both the biology and physiology of rural African American children, making them more vulnerable to the chronic diseases of aging when they are adults. This phenomenon, called “weathering,” is a major focus of Brody’s work. The talk also discussed how some individuals overcome this weathering and demonstrate tremendous resilience.
Dorothy Kozlowski
Twenty-nine students received scholarships during the Disability Resource Center’s Student and Faculty Recognition Reception.
Disability Resource Center’s annual recognition reception honors work of faculty, student scholars By Victoria Vanhuss
Victoria.Vanhuss@uga.edu
In 2004, Kimberly Wolf was living in Washington, D.C., and her future looked bright. Only 24 years old, she knew her career would be focused on helping older adults navigate their remaining years. Motivated by her grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s, Wolf worked at AARP by day and pursued a graduate degree in social work by night. “Imagine we met again in 2016,” she said. “I would be living in Iowa, and I would tell you that I never finished graduate school. Depression, PTSD, a divorce, a serious car crash and a neurological disorder called misophonia had come between me and my degree.” Fast forward to 2018 when Wolf moved to Athens. In the course of four weeks, she unpacked her boxes, began her journey as a University of Georgia student—and was diagnosed with breast cancer. “I never thought I’d be juggling chemotherapy and a double mastectomy with writing papers and taking exams,” Wolf said. “I had every excuse to put my dreams on hold, but I stayed in school full time throughout this ordeal and maintained a 4.0 GPA. In 2021, I
will graduate with a Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Heath in gerontology, the study of aging.” Wolf, who received the Joe Coile Memorial Scholarship, was one of 29 UGA students awarded a scholarship at the Disability Resource Center’s annual Student and Faculty Recognition Reception on Nov. 14 in Grand Hall of the Tate Student Center. Leah Carmichael, a lecturer in the international affairs department of the School of Public and International Affairs, was also recognized. Victor Wilson, vice president for student affairs, presented her with the Outstanding Faculty Award in recognition of her work to reformat the international law class she teaches and make it universally accessible. Carmichael thanked the DRC for giving faculty members clear pathways to improve content, classrooms and approaches so that everyone has access to the same level of education. The DRC assists more than 1,900 UGA students per year by providing them with help navigating campus, extra time on tests, note-takers and anything else they might need to succeed. In addition to Wolf, the students who were recognized and the scholarships they received are Christopher White, the
Betty and Joe Satterthwaite Memorial Scholarship; Jocelyn Tran, the Margaret C. Totty Memorial Scholarship; You Jin Ha and Dorsa Hanaei, the Choate Family Scholarship; Jala Johnston, the Radcliff Scholarship; Braden Rapp, the John and Frances Mangan Family Scholarship; Chyann Hoyle, the Lauren Melissa Kelly Scholarship; Zachary Kumpula, the Matthew Peddicord Memorial Scholarship; Abby Joannes, the Dale Gibson Memorial Scholarship; Brendon Boyle and Brennan Heyer, the Hamilton Family Scholarship; May Dartez, the Janis Family Scholarship; Hannah Maddux, Chatania Meyer and Madison Seagraves, the Weldon H. Johnson Access Abroad Award; Emily Deaton, the Margaret Ann Towson Scholarship; Caleb Dills, Thang Lieu and Gletta-Elizabeth Reneé Appelt, the Gregory Charles Johnson Scholarship; Kristen Dunning, the Elizabeth and J.C. Faulkner Scholarship; Trenton Draper, Runiya Juni Dasgupta and Meredith Lynn, the Lupuloff Family Scholarship; Lauren Coheley, Selina Yilmaz and Halsey Jennings, the Michael E. Merriman Memorial Scholarship; Mary Jones, the Orkin Family Scholarship; and Zachary Thorman, the Carey Louis Davis Scholarship.
FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Writing Intensive Program expands to include visits by professional writers, UGA alumni, community members By Lindsey Harding lharding@uga.edu
The Franklin College Writing Intensive Program expanded writingintensive classes during fall semester with visits by writing professionals, University of Georgia alumni and members of the Athens-area and university communities. As part of the program’s Public Writing Initiative, guest speakers volunteered their time to talk to undergraduates across disciplines about the importance of communication skills after graduation. Visitors discussed writing in a variety of careers—from data journalist to museum curator—and contexts—from graduate school to a prison-writing program. In WIP’s efforts to extend writing instruction beyond the FirstYear Writing Program and across the Franklin College curriculum, its Public Writing Initiative offers an additional step forward. Now in its fourth year, the initiative continues to reinforce for students the career-amplifying power of writing well. Faculty members as well as students see the benefits of learning from visiting writers. Cecilia Herles, a WIP faculty member in women’s studies, described the presentation by Samantha Pinson Wrisley, a Ph.D. student at Emory University, as motivating, accessible and thought provoking. “My students and I had the opportunity to learn from Sam and to
engage with her strategies for writing that covered many issues including developing one’s own authorial voice, expository voice, critical voice and polemical voice,” Herles said. “The guest speakers are a great way to expose students to diverse careers in their field and the importance of writing,” said Andrea Sweigart, associate professor of genetics, whose evolutionary biology lab class welcomed Anna Lau, communications science specialist at Genomic Health. Guest speakers themselves highlighted how the PWI underscores for students the importance of writing and communication in various contexts. George Khalil, mathematical statistician at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and part-time professor of health policy and management in the UGA College of Public Health, praised the initiative and joined Jennifer Royal’s Higher Mathematics course to share his background and experience and discuss process, types of writing projects and the importance of clear communication. The PWI fosters an awareness for writing as a skill that has real-world applicability and a practice that students will continue to engage in long after graduation. Students in participating classes in art history, sociology, mathematics, women’s studies, genetics, statistics, philosophy and linguistics had the opportunity to learn about writing in workplace settings from program coordinators, data journalists and
web developers. Jennifer Peebles, newsroom data specialist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, gave students in Nicole Lazar and Lynne Seymour’s senior statistics capstone course an exclusive look at writing in a STEM context. “I talked a bit about my job at the Journal-Constitution, what I do, my academic and professional background, how I’m the most unlikely person to ever be doing math for a living and how I write,” Peebles said. “I tried to stress to them that anything you’re writing of any length, you need some kind of plan for how you’re going to structure it. You can’t just plop down at the keyboard and expect to be able to wing it.” Peebles stressed the priority that writing demands in the real world. “I see every day that there are so many smart people out there who know so much, but struggle to communicate their knowledge to others,” she said. “That can be problematic for them professionally, but it’s also bad for society in general, I think.” Other PWI speakers for fall 2019 included UGA alumna Sofia Alexandrovna Ivanova, who is coordinator of UGA’s Russian Flagship Program; Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, American art curator at the Georgia Museum of Art; Lauren Blais, web developer specialist in Franklin College’s Office of Information Technology; and Caroline Young, a lecturer in the English department and site director at Common Good Atlanta.
OUTREACH NEWS
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Dec. 2, 2019
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Digest UGA to celebrate staff at holiday appreciation event on Dec. 20
The University of Georgia will express its gratitude to staff during a Holiday Staff Appreciation celebration in the Tate Grand Hall on Dec. 20 from 10-11:30 a.m. Hosted by the Office of the President, the event will include brunch, cookie decorating and other activities. In addition, staff are invited to cheer on the men’s basketball team as it takes on SMU at 7 p.m. Two tickets are being provided per staff member. Compliments of UGA Athletics, the tickets are being distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Andrew Davis Tucker
National EMS paramedic Blake Stewart helps fellow paramedic Kelly Glover suit up for treating an Ebola patient during an Ebola Transportation Exercise at the Institute for Disaster Management on the Health Sciences Campus.
‘Common goal’
Institute prepares for handling disease disasters By Amy Cole
akc69336@uga.edu
On the morning of Nov. 4, Anna Chocallo arrived at a local health care facility. She had a fever, and her stomach pain and nausea were getting much worse. When her care provider asked about Chocallo’s recent travel and learned about her trip to Uganda, an area of the world with a simulated Ebola epidemic, a plan was set into motion. Chocallo would be transported to a designated treatment facility for patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola. Fortunately, Chocallo does not actually have Ebola. She was one of many actors participating in the largest Ebola patient transportation exercise to date. The facility she visited was, in fact, the University of Georgia’s Institute for Disaster Management, which organized the weeklong event. The exercise, dubbed Operation Wesley, took place from Nov. 4 to Nov. 8 and involved frontline, assessment and treatment health care facilities, emergency medical services, state departments of public health and many others across seven states in the Southeast. These groups had discussed their local and regional plans for identifying, isolating and informing the presence of an Ebola patient during a tabletop exercise in June. Now, they had the chance to put their plans into action in this full-scale exercise. Operation Wesley tested the
notification processes, coordination decisions and resources needed to move patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola using both air (simulated) and ground transportation resources. “This exercise is essential for many of our participants in the pre-hospital and health care arenas due to fact that very few of them have had an actual patient,” said Curtis Harris, director of IDM. “As operational gaps from the exercise are identified, participants will update and strengthen their plans, policies and procedures, have a better understanding of community partnerships and more fully understand the entirety of the process and players involved.” Though the exercise was focused on the transportation and containment of patients with Ebola, the methods practiced can be applied to other cases of infectious disease outbreak. Recently, the Georgia Department of Public Health confirmed a case of measles in Cobb County, urging health care providers in the area to stay vigilant for new cases of the disease. Harris says infectious diseases like this can be as concerning, if not more so, than Ebola. To add a greater sense of realism, a hypothetical national Ebola scenario was created, and updates on the crisis were provided to the participating facilities in the days leading up to the weeklong exercise. Chocallo and her fellow actors’ simulated symptoms provide an opportunity for health care personnel to experience
the realism of responding to a live patient. “Live actors greatly enhance the realism of the exercise,” said Kelli McCarthy, IDM emergency preparedness manager and Operation Wesley lead. “By having to diagnose and treat a live person, health care facilities and EMS agencies are able to identify any gaps in plans and resources.The reaction to a piece of paper just doesn’t have the same effect.” Chocallo says she enjoyed the novelty of the experience: “It’s not every day that you can come to work, contract Ebola, take an ambulance to the hospital, interact with paramedics donned in personal protective equipment and leave from work all in the same day.” Though media coverage of the Ebola crisis has dwindled since the 2014 outbreak in West Africa, it remains an ongoing crisis in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo. The team at IDM, in collaboration with federal and state emergency response organizations, has been monitoring the current outbreak and used it as the basis for the fictitious scenario in Operation Wesley. “To see all the players come together for a common goal of protecting U.S citizens and advancing the science of how we treat global diseases has been amazing to watch,” said Harris. Operation Wesley was conducted in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Public Health and the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
OFFICE OF RESEARCH
Rockefeller University scholar to deliver 2020 Boyd Lecture By Ashley Crain
AshleyCrain@uga.edu
Robert Roeder, head of the Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at The Rockefeller University, will deliver the 2020 George H. Boyd Distinguished Lecture on Jan. 10 at 3:30 p.m. in Masters Hall of the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel. His address, “Transcriptional Regulatory Mechanisms in Animal Cells,” will explore the area of research in which he’s excelled for five decades. “Transcription represents the most important step in gene regulation, and for 50 years my work has been dedicated to an understanding of the nature and mechanism of action of the extraordinarily diverse components that execute and regulate transcription in animal
cells in various physiological processes,” said Roeder, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Professor at Rockefeller. Roeder’s groundbreaking contributions to his field include the discovery and subsequent functional and mechanistic characterization of nuclear RNA polymerases, cognate classes of RNA polymerase-specific initiation factors, the first of several thousand gene and cell-specific transcriptional activators, and a variety of ubiquitous and tissuespecific transcriptional co-activators. As part of his lecture, Roeder will discuss the biochemical mechanisms by which gene-specific transcription factors activate specific target genes, in relation to cell differentiation and transformation. Examples include the function of tumor suppressor p53, nuclear hormone receptors, B cell factors and leukemic fusion proteins.
In addition to authoring and c o-authoring more than 550 publications, Roeder has received numerous accolades for his research, including election to the National Academy of Sciences, the Eli Lilly Award of the American Chemical Society, the NASU.S. Steel Award in Molecular Biology, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the ASBMB-Merck Award and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research just to name a few. Open free to the public, the Boyd Distinguished Lecture Series, supported by the Office of Research and the William S. and Elizabeth K. Boyd Foundation, brings national leaders and policymakers in science, education and related fields to UGA to discuss applications of research to contemporary issues in education.
Workshop explores gender-responsive agricultural research, communication
Helga Recke, a scientist who worked for decades at the intersection of gender and agriculture in Eastern Africa, will lead a workshop on gender-responsive agricultural research and communication on Dec. 17 from 9-11:30 a.m. Interested faculty, staff or students from any college or discipline are invited to participate but must RSVP. The program is sponsored by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut, a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded program headquartered in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The Peanut Innovation Lab works with scientists in the U.S. and developing countries to investigate variety development, value chain improvements and nutrition questions involving peanuts. Because the peanut—or groundnut as it is called in much of the world—is often grown, processed and marketed by women, the Peanut Innovation Lab works to ensure that gender is considered as a cross-cutting theme in all research. Workshop topics will include why it matters that gender is considered in agricultural research; a self-evaluation exercise to help participants gauge their own positionality; monitoring, learning and evaluation in a gender-responsive way; gender-sensitive approaches to communication; and budgeting for gender-responsiveness in agricultural research. The workshop will be held in Room 226 of the Hoke Smith Building. Drinks and light refreshments will be offered. RSVP by Dec. 13 at https://bit.ly/33PCueM. For more information, contact jsmk@uga.edu.
UGA Alumni Association reveals 2020 Bulldog 100 list of growing businesses
The University of Georgia Alumni Association has unveiled the 2020 Bulldog 100 list of fastest-growing businesses owned or operated by UGA alumni. More than 533 nominations were submitted for the 2020 list. The 2020 Bulldog 100 includes businesses of all sizes and from industries such as technology, cosmetics, entertainment and education. Companies are based as far north as Virginia and as far west as Nevada. Of the 100 businesses, 84 are located within Georgia. Applicants were measured by their business’s compounded annual growth rate during a threeyear period. The Atlanta office of Warren Averett CPAs and Advisors, a Bulldog 100 partner since the program began in 2009, verified the information submitted by each company. The UGA Alumni Association will host the annual Bulldog 100 Celebration in Athens on Feb. 8 to celebrate these alumni business leaders and count down the ranked list to ultimately reveal the No. 1 fastest-growing business. To view the alphabetical list of businesses and to learn more about the Bulldog 100, see www.alumni.uga.edu/b100.
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.
For a complete listing of events at the University of Georgia, 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.
UGAGUIDE
EXHIBITIONS
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. Creatures of the Night. Through Dec. 20. Atrium, Ecology Building. 706-542-7247. bethgav@uga.edu. Don Chambers. Through Dec. 20. Willson Center for Humanities and Arts. 706-542-4304. wsmith78@uga.edu.
Growing Through Art: Athens Art Association Artists Celebrate Their Centennial Year. Through Dec. 22. Gardenside Room, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6014. connicot@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. Mary Lee Bendolph: Quilted Memories. Through Dec. 29. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu. Storytelling in Renaissance Maiolica. Through Jan. 5. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu. Beautiful and Brutal: Georgia Bulldogs Football, 2017. Through Feb. 28. Rotunda Gallery, Special Collections Libraries. 706-542-6170. hasty@uga.edu. Master, Pupil, Follower: 16th- to 18th-Century Italian Works on Paper. Through March 8. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu. Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship. Through March 15. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.
students or faculty. Prices will range from $8 and up. Proceeds from the ceramic sale will support student educational field trips to ceramic conferences and bring visiting artists to campus. 9 a.m. First-floor lobby, Lamar Dodd School of Art. 706-338-3652. tsaupe@uga.edu. SEMINAR “The Basement Membrane and Blood-Brain Barrier,” Yao Yao, pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences department, UGA. 11 a.m. 404A Biological Sciences Building. TOUR AT TWO Tour of Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship. 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.
ELC DROP-IN Also on Dec. 6 and 10. Drop by any time for assistance from eLC experts on a variety of topics from getting set up to submit grades, getting courses ready for the spring semester and more. This drop-in is open to all UGA instructors, TAs and other teaching-related support staff. 2 p.m. M.A.L.L., Instructional Plaza. 706-542-0538. philip.bishop@uga.edu. SEMINAR “How Evolutionary Processes Affect Ecosystems: An Interdisciplinary Perspective,” Rana El-Sabaawi, University of Victoria. A reception follows the seminar at 4:30 p.m. in the lobby. Host: Krista Capps. 3:30 p.m. Auditorium, Ecology Building. 706-542-7247. bethgav@uga.edu.
The Monsters Are Due on Broad Street: Patrick Dean. Through March 29. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu. Drama and Devotion in Baroque Rome. Through Aug. 23. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.
STAFF COUNCIL MEETING 2:30 p.m. 142 Tate Student Center.
MONDAY, DEC. 2 SEMINAR Featuring Daniel Beiting, University of Pennsylvania. 8:30 a.m. 175 Coverdell Center.
TUESDAY, DEC. 3 HOLIDAY POTTERY SALE Also Dec. 4. The UGA Ceramic Student Organization will hold its annual holiday pottery sale. Work on sale will include hand-built sculpture, as well as functional pottery: mugs, plates, vases, lidded boxes and bowls. All work was made by ceramic
SOTL WRITING POWER HOUR Join UGA scholars on Thursdays from 2-3:30 p.m. at the Center for Teaching and Learning to work on your SoTL writing project. Light conversation among attendees about projects or consultations with Colleen Kuusinen, assistant director for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, are welcome; quiet writing space is also available. Coffee and snacks will be provided. North M.A.L.L., Instructional Plaza. 706-542-1713. ckuus@uga.edu. SEMINAR Economics Seminar Series featuring Mark Shepard from Harvard. 2:30 p.m. C006 Benson Hall. roozbeh@uga.edu. Danú will perform “An Emerald Isle Christmas” at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5 at Hodgson Hall.
FRIDAY, DEC. 6 FINAL EXAMS Through Dec. 12. For fall semester.
SUNDAY, DEC. 8
WORKSHOP Also on Dec. 5. The Institute of Bioinformatics is holding a pair of workshops on introductory coding for data science. These workshops are targeted at new users with little/no previous coding experience. $10. 9 a.m. 128, Center for Applied Genetic Technologies. 706-542-7784.
SUNDAY SPOTLIGHT TOUR Tour of highlights from the permanent collection led by docents. 3 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.
MONDAY, DEC. 9 BRAND TRAINING An overview of the University of Georgia brand for new campus public relations specialists and brand communicators. 3:30 p.m. Suite 200N, Marketing & Communications Conference Room, Hodgson Oil Building. 706-542-8051. michele.horn@uga.edu.
MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. North Carolina Central. $15. 7 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.
TUESDAY, DEC. 10 TOUR AT TWO Tour of the highlights from the permanent collection led by docents. 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.
THURSDAY, DEC. 5 READING DAY For fall semester. JINGLE BELL FUN RUN The fifth annual Healthy Dawg Jingle Bell Fun Run benefits Toys for Tots. Registration is at 9 a.m.; start time is 10 a.m. Refreshments, swag bags, health information/freebies and more will be waiting for all at the end of the run. UGA Golf Course. kgroft@uhs.uga.edu.
FRIDAY, DEC. 13
SUNDAY, DEC. 15 CONCERT The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus return with Handel’s Messiah. $65-$85; $10 for students. 3 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4400. ugaarts@uga.edu.
By Ryan Woods
rwoods24@uga.edu
Rachel Whiteread’s sculpture gives shape to the nothingness of space. Her work is on display in the Jane and Harry Willson Sculpture Garden at the Georgia Museum of Art through March 7. The exhibition Rachel Whiteread presents a series of five cast-stone sculptures reinterpreting her earlier resin castings of the space beneath chairs. The works are arranged in a table setting, reinforcing their domestic nature and origins. Variations in the stone type and surface textures of each piece make use of changes in outdoor lighting over the course of a day. All loans are courtesy of Gagosian. Whiteread uses the negative space in and around domestic objects, the air becomes the subject of her study. She captures the essence of familiar spaces and “mummifies the air,” preserving the history of the space. Her work investigates the relationship between place and memory. It redefines the role of sculptural casting in artistic expression. For Whiteread, the process of creating a sculpture is as important as the work itself.
The museum has also selected works on paper by Whiteread and related artists from its collections that will be on display inside, in the galleries on the second floor. These works, many of which address space and voids, provide additional context to Whiteread’s sculptural installation. Whiteread was born in London in 1963. She studied painting at Brighton Polytechnic from 1982 to 1985 and sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1985 to 1987. In 1993, she was the first woman to win the Turner Prize. She represented the British Pavilion at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997, and in 2000 she completed a commission for the Holocaust Memorial at the Judenplatz in Vienna, Austria. From 2017 to 2018 a retrospective exhibition of her work was on view at the Tate Britain in London and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Related events at the museum include a Family Day on March 7 from 10 a.m. to noon that is free and open to the public. The sculpture garden is devoted to the display of works by woman sculptors and hosts temporary exhibitions as well as objects from the permanent collection.
Calendar items are taken from Columns files and from the university’s Master Calendar, maintained by Marketing & Communications. Notices are published here as space permits, with priority given to items of multidisciplinary interest. The Master Calendar is available at calendar.uga.edu/.
btyler@uga.edu
UGA Presents is bringing Ireland’s Danú to Athens on Dec. 5 to perform “An Emerald Isle Christmas.” Danú features lead vocalist Nell Ní Chróinín and a band of virtuoso Celtic musicians on fiddle, flutes, button accordion, percussion and pipes. The 7:30 p.m. Hodgson Hall concert also will include guest Irish step dancers. Christmas in Ireland is celebrated between Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) and Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Christmas (Jan. 6). On Dec. 26, families in Ireland observe St. Stephen’s Day or Wren Day. Music, song and dance are a vital part of community celebrations across Ireland during the holiday season, and “An Emerald Isle Christmas” offers a taste of these centuries-old events. Currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, Danú hails from Counties Waterford, Cork, Dublin and Donegal. The band formed in 1995 as part of
NIH PEER REVIEW PROGRAM: WINTER 2020 Sign up for the Peer Review Program to exchange comments with UGA colleagues and receive a subsequent round of review by the Office for Proposal Enhancement. Resubmissions are welcome. Proposal exchange will take place Jan. 8. Sign up by Jan. 2 at https://form.jotform.com/92066462480155. terns@uga.edu. STUDIO WORKSHOP Teaching artist Phil Jasen will lead a four-part series of studiobased courses (Jan. 2, 9, 16 and 23) presented in conjunction with the exhibition Master, Pupil, Follower: 16th- to 18thCentury Italian Works on Paper. A $15 materials fee covers all necessary supplies for the workshop. Space is limited; call 706-542-4883 or email madison.hogan@uga.edu to register. $15. 6:30 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art.
SUNDAY, JAN. 5 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Mississippi State. $5. 4 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 18
Submitted photo
Rachel Whiteread considers what’s not there in exhibition of five sculptures
By Bobby Tyler
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 2
GRADUATE COMMENCEMENT 2:30 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum. (See story, page 1.)
MONDAY, JAN. 6
ART CART Drop in and explore the exhibition Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship. 3 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.
THURSDAY, DEC. 19 THIRD THURSDAY Seven of Athens’s established venues for visual art hold Third Thursday, an event devoted to art in the evening hours, on the third Thursday of every month. The Georgia Museum of Art, the Lamar Dodd School of Art, Lyndon House Arts Center, Glass Cube & Gallery@Hotel Indigo-Athens, Ciné, the Classic Center and ATHICA will be open from 6-9 p.m. to showcase their visual-arts programming. Full schedules are posted at 3Thurs.org.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 25 CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS Through Dec. 31. No classes; offices closed.
THURSDAY, DEC. 26 KWANZAA Through Jan. 1.
TUESDAY, JAN. 1 NEW YEAR’S DAY HOLIDAY No classes. Offices closed.
Ireland’s delegation to Lorient Inter-Celtic Festival in Brittany, France, an annual event that is the largest gathering of Celtic nations in the world. Danú has toured throughout Europe and North America with stops at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Symphony Space in New York City. The band has released nine critically acclaimed albums, winning numerous BBC and Irish Music Magazine awards. Tickets for the concert start at $30 and can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center box office, online at pac.uga.edu or by calling 706-542-4400. A limited number of discounted tickets are available to current UGA students for $10 with a valid UGA ID (limit one ticket per student). A pre-performance talk will be given by a member of Danú. The talk begins at 6:45 p.m. in Ramsey Concert Hall and is open to the public. Hodgson Concert Hall and Ramsey Concert Hall are located in the UGA Performing Arts Center at 230 River Road in Athens. MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Kentucky. $15. 9 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.
THURSDAY, JAN. 9 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Vanderbilt. $5. 7 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.
FRIDAY, JAN. 10 GYMNASTICS vs. LSU. Time to be announced. Stegeman Coliseum.
SATURDAY, JAN. 11 FAMILY DAY: COMIC STRIP MONSTERS Explore the art of Athens’s own cartoonist Patrick Dean in an exhibition that includes cover art and a weekly comic strip for Flagpole magazine, as well as examples of his student work from UGA. Humans and monsters populate Dean’s comics, including some you may recognize. Enjoy gallery activities and make a comic strip in the Michael and Mary Erlanger Studio Classroom. 10 a.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu. SWIMMING & DIVING vs. Texas A&M. 10 a.m. Gabrielsen Natatorium.
REGISTRATION For spring semester. WORKSHOP This workshop covers the basics of eLC, key features of the homepage and the use of foundational tools like how to send personalized emails to students and making class announcements. This event is open to all UGA instructors and faculty. 2 p.m. M.A.L.L., Instructional Plaza. 706-542-0538. philip.bishop@uga.edu.
TUESDAY, JAN. 7 DROP/ADD DEADLINE For spring semester undergraduate- and graduate-level courses. CLASSES BEGIN For spring semester. ELC DROP-IN Also on Jan. 8. Drop by any time, and eLC experts will offer help on getting courses ready to go for the first day of class. This drop-in is open to all UGA instructors, TAs and other teaching-related support staff. 2 p.m. M.A.L.L., Instructional Plaza. 706-542-0538. philip.bishop@uga.edu. GALLERY TALK Richard Fausset, New York Times correspondent and former editor of Flagpole, will give a gallery talk about the work of comics artist Patrick Dean in the exhibition The Monsters Are Due on Broad Street. 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.
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.
Submitted photo
Danú coming to Athens for ‘An Emerald Isle Christmas’
UNDERGRADUATE COMMENCEMENT 9:30 a.m. Stegeman Coliseum. (See story, page 1.)
COOK’S HOLIDAY Lunch at 10:30 a.m., dinner at 5:30 p.m., and brunch at 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 14. Join Dining Services for the 33rd annual Cook’s Holiday special event. Visit dining.uga.edu/about/cooksholiday for menus, updates and for information about purchasing tickets. Lunch tickets are $17.95 for adults and $9.50 for children ages 6-12. Dinner tickets are $20.95 for adults and $11 for children ages 6-12. Brunch tickets are $17.95 for adults and $9.50 for children ages 6-12. Children age 5 and younger are admitted free. Bolton Dining Commons. 706-583-0892.
Rachel Whiteread’s series of five cast-stone sculptures will be on display at the Georgia Museum of Art through March 7.
4&5
FALL 2019 REVIEW The Fall 2019 Sustainable UGA Semester in Review celebrates the people, programs, activities and academic courses that are creating a culture of sustainability at UGA. The program includes brief presentations from Office of Sustainability interns, posters and table displays from UGA classes, the announcement of 2020 Sustainable UGA Award winners, light lunch fare and opportunities for networking. Opening comments will be provided by S. Jack Hu, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. 11 a.m. Grand Hall, Tate Student Center. 706-542-3152. sustain@uga.edu.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 4 CLASSES END For fall semester.
columns.uga.edu Dec. 2, 2019
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.
MONDAY, JAN. 13 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.
COMING UP TOUR AT TWO Jan. 14. Join Nelda Damiano, the Pierre Daura Curator of European Art and co-curator of the exhibition, for a special tour of Master, Pupil, Follower. 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4883. madison.hogan@uga.edu. FOUNDERS DAY LECTURE Jan. 15. Each January, the University of Georgia proudly celebrates its place in history as the birthplace of public higher education in America. A weeklong series of events, including the annual Founders Day Lecture, is held for the Athens and campus communities. The lecture has become a Founders Day tradition, drawing alumni, students, faculty, esteemed guests and members of the community. Sponsored by the Office of the President, UGA Alumni Association and the Emeriti Scholars, a group of retired faculty members known for their teaching abilities, who continue to be involved in the university’s academic life through part-time teaching, research and service assignments. 1:30 p.m. Chapel. 706-542-0415. pagnatta@uga.edu.
NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES Dec. 11 (for Jan. 13 issue) Jan. 8 (for Jan. 21 issue) Jan. 15 (for Jan 27 issue)
6 Dec. 2, 2019 columns.uga.edu
Logan Fiorella, an assistant professor in the College of Education’s educational psychology department, was one of 22 outstanding scientists recently selected to join the 2019 fall class of Fellows of the Psychonomic Society. Launched in 1959, the Psychonomic Society was founded by a group of experimental psychologists on a mission to create a society that would support open communication about psychological science with minimal structure. The Fellows program was later established to recognize members Logan Fiorella capable of independent scholarship, active engagement in high-level research and indication of a reputation for excellence. Fellows have demonstrated the ability to conduct and supervise research in psychology or allied sciences. They are invited to speak at the organization’s annual meeting and become involved in the society’s decision making. Fiorella has been a member of the Psychonomic Society since 2012. Susan Fagan, the Albert W. Jowdy Professor and Distinguished Research Professor in the College of Pharmacy, has been awarded the American College of Clinical Pharmacy’s Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award. Her lecture, presented at the annual ACCP meeting in New York in late October, was titled “Reducing Disability After Stroke: New Avenues.” The Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award honors internationally recognized scientists “whose research is actively extending pharmacotherapy into Susan Fagan new frontiers,” according to the ACCP website. In addition to her ongoing program of research, Fagan is assistant dean for the UGA College of Pharmacy’s extended campus in Augusta and director of the Center for Pharmacy and Experimental Therapeutics at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. She joined UGA’s College of Pharmacy in 1999. Fagan is a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and has been member of ACCP for more than 30 years. She also is a Fellow of the American Heart Association Stroke Council and is the author of more than 180 publications. Two faculty members in UGA’s Center for Simulational Physics played major roles in the tenth Brazilian Meeting on Simulational Physics. The Center for Simuational Physics is based in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Inspired by the annual international workshop hosted by UGA, the Brazilian meeting, held in August, brought together researchers from around the world in an effort to promote simulational physics research in Brazil. David P. Landau, Distinguished Research Professor and director of the CSP, presented the opening address, “A New Universality at a First Order Transition: The Spin-flop Transition in an Anisotropic Heisenberg Antiferromagnet.” Another invited talk, “Classification of Phase Transitions by Generalized Microcanonical Inflection-Point Analysis,” was presented by Michael Bachman, CSP member and professor of physics. While in Brazil, Landau also presented the colloquium “Exploring Complex Free Energy Landscapes with Innovative Monte Carlo Simulations” at the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto. 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.
CAMPUS CLOSEUP
Dorothy Kozlowski
Erik Dennison helps 140 fourth-year pharmacy students schedule their required rotations.
College of Pharmacy coordinator helps students rotate through their final year By Krista Richmond krichmond@uga.edu
Think of Erik Dennison as part guide, part liaison and part concierge. He’s helping College of Pharmacy students reach their final destination. “Helping students is an important job at the university,” he said. “I’m very lucky to be in the position I am, and I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve had.” As advanced practice experience coordinator, he’s helping 140 fourthyear pharmacy students schedule their rotations and making sure they’re meeting all the requirements they need to go through the various rounds of rotations. Each student goes through eight rotations—five required rotations and three elective rotations—that each last five weeks. The rotations are based on degree requirements and can range from community pharmacy to outpatient pharmacy to acute care pharmacy or even the Food and Drug Administration or a company in the pharmaceutical industry. “They’re not like traditional students. These students are working an eight-hour day,” he said. “By the time they’re going on their fourthyear rotations, they have a lot of great knowledge and a lot of great skills, and they’re ready to get out there and work.” Students see the list of rotations in their third year and rank their preferences. Dennison works with the 180 rotation sites in Georgia and beyond that have agreements with the College
of Pharmacy to place students. Each day is a little different, but they all start with email—coordinating that many students and that many sites takes quite a bit of planning that can start months in advance. Currently, there are 400 rotation sites where students could potentially fill their rotations. Dennison is originally from the Orlando area but fell in love with Athens while visiting family. He started working at UGA in 2006 as a service center representative in the Office of the Registrar, which suited his customer service background. In 2013, he took a position in the dean’s office at the College of Pharmacy working with students on registering for classes and completing degree requirements. In 2015, he started working for the College of Veterinary Medicine with similar job responsibilities but returned to the College of Pharmacy in his current position a year later. “I’ve grown with the university,” he said. “I’ve learned so much about how the university works that it makes a lot of sense for me to be here. Once you’ve worked at the university for such an extended period of time, you want to stay.” One thing Dennison has learned from working with students and the various rotation sites is to be ready for anything. He has to be able to not only answer any questions from his students, but also address any needs from the rotation sites, which are all just a little bit different. “They love having our students,”
FACTS Erik Dennison
Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Coordinator Division of Experience Programs College of Pharmacy B.A., Communication Studies, University of Georgia, projected for 2022 At UGA: 13 years
he said. “We have a very large amount of rotation sites throughout the state of Georgia based upon our students’s reputations and our students’s actions. They choose to take our students.” Dennison said his main role is guiding students. He’s a source of information, whether that is about a specific rotation site or the various fields within pharmacology. “It helps that I’m aware of how these processes work,” he said. “I know where all the bumps in the road are, and I know how to smooth out those processes for students.” Outside of UGA, Dennison spends as much time as he can with his family, including his five children. He’s involved in their activities, which include swimming, and he enjoys painting and hiking and camping in the Georgia mountains. “I enjoy being with my family and exploring all Georgia has to offer,” he said. “It’s definitely a juggling act, but it’s fun.”
OBITUARY William Frederick Prokasy IV
William “Bill” Frederick Prokasy IV, vice president for academic affairs emeritus at UGA, died on Nov. 4. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on Nov. 27, 1930, Prokasy began his varied career at age 12 with quite a few jobs, some of which were paperboy, cemetery maintenance worker, school system custodian, vegetable/fruit roadside marketer, setter of wooden pins in a bowling alley, neighborhood ice cream truck driver and his favorite, milkman. His academic career began in 1948 when he graduated in North Olmsted, Ohio, with almost every academic and sports honor bestowed. An alumnus of Baldwin Wallace University, Prokasy also held a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Kent State University and a doctorate in experimental psychology and statistics from the University of Madison-Wisconsin.
He served on the faculty of Penn State University and was dean at the University of Utah and the University of Illinois before joining the faculty of the University of Georgia in 1988 where he Bill Prokasy retired in 1998. Active after his retirement from UGA, Prokasy served on both the regional and local public library boards, the Classic Center Foundation Board, the boards of the Georgia Museum of Art and the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. He was a member of the Athens Torch Club and more. Prokasy also belonged to two book groups, and he and his wife, Pam, attended as many cultural and sports events as their calendar would allow. They also
endowed the Prokasy Professorship of the Arts at UGA. Prokasy was preceded in death by his parents, William and Margaret Prokasy, his brother Jim Prokasy and his sisters Marge Salway and Laura Isaacs. In addition to his wife, Prokasy is survived by daughters Cheryl Schumer (Larry) of Salt Lake City and Kathi Geisler of the Boston area; granddaughters Sarah Glass and Julia Villianeau; great grandchildren Zev, Moriah and Tzelia Glass and Cameron and Jada Villianeau, all of the Boston area; stepson Kevin Wier of Charleston, South Carolina; and stepdaughter Lisa Cauthen, her husband, Joshua, and their daughters Natalie and Lindsey Cauthen of Athens. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Memorial contributions may be given to the Athens-Clarke County Public Library.
PUBLIC SERVICE AND OUTREACH
columns.uga.edu Dec. 2, 2019
7
FACS, NEW MATERIALS INSTITUTE
Shannah Montgomery
Dawn Cartee is retiring from her position as director of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel.
Georgia Center director leaves behind ‘lasting legacy’ upon her retirement
By Aaron Cox
aaron.cox@uga.edu
When Dawn Cartee joined the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel in July 2016, she took on the daunting task of renovating the 300,000-square-foot facility and reinvigorating its impact on the UGA community. Less than four years later, she has overseen the renovation of the facility into a premier hotel, conference and education venue and will now wrap up her 30-plus year career in higher education with her retirement at the end of December. “Coming to the University of Georgia was definitely the highlight of my career,” said Cartee, who is returning to her full-time residence in Statesboro, where her husband lives. “As an educator, I’ve always wanted to work for the University of Georgia. The timing was perfect because I had the professional experience I needed to bring into this position.” During her tenure at UGA, Cartee worked alongside historic preservationists at the university to modernize and reimagine the more than 60-year-old Georgia Center while honoring its mid-century modern heritage. The team first had to establish a sense of identity for the center, which was easy, she said. “We are UGA. Period,” Cartee said. “That’s what makes us unique.” “Dawn’s tenure at the Georgia Center has been truly transformative, leading both the external and internal renovations of an aging facility and making it almost new again,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “She has left a lasting legacy.” The two-year, $15 million renovation project saw the “Classic Wing” of the Georgia Center undergo a substantial overhaul, with the conference and hotel rooms, lobby and restaurants tied more closely to the center’s history and UGA brand—including red and black color schemes, iconic university imagery
and plenty of bulldogs. The sense of identity established for the center also extended to its staff. Cartee spent her first two weeks on the job interviewing every full-time employee before creating a new executive team and implementing programs to energize and empower the staff. “When I look at my team, I see a sense of pride in them,” she said. “I feel as though what we’ve created here will continue, and I feel like they’ve been empowered and given the wherewithal to make good decisions moving forward.” Since 2016, enrollments in the Georgia Center’s continuing education and youth summer programs have grown, as have overall revenues. And, despite the ongoing construction from 2017 to 2019, hotel reservations and conference sales have increased as well. “Even though the process was often disruptive to business operations, under Dawn’s leadership the center set new records,” said Jennifer L. Frum, vice president for Public Service and Outreach, which includes the Georgia Center. “Dawn’s time at UGA has been remarkable—she accomplished exactly what she set out to do. From day one, Dawn had her sights on enhancing and even reinventing the Georgia Center. The improvements to the hotel, reorganization of staff to operate more efficiently and increased continuing education programming have brought significant change to the facility and its educational programs.” In addition to overseeing positive change internally and guiding the reinvention of the Georgia Center facility, Cartee also worked with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to develop the curriculum for a hospitality and food industry management degree, which was launched this year. The Georgia Center will be an instructional site for the program, providing hands-on learning opportunities for students in the major.
WEEKLY READER
Book spotlights work of Louisiana poet
Summoning Our Saints: The Poetry and Prose of Brenda Marie Osbey John Wharton Lowe Rowman & Littlefield Hardback: $95 Ebook: $90
Summoning Our Saints: The Poetry and Prose of Brenda Marie Osbey celebrates and illuminates the poetry and prose of one of the South’s and the nation’s most notable writers. A native of New Orleans and a former poet laureate of Louisiana, Osbey has summoned up a magical, beguiling, sometimes chilling and appalling portrait of the myriad chapters of New Orleans, Southern and hemispheric history. Her dazzling narratives offer apertures into desire, death and remembrance, often through the voices of neglected and abused citizens. The essays in this collection examine Osbey’s essays and poetry collections, situating them within greater traditions of African American women’s writing, blues music and West African religious traditions and Catholicism. The chapters are punctuated throughout with Osbey’s own reflections on her work. Summoning Our Saints is edited by John Wharton Lowe, the Barbara Methvin Professor of English in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
Cal Powell
Presenters shared their research at the fourth annual International Symposium on Materials from Renewables.
Renewable solutions for future materials featured at international symposium By Kat Gilmore
kygilmor@uga.edu
The fourth International Symposium on Materials from Renewables drew scientists from throughout the U.S. and Europe to UGA, to share successes and challenges from their explorations into creating materials from renewable sources. The two-day meeting, co-hosted by the textiles, merchandising and interiors department in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the New Materials Institute, featured advances in renewable materials science that may eventually benefit a swath of industry, from single-use plastics, to the transportation and building sectors, to biomedical and textiles, to energy. “An increased interest, by industry and academia, in research and commercialization of renewable and compostable plastics demonstrates the need for professionals in this field to freely exchange and discuss ideas,” said Sergiy Minko, the Georgia Power Professor of Fiber and Polymer Science at the University of Georgia, who co-founded ISMR with faculty from North Dakota State University. The annual event aims to spur collaborative research and engineering efforts toward solving problems with materials currently in use. Much of the research presented focused on utilizing renewable sources that are plentiful in a researcher’s home state or region. For example, many projects featured polymers extracted from or developed from agricultural byproducts, like rice straw, corn stover, plant-based oils or other materials—including utilizing keratin from chicken feathers. There are numerous sources available for renewable polymers, said Minko.
Utilizing byproducts from industry can add value to local resources and thus to local economies. Plants and their byproducts offer three of the most abundant natural resources on Earth: cellulose, lignin and xylan. All three were discussed by scientists at the meeting. Cellulose has been used by industry for a long time, and multiple researchers shared their explorations into new ways to utilize cellulose in the creation of materials. Xylan is another abundant polysaccharide that is present in many agricultural side and forest products and is being researched as a potential polymer and chemicals source. Lignin, a byproduct of the paper industry and agriculture, is a naturally existing polymer that is being explored. Presenters also discussed ongoing research to upcycle existing polymers—by creating them intentionally to have additional value following their initial life cycle, which encourages recycling—and also to improve upon existing polymers. For example, polylactic acid, or PLA, is a starch-based polymer that has been in use for about 15 years. It is completely degradable in an industrial compost setting but not in cold ocean water. Some scientists are trying to alter PLA-based materials so that they break down in ocean water. Held at UGA’s Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries, the October conference was co-organized by faculty from UGA, North Dakota State University and Institut Charles Gerhardt in France. Support was provided by the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences and its textiles, merchandising and interiors department, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering, the New Materials Institute and the Office of Research.
CYBERSIGHTS
ABOUT COLUMNS 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
Columns delivery preference system online
https://news.uga.edu/columns/delivery-preference The Columns delivery preference system was launched this summer. Full-time employees who want to change their delivery preference should click the Columns Delivery Preference button, which is located at the bottom of the website. Use the university’s authentication ID system and select the “Columns Delivery Preference” button to
choose one of three options (1) print delivery only, (2) electronic delivery only or (3) print and electronic delivery. A video of stepby-step instructions for the delivery preference process also is located on the website. Employees who have questions or need additional information can send an email to columns@uga.edu or call 706-542-8017.
Associate Editor Krista Richmond Art Director Jackie Baxter Roberts Photo Editor Dorothy Kozlowski Writers Leigh Beeson Hayley Major 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 Dec. 2, 2019 columns.uga.edu APPLICATIONS
from page 1
The regular decision application deadline is Jan. 1, and final admissions decisions for deferred early action and regular decision applicants are typically announced in mid-March. The University of Georgia continues to elevate its academic offerings and support, resulting in record achievements for its students. In its most recent year, UGA set new records for six-year completion (87%) and four-year completion (69%) rates and matched its all-time high first-year retention rate (96%). The university’s career outcomes rate is at a record 96%. UGA is ranked No. 16 in the latest U.S. News & World Report list of top public universities, marking its fourth consecutive year in the top 20, and is one of only two institutions in the Southeastern Conference to be listed in the top 20.
GROUNDBREAKER FUND from page 1 $6 million in additional funding being provided directly to the benefit of graduate students. Since the emergency fund was launched during the 2018-19 academic year, the Graduate School has disbursed approximately $50,000 to graduate students. “The research, instructional and service missions of UGA benefit directly from the efforts of our graduate students,” said Graduate School Interim Dean Ron Walcott. “We deeply value the contributions that graduate students make to UGA’s mission and are committed to creating an environment where they can thrive.” Documentation verifying the emergency situation must be submitted at the time of application. A similar fund to assist undergraduates is administered by the Office of Student Financial Aid.
COMMENCEMENT from page 1 mentorship and college scholarship program; Georgia Power; the Georgia Chamber of Commerce; and the Financial Services Roundtable. He has been a fixture on Georgia Trend magazine’s list of the “100 Most Influential Georgians” for the past decade. Stelling received a bachelor’s degree in banking and finance from UGA and completed the Graduate School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University. He has served as a member of the UGA Board of Visitors and chair of the Terry College Dean’s Advisory Board. Graduate ceremony speaker Libby Morris is a seasoned administrator and prolific scholar whose work has addressed educational and economic challenges of the Black Belt South, issues of post-secondary access and persistence, and faculty and leadership development. She has been a faculty member in the Institute of Higher Education since 1989 and was named director in 2006. In 2009, she launched the Georgia College Advising Corps, which has helped more than 28,000 first-generation and underrepresented students enroll in and graduate from college. Serving as vice provost for academic affairs from 2010 to 2013, Morris established the Office of Online Learning and the UGA Arts Council, led the effort to merge the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography with the university and increased the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty on campus. She has twice served as interim senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, in 2013-2014 and 2018-2019, playing a major role in launching the Science Learning Center and the Interdisciplinary STEM research complex, among other key initiatives. Morris earned a bachelor’s degree in English from UGA and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in adult and higher education from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “Dr. Morris has provided outstanding leadership during times of transition at the
university, helping our institution maintain its upward trajectory while being a source of steady support,” said Morehead.“She also has achieved a remarkable record of scholarship in addition to her significant administrative responsibilities. I look forward to hearing the wisdom she will share with our graduate students.” Sanford H. Orkin is scheduled to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Georgia during the undergraduate ceremony. Orkin and his late wife, Barbara, both attended UGA. Drafted into military service while still a student, Orkin joined his family’s pest control business after returning from the Korean War and served as the company’s president. Following the sale of Orkin Pest Control to Rollins Inc. in 1964, Orkin maintained real estate and business interests in Atlanta and volunteered his time and support to UGA in numerous ways, including as a board member of the UGA Foundation and UGA Real Estate Foundation. The Orkin family has a remarkable legacy of giving to the university, including endowing a $1 million scholarship fund for low-income students and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar position in the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases. The Orkins most recently gifted $5 million to the Terry College of Business in support of the Business Learning Community. Sanford and Barbara Orkin Hall bears their name. Taylor Maggiore, who will receive a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a certificate in sports media, is the student speaker for the undergraduate ceremony. Commencement candidates are allowed six tickets per student for the undergraduate ceremony. Tickets are not required for the graduate exercise. Both ceremonies will follow the Southeastern Conference Clear Bag Policy. For more information on Commencement ceremonies, visit https://commencement.uga.edu/.
Bulletin Board OneUSG Connect upgrade
The OneUSG Connect site will be unavailable from Dec. 6 at 5 p.m. through Dec. 10 at 7 a.m. Plan around these times for recording time, leave requests, Manager Self Service actions and approval of time and absences. Employee Self-Service will be unavailable to update direct deposit, tax information, addresses, view pay stubs, etc. During and after the system unavailability, Web Clock employees should record punches on a paper timesheet; managers will need to add these punches to the online timesheet. Pay from Schedule/Manual Time Entry employees should track time worked and record these hours. Kaba time clocks will remain available for regular use (punches will flow into OneUSG Connect once the system is back online). OneUSG Connect Benefits, Data Warehouse Reporting and UGAJobs will remain
available. These systems will resume integrations on Dec. 10.
Golf-dining special
UGA’s Golf Course and Dining Services will offer a winter special eatand-play combo. The winter golf special is available Monday-Thursday from Dec. 2-Feb. 27. For $36 plus tax, players receive an 18-hole green and cart fee plus a gift certificate worth $5 in Champions Cafe. The gift certificate will be good through March 31. No other discounts or promotions may be applied to this special rate. G-Pass and Loyalty Points cannot be used for this promotion. Gift certificate has no cash value. Reserve a tee time at https://golfcourse.uga.edu/reserve-tee-time or by calling 706-369-5739. Bulletin Board is limited to information that may pertain to a majority of faculty and staff members.
from page 1 was working on “oncogenes”—genes that can trigger the transformation of normal tissue into a tumor. Her project, which was to isolate and clone an oncogene called neu, was a step on the path that led to the development of Herceptin, an important breast cancer medication. Weinberg recalled his then-20-something graduate student as “a real lady, if one can still use that expression. I know that sounds very dated, but she had a gentle approach to talking with people. Yet she was incisive and smart and you could leave her alone to work on a problem.”
The mind of a worm
In spite of her success at the Weinberg lab, Bargmann was restless. She really wanted to study how the brain works, so she took a position as a postdoc in the lab of MIT biologist Robert Horvitz, who would later win a Nobel Prize for worm research that revealed how genes regulate organ development as well as cell death. His laboratory was a hotbed of research into Caenorhabditis elegans—the most famous worm in science. C. elegans is an almost microscopic, translucent, deaf and nearly blind nematode the size of a comma. The worm, however, has a complete nervous system, one that has yielded astonishing insights into the way all brains are built and operate. Bargmann was inspired by the fact that the worm’s entire nervous system had just been mapped in a project that took 20 years and resulted in a famous paper affectionately called “The Mind of a Worm.” “No brain has ever been mapped with that extraordinary level of detail,” said Bargmann. “I could not have done my work without that map. I still use that map today.” What can a worm tell us about ourselves? Lots, it turns out. In 1993, Bargmann’s experiments showed that the tiny worm was not just an empty tube moving around; it was a genius in terms of odor recognition. Humans are thought to detect as many as a trillion odors with their 400 smell receptors, but this tiny worm with only 302 neurons has over 1,000 receptors for smell. And because the worm is virtually seethrough, Bargmann was able to watch individual neurons in action as worms responded to odors. Using powerful lasers to perform microscopic surgeries, and equally powerful microscopes, she watched worm after worm undulate toward smells that signaled delicious bacteria nearby, but rapidly wriggle away from harmful molecules, and she proved that worms are born with neurons already hardwired to either propel or repel it from specific odors. “I still remember the first time we moved a receptor for its favorite odor, diacetyl, into a neuron that detects harmful smells,” she said. “And then, when exposed to diacetyl, it was as if the worm was horrified. It was instantly racing far away.” It was not the molecule itself that mattered at that moment—it was the neuron, which had been hardwired before birth to make a worm flee. Her affinity for the little nematode was so great that Horvitz once gave her the ultimate compliment: “You think like a worm.” Over nearly three decades, she conclusively showed that a worm’s nervous system—and very likely all nervous systems including our own—is regulated both by a genetically hardwired,inborn map,as well as by its environment and shifting inner states. “One of the great surprises in modern biology,” said Bargmann, “is that genes are not that different between different animals.” Most genes in our own nervous system, she said, can be found in a worm as well.
Leading a revolutionary initiative
For over a decade, Bargmann ran a lab at the University of California at San Francisco. Today, she is the Torsten N.Wiesel professor of
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principal investigator of the project and director of APRIES. In 2018, APRIES and ResilientAfrica Network, a USAID-funded partnership of African universities based at Makerere University, Uganda, began exploring a systematic way to establish baseline data on child trafficking in selected hotspots in Sierra Leone and Guinea. The project utilizes an innovative, collective impact approach that encourages participation from a variety of
genetics and neurosciences at The Rockefeller University in New York, and she leads the Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative in California. In 2003 she was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences and is the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including sharing the $1 million Kavli Prize in Neuroscience and the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Science. In 2013, an entirely new kind of challenge came her way. President Barack Obama asked Bargmann to co-chair the planning of the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies). It was to be a 12-year, $4.5-billion undertaking, with $100 million granted the first year. The aim, according to the president, was to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy and traumatic brain injury. And though a single human brain has 86 billion neurons and Bargmann’s favorite worm has only 302, Obama’s choice was a clear vote of confidence in her work. Bargmann is, said Tessier-Lavigne, a natural leader. “She did an extraordinary job in that role,” he said, “consulting broadly in the scientific and medical community, and synthesizing all of the information into a very actionable plan.” By 2018, the National Institutes of Health had already granted 550 awards to hundreds of investigators for the initiative, totaling over $950 million in grants. The studies range widely, though many are focused on new technologies, from “brain prostheses” for those with spinal cord injury to nanosensors for brain imaging that are so tiny they have been likened to “ultrasonic neural dust.”
Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative
In 2016, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, founded the Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative with an initial commitment of $3 billion, hoping to overcome all the diseases we suffer from today. They chose Bargmann to lead it. For those who think the goal is too lofty, she points out that in the last hundred years new antibiotics and vaccines have been able to prevent or treat innumerable previously deadly infections; heart bypass surgery,new blood pressure medications and statins now regularly extend heart patients’ lives by another 20 years; and once-deadly AIDS is now a treatable chronic illness. One key to success, believes Bargmann, is open collaboration and sharing of resources and results. She learned that by working on the worm brain. “Scientists built these great tools, like the map of the C. elegans nervous system, and shared it freely,” she said. With this in mind, one of the first big, international projects for the Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative is a Human Cell Atlas, one that will map and characterize all cells in a healthy human body: cell types, numbers, locations, relationships and molecular parts. The CZI is also providing support for another project, bioRxiv (pronounced BioArchive), which allows scientists to post and share preprints of studies before publication. It already has over 40,000 followers on Twitter. “Sharing information quickly is a way of accelerating discovery,” said Bargmann. Today, the girl who grew up in the charming college town of Athens listening to her mother speak German and her father speak English is an international science star, dividing her time between research on two coasts. She has been married since 2007 to scientist Richard Axel, whose research on mammalian olfaction won a Nobel Prize. “He has made me happier than I thought possible,” she said. And mused: “I can’t imagine anything better than a life in science. Science is a mystery with a solution.”
stakeholders. The data collected will inform government policy and provide evidence for better programs for trafficking survivors. “Given the methodology for prevalence estimation that we have been developing for Sierra Leone and Guinea, this additional funding is a great opportunity to scale our research and programming,” said Jody Clay-Warner, co-investigator and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.