UGA Columns Feb. 3, 2020

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Researchers find specific brain circuit linked to regulating food impulsivity

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RESEARCH NEWS

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Australian theater group brings ‘New Owner’ to Athens for Feb. 7 show

February 3, 2020

Vol. 47, No. 22

www.columns.uga.edu

UGA GUIDE

2020 STATE of the UNIVERSITY

4&5

Read UGA President Jere W. Morehead’s 2020 State of the University Address

University’s annual economic impact reaches record level

By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

Dorothy Kozlowski

Student and community volunteers are working together to build the Habitat for Humanity Kinda Tiny House project on New Hope Drive in Athens.

Big build

UGA graduate student designs winning ‘Kinda Tiny’ home

By Heather Skyler

heatherskyler@uga.edu

There is no technical definition of a tiny house, but the working understanding is a home that is 400 square feet or smaller.

So what is a “Kinda Tiny” home? Well, it’s a little bit bigger, but not much.

The home design that won Athens’ first “Kinda Tiny” housing competition was 794 square feet and designed by UGA student Jacqueline Menke, who is currently finishing up a Master of Landscape Architecture at the College of Environment and Design.

The contest was the brainchild

of Athens Area Habitat for Humanity and Georgia’s U.S. Green Building Council, and the home designed by Menke is currently under construction in Athens. The family selected by Habitat will move into the house this spring.

The average size of a home in the United States has doubled since the 1960s to 2,600 square feet, but there is a movement underway to embrace smaller, more energy efficient homes.

Menke’s house will be an example of a greener home, but it’s also meant to start a conversation in Athens about zoning codes, said Spencer Frye, executive director of Athens Area Habitat for Humanity.

“You aren’t allowed to build an actual tiny home in Clarke County,” said Frye. “The minimum size for a single-family home is 600 square feet. These size restrictions were put in place in reaction to integration. I don’t like the idea of our community still adhering to these codes.”

That’s how the idea to provide a real-life example of the buildingcode restrictions in Athens came to life. Frye and David Hyde from TimberBilt, an Athens-based sustainable construction company, devised the “Kinda Tiny” home competition, thinking it could act as a test run for green building

See HOME on page 8

CAREER CENTER, DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

Student employee takes stand for customer service in his job as residence hall desk assistant

By Sara Freeland freeland@uga.edu

Vince White isn’t one to lie down on the job. He doesn’t really sit down either.

A desk assistant in Creswell Hall, White, a fourth-year environmental engineering major from Athens, received a second place award in the 2019 University of Georgia Student Employee of theYear competition for going above and beyond.

“As a desk assistant, it is common, especially when working late nights

and weekends, to come in to your shift, open up homework and make periodic eye contact as residents enter. This is not typical for Vince,” said Emily Wallace, White’s supervisor. “Rather than sitting, Vince stands his entire shift to appear more welcoming and friendly to guests and residents.

“Vince knows the name, major and a random fact of 80% of residents in Creswell Hall. Given that we have more than 900 residents,this is quite a task.When residents enter the dorm, Vince takes time to ask how their

chemistry test, club soccer match, sorority formal or first date went.

His inquiries are completely genuine, and this is recognized. Throughout the year, Vince has taken on the role of counselor, encourager and friend among others in addition to his title of being a desk assistant.”

White’s nontraditional approach to his housing job is actually pragmatic.

The job is a lot of standing up— standing up to check IDs, standing up to hand people keys or answer the See STUDENT on page 8

Growth in the number of graduates earning degrees in highdemand fields, a thriving research and innovation ecosystem and a commitment to serving the state have lifted the University of Georgia’s annual economic impact to its highest level yet: $6.5 billion.

“This report demonstrates that the University of Georgia is more vital to our state’s success than ever,” said President Jere W. Morehead.

“It is gratifying to put a number on UGA’s value to the state economy, even as we know that some of the

additional benefits, such as civic engagement and improvements to quality of life, cannot be quantified.”

The university’s economic impact report, now in its fifth year, quantifies three broad variables that reflect the university’s teaching, research and service missions. The economic benefits of the university’s teaching mission are measured by the increased earnings that UGA graduates earn. The impact of the research mission includes economic activity generated by external funding for research as well as business activity generated by startups that are based on research by UGA See IMPACT on page 8

COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

Spread of new coronavirus could lead to pandemic With news that the coronavirus called 2019-nCoV is capable of spreading from human to human, many are concerned about the possibility of a new pandemic, and that is not outside the realm of possibility, according to Jeff Hogan, a professor and infectious disease expert in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia, who studied the SARS coronavirus extensively.

Below, he shares some of his thoughts on the current outbreak, how people can protect themselves and what the future may hold for 2019-nCoV.

What is a coronavirus?

“This is a virus that belongs to the family called Coronaviridae.

For a very long time, the ‘human’ coronaviruses were thought to cause only mild to moderate respiratory tract infections unless a person has other medical conditions such as a suppressed immune system. This changed when severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus was isolated in 2002 and 2003.

“Based on the limited data available currently, this new outbreak is caused by a virus

See CORONAVIRUS on page 7

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

USDA chief economist to give 35th annual J.W. Fanning Lecture

By Chad Cain

chadccain@uga.edu

Robert Johansson, U.S. Department of Agriculture chief economist, will be in Athens on Feb. 17 to present his talk, “U.S. Farm Outlook for 2020—Policy and Uncertainty,” at 10:30 a.m. at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel as part of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences J.W. Fanning Lecture.

From changes in weather patterns and demographics to shifts in trade policy, farmers and agricultural officials have a lot to plan around these days. That’s a truth that Jo-

hansson deals with daily as he helps compile the data needed by agricultural decision-makers to plan their production years Robert Johansson and business plans.

“We are very honored to have Dr. Johansson be our guest speaker for this year’s Fanning Lecture,” said Octavio Ramirez, head of the college’s agricultural and applied economics department. “His work as USDA’s chief economist helps

See LECTURE on page 8

2Feb. 3, 2020 columns.uga.edu

FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Geochemistry professor named National Academy UGA to host conference of Inventors Fellow for showing spirit of innovation Michael Terrazas on remote engineering Bymichael.terrazas@uga.edu COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

By Mike Wooten

mwooten@uga.edu

Engineering and technology researchers from around the world will gather at the University of Georgia this month for REV2020, the 17th International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation.

More than 100 faculty members, students and industry representatives are expected to attend the conference, which will be held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel Feb. 25-28.

The theme of the conference, “Cross Reality and Data Science in Engineering,” focuses on topics such as online engineering, cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things, including remote engineering and virtual instrumentation.

“In a globally connected world, the interest in online collaboration, teleworking, remote services and other digital working environments is rapidly increasing,” said Dominik May, an assistant professor in UGA’s Engineering Education Transformations Institute and the conference organizer. “The objective of this conference is to contribute and discuss fundamentals, applications and experiences in the fields of online and remote engineering, virtual instrumentation and other related new technologies.”

The conference will feature keynotes by international researchers and industry leaders from companies including UL, Siemens and Phoenix Contact. Keynote topics include “Data Science and Big Data in Asia,” “Meaningful Learning with Technologies” and “Big Data—The Data-Driven Approach to Education of the Future?”

Workshops, tutorials and research presentations round out the conference agenda.

REV2020 is hosted by the University of Georgia College of Engineering, the International Association of Online Engineering, UGA’s Engineering Education Transformations Institute and UGA’s Georgia Informatics Institutes for Research and Education.

To learn more, visit http://rev-conference.org/current/ index.php.

Valentine Nzengung, professor of environmental geochemistry in the Franklin College geology department, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, becoming the eighth UGA faculty member to receive the honor, all since 2013.

Nzengung is the founder and CEO of MuniRem Environmental, which provides remediation products and services for soils and physical sites that have been contaminated by residues from munitions and also for the neutralization and destruction of explosives in support of demilitarization. He has developed multiple sustainable remediation technologies that MuniRem employs in its services. In October 2019, Georgia Trend magazine picked MuniRem as “a trendsetter and planet protector.”

The NAI Fellows program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. Election to NAI Fellow is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors.

To date, NAI Fellows hold more than 41,500 issued U.S. patents, which the organization says have generated more than 11,000 licensed technologies and companies and created more than 36 million jobs. According to NAI, $1.6 trillion in revenue has been generated based on NAI Fellow discoveries.

“This is a humbling endorsement of the applied research I have focused on as a faculty member at the University of Georgia,” Nzengung said.

“I never thought of the solutions to

SCHOOL OF LAW

New scholarship in the School of Law honors legal trailblazer Phyllis Kravitch

By Heidi Murphy

hmurphy@uga.edu

By many accounts, Phyllis A. Kravitch was a trailblazer.

She entered the practice of law in 1944 when female attorneys were few and far between. She built her reputation at her father’s law firm, becoming the first woman Savannah Bar Association president in the mid1970s, the first woman elected as a Georgia Superior Court judge in 1976 and the third woman to serve our nation as a U.S. Circuit Court judge in 1979. Her service on the U.S. Courts of Appeals lasted almost four decades.

As a permanent tribute, more than 40 of her former judicial clerks created the Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch Scholarship Fund at the University of Georgia School of Law. She passed away on June 15, 2017, at the age of 96.

“This scholarship truly represents the heart of the law school community,” School of Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge said. “For so many of Judge Kravitch’s former clerks to want to memorialize this trailblazing Georgian in this manner is tremendous. Judge Kravitch may have entered the practice of law at a time when her talents were not overly appreciated or recognized, but she left the profession at the top

with an impeccable 70-year-plus record of legal service, forging new paths for women and those of Jewish faith.”

A Savannian by birth, Kravitch became the third woman ever appointed as a U.S. Circuit Court judge—and the first woman in the Southeast—when she was nominated

by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Initially, she served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

When the circuit split in 1981, she moved to the 11th Circuit where she served approximately 35 years, taking senior status in 1996. Kravitch authored hundreds of opinions while serving on the 11th Circuit Court involving, among other issues, the rights of migrant workers, affirmative action, employment discrimination and the treatment of Haitian refugees and Cuban spies.

After earning her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated at the top of her class and served on the editorial board of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Kravitch found it difficult to find a job in the legal profession due to her gender and faith. She eventually joined her father’s law firm in Savannah and found success including as a pioneer and leader in the Savannah Bar Association and

Valentine Nzengung, right, who was named UGA’s Academic Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016 by Derek Eberhart, associate vice president for research and executive director of Innovation Gateway, shown above, was recently named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

environmental problems that I have developed as deserving of this very high level of recognition. My focus has been and remains developing and applying innovative solutions that benefit human health and our environment.”

The 2019 Fellow class represents 136 research universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes worldwide and collectively hold over 3,500 issued U.S. patents. Among the 2019 Fellows are six recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology & Innovation or U.S. National Medal of Science and four Nobel Laureates, as well as other honors and distinctions.

Their collective body of research covers a range of scientific disciplines including neurobehavioral sciences, horticulture, photonics and nanomedicine.

“Valentine’s selection as an NAI Fellow is a testament both to his ingenuity and dedication as a scientist and to UGA’s

UGA RETIREES ASSOCIATION

OLLI@UGA expands curriculum to include evening and Saturday classes

By Larry B. Dendy columns@uga.edu

Phyllis Kravitch started practicing law in 1944 and was the first woman elected as a Georgia Superior Court judge.

the Peach State’s judicial system.

Kravitch received many accolades over her legal career.

Among them are the American Bar Association’s first Margaret Brent Award in 1991, the Council of Jewish Women Hannah G. Solomon Award in 1978 and the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s James Wilson Award in Appreciation of Service to the Legal Profession in 1992 as well as serving as the law school’s Commencement speaker in 1979 and 2001.

She was also instrumental in establishing a shelter for battered women and a rape crisis center in Savannah and was named as Savannah’s Most Influential Woman in 1978.

The School of Law plans to award the first Kravitch scholarship this fall.

commitment to innovation that benefits the broader world,” said David Lee, vice president for research. “I congratulate him on this honor, and my hope is that he and our other NAI Fellows serve as inspirations to their fellow investigators at UGA.” “My election happened in part because of the enabling environment created by UGA’s administration to foster innovation and academic inventions by its students and faculty,” Nzengung said.

“The years ahead at UGA look even more promising for faculty and students engaged in applied research.”

The new NAI Fellows will be formally inducted at a ceremony during the NAI annual meeting, to be held April 10 in Phoenix, Arizona. Laura Peter, deputy undersecretary of commerce and deputy director at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, will keynote the event.

The OLLI@UGA program, which offers noncredit continuing education classes for adults age 50 and older, is expanding its curriculum to offer classes in the evening and on Saturdays. This will enable university faculty and staff members to take some classes they would not have been able to attend due to work obligations.

Until now, OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) classes have been held on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Starting with the opening of OLLI’s spring semester on Feb. 3, nine classes will be held in the evening of weekdays and eight will be held on Saturdays. Some evening classes will begin as early as 4 p.m. with most starting at 5 or 6 p.m.

Times for Saturday classes vary also.

Evening and Saturday classes have been added in response to requests from OLLI members for more flexibility in class scheduling. But Tim Meehan, OLLI executive director, said the expansion should also benefit university employees who want to take classes.

The OLLI program is housed in the College of Education’s River’s Crossing building, and its staff members are university employees, Meehan said. Many OLLI instructors are active or retired faculty members or alumni.

“OLLI@UGA is an important part of UGA’s academic matrix,” said Meehan.

“We value faculty and staff colleagues and want them to have access to our classes and other activities. We hope

many employees will take advantage of this expansion of our curriculum.”

Topics for some of the evening classes include foot health, reminiscences of performing in a symphony orchestra, serving as a juror for a mock trial, beginning and intermediate Spanish and the impact of food on Southern culture.

Saturday offerings include tours of the Beech Haven and Tallassee Forest preserves, a visit to a furniture studio and classes on watercolor painting, critical reading, Verdi’s opera Othello, Aleutian volcanoes and Latinos in Athens.

OLLI@UGA is one of 124 programs around the country sponsored by the California-based Bernard Osher Foundation that provide educational, social and recreational opportunities to people ages 50 and older.

The evening and Saturday classes are among more than 260 classes in the OLLI@UGA spring semester curriculum.

In addition, OLLI@UGA has more than 30 special interest groups as well as travel-study trips and social events.

Membership in OLLI@UGA is required to register for all OLLI classes and participate in all activities.

The registration process for the evening and Saturday classes is the same as for all classes, and registration will remain open through the spring semester or until a class quota is met.

For details on becoming a member and to view the entire list of spring semester classes, go to olli.uga.edu.

RESEARCH NEWS

columns.uga.edu

Feb. 3, 2020

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Digest UGA ranked as one of best big colleges The University of Georgia ranked 14th on the list of Best Big Colleges in the U.S. by rankings platform Niche.

The rankings compare the best large private and public universities in the U.S. with at least 15,000 undergraduate students along measures of academics, value and student life, among other factors.

The top institution on the Niche’s ranking was the University of Southern California.

Other SEC schools on the list included University of Florida at No. 10 and Texas A&M University at No. 22. UGA was the only school in Georgia to make the list.

Eighth annual Barbara Methvin Lecture to be delivered on Feb. 10 in Park Hall Cal Powell

Emily Noble, assistant professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, served as lead author on a paper looking at the specific circuit in the brain that alters food impulsivity.

Irresistible cravings

Researchers find brain circuit linked to food impulsivity

By Cal Powell

jcpowell@uga.edu

You’re on a diet, but the aroma of popcorn in the movie theater lobby triggers a seemingly irresistible craving.

Within seconds, you’ve ordered a tub of the stuff and have eaten several handfuls.

Impulsivity, or responding without thinking about the consequences of an action, has been linked to excessive food intake, binge eating, weight gain and obesity, along with several psychiatric disorders including drug addiction and excessive gambling.

A team of researchers that includes a faculty member at the University of Georgia has now identified a specific circuit in the brain that alters food impulsivity, creating the possibility scientists can someday develop therapeutics to address overeating.

The team’s findings were published recently in the journal Nature Communications.

“There’s underlying physiology in your brain that is regulating your

capacity to say no to (impulsive eating),” said Emily Noble, an assistant professor in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences who served as lead author on the paper. “In experimental models, you can activate that circuitry and get a specific behavioral response.”

Using a rat model, researchers focused on a subset of brain cells that produce a type of transmitter in the hypothalamus called melanin concentrating hormone.

While previous research has shown that elevating MCH levels in the brain can increase food intake, this study is the first to show that MCH also plays a role in impulsive behavior, Noble said.

“We found that when we activate the cells in the brain that produce MCH, animals become more impulsive in their behavior around food,” Noble said.

To test impulsivity, researchers trained rats to press a lever to receive a “delicious, high-fat, high-sugar” pellet, Noble said. However, the rat had to wait 20 seconds between lever presses.

If the rat pressed the lever too soon, it had to wait an additional 20 seconds.

Researchers then used advanced techniques to activate a specific MCH neural pathway from the hypothalamus to the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved with learning and memory function.

Results indicated MCH doesn’t affect how much the animals liked the food or how hard they were willing to work for the food. Rather, the circuit acted on the animals’ inhibitory control, or their ability to stop themselves from trying to get the food.

“Activating this specific pathway of MCH neurons increased impulsive behavior without affecting normal eating for caloric need or motivation to consume delicious food,” Noble said.

“Understanding that this circuit, which selectively affects food impulsivity, exists opens the door to the possibility that one day we might be able to develop therapeutics for overeating that help people stick to a diet without reducing normal appetite or making delicious foods less delicious.”

COLLEGE OF PHARMACY

College of Pharmacy researcher gets $1.88 million grant to find new treatments by studying the blood-brain barrier

By Jeanne Prine

columns@uga.edu

Yao Yao, assistant professor in the department of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences at the University of Georgia’s College of Pharmacy, has been awarded a $1.88 million National Institutes of Health research grant to find new treatments for stroke and other diseases involving the blood-brain barrier, a complex structure that determines what enters and exits the brain.

Specifically, the blood-brain barrier permits the passage of essential molecules, such as oxygen, while keeping harmful molecules out. This barrier helps maintain the entire central nervous system, and when it breaks down, the results can be catastrophic.

“Blood-brain barrier disruption induces secondary brain injury and is a key pathology of many neurological diseases,” said Yao. The research group is especially

interested in the role that the protein laminin plays in forming and maintaining the blood-brain barrier. Laminin binds organs and tissues together in the body and is a crucial component of the blood-brain barrier.

Yao and his team not only hope to increase the understanding of the blood-brain barrier but also promote the development of new therapies for neurological disorders with blood-brain barrier disruption, including stroke.The team has developed new research tools to lay the foundation for future studies that will facilitate safer, more effective treatments for these diseases.

Using genetically tailored mouse models, the team discovered that different kinds of laminin play complex and diverse roles in stroke and other diseases, some protective and some harmful. They have published results this year in several journals, including Acta Neuropathologica Communications, Translational Stroke Research and

.

Of particular note, the research team published an article on the role of laminin-511, one type of laminin produced by endothelial cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels, in hemorrhagic brain injury in Translational Stroke Research earlier this year.

Yao and his colleagues were able to show clearly that laminin-511 plays a protective role during hemorrhagic stroke.

When stroke-like brain injury was induced in the lab, damage was more severe in mice lacking laminin-511 in endothelial cells.The results of the study suggest that possible new approaches to the treatment of stroke may result from further investigation of the role of laminin in blood-brain barrier disruption.

“Understanding how exactly laminin regulates blood-brain barrier integrity may lead to innovative therapies for various neurological disorders with bloodbrain barrier breakdown,” Yao said.

The university’s 2020 Barbara Methvin Lecture will be given on Feb. 10 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 265 of Park Hall.

The lecture, “Parade Coming! Segregation and Street Performances in the Photography of Eudora Welty,” will be given by Annette Trefzer, a faculty member in the English department at the University of Mississippi.

An associate professor of English at Ole Miss since 1999, Trefzer teaches American literature and literary theory. Her research centers on the culture and literature of disenfranchised groups including indigenous peoples and women. Her book Disturbing Indians: The Archaeology of Southern Fiction focuses on the roles Native Americans have played in the construction of the South’s cultural landscapes. Her new book project focuses on the Native American South.

The lecture is sponsored by John Wharton Lowe, the Barbara Methvin Distinguished Professor of English in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Peabody names TV critic, cultural studies professor to board of jurors

Peabody has appointed television critic Matt Zoller Seitz and cultural studies professor Dana Heller to its board of jurors, which each year evaluates and bestows the Peabody Awards for excellence in television, radio and digital media.

The program is based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Heller is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Seitz is editor-at-large of RogerEbert.com.

He is also TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com and a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

The full list of the current board of jurors is at https://bit.ly/2qsEA60.

Former UGA women’s basketball player named Southeastern Conference Legend

Tawana McDonald Robinson, who played for the Georgia Lady Bulldog basketball team from 1998-2002, has been named a 2020 Southeastern Conference Legend.

McDonald Robinson will be honored during the Lady Bulldogs’ first game at this year’s SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. The tournament will run from March 4-8 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

A native of Flint, Michigan, McDonald Robinson was one of the premier post players in the nation during her time in Athens. She still owns the Georgia career record and ranks among the top-10 in SEC history with 297 blocked shots after leading the conference in that category in three straight seasons.

In 2002, McDonald Robinson was drafted by the Indiana Fever with the 13th overall pick in the WNBA draft.

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

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.

Rachel Whiteread. Through March 8. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

Hye Kyung Han. Through March 8. Visitor Center, Great Room, State Botanical Garden of Georgia. 706-542-6014. connicot@uga.edu.

Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship.

Through March 15. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu. (See Weekly Reader, page 7.)

The Monsters Are Due on Broad Street: Patrick Dean.

Through March 29. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

Kevin Cole: Soul Ties. Through April 19. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection. Through May 10. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

Experiencing Cortona: Celebrating 50 Years of UGA Study Abroad. Through May 29. Hargrett Library Gallery, Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries. 706-583-0213. jhebbard@uga.edu.

The Strategies of Suffrage: Mobilizing a Nation for Women’s Rights. Through July 2. Hargrett Library Gallery, Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries. 706-583-0213. jhebbard@uga.edu.

Drama and Devotion in Baroque Rome. Through Aug. 23.

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

MONDAY, FEB. 3 CTEGD RESEARCH IN PROGRESS Presenter: Docampo Lab. Moderator: Anat Florentin. 8:30 a.m.

175 Coverdell Center.

Guitar and Friends perform in Thursday Scholarship Series

By Camille Hayes ceh822@uga.edu

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music Thursday Scholarship Series will present a collaborative concert designed by guitar faculty Daniel Bolshoy on Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall.

“This concert is about celebrating the guitar as a solo and as an ensemble instrument,” said Bolshoy.

Audiences will hear works for solo guitar, as well as music for guitar and string quartet, guitar and orchestra and small combos with guitar.

Musicians joining Bolshoy Daniel Bolshoy will include the ARCO Chamber Ensemble, along with faculty members Levon Ambartsumian, violin; David Starkweather, cello; Kristin Jutras, viola; Shakhida Azimkhodjaeva, violin; and Milton Masciadri, double bass.

“The music will feature ensembles with my esteemed colleagues, with a focus on string instruments in this concert,” said Bolshoy. “I’m excited to share the premiere of the new piece as well as the concerto and also perform well-known and loved pieces of the repertoire.”

The program will include Latin music by composers such as Agustin Barrios from Paraguay, who composed a solo guitar piece, as well as some bossa-nova and Brazilian rhythms for guitar and bass.

Also included in the program is a quintet for a guitar and string quartet by Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco. His music inspired John Williams and many other Hollywood composers so much that a recent movie titled The Maestro was written about his life. The program includes a movement from the famous guitar concerto “Concierto de Aranjuez” by Joaquin Rodrigo from Spain. Also featured will be two pieces by Russian composer Efrem Podgaits: a guitar concerto for guitar and orchestra, and a duo for violin and guitar written especially for Ambartsumian and Bolshoy.

“The concert is unique in its variety of music from various parts of the world, and in the fact that some of the music was written especially for the performers you’re going to hear,” said Bolshoy.

Tickets for the concert are $20 for adults and $3 for students and are available at pac.uga.edu.

Streaming will be available for this concert at music.uga.edu/live-streaming. For all up-to-date concert information, visit ugamusiccalendar.com.

HOLMES-HUNTER LECTURE Justice Robert Benham, the longest serving and first African American member of the Supreme Court of Georgia, will present the 2020 Holmes-Hunter Lecture. Named in honor of Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes, the first African American students to attend UGA, the lecture is sponsored by the Office of the President and focuses on race relations, civil rights and education. It has been designated a spring Signature Lecture.

2 p.m. Chapel.

LEANN BIRCH MEMORIAL CHILDHOOD OBESITY LECTURE The inaugural Leann Birch Memorial Childhood Obesity Lecture honors the significant career contributions of Birch, who was a faculty member in the foods and nutrition department in the UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the time of her death in May 2019. Birch was an internationally renowned researcher and pioneer in the study of children’s eating behavior. Her most recent work advanced the science of early obesity prevention. A reception will follow the lecture. 3 p.m.

Auditorium, Special Collections Libraries. 706-542-4256. folate@uga.edu.

CONCERT The Curtis Symphony Orchestra will showcase young talent from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. This performance brings Beethoven specialist (and current Curtis faculty member) Jonathan Biss back to UGA in a performance conducted by Osmo Vänskä, music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. $42-$72; $10 for students. 7:30 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4400. ugaarts@uga.edu.

TUESDAY, FEB. 4 LECTURE “Lipid Determinants of Ciliary Protein Trafficking in Trypanosomes,” David Engman, department of pathology and laboratory medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. Host: Karl Lechtreck. 11 a.m. S175 Coverdell Center.

TA CAFÉ Join teaching assistants to discuss what a diversity statement can include and get help starting to write one. Lunch provided.

Registration is helpful, but drop-ins are welcome. TA Cafés are opportunities to meet other graduate and professional students and get support for teaching in a casual environment. These events are hosted monthly in departments across campus and are free and open to all graduate students. This event series is supported by the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Graduate School. 12:30 p.m. 372 Miller Learning Center.

706-542-1355. gradteach@uga.edu.

Faculty Artist Series concert to highlight 20th-century composers

By Camille Hayes ceh822@uga.edu

Violinist Shakhida Azimkhodjaeva will perform the program “The Many Faces of 20th Century Music” for her Faculty Artist Series concert on Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Ramsey Hall. The program includes pieces by Bohuslav Martinu, Erno Dohnányi, Sergei Prokofiev, Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe and Karol Szymanowski.

Joining Azimkhodjaeva is Anatoly Sheludyakov, University of Georgia collaborative pianist.

The program opens with Martinu’s viola sonata, which was composed toward the end of the Czech composer’s life.

The sonata, written for piano and viola, will be performed by Shakhida Azimkhodjaeva on the viola.

Azimkhodjaeva “Not many people perform two instruments in one recital,” said Azimkhodjaeva. “I chose works which are rarely performed, despite being written by the great composers.”

The Hungarian pianist, composer and conductor Dohnányi’s most important chamber work for violin and piano, “Violin Sonata in C sharp minor Op 21,” was composed in Berlin in 1912. Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, commissioned by the Kirov Ballet, quickly came to stand among the world’s most popular ballets. Belgian violinist and conductor Ysaÿe was inspired to compose violin works that represented the evolution of techniques of his time period and expressed those throughout his compositions. This approach can be heard in his “Sonata No. 4 in E minor.” Szymanowski composed his “Nocturne and Tarantella” for violin and piano as a dedication to his friend. The “Tarantella” is written in a relentless Neapolitan 6/8 rhythm, with double stops, left-hand pizzicatos and other effects.

Azimkhodjaeva, originally from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, joined the violin faculty of the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music in 1995. She began violin studies at the Tashkent State Conservatory’s Special Music School. At age 11, she made her debut with the Uzbekistan Symphony Orchestra and won the Uzbekistan National Violin Competition.

Tickets for the concert are $12 for adults and $3 for students and are available at pac.uga.edu.

Streaming will not be available for this concert.

For more information about the Hodgson School, visit music.uga.edu.

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/.

columns.uga.edu

Feb. 3, 2020

TOUR AT TWO Tour, led by docents, of highlights from the permanent collection. 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

Students get inspired by 17th-century art

ENTREPRENEURSHIP SPEAKER SERIES Will Leitch is a writer and the founding editor of the Gawker Media sports blog Deadspin. Leitch was the author and a founding editor of the New York City based culture website “The Black Table.” Since Deadspin, Leitch has become a national correspondent for MLB.com; a contributing editor at Grierson & Leitch, contributor to The New York Times, GQ, Fast Company and Slate; has his own late night show on Sports Illustrated (The Will Leitch Show) and has published four books. 5:30 p.m.

Studio 225. 706-247-5311. megan.henning@uga.edu.

Keyonna.Brannam@uga.edu

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 5 NATIVE PLANT SYMPOSIUM Growing and protecting native plants are important for many reasons: they celebrate the state and region, they are well suited to the region’s growing conditions, and they are the foundation of the complex ecosystem that supports insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. Native plants can be tough, beautiful garden plants for a home landscape as well as delicate harbingers of the changing seasons. Explore the native medicinal plants that call the Southeast home and learn about the plants that have been used in remedies for centuries, their modern applications and how these plants can easily become part of a personal garden. $65, general admission; $58.50, members. 8:45 a.m. Garden Club of Georgia Terrace Room, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6156. cscamero@uga.edu.

UGAALERT TEST AND STATEWIDE SEVERE WEATHER DRILL Campus outdoor warning sirens will sound, and the UGA community should either pause to reflect upon where they would shelter in the event of an actual tornado warning or proceed to their building severe weather shelter locations to ensure that these locations are known by building occupants. 9 a.m.

706-542-5845. prepare@uga.edu.

UGA STAFF COUNCIL MEETING 2:30 p.m. 350 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-0389. jenley11@uga.edu.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION LECTURE SERIES Chapelle Dabney Davis is vice president, chief diversity officer and director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. Davis leads the bank’s diversity and inclusion efforts and is the architect and champion for diversity and inclusion strategies. 5 p.m. 271 Special Collections Libraries. 706 542-7990. adavis@uga.edu.

THURSDAY, FEB. 6 WORKSHOP Also Feb. 7 at 9 a.m. “Introduction to Sponsored Projects” provides insight and explains the underlying theories, federal rules and regulations governing sponsored projects. Instructors also discuss the lifecycle of sponsored projects. During this two-day offering, instructors identify these foundational theories and demonstrate how they pertain to the entire award lifecycle.

Registration is required at http://pep.uga.edu. 9 a.m. Larry Walker Room, Dean Rusk Hall.

SOFTBALL vs. North Alabama. 5:30 p.m. Turner Softball Stadium.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH FILM SERIES In Malcolm X, Denzel Washington brings the story of Malcolm Little to life. Directed by Spike Lee. 1992, PG-13, 202 min. 7 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Missouri. $5. 7 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.

WORKSHOP The Institute of Bioinformatics is hosting a workshop on introductory coding for data science. These workshops are targeted at new users with little or no previous coding experience. $10.

9 a.m. 350 Miller Learning Center. iobcarpentries@uga.edu.

LECTURE “ ‘She Persisted In Her Revolt’: Slavery and Freedom in the French Caribbean,” Jennifer Palmer, history. Part of the Women’s Studies Friday Speaker Series. 12:20 p.m. 150 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-2846. tlhat@uga.edu.

LECTURE “ ‘A Boy of Tender Years’ or ‘A Felon of a Character so Hardened’?: Firearms, Slavery and Manhood in Antebellum North Carolina,” Antwain Hunter, assistant professor of history, Butler University. Presented by the Gender, Race and Sexuality Group of the history department and supported by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts and the Carl and Sally Gable Fund for Southern History. For suggested readings, email Annelle Brunson at annelle.brunson25@uga.edu. 3:30 p.m.

320 LeConte Hall.

SOFTBALL vs. Howard. 3:30 p.m. Turner Softball Stadium.

PERFORMANCE Often neglected as a “transition period” between the Renaissance and Baroque, the 17th century in Italy was a time of rich and varied musical ideas and often brazen experimentation.

This program will feature performances of works by the Roman School of Composers alongside the composers who influenced them, performed by student musicians at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music with commentary Peter Van Zandt Lane. 4 p.m.

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

SOFTBALL vs. Kent State. 6 p.m. Turner Softball Stadium.

By Keyonna Brannam

During the 2019 fall semester, University of Georgia students in two classes at the Lamar Dodd School of Art spent hours at the Georgia Museum of Art, looking through prints in the museum’s collection. Now, the product of their work, the exhibition Reflecting on Rembrandt: 500 Years of Etching, will be on view through April 19, celebrating the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt van Rijn’s death.

The exhibition includes prints selected from the museum’s collection as well as some created by the students, both commemorating the artist’s profound impact as a printmaker.

UGA students in ARHI 4310/6310 Northern Baroque Art (taught by Shelley Zuraw) and ARST 3315 Printmaking: Etching (taught by Mark Callahan) first repeatedly visited the museum’s collections, looking at prints in its rich collection of works on paper. The printmaking students then created prints using the same techniques Rembrandt employed in the 17th century. For most students in ARST 3315, the works in this exhibition represent some of their first efforts with this demanding medium and a response to the tradition of viewing Rembrandt as a guide and standard of achievement.

Students in ARHI 4310/6310 then combined these contemporary works with prints by Rembrandt, his peers and his followers. Their choices reveal both Rembrandt’s own interests in technique and composition as well as the impact he had on other artists.

Zuraw remembers being excited about art history

SATURDAY, FEB. 8 ORCHID MADNESS: ORCHID DAY The Northeast Georgia Orchid Society is leading this orchid lecture and hands-on workshop, where attendees can bring up to two plants and containers and work with an expert to repot their plants. The repotting workshop will be in the morning followed by lunch and the lecture in the afternoon. $25, workshop only; $15, lecture only; $40, both events. 10 a.m. Visitor Center & Conservatory, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-1244. garden@uga.edu.

WORKSHOP Led by artist Jane Wright, this three-hour workshop will explore the exhibition Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection and introduce participants to the basics of traditional and contemporary mosaic art. A choice of mosaic designs will be provided or participants may bring their own.

A $40 materials fee covers all supplies needed, and each attendee will leave with their own glass mosaic and starter kit.

Open to all levels of experience. Registration is required. Call 706-542-4883 or email madison.hogan@uga.edu to reserve a spot. 1 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. SOFTBALL vs. Kent State. 1 p.m. Turner Softball Stadium.

SOFTBALL vs. UNCW. 3:30 p.m. Turner Softball Stadium.

MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Alabama. $15 6 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.

SUNDAY, FEB. 9 SOFTBALL vs. UNCW. 12:30 p.m. Turner Softball Stadium.

FRIDAY, FEB. 7

GARDEN TO PLATE COOKING SERIES The Garden to Plate Cooking Series with Wildcraft Kitchen highlights fresh and nutritious flavors of Georgia-grown produce in four seasonal cooking classes. Menu: Handmade Pasta with Pancetta and Sautéed Broccoli Rabe; Citrus Salad with Radicchio and Fennel; Chocolate-dipped Seasonal Fruit and Raw Hazelnut “Dame’s Kisses” with Cinnamon Cashew Cream

Students in two classes in the Lamar Dodd School of Art spent a semester studying Rembrandt van Rijn’s work.

when she was a student, which contributes in part to why she loves teaching the subject.

“I can remember the first art history class I took and my eyes just exploding when I saw these wonderful things, and I want [students] to have that same experience,” she said.

A gallery discussion with the students, focusing on Rembrandt’s development and fame as an etcher, will be held on Feb. 6 at 5:30 p.m. and Rosehip Syrup. Preregistration is required and will close one week prior to the class date to accommodate any dietary needs. $65; member discount available. 3 p.m. Visitor Center & Conservatory, Gardenside Room, State Botanical Garden.

706-542-1244.

SOFTBALL vs. Howard. 3 p.m. Turner Softball Stadium.

FEBRUARY FULL MOON HIKE Experience the garden at night. Each hike focuses on a different topic such as the moon, constellations or nocturnal creatures. Be prepared to hike up to 2 miles on wooded trails and in the garden. A backpack carrier is suggested for young children and infants. Pre-registration is required. $5 per person; $15 per family. 7 p.m. Visitor Center and Conservatory Front Fountain, State Botanical Garden. 706-583-0894. bwboone@uga.edu.

MONDAY, FEB. 10 CTEGD RESEARCH IN PROGRESS Presenters: Harn Lab. Moderators: Blanka Tesla and Mayara Bertolini. 8:30 a.m. 175 Coverdell Center.

GRASP CLASS 2 This class provides an overview of the roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders involved in the proposal development and submission process and discusses the compliance requirements for developing budgets and budget justifications, as well as examples of common issues associated with budget development. 9 a.m. Room AB, Training and Development Center. 706-542-5967. mottley@uga.edu.

COMING UP TODDLER TUESDAY: LOVE LETTERS Feb. 11. Enjoy a tour, story time in the galleries and an art activity just for little ones. Write love scribbles to your favorite paintings in the galleries and then create a valentine in the studio classroom. This free, 40-minute program is designed for families with children ages 18 months to 3 years. Space is limited; call 706-542-4883 or email madison.hogan@uga.edu to reserve a spot. 10 a.m. Georgia Museum of Art.

Australia’s ‘New Owner’ coming to Athens on Feb. 7

By Bobby Tyler btyler@uga.edu

UGA Presents is bringing Australia’s The Last Great Hunt theater company back to Athens to perform New Owner on Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. in Ramsey Concert Hall. Combining puppetry, live action and animation, New Owner takes audiences on a world of adventure through a dog’s eyes.

Bart is a boisterous puppy waiting to be chosen from the animal shelter. Mabel is a lonely widow, trying to fill the hole in her heart. The day they find each other is the beginning of Bart’s next adventure.

The family-friendly show is a sensitive tale about friendship, loss and new beginnings.

New Owner was created by Tim Watts along with Arielle Gray. Watts was behind the internationally award-winning The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer, which was presented at UGA in 2019.

“We began thinking about how when dogs are adopted a new owner will never know the adventures or experiences that dog has been through before they came into their lives. In New Owner, we explore the myriad of relationships in the life of a dog and how his experiences change him,” said Watts. “We follow him during his adventures, seeing what he sees from his perspective. You can look forward to

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.

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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.

The Last Great Hunt theater company’s performance of ‘New Owner’ combines puppetry, live action and animation.

getting to know the humans in this story through their feet.”

Tickets for New Owner are $30 for adults and $15 for children. Tickets 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).

Ramsey Concert Hall is located in the UGA Performing Arts Center at 230 River Road in Athens.

NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES Feb. 5 (for Feb. 17 issue) Feb. 12 (for Feb. 24 issue) Feb. 19 (for March 2 issue)

6 Feb. 3, 2020 columns.uga.edu

CAMPUS CLOSEUP

Follow the sun

Andrew Davis, an assistant research scientist in UGA’s Odum School of Ecology, was featured in a Science magazine article about monarch butterflies.

After tagging more than 1 million butterflies over a 20-year period, scientists have a new theory that their migration patterns are influenced by the sun, specifically the angle of the high noon sun.

That position, which changes throughout the year and as one moves closer to the equator, could be the key to a long-speculated question about why monarch butterflies annually migrate to a small region in southwestern Mexico.

According to Davis, understanding this “window” could help conservationists better understand how factors affect the success of the monarch’s annual journey.

“It’s great to finally see this data set being used for science,” he said.

Managing the process

Brad Heins, a clinical assistant professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, was quoted in a Dairy Herd Management article about how farmers can cut down on risks by employing the step-down approach to weaning.

The stage between nursing and weaning is the most expensive time in a calf’s life, so farmers usually try to switch from milk replacements to solid food as soon as possible. If this change isn’t managed properly, it could lead to sickness, thus increasing costs.

“At birth, the abomasum represents the largest compartment of the ruminant forestomach and is vital for the digestion of a milk-based diet,” Heins said.

“Through the preweaning phase, the rumen, reticulum and omasum all gradually develop and become integrated into the digestive process. Through appropriate nutrition and utilization of high-quality, texturized calf starter, the rumen papillae can be stimulated to develop and grow which will allow for digestion of lower-quality starters and forages postweaning.”

Do you recall?

Francisco Diez, director of UGA’s Center for Food Safety, was recently quoted in an article by WCNC about the increase in romaine lettuce recalls.

In light of four or more recalls in the past two years, people are skeptical about the food, and investigators are curious as to why it has caused more than 100 people in 25 states to get sick.

“I don’t think we understand completely the reasons why we’re seeing what we’re seeing right now,” he said.

Diez adds that the structure of lettuce could be important.

“It has microscopic structures called stomata,” he said. “The organisms can hide in these structures and remain established in the lettuce.”’

Regardless of the reason, new regulations are helping growers avoid contamination, and new packaging is helping people identify where their romaine lettuce was grown. These tactics should help reduce sickness and waste.

Pecking order

Harshavardha Thippareddi, a faculty member in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, was recently quoted by Medium in the article “How Chicken Became Like Apple and Android Phones.”

The article compares the two major types of cellphones to the two major types of chickens.

Some 90% of the 23 billion chickens eaten per year are one of two breeds—either a Cobb 500 or Ross 308. This fact contributes to environmental problems.

One reason that chickens have been bred down is because they are naturally aggressive animals who will nip at one another to determine a pecking order. This trait has been essentially been bred out of the chickens consumed today.

“When you have 20–40,000 birds in a house, you want them to behave in such a way that they don’t peck at each other,” said Thippareddi, who is UGA’s John Bekkers Professor in Poultry Science.

“The Cobb and Ross birds have less aggressive characters.”

Dorothy Kozlowski

Garth Russo began working at the University Health Center in 1991 and took over as executive director last year.

UHC executive director puts service, patients at the heart of all of his work

By Krista Richmond krichmond@uga.edu

Garth Russo no longer treats patients in his position as executive director of the University Health Center, but they’re at the center of everything he does.

“There is nothing more special than someone sharing their life with you,” he said. “There are few professions left like this one where people come to you and have to be open and share—that’s where healing starts.”

Russo studied biomedical engineering and conducted heart research in college.

He decided that primary care was his true calling and went to medical school.

As an outdoors person, he was intrigued by expedition or wilderness medicine—the practice of medicine where definitive care is more than one hour away. While at Wake Forest School of Medicine, he found a way to incorporate the decision-making and creative thinking skills needed for the difficult patient access, limited equipment and sometimes environmental extremes of expedition medicine with primary care. He received a National Service Corps scholarship to pay for medical school.The arrangements were that recipients would then go to a rural area and work in primary care. One year of school was paid for by one year of service after graduation.

Russo met his wife, Natalie Blatchford, while they were both in medical school. They married a week before they graduated so that she could have his last name on her diploma, saying that hers was too long. They looked for an area in the Appalachians where she could practice and he could fulfill his service

requirement. They started looking in northern West Virginia before making their way down to the Clemson, South Carolina, area, where Russo grew up, and then moving to northeast Georgia where each joined a different clinic of the three that comprised the Northeast Georgia Family Medical Centers. The medical director for those clinics was also on staff at UGA’s University Health Center, and Natalie took a position at the UHC in 1988 (and retired two years ago) with Garth following in 1991 after his service period.

His career at the UHC began as a staff physician. But he also put his engineering skills to use, saying he’s a tinkerer and sees things from a systems perspective.

He eagerly took part in gathering data and making plans to move the UHC from a mostly walk in model to the more appointed, primary care model present today. He’s become a specialist in clinical informatics and led the shift to electronic records. Before his current position, he also served as medical director.

“There is something really special about caring for students who are in a developmental stage,” Russo said. “We witness them learn to make decisions about themselves as they become more health literate while they are under our care.”

UGA students are assigned a colorcoded team and a primary provider.

That’s important, Russo said, because it allows the physicians and patients to not only develop a relationship, but also a more well-rounded look at their health.

In essence, Russo envisions a wellness network with an even wider range of services, where behavioral health

FACTS

Garth Russo

Executive Director University Health Center, Division of Student Affairs Family Medicine Residency, East Carolina University School of Medicine, 1987 M.D., Wake Forest University School of Medicine, 1984 B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 1980 At UGA: 28 years

concerns and medical concerns can be addressed cohesively.

“What drives the bulk of our decisions is making sure UGA students have the best care that they can possibly have,” he said. “That’s our primary mission.”

Russo also has the opportunity to interact with many UGA students through the UHC’s seven student groups, like the Student Health Advisory Committee, the Healthy Dawgs Ambassadors and Be Well Peer Educators. That peer-topeer sharing of information is important, according to Russo.

“Empowering them to participate in their care and ask questions if they don’t understand something—that’s our investment in the future of health care,” he said.

The UHC celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018, and moving forward, Russo hopes to build the best internal structure possible for its future.

“We see a lot that could be better, and our commitment is to make that happen,” he said.

DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

NCSU administrator named director of Greek Life at UGA

By Stan Jackson ugastan@uga.edu

Joshua Welch, current associate director of fraternity and sorority life at North Carolina State University, has been named director of Greek Life at the University of Georgia.

As director, Welch will provide vision, strategic leadership and overall supervision for Greek Life in support of the university’s academic mission and the strategic priorities of Student Affairs and UGA. The director also serves as a visible resource for the university community by enhancing the understanding of and appreciation for membership in all fraternities and sororities and strengthening the relationships between those organizations. He will report

to Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Eric Atkinson and serve as a member of the leadership team for the Division of Student Affairs.

“Joshua’s experience in both Joshua Welch national organization and university Greek Life offices gives him a lot of expertise to provide leadership for the approximately 26% of undergraduate students who are members of fraternities and sororities,” said Victor K. Wilson, vice president for student affairs. “And coming from a campus similar to UGA in mission and prestige makes him a great fit.”

Welch’s appointment is effective March 1.

In this role, Welch will be responsible for providing educational, cultural and leadership development programs, services and resources as well as advising 60-plus registered fraternity and sorority chapters, their more than 7,000 members and the Interfraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council and Panhellenic Council. The Greek Life Office also coordinates the Student Food Pantry and advises UGA Miracle, two student philanthropic initiatives.

Welch earned both his Master of Education in college student personnel and Bachelor of Science Business Administration in marketing from Western Carolina University.

2020 PRESIDENT’S FULFILLING THE DREAM AWARD

columns.uga.edu Feb. 3, 2020

Graduate student helps others achieve their dreams

By Emily Webb

columns@uga.edu

Marques Dexter has won multiple awards, but the one that means the most to him is the 2020 President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award he received on Jan. 17 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast.

Dexter is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the College of Education’s kinesiology department with a specialization in sport management and policy.

Last month’s Freedom Breakfast was the third one he has attended. When he saw the awardees at his first breakfast, he recalls saying to himself, “That’s the kind of impact I want to have. Before I graduate, I want to win this.

“I know what this award meant for others and the people who’ve come before me,” Dexter said. “It means I’ve helped to cultivate a loving community and made an impact on this community, and I’m honored to hear that what I’m doing has made this institution proud, as it shows others have respect for what I’ve done and appreciate me for being me.”

Dexter grew up in Philadelphia, where he competed in track and field, and his love for the sport made him interested in coaching. He graduated from Robert Morris University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in sport management.

When he was looking at graduate programs, Dexter toured UGA and fell in love with the campus. His first class was with Billy Hawkins, a professor of kinesiology who is now a faculty member at the University of Houston.

“I realized you can study people involved in sports through their gender and race, and that really became my passion and interest,” Dexter said.

After graduating from UGA in 2009 with a master’s degree in kinesiology, Dexter got a coaching job at SUNY Cortland, where he also served as the team’s recruiting coordinator. Within this role, Dexter discovered many of the African American athletes were matriculating to college either unprepared or didn’t fully grasp what it would take to be successful.

“Their athletic talents were glorified more than making sure they would be successful academically or socially,” Dexter said. “I couldn’t help them as a coach. It was too late when they got to me. I realized I had to do something if I wanted to see change.”

CORONAVIRUS from page 1 called 2019-nCoV that is different in many ways from the virus that caused the 2002/2003 pandemic. However, both viruses are very likely to have originated from bats, recombined with coronaviruses from other animals, and this gave 2019-nCoV the ability to efficiently infect and transmit among humans. It is important to note that further research is needed to confirm the origin of 2019-nCoV.” How do coronaviruses spread?

“As with influenza, RSV and other respiratory viruses, there are several routes of infection. Small to large droplets are aerosolized when an infected person sneezes or coughs, and these can be inhaled into the nose and lungs. The aerosolization is thought to be the primary route of virus entry.

However, droplets containing viruses can also be deposited on hard surfaces and persist for several days. A person can then touch a contaminated surface and self-inoculate by inserting their fingers in their nose, mouth or possibly eyes. I call it ‘the magic finger’ route.”

Dorothy Kozlowski

Marques Dexter was named a Fulfilling the Dream Award recipient for his efforts to help others and his work in diversity and inclusion.

Dexter wanted to pursue his doctorate, but with the economic downturn after graduation, his funding fell through. His mentors still referred to him as “Dr. Dexter,” and when one of them passed away, he decided it was time to pursue his dream. Dexter returned to UGA in 2016.

“I believe in the importance of being visible as a black [male] leader, as you don’t see a lot of them,” he said. “It’s important for me to be involved and to be visible, so others can see people who look like them be in these positions. I’ve fallen in love with UGA, and it’s given me so much. This is a way for me to give back and to effect change.”

Dexter, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated, has been highly involved since his return to Athens. A 2019 initiate into UGA’s Blue Key Honor Society, he is part of Kappa Delta Pi educational honor society, former Graduate Student Association executive board member, leads the College of Education’s Black Men’s Group, is a graduate student member of the Black Male Leadership Society and former president of the Graduate and Professional Scholars student organization.

Additionally, he is an ambassador for the College of Education and a member of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Conference Planning Committee. Dexter also works as the social media manager and assistant to the store director for the UGA Bookstore.

Within the Office of Institutional Diversity, he currently serves as the

WEEKLY READER

graduate assistant for academic success and program coordinator for the Georgia African American Male Experience, or GAAME, program.

“Helping others achieve helps fulfill my dream,” he said. “I had to do a lot of getting to college on my own, and I want to show others they can achieve what they want to do.”

His research focuses on the experiences and identities of academically and athletically high-achieving black male athletes. Using visual methods, he looks at the way academic, athletic and racial identities are affected by students’ experiences and the factors they contribute to their success.

Ultimately, he wants to use his research to continue shifting efforts of support away from deficit standpoints so that black males, particularly those who are athletes, can be seen as diverse individuals and supported holistically.

“Within collegiate athletics, we often care more about wins and money, but the academic prowess of the individuals and institutions is also important,” he said. “It’s not just about those who are not performing well, we can’t ignore those who are successful.

I’m trying to alter these normalized narratives.”

As he looks ahead, he is applying for faculty positions, but also looking at administrative roles involving diversity and inclusion.

“The future is always unknown, but as long as I’m having fun and helping people achieve their dreams, I’ll be happy,” he said.

Are certain populations more susceptible/at risk for complications?

“Populations most at risk typically have one or more underlying medical conditions such as a suppressed immune system. Persons over the age of 50 with diabetes, HIV infection and kidney or liver problems generally presented with the most severe disease after SARS-CoV infection in 2003.

This may also be the case for 2019-nCoV, but additional data are needed to confirm this.”

What precautions should people take to limit exposure?

“First and foremost, avoid direct contact with persons known to be infected with 2019-nCoV.Also, travel to locations where human cases have been confirmed—Wuhan, China, for example—should also be avoided if at all possible. In addition, proper, thorough hand-washing is very effective at reducing the risk of self-inoculation by manually introducing the virus into the nose, eyes or mouth.

“While it may seem like a good idea, surgical-type masks will provide little if any protection from aerosols containing virus. A more effective approach could be to avoid poorly ventilated areas with lots of people in a confined space.”

How does this coronavirus compare to previous outbreaks (SARS, for example)?

“It is still too early to tell how 2019-nCoV compares to SARS-CoV in terms of ability to transmit person to person, morbidity, and mortality. However, good old-fashioned public health measures such as quarantine, hand-washing, surveillance of travelers and the use of advanced respiratory protection for health care workers was sufficient to end the pandemic in 2003 and are almost certain to do the same with the current outbreak.”

Are you concerned that this could turn into a new pandemic?

“With global travel, the identification of any new virus causing human disease is very concerning.This is compounded by the fact that human to human transmission has been welldocumented for 2019-nCoV. Most concerning is the spread of the new virus in health care facilities as was the case with SARS-CoV in 2003.

“While WHO and other authorities have not declared this a pandemic, I do expect this type of announcement unless the rate of new cases begins to decline rapidly in the next seven to 10 days.”

CYBERSIGHTS

ABOUT COLUMNS

Museum catalog expands on decorative arts

Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship Dale L. Couch Georgia Museum of Art Hardback: $60

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To celebrate two decades of its Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts, the Georgia Museum of Art organized the exhibition Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship, on which this heavily illustrated catalog expands.

The exhibition and catalog take a comprehensive look at Georgia’s diverse contributions to early decorative arts and summarizes the scholarship of the past 20 years.

It focuses on revealing new discoveries made in the field, pointing a way forward and making the case Georgia can hold its own against any other state in terms of the quality of its decorative arts. Material Georgia surveys Georgia decorative art in media including furniture, silver, pottery, textiles, basketry and portraits.

Dale L. Couch, editor and author of much of this catalog, is curator of decorative arts at the Georgia Museum of Art and directs the Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts.

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

VITA offers free income tax return help

www.gucufoundation.org/vita

The financial planning, housing and consumer economics department in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences is once again partnering with Georgia United Credit Union to offer free assistance with preparation of income tax returns.

T h e Vo l u n t e e r I n c o m e Tax Assistance, or VITA, program is open to all low- and

moderate-income taxpayers who do not have depreciable assets, business losses, extensive stock transactions, or are required to file as a “nonresident.”

Visit the credit union’s website to make an appointment at the Athens location on 195 Gaines School Road (through April 11) or the Dalton branch at 605 Calhoun St. (through March 7).

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 Feb. 3, 2020 columns.uga.edu STUDENT

IMPACT

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faculty and staff.The impact of the university’s service mission includes public and private sector efficiencies enabled by units such as the Small Business Development Center, Carl Vinson Institute of Government and UGA Cooperative Extension.

The study was authored by Michael Adjemian, an associate professor of applied and agricultural economics. He emphasized that the $6.5 billion figure is a conservative estimate of the university’s economic impact and that it measures only impacts that exist due to the university’s operations.

Information on how individuals and communities can connect with university expertise and resources—as well as estimates of economic impacts at the local level—are available at https://itstartswith.uga.edu/.

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Educating tomorrow’s leaders

Dorothy Kozlowski

Vince White, a desk assistant at Creswell Hall, received a second place award in the 2019 University of Georgia Student Employee of the Year competition.

phone and standing up just so he’s more visible.

“It shows that I’m more engaged,” he said.

“I feel like it’s more of a welcoming feeling when I’m standing up.”

His goal is to give off positive energy.

“I just know when I was a freshman coming back to the dorms, I wouldn’t always be in the best mood. It would be a long day. Maybe I’d have a test, a long day of assignments or getting a test back that I didn’t do well on,” he said. “I just want to give off positive energy because there are times when I need it. I want them to take a step back and realize life is still great. They have their parents, their friends, their family. People care about them.”

And learning all of the names and stories is something he’s genuinely interested in. “I like to ask people questions—ask them how their day was.”

It goes back to advice his mother told him: “You can learn from anyone, no matter who the person is.”

He got the job his sophomore year. He originally applied his freshman year and waited for someone to email. His sophomore year, he was more proactive and reached out and emailed people about his genuine interest— and got the job. Nearly three years later, the job is still better than expected. He’s learned

Bulletin Board Service-Learning Fellows

The Office of Service-Learning is now accepting applications until March 20 for the 2020-2021 ServiceLearning Fellows program.

The program provides an opportunity to explore best practices in service-learning and community engagement while developing new service-learning courses or considering ways to integrate service-learning into existing courses or programs.

Application materials and details are at https://bit.ly/2tGquzt. For questions related to application, contact Paul Matthews, associate director of the Office of Service-Learning, at pmatthew@uga.edu or 706-542-0892.

University Woman’s Club

The University Woman’s Club’s next general meeting will be held on Feb. 11 at 11:30 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall of Alps Road Presbyterian Church, 380 Alps Road.

Guest speaker Jeffrey Jones, executive director of the Peabody Awards, will give a talk titled “George Foster Peabody Awards at UGA.” Tickets for the 2020 spring lunch will be available at the meeting. The deadline to purchase tickets is April 1.

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

how to communicate better, talk to people and read people.

He’s made some of his best friends on the job, and he sees it as beneficial to his career— where he hopes to one day build eco-friendly infrastructure.

“As an engineer or architect, I’m going to build for people,” he said. “Engineers aren’t good at communications, so it can set them back. You can design something, but if it’s not what the client wants, then the time you spent designing it was wasted. This job helps me be able to read people better, communicate better.”

Student Employee of theYear nominations for 2020 are open until Feb. 6. Sponsored by the UGA Career Center and UGA Student Affairs, the award is an opportunity for faculty and staff to honor an outstanding student employee who has helped make an impact within their department.

In addition to the individual award, one team of students who go above and beyond in their service to others will be recognized.

One nominator will be able to nominate two to 10 students for the team award. The winning team will be invited and recognized during the awards lunch.

The top 100 student employees will be invited, along with their nominating faculty/staff member, to an awards luncheon on April 15 at the Tate Student Center.

The nomination form is online at http://career.uga.edu/hireuga/seoty.

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shape policies and trade agreements that have a profound impact on the competitiveness of our agricultural sector. We look forward to learning from his experiences and perspectives on these important matters.”

The Office of the Chief Economist for the USDA helps advise the Secretary of Agriculture on several aspects of the industry, including “economic implications of policies and programs that affect the U.S. food and fiber system in rural areas.” It also supports USDA policy decision making in ways such as analyzing the impact of policy proposals and coordinating a response among different USDA agencies.

Johansson received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University.

After graduation, he served with the U.S. Peace Corps where he took on the role of an Extension agent in several African countries.

He later received both his master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics at the University of Minnesota. His research areas include biofuels policy, water quality and quantity policies, regulatory economics, regional modeling of agricultural systems and food security.

Designated as one of UGA’s spring Signature Lectures, the Fanning Lecture is held in conjunction with a private awards program; the public is invited to attend the talk free of charge. Email eclance@uga.edu with any questions and to RSVP.

More than 9,700 undergraduate, graduate and professional students earned UGA degrees in the 2018-2019 academic year, the period the report covers. Those degrees bring increased earnings to graduates as well as increased tax revenue to the communities in which they reside. Nearly two out of every three UGA alumni live and work in Georgia, where they contribute to a range of fields.

Adjemian found that, on average, each dollar of state funding for instruction at UGA generates $12.50 in economic impact.

The university’s completion rates are at record levels, and increases in the number of UGA degrees awarded in high-demand, highpaying fields—such as engineering, computer science and business—contributed significantly to growth in the university’s economic impact. The latest data from the university’s Career Outcomes Survey shows that 96% of alumni are employed or in graduate school within six months of graduation, a figure that exceeds the national average by 12%.

Promoting discovery and innovation

Research activity at UGA has grown dramatically, with sponsored research expenditures rising more than 37% and sponsored research awards rising nearly 44% in the past five years. Each dollar in external funding from federal agencies, out-of-state foundations and other external sources generates $2 in economic impact as those funds are spent on equipment and the salaries of research personnel.

Research activities not only bring external dollars into the state, but they also advance the university’s three Great Commitments: healthier people, a more secure future and stronger communities.

Biomedical and infectious disease research at UGA made a significant leap in

HOME

2019 with the awarding of an NIH grant for up to $130 million to a team led by Ted Ross, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar of Infectious Diseases, to develop a universal influenza vaccine. Advances in precision agriculture, new crop varieties and poultry vaccines contribute to food security and support the state’s agricultural industry.

To fight human trafficking, UGA social work associate professor David Okech and his team were recently awarded a nearly $16 million federal grant.

UGA is the nation’s No. 1 university for turning research discoveries into commercial products, and more than 175 companies have been created based on UGA research. To further promote entrepreneurship and industry collaboration, the university is developing an Innovation District at the interface of downtown Athens and UGA’s historic North Campus.

Serving Georgia

With Public Service and Outreach units and Extension agents serving each of Georgia’s 159 counties, UGA helps create jobs, develop leaders and support communities. In fiscal year 2019, UGA’s Small Business Development Center worked with 4,300 clients and helped to launch 415 businesses. Over the same time period, UGA Extension made 5.7 million personal contacts—via phone, electronically and in person—that, among other things, helped farmers manage invasive pests and deploy technology to minimize water and fertilizer inputs while maximizing yield. 4-H continues to be Georgia’s largest youth development organization, with more than 250,000 participants in fiscal year 2019.

The Carl Vinson Institute of Government, a Public Service and Outreach unit, is working in a dozen counties and regions to strengthen the local workforce. In Cherokee County, the institute helped bring together representatives from industry, education and other sectors to develop a workforce strategy. Out of that grew internships to introduce rising 11th and 12th grade students to opportunities with local companies. The county also has held career fairs to showcase local employment opportunities for residents who were traveling to other counties for work.

“As Georgia’s flagship land- and sea-grant research university, we are committed to addressing grand challenges and contributing to the state’s prosperity,” said S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “Each part of our mission—and each of our faculty, staff, students and alumni—contributes to our economic impact.”

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standards and show the county what could be done with a small home.

“We wanted to begin a discussion,” said Frye. “If we want to have a real dialogue around home size in Athens-Clarke County, I want us to work from zero and move up and not keep these antiquated codes on the books.”

Menke entered the “Kinda Tiny” house contest as part of a class project in UGA professor Alfie Vick’s green building class.

Because her major is landscape architecture, she had to do a lot of research in order to complete a home design, but she won, in part, because of how seamlessly her plan worked with the site’s landscape.

“One of things that made her design stand out, after talking to some of the judges, is the fact that her building really specifically relates to the site. She took into account the topography, and I think it was her landscape architecture background that gave her the insight to how the building and the site would interact together,” said Vick.

Menke said she drove through the neighborhood and past the lot several times and got inspired by the surrounding homes as well as the lot where the home would eventually be built. She noticed all of the other homes were elevated and had ramps. She made hers accessible as well by using a zero entry, which means no steps or other hindrances to entrance.

“I also thought of the sun’s path and

provided afternoon shade with the roof slope, which plays into LEED standards. And I addressed the issue of the slope and runoff with my landscape plan,” Menke said.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. Menke said LEED standards helped guide her design from the beginning.

Menke’s design had the sustainability features that the Green Building Council wanted and the practicality desired by Habitat. “Our homes are built by volunteers so they can’t be technically challenging,” said Frye.

Vick said, “Jacqueline’s house was practical, cost effective, buildable and also a really good design.”

The judges awarded two first place awards, one to Menke and one to a team of professional architects from Atlanta. The homeowners, who had already been selected

by Habitat, got to choose the winner, and they picked Menke’s design.

Frye is hopeful that this conversation starter could lead to more small homes being built in Athens. “Land cost is a major part of the issue here. If we can reduce the lot size and the size of the home, everything will be more affordable,” said Frye. “We’ve already had some great conversations with the mayor and commission about land use and building codes. This home has allowed us to explore both housing size issues and sustainability issues.”

SPECIAL SECTION • FEBRUARY 3, 2020

JANUARY 29, 2020 | THE CHAPEL | UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

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have always liked a particular quote from Dennis Gabor, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. He stated that, “The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.”

He suggests in this passage that we can shape our own destiny—that what we can imagine together, we can make possible. That is a powerful notion, and it holds meaning for us as an academic community.

In fact, this quote invites some fundamental questions: What future do we imagine for the University of Georgia?

How do we work together to achieve our shared vision?

These are important questions, to be sure, and we are already working together to address them.

I know everyone is aware that the University just wrapped up a successful 10-year strategic plan. A number of major academic initiatives that we have launched in recent years are maturing. The Commit to Georgia campaign—the most ambitious fundraising effort in our history—is coming to a successful close in just a few months.

We have turned the corner into a new decade, with a growing list of challenges and opportunities awaiting us. The time is right for us to embrace our new goals and aspirations, to celebrate how far we have come, and to imagine how much farther we can go.

Let us do that together today, and we can start by highlighting some of our major achievements over the past year.

From there, we will examine our new strategic plan as a roadmap to even greater impact in the years ahead.

a year of gre at impact

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think we can agree that 2019 was another outstanding year for us. Once again we enrolled a stellar class of firstyear students with record-setting credentials—82 percent of whom are Georgia residents. This class was selected from our largest pool of applicants ever.

In addition, our completion rates increased again. Now 87 percent of our students finish their degrees in six years, and 69 percent finish their degrees in four years. These figures are well above our peers, I might add.

A staggering 96 percent of our students are either employed or in graduate school within six months of completion. Clearly, we have built a vibrant, world-class learning environment. We are attracting the very best students from across the state and nation and around the world, and they are flourishing here. And we are not done yet—not even close.

We recently launched a new program to connect students with alumni mentors. We also created the Student Tour of Georgia to help students engage with communities across our great state. We finalized plans to name our College of Education in honor of Mary Frances Early, a pioneering educator and the first African American graduate of the University of Georgia. I know everyone is excited to celebrate this significant honor with Ms. Early next month.

We also expanded the New Approaches to Diversity program to promote the recruitment, retention, and academic success of underrepresented, first-generation, rural, and other underserved students. To increase affordability, we

delivered by

President Jere W. Morehead January 29, 2020 The Chapel universit y of georgia eliminated all lab and course material fees, and we tripled private financial support for graduate students who encounter unexpected hardships.

We also completed the final phase of the Business Learning Community and the first phase of the Driftmier Engineering Center renovation. We advanced several facility projects to support our athletic programs as well. Our women’s tennis team took the indoor national championship in 2019, and our football team finished in the top four, capping its season with a Sugar Bowl victory.

Turning to our research enterprise, we saw another year of growth and expansion in 2019. Sponsored research expenditures climbed five percent last year, marking an increase of 37 percent over five years. Sponsored research awards also rose again—up eight percent over the previous year, marking an increase of 44 percent over five years.

Make no mistake: these are big, big gains in productivity.

Moreover, we have become one of the very best universities in the nation for sending new research-based products to market. Last year alone, more than 50 products reached the market thanks to discoveries made at UGA. But research commercialization is just one way the University fosters economic and community development in Georgia.

We also offer a wide range of public service and outreach programs that touch every corner of our state. For example,

our Small Business Development Center, with 17 offices spread throughout Georgia, helped to create more than 450 businesses and nearly 3,000 jobs in the last year alone.

Indeed, we are helping Georgia remain the number one state for doing business.

In addition, last year our Carl Vinson Institute of Government provided training to over 30,000 government officials, reaching every city and county in Georgia. We are invested in the prosperity of our communities, and it is no wonder our annual economic impact on the state has now risen to an estimated $6.5 billion.

I have said it before, and it bears repeating: “The University of Georgia is—and forever will be—Georgia’s university.”

At the same time, while firmly rooted at home, the impact of our mission continues to expand on a global scale.

The work of Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar Dr. Ted Ross is a case in point. Dr. Ross and a team of distinguished collaborators were recently awarded up to $130 million by the National Institutes of Health to develop a more robust vaccine for influenza. Our world needs better vaccines to fight this deadly virus, and our faculty are leading the charge.

A number of facility projects are moving forward to create greater capacity for this type of life-changing research.

We are completing a major initiative to upgrade labs across campus, for instance. We also are building a new interdisciplinary STEM research facility near Science Hill.

We remain grateful to Governor Kemp for supporting this critical project and for including funds in his FY21 budget proposal to construct a second STEM facility at the same site. The Governor’s proposal also includes design and planning funds for a major poultry science research building, among other projects.

Without a doubt: we are witnessing an extraordinary period of expansion in our research enterprise, and I am confident that our progress will only continue under the leadership of our new Provost, Dr. Jack Hu. Dr. Hu joined us in July from the University of Michigan, where he served as Vice President for Research and led one of the largest and most vibrant research enterprises in higher education. Through initiatives such as his task force on academic excellence, the Provost is already beginning to make an impact at our University.

the strength of our communit y

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have covered a long list of accomplishments from the past year—a list, frankly, that could go on and on. What is behind all of these achievements—behind our rise in stature? I see a common origin: our team of outstanding faculty, administrators, staff, and students.

You are the life force of this special place. You possess an unrelenting drive to lift up communities near and far; to improve the quality of life around the world; and to create a brighter future. Because of your hard work and dedication, the University of Georgia is reaching new heights of excellence across our missions.

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T H E 20 2 0 STATE OF T HE UNIV E RS IT Y

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So to our faculty, administrators, staff, and students— you should be proud of all that you have accomplished, of the many lives you have touched. Thank you for all that you are doing to make this University the very best it can be.

During my State of the University Address last year, I announced that a presidential task force had been formed to expand staff professional development. This fall, the task force submitted its final report to me, including 12 recommendations. I have accepted them all.

I am pleased to announce today a new, comprehensive initiative to enhance staff professional development at every stage of the employment cycle. This initiative will be implemented in phases over time and will include: • a staff mentoring program; • an annual professional development conference; and • an online professional education platform, among other new measures.

These steps make a clear statement about the vital importance of our staff to the success of this University.

I want to thank the members of the task force for their dedicated service, including co-chairs Brett Jackson, who serves as Assistant Vice President for Finance and Administration and CFO of the UGA Foundation, and Marie Mize, who serves as the Law School’s circulation manager and current Staff Council President. I am also grateful to Vice President Ryan Nesbit and his team for their leadership of this effort. Congratulations to all on a job well done.

commit to georgia campaign

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efore we turn to our new strategic plan, I want to say a word about the Commit to Georgia campaign. When we launched this campaign, we asked our alumni and friends to join us in our effort to remove financial barriers for our students, to enhance our learning environment, and to tackle the grand challenges of our time.

They have responded with unprecedented support, creating over 500 endowed scholarships, totaling a commitment of more than $77 million to help students from low-income backgrounds earn a degree, and supporting capital projects like our Veterinary Teaching Hospital, the West End Zone project, and the Business Learning Community.

They have also helped us to develop new academic programs like our Experiential Learning Initiative and our Master of Fine Arts in Film, Television, and Digital Media, while establishing 90 endowed chairs and professorships to strengthen research and innovation. Last year—16 months ahead of schedule—we surpassed our $1.2 billion campaign goal.

We now have our sights set even higher. That is a testament to the loyalty and generosity of our alumni and friends and the hard work of Vice President Kelly Kerner, the UGA Foundation, and our development team.

I want to take a moment to publicly thank each and every person who has contributed to the Commit to Georgia campaign. Know that your support is making an enormous impact. It is changing lives. It is elevating our University above its peers, and we are deeply grateful.

our vision for the future

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ow let us look to the future. I started today with two important questions: What future do we imagine for the University of Georgia? How do we work together to achieve our shared vision? Our new five-year strategic plan answers these questions.

The plan was developed over the course of a year by a large committee with broad input from many stakeholders.

It includes goals to advance three mission-centered strategic directions: 1. promoting excellence in teaching and learning; 2. growing research, innovation, and entrepreneurship; and 3. strengthening partnerships with communities across Georgia and around the world.

Each of these areas is critical to our future growth and success. Each is a declaration of priority and aspiration, and taken together, with their corresponding goals, they set a course to build on our great momentum. Let us take a closer look at each strategic direction, and we can start with teaching and learning.

promoting excellence in te aching and le arning

We know that today the University of Georgia boasts one of the most vibrant educational environments in the world.

So where do we go from here?

First, we must continue to strengthen our groundbreaking Experiential Learning Initiative.

The decade ahead will require our students to work effectively in diverse teams; see problems from multiple angles; think critically and creatively; and manage complex projects.

Experiential learning remains one of the best ways to develop these skills. Today we are a national leader in this

area. But we must continue to stay at the forefront, for the sake of our students and their futures. I know we can, and we will.

We also must enhance support for those who provide instruction. An array of talented people serve our teaching mission—from professors to lecturers to graduate students.

All of these individuals are vital to our learning environment, and we must continue to invest in their success.

Our strategic plan imagines new professional development and mentoring programs, new grants and honors, all to encourage and reward teaching excellence at every level of our University.

Next, we must continue to modernize our classrooms and laboratories. We have made great strides in this area in recent years, but we still have work to do. Our strategic plan identifies a need for more active learning spaces across campus and for new technology to help faculty enhance

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growing rese a rch, innovation, and entrepreneurship

classroom instruction and maximize learning outcomes.

We must ensure that as the teaching methods of our faculty evolve, so do the spaces and technologies that support them.

Finally, over the next five years, we must deepen our commitment to access and success for underrepresented and other underserved students. Our New Approaches to Diversity Program, mentioned earlier, and our All Georgia Program, which targets students from rural parts of the state, are great examples of recent efforts.

These initiatives are crucial building blocks for the diverse and inclusive educational environment we are striving to create. Progress will require the commitment of each and every member of our campus community.

There is another important component of student learning and success that I want to mention, and that is wellness.

College students today are much more attuned to their personal well-being, including issues of mental health.

Our strategic plan recognizes this reality and seeks to expand wellness programs and services available to our students. To support this goal, I am funding with private dollars two new initiatives that will be led by Vice President for Student Affairs Victor Wilson and our University Health Center.

The first will broaden the Health Center’s existing platform of mental health care with online therapeutic support and mobile applications, and the second will enhance the Health Center’s outreach efforts with new wellness coaching and peer mentoring programs. These initiatives will be implemented over the remainder of the year, and I hope they spur further programs across campus to promote student wellness.

Let us turn now to the second strategic direction: growing research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Earlier, I noted the tremendous progress we have made in this area. Our research enterprise is expanding by leaps and bounds. Our innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem is booming.

Each year, it seems, we surpass the achievements of the last. Never in my long career at this institution have I witnessed a period of such profound acceleration. Yet I see potential to do even more.

I believe we have a unique opportunity before us, an opportunity to continue transforming the University of Georgia into a world-renowned, research powerhouse. Obviously that transformation has been happening for a sustained period of time, and our strategic plan will help us continue our trajectory.

It starts with finding new ways to collaborate across our academic disciplines and beyond our organizational boundaries. The most pressing research questions of this decade will demand interdisciplinary and multiinstitutional approaches.

We are positioned perfectly to respond. In fact, our greatest strength as a research university is our breadth.

From the sciences, agriculture, and engineering; to the arts and humanities; to law, business, and all points between, we find deep faculty expertise. Now we must challenge ourselves to form new synergies across schools and colleges and build new bridges between our research programs and our industry partners.

The latest faculty hiring initiative, announced in the fall, will aid us in this endeavor by recruiting faculty in several strategic areas, as will the interdisciplinary seed grant program, which most recently funded seven faculty teams to support research projects spanning 15 colleges, schools, and other units. Just last month, the University announced a new pre-seed funding program to stimulate the formation of large-scale, interdisciplinary research teams.

Second, our strategic plan calls for continued investment in infrastructure. Our facilities, technology, and support systems—they, too, must continue to evolve over the next five years to increase productivity.

This investment in infrastructure must be matched equally by an investment in our researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs, as well as the staff that support them.

Here again—new professional development and mentorship programs, new honors and awards, will go a long way to encourage and reward excellence and strengthen our culture.

Growing graduate education is another critical part of this strategic direction. Our graduate students bring fresh ideas, energy, and a drive to discover, and they provide critical support for the research, scholarship, and creative activities of our talented faculty.

They also teach and mentor our undergraduate students.

Growth in research, innovation, and entrepreneurship is simply not possible, at any meaningful scale, without growth in graduate education.

That is why the Provost is expanding the role and responsibility of our Graduate School. As part of that effort, I am creating, with $500,000 in private funds, new doctoral fellowships to attract outstanding graduate students to our University. I hope this initial contribution motivates our alumni and friends to rally around this goal as a cornerstone of our strategy for future fundraising in support of graduate education.

Our Innovation District also will play a central role in our second strategic direction. Over the past year, we made great progress on this initiative. We launched exciting programs such as Dawg Camp Innovate and the Faculty Innovation Fellows program.

We also opened Studio 225 as the new home of our thriving Student Entrepreneurship program, and we announced plans to renovate the Spring Street Building to support our growing pipeline of faculty startups and expand projectbased learning and industry engagement.

Today I am delighted to announce a $3.5 million gift from The Delta Air Lines Foundation to complete this renovation and activate new programs within the facility. This gift will transform the Spring Street Building into an energetic hub of creativity, collaboration, and entrepreneurship, and it is just one part of a $5 million pledge from the Delta Foundation that will also support the student success center in our College of Engineering.

It was only five years ago that the Foundation donated $5 million to help establish Delta Hall in our nation’s capital.

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This latest commitment continues a legacy of supporting our major priorities, and I want to express my deepest appreciation to our friends at The Delta Air Lines Foundation for their generosity.

Staying with the Innovation District for just a moment longer, I want to mention another development, a new community partnership, called Innovate U. Innovate U will launch this summer as a weeklong residential program for rising high school students in the Clarke County School District.

It will be led by our Fanning Institute for Leadership Development and teach skills in design thinking, teamwork, and communication, while introducing students to the innovation landscape of our campus and city. Registration opens in March, so stay tuned to learn more about this latest partnership with our local community.

strengthening partnerships with communities acros s georgia and around the world

Now on to the third strategic direction: strengthening partnerships with communities across Georgia and around the world. There is a passage at the end of our mission statement that I want to highlight.

It reads: “The University of Georgia is responsive to the evolution of the state’s educational, social, and economic needs and aspires […] to even closer contact and interaction with […] institutions throughout the state as well as the citizens it serves.” Note the words “responsive,” “closer contact,” and “interaction.”

“Working together, we will expand our positive impact on people and communities throughout Georgia, our nation, and our world—because that is what we do. That is what we care about. That is who we are.”— p r e s i d e n t This passage captures the essence of our third strategic direction. As a land-grant and sea-grant University, we must remain responsive, always striving for deeper engagement, greater impact.

Yet our obligation will never end at the state line, for we have national and global commitments. Look no further than our campuses in Washington, DC; Cortona, Italy; and Oxford, England.

In fact, I like to think of our service mission as a set of concentric circles, originating here in Athens, reaching across every county in Georgia, and spanning our nation and our world. Over the next five years, I believe we can do even more, be even more, for the citizens of this state and beyond.

Our strategic plan outlines several goals to get us there.

First, we must increase collaborative, community-focused research, scholarship, technical assistance, and training.

This certainly is an area of existing strength for us.

Consider, for instance, our Cooperative Extension and Public Service and Outreach units. To remain relevant in this decade, however, we must focus even more on programs that address community-identified needs and issues, and we will.

2025 STRATEGIC PLAN P R O M O T IN G E X C E L L E N C E IN T E A C HIN G A N D L E A R NIN G • Expand experiential learning opportunities for all students.

• Enhance training, support, and recognition for all who provide instruction.

• Enhance infrastructure and support for evidence- based teaching methods across the curriculum.

• Promote academic access and success for all students, with particular consideration for underrepresented, rural, first-generation, and other underserved students.

Programs like Archway Partnership and Service Learning have shown us that this type of work is mutually beneficial.

Not only does it empower our communities, it also creates research, scholarship, and experiential learning opportunities for our faculty and students.

As a related goal, we must continue to expand our economic development presence across the state, with particular focus on underserved communities. Our Small Business Development Center will certainly play a leading role here.

But this goal invites units from across campus into the economic development space to develop strategies and alliances that target areas of highest need throughout Georgia.

Growing our economic impact is critical to the future of our University and our state, and we have the ability to scale up.

At the same time, over the next five years, we must expand the role of our University on the world stage. The key will be more global partnerships that leverage our academic strengths. New and ongoing international cooperative agreements, sponsored projects, and study abroad programs will elevate our reputation and our impact around the world.

Finally, our strategic plan aims to create more opportunities for students to engage in our service mission. Graduates of the University of Georgia are expected to become leaders in their fields and their communities.

It is paramount that our students develop the knowledge and skills they need to make a positive difference in the lives of others. Strengthening our partnerships across Georgia and around the world will provide these opportunities to our students.

As I wrap up, I want to express my deepest appreciation to the nearly 40 individuals who played a leadership role in developing our 2025 Strategic Plan. Vice Provost Michelle Cook and Special Assistant to the President Kyle Tschepikow co-facilitated the planning process.

They worked alongside Deans Linda Kirk Fox, Dale Greene, Don Leo, Sam Pardue, and Anna Scheyett, who served as co-chairs. Allan Aycock, who oversees accreditation for our University, also provided leadership. To all of you and the many others who contributed—thanks for your service and for your dedication.

G R O W IN G R E S E A R C H , IN N O VAT IO N , A N D E N T R E P R E N E U R S HIP • Provide resources, support, and incentives to nurture a diverse and inclusive culture of excellence in research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

• Promote collaboration among academic units and between these units and external organizations to drive interdisciplinary research and commercial activity.

• Align the human and physical capital of the University to expand the research enterprise and fuel innovation and entrepreneurship at all levels of the organization.

• Enhance communications about the University’s strengths in research, innovation, and entrepreneurship and the impact of those activities on local, state, national, and international communities.

S T R E N G T H E NIN G PA R T N E R S HIP S W I T H C O M M U NI T IE S A C R O S S G E O R GI A A N D AROUND THE WORLD • Increase collaborative, community-focused research, scholarship, technical assistance, and training in Georgia, across the nation, and around the world.

• Strengthen UGA’s role in economic development across the state, with a particular emphasis on underserved communities.

• Broaden opportunities for students to engage with the diversity of communities in Georgia and across the nation and world on locally identified needs and issues.

• Develop high-impact global partnerships that engage and support UGA areas of research and service excellence.

• Strengthen communications regarding how UGA sustainably supports and benefits communities through research, teaching, and public service.

jere w. morehead

closing

I

want to leave you today with a quote from Harvard University President Emeritus and historian Dr. Drew Faust. She said, “The future we face together, the future we shape, will depend perhaps most of all on who we are and who we will be.”

So as we embrace new goals for the future, let us also reaffirm who we are—what unites and inspires us: our love of learning, inquiry, and discovery; diversity of thought and respect for others; integrity and service. Over the next five years, these foundational values will be just as important to our success as the goals we are determined to achieve.

The state of the University of Georgia is strong and growing stronger. Our future is bright and boundless. In the years ahead—joined in deed and purpose—we will write the next chapter in the amazing story of our institution, and it will be a chapter—like those written before—that reveals the transformative power of the Bulldog Nation.

Working together, we will expand our positive impact on people and communities throughout Georgia, our nation, and our world—because that is what we do. That is what we care about. That is who we are.

I am excited about our future. You should be, too. I look forward to continuing to serve alongside you as President.

Thanks, everyone, for being here today. Have a great afternoon.