UGA Columns Nov. 18, 2019

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Ecology team studies strategy used by monarch butterfly parasite to spread infection RESEARCH NEWS

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Cellist David Starkweather to ­give final Faculty Artist Series concert for 2019 Vol. 47, No. 17

November 18, 2019

www.columns.uga.edu

UGA GUIDE

4&5

UGA joins alliance committed to faculty diversity in STEM

By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

Andrew Davis Tucker

George Vellidis, precision agriculture researcher and UGA professor, works with graduate student Anna Orfanou to check the circuit board of a UGA Smart Sensor Array node.

Farming for the future

UGA leads the way in precision agriculture

By Scott Michaux columns@uga.edu

A fifth-generation farmer in Calhoun County,Adam M ­ cLendon starts his days at the crack of dawn.

He looks at software logs that show his tractors’ fuel use the previous day and whether his irrigation system is functioning efficiently.

He reviews satellite imagery of his 8,500 acres of corn, cotton, peanuts and pecans, revealing which areas he needs to prioritize.

“I spend the first 45 minutes of my day, every day of the week, utilizing technology to make me a more efficient manager of our labor

and our farm,” McLendon said.

Efficient management is the hallmark of modern agriculture.

Scientists project that the world’s population will reach 9.7 billion by the middle of the century, and to feed all of those people, crop production will need to double in the next 30 years.

With this challenge looming, precision agriculture—the use of technology to increase the profitability, efficiency and sustainability of crop production—has become an indispensable part of farm management as growers try to maximize every acre.

The University of Georgia

was among the first academic institutions to delve into precision agriculture when it emerged in the mid-1990s. A quarter-century later, UGA is stepping up efforts to expand its faculty, curriculum, research and outreach to again become a leader in the field.

“There has always been a ­historical willingness to adopt new technologies in agriculture,” said Sam Pardue, dean and director of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “­The sustainable future of Georgia ­agriculture will remain dependent on the creation and adoption of

See AGRICULTURE on page 7

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

UGA to hold ceremony Feb. 25 to name College of Education in honor of Mary Frances Early The University of Georgia has announced that the official naming of the College of Education to honor Mary Frances Early—UGA’s first African American graduate and a pioneering educator—will take place at a ceremony on Feb. 25, 2020.

Albany State University President Marion Ross Fedrick will deliver the 20th annual Mary Frances Early Lecture on the day of the naming ceremony, UGA President Jere W. Morehead said. Fedrick earned two degrees from the University of Georgia: a bachelor’s degree in adult education with a concentration in organizational development and a master’s degree in public administration.

“As a fellow educator and UGA alumna, President Fedrick is the ideal choice to honor Mary Frances Early’s life and legacy,” Morehead said. “Her leadership of one of the state’s outstanding HBCUs, as well as her successful

tenure as a vice chancellor of the University System of Georgia, demonstrate her accomplishments as a senior administrator and her strong commitment to creating opportunities through access to higher education.”

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia gave final approval in October for UGA to name the College of Education in honor of Early, who was a central figure in the desegregation of UGA. “We look forward to celebrating the indelible mark Ms. Early has left on this institution and the field of music education in K-12 and higher education,” said Denise Spangler, dean of the College of Education. “The students, faculty, staff, alumni, supporters of the College of Education and I are honored that our college will bear Ms. Early’s name in perpetuity.”

Early became the first African American to earn a degree from the

University of Georgia when she graduated on Aug. 16, 1962, with a master’s degree in music education.

She later returned to UGA to earn a Specialist in Education degree.

Early was class valedictorian at Henry McNeal Turner High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) in 1957, also as valedictorian. She later became a music teacher in the Atlanta Public Schools and was eventually promoted to music director of the entire school system. During her career, Early worked with teachers in the system’s 100-plus schools and was in charge of the music curriculum, budget, textbooks and more.

Early retired in 1994 after working for 37 years in public schools. She later taught at Morehouse College, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University as head of the music department.

Building on the successes of programs that promote diversity among undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields, the University of Georgia has joined a multi-institution alliance that is working to enhance faculty diversity and the use of inclusive teaching practices.

The effort is known as Aspire: The National Alliance for Inclusive and Diverse STEM Faculty, and it is co-led by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Center for the Integration of

Research, Teaching and Learning at the University of WisconsinMadison. The National Science Foundation funds the Aspire Alliance and its Institutional Change Network as part of its INCLUDES initiative.

“I am pleased the University of Georgia is joining the Aspire Alliance,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “To remain a top public research university, it is critical that we continue to lead efforts to ensure diverse representation of faculty and students in STEM research and education, both at UGA and across the nation.”

See ASPIRE on page 8

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Entomology professor named inaugural Pulliam Chair holder

By J. Merritt Melancon, Sharon Dowdy and Sam Fahmy

jmerritt@uga.edu, sharono@uga.edu, sfahmy@uga.edu

Professor Michael Strand has dedicated his career to unlocking the power of basic science to improve agriculture, and that dedication has earned him the recognition of the state’s agricultural community.

This fall, Strand, a professor of entomology in the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, has been selected as the inaugural H.M Pulliam Chair at CAES. The chair was established in 2018 by the family of Henley Morris Pulliam, who served as an agriculture teacher in Georgia during the heart of the Great Depression and through

his retirement in 1968. “My father was a dedicated schoolteacher who gave everything he had to his family and to others,” said Michael Strand Pulliam’s son, Morris Michael Pulliam, an established ophthalmologist in Covington.

H.M. Pulliam’s dedication to his family and love of UGA prompted the Pulliam family to establish the professorship in their patriarch’s name. Strand was an excellent candidate for the role because of the impact his work has on UGA and agriculture.

“I am so pleased that

See PULLIAM on page 8

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. FREEDOM BREAKFAST Steve Jones, U.S. district judge, to give Freedom Breakfast address Steve C. Jones, a U.S. district judge of the Northern District of Georgia, will deliver the keynote address at the 17th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast.

Hosted by the University of Georgia in collaboration with Athens-Clarke County and the Clarke County School District, the event will be held on Jan. 17 at 8 a.m. in the Grand Hall of the Tate Student Center.

Appointed by former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2011, Jones presides over cases involving the United States government, the Constitution, federal laws, civil disputes and other matters.

Prior to his appointment to the

district court, he served as a superior court judge in AthensClarke and O c o n e e counties for 16 years. A 2018 recipiSteve Jones ent of UGA’s Alumni Merit Award, he is a longtime supporter of the university and a recognized leader in the community. Jones earned his bachelor’s degree in management in 1978 and his Juris Doctor in

See BREAKFAST on page 8

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FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

10th annual Computer Science Day focuses on AI-enabled learning with variety of events

DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

By Katie Cowart

klcowart@uga.edu

Sharon Liggett

UGA IMPACT students move in new shelving at the HELP Agency in Cairo.

Students spend fall break helping area recover from recent natural disasters

By Marilyn Primovic mjp82278@uga.edu

IMPACT Service Break students used their fall break to serve their fellow Georgians who are recovering from back-to-back natural disasters.

During the Nov. 1-3 weekend, students traveled to Cairo, less than an hour north of Tallahassee, with a population of fewer than 10,000 people. The community experienced damage from Hurricane Michael a year ago, followed by a tornado about five months later in March 2019.

“Cairo has one emergency social services organization, The Help Agency, serving all of Grady County,” said Sharon Liggett, operations coordinator for the Grady County Archway Partnership, a UGA public service and outreach unit. “It was devastating for them to be wiped out twice and have limited means to restock on goods and supplies needed in the community. The agency provides food, medicine, rent, utilities, clothing as well as other needs not otherwise covered.”

The collaboration between the Center for Leadership and Service and the Archway Partnership leveraged the existing IMPACT program to make a positive mark in the state of Georgia in line with the university’s Great Commitments recommendation.

“Participants worked alongside the Cairo community to learn about their relief services and resource access challenges,” said Ashley Kalinda, student lead for the Cairo trip. “The community identified how we could help, and we grew by learning from them.”

“Students began with a community tour to orient themselves and witness the damage,” said Liggett. “They saw homes, now one year later, with blue tarps still on the roof and the twisted off tops of trees.”

From there, students worked at the Help Agency to clean, organize donations, install shelving units and restock items.

“We talked about what emergency relief means for a community, the dissemination of resources in these situations and the importance of listening to what a community tells us they need,” said Kalinda.

The trip also allowed students to experience rural south Georgia culture.They enjoyed home-cooked meals with team members from the Help Agency and attended the 47th annual Mule Day in Calvary, celebrating the mule’s historic role in the local agriculture.

Kalinda said each day participants reflected on their personal identities and how they affect their perceptions of disaster relief issues.

“This gives us a better understanding of how we can go about addressing these things going forward in our own hometowns,” said Kalinda.

Amanda Torrence, senior coordinator for IMPACT Service Breaks at the CLS, said the reflection helped students learn from the community members and partners and also consider their own experiences and identities related to the trip.

“I believe that you cannot fully engage in servicelearning without considering your own personal development and growth,” said Torrence.

IMPACT Service Breaks began in 1994 with a group of UGA students interested in spending the week of spring break engaged in community service as opposed to the more traditional pastimes of college spring break.

Administered by the Center for Leadership and Service, a department within the Division of Student Affairs, the program has engaged more than 3,000 students in service to dozens of communities across the United States.

Torrence said that an IMPACT trip does not end when the trip ends. She hopes students bring back what they have learned to the UGA and Athens communities.

“Whether that is getting involved with service, advocacy or just being a more critical consumer, we want this positive social change to continue long after this trip,” said Torrence.

Faculty members, students and visitors gathered for the 10th annual Computer Science Day hosted by the University of Georgia’s computer science department and Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

The program began with a keynote speech followed by a trivia competition, panel discussion and poster session for students.

“CS Day offers a unique opportunity for computer science students to learn about visionary research ideas from the leaders at the keynote and panel sessions and also discuss their current research with peers, faculty and the wider campus community to get valuable face-to-face feedback at the poster session,” said Ismailcem Arpinar, associate professor of computer science at UGA. Ashok Goel, professor of computer science and cognitive science at the Georgia Institute of Technology, gave the keynote speech on AI-enabled learning. Goel conducts research into artificial intelligence and cognitive science with a focus on computational design and, more recently, AI-powered learning and education. He has helped develop a completely online master’s program in computer science at Georgia Tech that uses AI tutors and teaching assistants to facilitate learning for anyone anywhere.

“We found that students learned best when someone was responding to their questions before they lost interest or moved onto a new problem,” said Goel. “We developed Jill Watson, an AI teaching assistant, to automatically answer questions.”

Goel’s team used the three measurements of coverage, correctness and authenticity to judge Watson’s effectiveness.

“At first, she was clunky and gave some incorrect answers, but she learned from the other real TA’s answers and the students,” said Goel. “We had students nominate Jill for TA of the Year at the end of their courses. They were surprised when we told them she was an AI.” Goel and his team at Georgia Tech are now working on expanding their AI programs to facilitate other learning ecosystems. Agent Smith is a new AI agent built just to make

Katie Cowart

Students at UGA share their research during the poster session of Franklin College’s 10th annual CS Day.

clones of Watson for other teachers. They have also developed virtual labs where Watson acts as a research assistant by asking questions back to help researchers develop their ideas.

The panel discussion focused on distinguishing between the hype and the reality of AI and Big Data. In addition to Goel, panelists included Chao Zhang, assistant professor of computer science at Georgia Tech; Amit Sheth, founding director of the Artificial Intelligence Institute and professor of computer science at the University of South Carolina; and Manchon U, vice president of engineering, data strategy & transformation at American Express.

The panel focused on topics such as the AI revolution that began in the past couple of years; the biggest challenges of AI and data science; the impact of AI technologies on society; and whether AI zombies could ever be a widely embraced phenomenon. Panelists addressed these topics and opened the floor to questions afterward.

Students at UGA prepared posters for the perusal of faculty and visitors. Posters covered a variety of topics from new algorithms to address traffic congestion to salt marsh plant identification and segmentation.

“The poster session enables our students to establish valuable social connections with peers, faculty and leaders in a broad cross-section of industries, which could lead to internships, future long-term employment and other opportunities for the students,” said Arpinar.

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

New travel grants program facilitates public service and national engagement opportunities for faculty members

By Sam Fahmy

sfahmy@uga.edu

A new grants program sponsored by the Provost’s Office aims to help faculty share their expertise with elected officials and federal agencies in service of our nation.

The National Service and Engagement Faculty Travel Grants Program, a partnership between the Provost’s Office and the university’s Office of Government Relations, offers support to faculty for service and engagement at the national level where travel funding is not otherwise provided. Supported activities include providing congressional testimony, national leadership service or involvement in federal advisory committees.

“Public universities exist to serve the public good, and this program signals the University of Georgia’s commitment to

applying the research-based expertise of our faculty to benefit our nation,” said S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost.

To apply for a National Service and Engagement Faculty Travel Grant, visit https://provost.uga.edu/resources/facultyresources/grants/national_service_travel_grants/.

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to partner more frequently with our faculty members to build UGA’s presence in our nation’s capital and share their expertise with leaders across the nation,” said Carly McCallie, director of federal relations.

“This new grant program will allow faculty to play a greater role in advising policymakers to solve the world’s grand challenges.”

More information about the National Service and Engagement Faculty Travel Grant Program is available at https://provost.uga.edu/resources/faculty-resources/grants/ national_service_travel_grants/.

SIGNATURE LECTURE

Ethics Week Lecture speaker discusses role of corporations

By Krista Richmond krichmond@uga.edu

As chief compliance officer for Johnson & Johnson, Ashley Watson says she wears two hats. She’s not only a business partner, but she also steps in if there is wrongdoing and makes sure it’s addressed.

Watson, who earned a Juris Doctor from the UGA School of Law in 1993, spoke about her role and the role of corporations during the annual Ethics Week Lecture, held Nov. 4 at the Chapel.

“As you grow and become leaders in our communities, you’re going to be confronted with challenges,” she said. “If you start exercising those muscles now, you’re going to be in a better position later when you may have some really big decisions to make.”

Watson pointed out that what is legal and what is ethical are not always the same thing. Often the ethical questions are more difficult than the legal questions—the question shifts from can the company do this to should the company do this.

According to Watson, that’s just one way the role of the corporation is shifting. Now, the corporation has to focus on its shareholders, its customers, its employees, its suppliers and its communities. Successful companies find a balance and put all of these constituents at the forefront of their decision-making while understanding that their legal obligation is to the shareholders.

“Understanding more deeply where you do business and who you do business with is what really great companies have been

doing and need to do even more,” she said.

Watson said that companies can’t underestimate the value of input from all stakeholders.

“This is complicated,” she said. “You’ve got to get out there, and you’ve got to talk to people. You’ve got to engage.”

Watson is also vice chair of the Ethics Research Center, which is committed to creating and sustaining high-quality ethics and compliance programs. She previously was senior vice president for ethics and compliance at Merck and also served as the senior vice president, deputy general counsel and chief ethics and compliance officer at Hewlett-Packard.

Sponsored by the School of Law and the Terry College of Business, the lecture was designated as one of the university’s Signature Lectures, which features speakers noted for their broad, multidisciplinary appeal and compelling bodies of work.

The lecture was held as part of the university’s observance of Ethics Awareness Week Nov. 11-17, which is part of the institution’s ongoing effort to promote an ethical culture on campus and raise awareness about ethics resources available at UGA. This week was designated by the University System of Georgia across all USG institutions as an important reminder of shared core values of integrity, excellence, accountability and respect.

Resources on compliance, ethics and reporting are available at http://www.hr.uga.edu/bor-ethics-training. Faculty and staff can report fraud, waste, abuse and other ethical concerns at https:// uga.alertline.com/gcs/welcome or by calling 1-877-516-3467.

RESEARCH NEWS

columns.uga.edu Nov. 18, 2019

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Digest Philosophy and creative writing programs to host book discussion

Flight plan

Rick O’Quinn

Sonia Altizer, along with other UGA researchers, is studying how infection is spreading among monarch butterfly populations.

Butterfly parasite uses strategy to spread infection

By Karis Mahaffey karism@uga.edu

North American monarch butterflies are famous for their long-distance migrations, but in recent decades some monarchs have established resident populations in the southeastern U.S. A new study from the University of Georgia sheds light on how a harmful parasite, Ophryocystis elektroscirra, or OE, is able to maintain high levels of infection in these resident populations by using more than one transmission strategy.

The study, “Multiple transmission routes sustain high prevalence of a virulent parasite in a butterfly host,” was led

by Ania Majewska, a doctoral student in the Odum School of Ecology, with senior authors Sonia Altizer, Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Ecology, and Richard Hall, an assistant professor in the Odum School and the College of Veterinary Medicine department of infectious diseases. It appears in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Monarchs might be the best-known of North America’s butterflies, thanks to their iconic migration and the number of conservation efforts they have inspired.

In the southeastern U.S., however, some monarchs have become year-round residents, a shift that appears to be caused by the planting of tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica). Unlike native milkweed species, this garden plant doesn’t die back in the winter unless it’s exposed to

freezing temperatures, allowing monarchs to forego migration and breed year-round in warm climates.

Previous research by the authors and their colleagues found that OE infects half or more of the monarchs in these resident populations, despite known harmful effects of infection, including wing deformities, reduced flight performance, lower reproductive success and shorter lifespans. For the most part, parasites this virulent aren’t highly prevalent in the populations they infect, as their hosts die off before they have a chance to spread too widely.

Using a combination of field work and mathematical modeling, the researchers set out to determine the mechanisms driving these OE infection hotspots in the Southeast.

They conducted field research at the UGA Center for Research and Education at Wormsloe, just outside Savannah, in experimental garden plots planted with tropical milkweed. From May to October 2015 they monitored the gardens to measure OE prevalence over time and to determine exactly how OE was being transmitted within the butterfly population there.

OE infects monarchs when caterpillars eat spores of this protozoan. Infected female monarchs can infect their own offspring through spores shed onto their eggs, a process known as vertical transmission. Environmental transmission occurs when caterpillars encounter

OE spores shed by unrelated adult monarchs onto milkweed leaves where the caterpillars feed. Finally, uninfected adults can acquire spores through contact with infected adults, which don’t cause disease in the exposed adults, but can infect a fraction of their offspring, a process called adult spore transfer.

To understand how these transmission routes changed over time, the researchers tested butterflies for infection by pressing tape against their bodies and looking for OE spores. They also determined the proportion of milkweed leaves and uninfected butterflies that received spores through contact with infected adults.

They found that the fraction of monarchs infected as caterpillars increased from very low levels to nearly 100% over a period of five months. For monarchs that emerged initially as uninfected adults, 81% had acquired OE spores from infected adults by the end of the study period. They also found that the proportion of milkweed leaves receiving spores rose from zero to roughly 75% over that time.

“These seemingly minor or cryptic transmission routes can have really big effects on the rate at which parasites spread and their ability to persist in populations,” Altizer said. “This has implications for other species as well; ignoring transmission routes can underestimate the effects of a pathogen on host abundance and fitness.”

FRANKLIN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Study: Parental depression forecasts kids’ later physical health

By Allyson Mann tiny@uga.edu

When parents suffer from depression, kids may be at risk for physical health problems in young adulthood, according to a study from researchers including the University of Georgia’s Katherine Ehrlich.

The results revealed an association between parental depression and youth metabolic syndrome—a condition that forecasts substantially increased risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

“The good news is that while parental depression was associated with metabolic syndrome in young adulthood, we found that there were characteristics that served as protective factors,” said Ehrlich, lead author and assistant professor of psychology in the Franklin College of Arts and

Sciences. “The link was diminished for young adults who reported high levels of self-regulation and healthy lifestyles, important factors that shape physical health.”

Previous research has shown that exposure to an accumulation of adverse childhood experiences—like poverty, maltreatment and mental illness in the family—can have a lasting influence on adult physical health, particularly chronic diseases associated with aging, including diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and some cancers.

This study focused on whether chronic exposure to parental depression across adolescence was predictive of youths’ later metabolic syndrome, a cluster of interrelated metabolic abnormalities that includes high blood pressure and blood sugar.

The sample for this study was

taken from a larger sample of African American youths and their primary caregivers led by principal investigator Gene Brody, director of UGA’s Center for Family Research.

The subjects participated in 11 waves of data collection across childhood (ages 11-18) and into young adulthood. At age 25, 391 participants agreed to take part in a blood draw to assess young adult metabolic syndrome.

The team’s analyses revealed that parental depression in adolescence was associated with a composite score reflecting components of metabolic syndrome in early adulthood.

“It’s not just parental depression— it’s parental depression in the context of low self-regulation and unhealthy behaviors,” Ehrlich said. “All three variables are important.”

The philosophy and creative writing programs in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences will present a talk by David Heatley about his new book, Qualification: A Graphic Memoir in Twelve Steps. Open free to the public, the event will be held on Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. at Ciné in downtown Athens.

As a young man in a family battling with personal addictions, Heatley channels his experience in the shadow of multiple 12-step programs such as Overeaters Anonymous and Debtors Anonymous to portray his addiction to the programs themselves.

Qualification, divided into 12 chapters, mimics the jargon and epiphanies of the programs in revealing a compulsive desire to embrace nonexistent problems as a way to cope, conform and eventually recognize his own addiction to recovery programs.

UGA faculty members Aaron Meskin, head of the philosophy department, and Christopher Pizzino, associate professor of English, will join Heatley for a discussion, framing their questions for Heatley from the perspective of literature and from the perspective of philosophy, then inviting participation from the audience.

UGA School of Law tops University of Florida in courtroom competition

The University of Georgia School of Law recently defeated the University of Florida School of Law in the Florida/GeorgiaHulsey/Gambrell Moot Court Competition in Jacksonville, Florida.

Formerly known as the Hulsey-Kimbrell Moot Court Competition, this contest is traditionally held at the end of October on the eve of the Georgia-Florida football game. Two law students from each school compete as lawyers in a mock appellate case, and the victors in the case earn bragging rights and the championship trophy to keep at their law school for the year.

Representing the School of Law in the moot court competition were third-year law students Thomas Paris and Georgia Turner. This year’s win adds to UGA’s outstanding performances bringing its tournament record to 24-11-2.

This year’s judges were Senior U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. and U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood from the state of Georgia, U.S. District Court Judges Brian Davis and Marcia Morales Howard from the state of Florida and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Gerald Tjoflat.

Senior football place-kicker named semifinalist for 2019 Lou Groza Award

Georgia senior place-kicker Rodrigo Blankenship has been named one of 20 semifinalists for the 2019 Lou Groza Award, which is given to the nation’s top kicker.

Blankenship is the only three-time semifinalist included and one of three kickers from the Southeastern Conference on the list.

A native of Marietta, Blankenship is a former walk-on football player who earned a bachelor’s degree from UGA in 2018. A 2019 CBS Sports/ Athlon Midseason All-American, he has connected on a school record 185 consecutive PATs, which ranks second in SEC history. Thanks in large part to his contribution, Georgia leads the nation with 276 PATs in a row dating back to 2014.

Other honors already have begun to roll in for Blankenship. He has earned one of the National Football Foundation’s National Scholar Athlete Awards and is a finalist for the Campbell Trophy. He also is a semifinalist for the Wuerffel Trophy and a nominee for the Burlsworth Trophy.

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

Before the War: Photographs of Syria by Peter Aaron. Through Dec. 1. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

Beth Thompson, Photography. Through Dec. 1. Visitor Center, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6014. connicot@uga.edu.

The New South and The New Slavery: Convict Labor in Georgia.

Through Dec. 13. Hargrett Library Gallery, Special Collections Libraries. 706-542-6367. kdotson@uga.edu.

Creatures of the Night. Through Dec. 20. Atrium, Ecology Building. 706-542-7247. bethgav@uga.edu.

Growing Through Art: Athens Art Association Artists Celebrate Their Centennial Year. Through Dec. 22. Gardenside Room, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6014. connicot@uga.edu.

Moon Rocks! Through Dec. 24. Russell Gallery, Special Collections Libraries. 706-542-5788. washnock@uga.edu.

Now and Then: 1979. Through Dec. 24. Russell Gallery, Special Collections Libraries. 706-542-5788. washnock@uga.edu.

Mary Lee Bendolph: Quilted Memories. Through Dec. 29.

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

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

Beautiful and Brutal: Georgia Bulldogs Football, 2017.

Through Feb. 28. Rotunda Gallery, Special Collections Libraries.

706-542-6170. hasty@uga.edu.

Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship. Through March 15. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu. (See story, right.)

MONDAY, NOV. 18 UGA COMPOSITION AND MAKING DANCES PERFORMANCE UGA’s “Introduction to Music Composition” class will perform its collaboration with students from Lisa Yaconelli’s “Making Dances” class, along with Timera Temple (local dancer/choreographer), Jo Nichol (local dancer/choreographer) and Tess van Wagtendonk (Dance Forms). In addition to their pieces, they will also perform their other compositions that were created in the class. 7 p.m. Nimbl.

TUESDAY, NOV. 19 SEMINAR “Planar Signaling Mechanisms and Cell-Matrix Interactions Underlie the Collective Migration of Gastrula Cells,” Jason Jessen, Middle Tennessee State University. 11 a.m.

404A Biological Sciences Building.

SEMINAR “Imperfect Fixes: Costs of Adaptive Responses of Lizards and Frogs to Invasive Predators and Novel Noise,” Tracy Langkilde, Penn State University. A reception follows the seminar at 4:30 p.m. in the Ecology Building lobby. Host: Andy Davis.

3:30 p.m. Auditorium, Ecology Building. 706-542-7247. bethgav@uga.edu.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 20 BAND CONCERT Join the members of the UGA Steel Band, directed by Trevor Barroero, as they present an afternoon of steel band music.

The program will explore a diverse variety of genres ranging from traditional calypso tunes of Trinidad and Tobago, to original arrangements of popular songs by Michael Jackson and Christopher Cross, to Disney classics. 3:30 p.m.

Ramsey Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center.

UNIVERSITY COUNCIL MEETING 3:30 p.m. Tate Theatre, Tate Student Center. 706-542-6020.

SYMPOSIUM Brian Bledsoe, Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Resilient Infrastructure in the UGA College of Engineering, will lead a discussion on “Natural Infrastructure: Building a National Center of Excellence.” 4 p.m. River Basin Center. 706-583-0463. sarah.buckleitner@uga.edu.

MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Georgia Tech. $15. 7 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.

THURSDAY, NOV. 21 OPERATION SAFE DRIVE All University of Georgia students, faculty and staff are invited to have their vehicle inspected for free at the Tate Center Parking Deck during Transportation and Parking Services’ annual Operation Safe Drive event. 10 a.m. Tate Center Deck. (See Bulletin Board, page 8.)

SEMINAR “Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1: From Model Host to Industrial Applications,” Suvi Santala, Tampere University, Finland. 11 a.m.

404D Biological Sciences Building. khbrown@uga.edu.

SEMINAR Economics Seminar Series featuring Magne Mogstad, University of Chicago 3:30 p.m. C006 Benson Hall. roozbeh@uga.edu.

THIRD THURSDAY Seven of Athens’ established venues for visual art hold Third Thursday, an event devoted to art in the evening hours, on the third Thursday of every month. The Georgia Museum of Art, the Lamar Dodd School of Art, Lyndon House Arts Center, Glass Cube & Gallery@Hotel Indigo-Athens, Ciné, the Classic Center and ATHICA will be open from 6-9 p.m. to showcase their visual-arts programming. Full schedules are posted at 3Thurs.org.

Exhibition celebrates two centuries of craft

By Andrea Beatriz Giordano andrea.giordano@uga.edu

A generation ago, few people thought much of Georgia decorative arts, but 20 years of hard work by the Georgia Museum of Art have changed that mistaken impression.

As the largest state east of the Mississippi River, Georgia was historically a prominent market for American decorative products, but much of the furniture made there was shipped to wealthier urban areas in the northern U.S. British taste ruled in Georgia collections until collectors like Bill and Florence Griffin and dealer Deanne Deavours shifted the focus to native products.

The Georgia Museum of Art presented the first formal exhibition of Georgia decorative arts in 1975, and other museums in the state followed suit. In 2000, the museum opened the Henry D. Green Center for the Study of the Decorative Arts. The center organizes a symposium held every other year to present and publish research on the decorative arts that is among the best-attended events of its kind.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Green Center, the museum has organized the exhibition Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship, which will be on view through March 15. This exhibition takes a comprehensive look at Georgia’s diverse contributions to early decorative arts and summarizes the scholarship that has been done in the 20 years since the Green Center’s founding. 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. It will include the largest group of 18th-century pieces of Georgia furniture on view yet, demonstrating both cultural influences and regional style. The exhibition and its accompanying hardcover exhibition catalog, published by the museum and available in the Museum Shop, will present new scholarship, attributions and interpretations. It also reintroduces the museum’s silver collection in light of new findings and will put forward fresh material on political silver.

Recent discoveries show that, contrary to prior belief, silver was made in Georgia and its market affected national trends, social history and food culture.

Pottery is one of the best documented forms of applied art in Georgia, and the Green Center’s collection has grown into a broad and representative sampling. Material Georgia presents areas of the craft that have not been previously researched and

YOGA IN THE GALLERIES Enjoy a yoga class surrounded by works of art in the galleries. Led by instructors from Five Points Yoga, this program is free and open to both beginner and experienced yogis. Space is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis; tickets are available at the front desk starting at 5:15 p.m. Yoga mats provided. 6 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

PUBLIC DEBATE Richard B. Russell Library for Political Studies and the Georgia Debate Union present a debate between members of the Georgia Debate Union who will take up the challenges and opportunities of international cooperation in space. 7 p.m.

Auditorium, Special Collections Libraries. 706-542-5788. washnock@uga.edu.

CONCERT The UGA Germanic and Slavic studies department is partnering with the Goethe Institute and the American Association of Teachers of German to bring The Eddi Hüneke & Tobi Hebbelmann Duo to Athens for a concert. 7 p.m. Chapel.

706-542-3663. dibella@uga.edu.

FILM SCREENING The Road to Palmyra is a documentary in which BBC television presenter Dan Cruickshank and British photojournalist Don McCullin travel to Palmyra to learn about damage inflicted upon the ancient Syrian city. 2018, NR, 59 min. With an introduction and gallery tour of Before the War: Photographs of Syria

by Peter Aaron led by Ashlyn Parker Davis, art history graduate student and Daura Center intern. 7 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

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

FRIDAY, NOV. 22 LECTURE Robert Johansson, chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will be the guest speaker at the 35th annual J.W. Fanning Lecture. 10 a.m. Holiday Inn, Downtown Athens.

706-542-3705. eclance@uga.edu.

LECTURE Congressman Will Hurd will give a lecture. A former undercover CIA officer, entrepreneur and cybersecurity expert, Hurd is the U.S. representative for the 23rd Congressional District of Texas.

In Washington, D.C., he serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as vice chair of the Maritime and Border Security Subcommittee on the Committee for Homeland Security and as the chairman of the Information Technology

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 Nov. 18, 2019

4&5

Faculty Artist Series ends year with Nov. 25 concert

By Camille Hayes ceh822@uga.edu

Pieces such as this large chest with inlay from North Georgia, possibly Nacoochee Valley, will be on display as part of Material Georgia 1733-1900: Two Decades of Scholarship through March 15.

makes resonant historical connections. Notably, the exhibition features work by Lucius Jordan, Georgia’s earliest native-born prominent trained potter. It also includes significant textiles woven by yeoman women farmers, African-style baskets and portraits.

These categories of craft do not cover every part of Georgia decorative arts, but the exhibition contextualizes different media and objects within the state’s cultural history. As a whole, this exhibition shows how Georgia’s early decorative art is relevant to the region and to the nation.

“The great narrative of decorative arts is its social history; the foremost conditioner of their design is their utility,” said Dale Couch, curator of decorative arts. “These two factors alone provide major opportunities for study by numerous disciplines and bring a special educational opportunity to UGA.” Related events at the museum include a public tour with Couch on Dec. 3 at 2 p.m.; a holiday-themed Toddler Tuesday on Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. (space is limited; call 706-542-4883 or email madison.hogan@uga.edu to reserve a spot); a holidaythemed Family Day on Dec. 14 from 10 a.m. to noon; an Art Cart (After Class) on Dec. 18 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.; the 10th Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts: “Georgia Matters: Celebrating Two Decades of Scholarship,” at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 ($100–$325; save the date at 706-542-4199 or gmoa@uga.edu); and 90 Carlton: Winter, the museum’s quarterly reception, on Jan. 30 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. ($15, $10 for Friends of the Museum and Supporters, free for current members; galleries open until 8:30 p.m.). All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Subcommittee on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. 1 p.m. Auditorium, Special Collections Libraries.

706-542-6511. lbayne@uga.edu.

TOUR Join curator Jason Hasty for a closer look at Beautiful and Brutal: Georgia Bulldog Football, 2017 on the Friday before each home football game this season. Visitors will have a chance to share their own memories from 2017 and get hands-on with a selection of historic materials from the UGA Athletic Association archives. 3 p.m. Rotunda Gallery, Special Collections Libraries.

706-542-7123. hasty@uga.edu.

VOLLEYBALL vs. South Carolina. 7 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.

SATURDAY, NOV. 23 WORKSHOP Soap Making 102 focuses on using herbs and clays to design naturally colorful soap. Learn how to add herbs and clays as well as a few swirl and layering design techniques to add interest and botanical benefits to handmade soaps. $65.

2 p.m. Visitor Center, Classroom 2, State Botanical Garden.

706-542-6014. connicot@uga.edu.

FOOTBALL vs. Texas A&M. 3:30 p.m. Televised by CBS. Sanford Stadium.

SUNDAY, NOV. 24 VOLLEYBALL vs. Florida. Senior Day, American Girl Doll Day and Girl Scout Day. Noon. Stegeman Coliseum.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Villanova. $5. 6 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.

MONDAY, NOV. 25 TEGD RESEARCH IN PROGRESS: HAJDUK LAB Moderators: Melissa Sleda and Natalie Wilson. Advanced students, postdocs, technicians and PIs from CTEGD labs present “in progress” work and discuss preliminary data and ideas for collaboration. Questions and discussion are highly encouraged.

Refreshments are provided by CTEGD and the host lab.

8:30 a.m. 175 Coverdell Center.

LECTURE “Theatre of the Oppressed in the World: How Theatre Can Effect Change,” Julian Boal, co-founder and pedagogical coordinator, Escola de Teatro Popular, Rio de Janeiro. Boal is a teacher,

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music presents its final Faculty Artist Series concert of 2019 with a performance by cellist David Starkweather on Nov. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Ramsey Hall in the UGA Performing Arts Center.

Appearing with Starkweather will be faculty pianist Damon Denton and tenor and associate professor of music Gregory Broughton. The program includes music by 18th-century composer Louis Francoeur, a set of pieces titled “From Jewish Life”

by Ernest Bloch, three traditional African-American spirituals featuring Broughton and the monumental sonata for cello and piano by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

“The cello has an expressive quality that can find a poignant and touching character, and the melodies of this concert might easily make one think of the human voice, so it is fascinating and inspiring to collaborate with the fantastic tenor voice and expressiveness of Gregory Broughton,” said Starkweather.

The Francoeur piece is an arrangement for cello from a violin sonata, widely known among cellists for its brilliant and fast movement. The three pieces by Bloch, titled “Prayer,” “Supplication” and “Jewish Song,” form a soulful trilogy of Hebraic lament and expression.

The three spirituals sung by Broughton were arranged for tenor, cello and piano by Marvin Curtis.

“They provide a lovely setting for the rich combination of the tenor voice with cello in [their]

settings,” said Starkweather.

Audiences will recognize these famous spirituals, such as “Balm in Gilead.”

Ending the program will be the endearing cello sonata of Rachmaninoff, which was his last chamber work (1901) and one of the first results of successful hypnotherapy curing his three-year long inability to compose.

Tickets for the concerts are $12 for adults and $3 for students. They can be purchased by calling 706-542-4400, online at pac.uga.edu/event/facultyartist-david-starkweather-cello/ or at the box office prior to the concert.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra returns to Athens for Brahms, ‘Appalachian Spring’

By Bobby Tyler btyler@uga.edu

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra returns to UGA on Nov. 24 for a 3 p.m. performance in Hodgson Concert Hall with music director Robert Spano at the podium. Grammy Award-winning pianist Emanuel Ax joins the ASO to perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1. The program also includes Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” originally commissioned by dancer Martha Graham in 1944 and now one of classical music’s most beloved compositions.

Born in modern day Lvov, Poland, Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. He made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and in 1974 he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists followed four years later by the Avery Fisher Prize.

Since that time, Ax has performed with the world’s premier orchestras. He has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987, and he was honored with Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He also made a series of Grammywinning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Ax holds honorary doctorates of music from Skidmore College, Yale University and Columbia University.

Tickets for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert start at $55 and can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center box office, online at pac.uga.edu or by calling 706-542-4400. A limited number of discounted tickets are available to current UGA students for $10 with a valid UGA ID (limit one ticket per student). researcher and internationally active and world-renowned practitioner of Theatre of the Oppressed. 5:30 p.m.

Balcony Theatre, Fine Arts Building. kmcgover@gmail.com.

TUESDAY, NOV. 26 INNOVATION GATEWAY BLOOD DRIVE Each pint of blood collected can help save up to three lives and will touch the lives of so many more. These donations make an impact on people in this community and across the country.

8:30 a.m. 128/130 CAGTECH. hpierce@uga.edu.

706-542-0796.

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

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs. South Carolina-Upstate. $5. 7 p.m. Stegeman Coliseum.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 27 STUDENTS’ THANKSGIVING BREAK No classes. Through Nov. 29.

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.

Cellist David Starkweather will perform a variety of musical works at the last Faculty Artist Series concert of 2019.

Any additional information about the event may be sent directly to Columns. Email is preferred (columns@uga.edu), but materials can be mailed to Columns, Marketing & Communications, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Campus Mail 1999.

Emanuel Ax will join the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for a Nov. 24 performance at 3 p.m. in Hodgson Concert Hall.

A pre-performance talk will be given by Ken Meltzer, author of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s program notes and host of the weekly radio show Meet the Classics on Atlanta’s AM-1690. The talk begins at 2:15 p.m. in Ramsey Concert Hall and is open to the public.

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

THURSDAY, NOV. 28 THANKSGIVING HOLIDAYS Through Nov. 29. No classes; offices closed.

FRIDAY, NOV. 29 FACULTY PERSPECTIVES Featuring Jennifer Crenshaw, associate professor of art and area chair for fabric design. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

MONDAY, DEC. 2 SEMINAR Featuring Daniel Beiting, University of Pennsylvania. 8:30 a.m.

175 Coverdell Center.

COMING UP CLASSES END Dec. 4. For fall semester.

UGA STAFF COUNCIL MEETING Dec. 4. 2:30 p.m. 142 Tate Student Center.

NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES Dec. 11 (for Jan. 13 issue) Jan. 8 (for Jan. 21 issue) Jan. 15 (for Jan. 27 issue)

6 Nov. 18, 2019 columns.uga.edu

FACULTY PROFILE

NODA, the Association for Orientation, Transition and Retention in Higher Education, recently inducted UGA Vice President for Student Affairs Victor K. Wilson into its Circle of Excellence. NODA recognized Wilson Oct. 20 at its annual conference in Houston, Texas.

The Circle of Excellence honors individuals who have served in leadership roles on the state, regional and national levels, are individuals who have helped advance NODA’s mission within the field of higher education and have made significant contributions to the association and its Victor Wilson programs.

Over his career, Wilson has served in a number of leadership roles through NODA, including national president, vice president, board of directors member and as faculty for numerous NODA institutes.

Desiree Seponski has a passion for improving access to mental health care and its relationship to poverty.

Andrew Herod, Distinguished Research Professor of Geography, and Laura Meadows, director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, have been reappointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to the state of Georgia’s Complete Count Committee for the 2020 census.

The Complete Count Committee is a diverse, volunteer task force with members representing every region of Georgia. Originally appointed

by Gov. Nathan Deal in 2017, the 66-member committee has been charged to use its collective knowledge, expertise and influence to ensure that every resident of Georgia is counted in the upcoming federal, decennial census, which will occur on April 1.

In addition to being a faculty member in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and an adjunct faculty member in the School of Public and International Affairs, Herod has been District 8 commissioner for the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government since 2007.

As director of the Vinson Institute, a public service and outreach unit, Meadows coordinates the efforts of more than 150 employees who provide technical assistance, applied research, technology solutions, and training and development services to governments in Georgia and internationally. She also is an affiliated faculty member in the public administration and policy department of SPIA. Cynthia B. Dillard, the Mary Frances Early Professor of Teacher Education in the College of Education’s educational theory and practice department, was recently awarded the 2019 Taylor & Francis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Foundations of Education by the American Educational Studies Association.

Two of Dillard’s books, On Spiritual Strivings: Transforming an African American Woman’s Academic Life and Engaging Culture, Race and Spirituality: New Visions, were awarded the AESA Critics Choice Book Award in 2008 and 2014, respectively.

Cynthia Dillard AESA is a society comprised of college and university professors who teach and research in the field of education and focus within liberal arts disciplines such as history, politics and sociology.

Dillard delivered a lecture at AESA’s annual conference in Baltimore on Oct. 31 and was recognized at AESA’s awards ceremony on Nov. 2.

Kudos recognizes special contributions of staff, faculty and administrators in teaching, research and service. News items are limited to election into office of state, regional, national and international societies; major awards and prizes; and similarly notable accomplishments.

Dorothy Kozlowski

FACS faculty member studies links between poverty and mental health

By Cal Powell

jcpowell@uga.edu

Desiree Seponski hesitantly answered an ad for a nanny during her undergraduate years at Saint Mary’s College in Indiana.

It was a seemingly insignificant step that proved transformative.

“The couple had a beautiful marriage, and I was blown away to see people with so much kindness in their family,” Seponski said. “I thought, ‘I want to help people be like that.’ ” Growing up in an economically distressed, rural part of southern Indiana, Seponski said her time as a nanny not only broadened her idea of what healthy relationships look like, it established what would become a pattern in her life.

“I began saying yes to a lot of seemingly random opportunities,” she said.

An internship at Yale University would follow, and by the time Seponski landed in Athens for graduate work, her passion for improving access to mental health care and helping people strengthen their relationships had taken root.

Now an assistant professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences’ human development and family science department, Seponski conducts research that focuses on families who have experienced trauma and marginalization as well as culturally responsive family therapy.

The culture of poverty has a circular relationship with mental health issues, Seponski said, something she strives to address in her research.

“The biggest shock to my scholarship and even in my own personal life is the impact that poverty really does have

and is intertwined with mental health,” Seponski said. “So often we think we can treat somebody for anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc., but when you send them back into abject poverty where they have very little food or a safe place to sleep, therapy is going to help minimally, if at all.”

It’s a phenomenon Seponski has seen firsthand in her research in Cambodia, where she first ventured in 2008 as a graduate student on a study away tour that involved outreach to children orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Since then, she has made multiple trips to conduct research and outreach projects and has fallen in love with the people of the impoverished country in southeast Asia.

“The people are so resilient and kind,” she said. “It’s impossible to not see the poverty and corruption—it’s right in front of your face—but for me it was just amazing to see all the resilience and the continual desire to live life to the best of their ability.”

In addition to teaching courses on family therapy, Seponski serves as a clinical supervisor to doctoral students in the college’s marriage and family therapy program through the ASPIRE Clinic.

Here, students conduct therapy sessions with clients from the university and Athens community, gaining valuable real-world experience under trained and licensed practitioners like Seponski.

“I think it’s one of the campus’ biggest highlights,” Seponski said of the clinic, which offers free and reduced costs for a range of services including nutrition counseling, legal advice and financial planning.

Seponski, who previously served

FACTS Desiree Seponski

Assistant Professor College of Family and Consumer Sciences Ph.D., Child and Family Development/ Marriage and Family Therapy, University of Georgia, 2011 M.S., Child and Family Development/ Marriage and Family Therapy, University of Georgia, 2008 B.A., Psychology and Women’s Studies, Saint Mary’s College, 2004 At UGA: Six years

on the faculty of the University of Houston-Clear Lake, also co-directs a local refugee responsiveness team that gives students opportunities to engage directly with the refugee community through family wellness programs.

She also was recently voted president-elect of the International Family Therapy Association.

Through these avenues and others, Seponski said she’s energized by a desire to address systemic inequalities that make access to mental health services out of reach for so many people and for training the next generation of family therapy practitioners.

“Given everything that’s going on with our larger systems, whether it’s poverty or disagreements with political systems or structural discrimination, mental health issues are so treatable,” Seponski said. “If people had access and more people were trained in culturally responsive ways, what a difference that would make in our society.”

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, PUBLIC SERVICE AND OUTREACH

Food scientists, seafood specialist receive IAFP awards Two University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences food scientists and a seafood specialist with UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant have been presented awards of excellence from the International Association for Food Protection. Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus Larry Beuchat, professor Francisco Diez and public service faculty member Tori Stivers were recognized at the association’s 2019 annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.

Beuchat received the Maurice Weber Laboratorian Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the laboratory. The award also honors his commitment to the development of innovative and practical analytical approaches in support of food safety.

Beuchat is a world authority on the microbiology of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes; methods for detecting yeasts, molds and pathogenic bacteria in foods; metabolic injury of bacteria and fungi; relationships of water activity to microbial growth; antimicrobial compounds in foods; fermented foods; thermal resistance of mold ascospores; and food preservatives.

Diez and Stivers are two of four recipients of the IAFP Fellow Award, which is bestowed on professionals who have contributed to IAFP and its affiliates with distinction over an extended period of time.

Diez joined UGA in 2016 as director of the Center for Food Safety on the UGA Griffin campus. Diez has authored 95 peer-reviewed articles and

13 book chapters. His research focuses on the control of foodborne pathogens, low-water activity foods, the safety of organic foods and pathogens associated with fresh produce.

He serves on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods.

Stivers has served as Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s seafood and marketing specialist since 1987. She provides guidance and training to the seafood industry, helping businesses meet food safety regulations and ensuring that Georgia seafood is safe for consumers.

She is recognized for her service to IAFP, the Georgia Association for Food Protection and her contributions to seafood safety and communication.

columns.uga.edu Nov. 18, 2019

AGRICULTURE

7

from page 1

new technology.

“Today, we are faced with the challenge of feeding a world in which demand for food is expected to double. Feeding a growing world requires getting more yield out of each precious acre of land,” he also said.

Agriculture is Georgia’s largest industry.

According to UGA’s Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development, agriculture contributes more than $73 billion to the state economy, with row and forage crops injecting more than $11.5 billion. Cotton is planted on the most acres, but Georgia ranks No. 1 in the nation in the production of peanuts, pecans and blueberries. UGA’s outreach around precision a­ griculture techniques has played a big role in the state’s agricultural expansion.

“As we’ve seen technology progress at such a rapid pace, we’ve seen the University of Georgia’s role grow … as that unbiased third party that can help some of these growers feel comfortable using these technologies and not feel like it’s being pushed on them by industry,” said Wes Porter, UGA Cooperative Extension precision agriculture and irrigation specialist.

21st-century farming

The tools of precision agriculture include technologies like GPS guidance and soil sampling, sensors, robotics, drones, autonomous vehicles, variable rate technology, control systems, smartphone apps and software. From GPS guidance that accurately operates tractors planting and harvesting row crops, to soil moisture monitors and i­rrigation s­oftware that keep growers constantly informed about water application, precision technology has transformed modern agriculture.

“We’re all so accustomed to the technology, it would be incredibly challenging without it,” McLendon said.“Technology will never replace a farmer’s intimate knowledge of his land and his resources, but it allows us to prioritize and become better stewards of the land and our resources to be more efficient.”

Farming in the last quarter-century barely resembles what McLendon’s a­ ncestors did.

“It is mind-blowing to see how far agriculture has progressed,” said Calvin Perry, superintendent of UGA’s C.M. Stripling Irrigation Research Park in Camilla. “But I think of my grandfather who was plowing behind a mule and then saw GPS auto-steer guidance on tractors in his lifetime. Putting it in that perspective, yeah, we’ve come a ways, but some folks have seen even greater change.”

A spark from two students

Back in 1995, Stuart Pocknee and Broughton Boydell were beginning their doctoral and master’s degree programs, respectively, at

Peter Frey

George Vellidis (left) and graduate students Anna Orfanou and Dimitrios Pavlou fly one of the drones that their research team uses for quick assessment of the health of their crops over their research field at the Tifton campus.

UGA in the crop and soil sciences department.

Their thesis and dissertation—“The Management of Within-Field Soil Variability” by Pocknee and “Yield Mapping of Peanut: A First Stage in the D ­ evelopment of Precision Farming for Peanut” by B ­ oydell—weren’t just any grad student projects. Their studies launched UGA into the realm of precision agriculture.

They wanted to evaluate and measure the variability in fields and yields: soil properties, nutrient levels, everything that affects how a crop grows. Their professor, Craig Kvien, turned to colleagues George Vellidis (then an assistant professor) and Calvin Perry (a research engineer) for help with developing a peanut yield monitor.

“We didn’t have any tools to do that,” said Vellidis, now a professor in crop and soil sciences and director of academic programs at UGA’s Tifton campus. “That’s what got us into the research arena of precision ­agriculture—to try to develop these tools that would give these students the ability to do the research they wanted. And it just sort of exploded from there.”

UGA developed a patented peanut yield monitoring system and did similar research on cotton yield monitors. The university was also a pioneer in the development of variable-rate irrigation, helping bring that technology to market in the mid-2000s.

Keeping up with big data

The biggest growth area in precision agriculture is data acquisition and management. In the early days of floppy discs and unreliable radio transmission relays, getting

WEEKLY READER

Book introduces students to Plato’s Euthyphro

A Student Commentary on Plato’s Euthyphro Charles Platter University of Michigan Press Hardcover: $70 Paperback: $29.95

The Euthyphro is crucially important for understanding Plato’s presentation of the last days of Socrates, dramatized in four brief dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo.

In addition to narrating this evocative series of events in the life of Plato’s philosophical hero, the texts also can be read as reflecting how a wise man faces death. This particular dialogue contains Socrates’ vivid examination of the intentions of Euthyphro to prosecute his own father for murder and culminates in an attempt to understand holiness—a topic central both to Euthyphro’s justification of his actions and to the charge of impiety that Socrates faces before the Athenian court.

A Student’s Commentary on Plato’s Euthyphro is written by Charles Platter, a professor of classics in UGA’s Franklin College. It presents an introduction to the Euthyphro, the full Greek text and a commentary designed for undergraduates and selected graduate students. The volume is part of the series Michigan Classical Commentaries.

data from battery-hogging field monitors was a cumbersome chore that took substantial time and effort. Now, with computer chips linking monitors by cell signal, massive volumes of data can be uploaded directly to the internet in seconds.

All that data requires significant adjustments in the educational mission.

Harald Scherm, CAES plant pathology department head, worked with colleagues from multiple UGA departments to create a new graduate level Agricultural Data Science Certificate. The interdisciplinary program—which launched in 2018 with core courses focusing on data handling, quality control, data analysis and interpretation— is designed for graduate students in traditional agriculture and food science disciplines to become more literate in manipulating and analyzing large data sets that are generated by precision agriculture or crop modeling analytics.

“We’re not training computer scientists or statisticians but really people who can bridge the gap, in that they have the domain knowledge of agriculture and the kinds of data being generated,” Scherm said. “They’ll also have basic understanding of various analytical approaches that can be used to deal with these data and ultimately help interpret the data and put it in context.

“It’s a unique program and fits into the overall precision agriculture space. It’s a part of the puzzle,” he also said.

Working across boundaries

Changying “Charlie” Li, a professor of phenomics and plant robotics in the

College of Engineering, is focused on another growing area under the umbrella of precision agriculture: high-throughput phenotyping. Li is finishing a five-year U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative project on the mechanical harvesting of fresh-market blueberries and phenotyping technologies for blueberry mechanical harvestability selection.

Li also has led a National Robotics Initiative project on high-throughput phenotyping, developing robots and imaging technology in tandem with traditional biology techniques to noninvasively map observable characteristics, such as biomass, canopy architecture and yield. The technology could help breeders and geneticists, for example, enhance breeding efficiency and pinpoint genes responsible for stress tolerance and high yield. All these projects illustrate the diversity of disciplines needed to foster advancements in precision agriculture.

“We have to work across the boundaries and work with people in different disciplines,” Li said. “Electrical engineers, computer scientists, geneticists, horticulturalists, plant pathologists, economists, statisticians and geographers.”

To promote that kind of interdisciplinary work, UGA created a Phenomics and Plant Robotics Center in 2018, with 30 faculty members from four different schools and colleges and many different departments.

Eye on the future

UGA is adding faculty to assist in outreach and research with designs on restoring its place as the academic leader in precision agriculture. Everyone involved in precision agriculture at UGA, from Tifton to Athens, believes the next 10 to 20 years will see dramatic changes in automation and robotics as farmers maximize efficiency and production to become more sustainable.

Until the robots take over, McLendon is satisfied with the direction technology is moving and the many ways it’s already improved his way of life.

“You have an app on your phone you pull up [to monitor] your irrigation pivot wherever it is, and you can see where it’s pointed and how it’s watering, what the pressure is like and also receive text message alerts as to whether or not that pivot has shut down in the middle of the night,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times, before we started utilizing that technology, that we checked pivots at 8 o’clock right before we knock off for the day and it’s watering good, and you come back at 7 the next morning, and it’s about 10 yards from where you checked it. It’s still watering, wasting water, wasting energy, wasting everything—just for lack of technology monitoring.”

CYBERSIGHTS

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

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

Editor Juliett Dinkins

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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 Nov. 18, 2019 columns.uga.edu ASPIRE

from page 1

To date, 35 institutions have joined the Aspire Alliance IChange Network, which was launched earlier this year.

“Our participation in the Aspire Alliance Institutional Change Network reflects the University of Georgia’s commitment to expanding participation in STEM for underrepresented groups,” said Michelle Cook, vice provost for diversity and inclusion and strategic university initiatives. “Through this program, we have the opportunity to collaborate and learn from other IChange members while also sharing our expertise as we work to promote diversity in our faculty ranks.”

Participating universities begin their work with a self-assessment of current practices and assets. They then develop and implement action plans specific to their institutions and scale those efforts across their STEM programs.

UGA Foundation Distinguished

Professor of Chemistry Greg Robinson is the faculty lead on the project. He noted that the self-assessment process, combined with the sharing of best practices among the participating institutions, will help identify areas of strength as well as any opportunities for improvement.

“I am excited to participate in this effort by the University of Georgia and our IChange partners,” Robinson said. “Promoting and sustaining diversity at the faculty level in our colleges and universities remains a nationwide challenge.”

UGA’s participation in the Aspire Alliance complements several existing programs on campus that have broadened participation in STEM disciplines. In 2009, 24% of underrepresented minorities at the undergraduate level were pursuing STEM degrees.

Today, that figure is 34%. At the combined undergraduate and graduate levels, 29% of underrepresented minorities at UGA are

Greg Robinson, the UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, is the lead faculty member coordinating UGA’s participation in the Aspire Alliance IChange Network.

pursuing STEM degrees.

“The University of Georgia’s membership in the Aspire Alliance is part of our broad and sustained commitment to the interconnected goals of promoting diversity

PULLIAM from page 1 Dr. Mike Strand will hold the H.M. Pulliam Endowed Chair. His career has garnered many accolades including a NATO Fellowship in Science, D.W. Brooks Award for Research, Regents Professor and member of the National Academy of Sciences,” said CAES Dean and Director Sam Pardue. “His honor is emblematic of the research excellence he has maintained for decades. Ranked eighth in the world by Times of London’s Higher Education Center for World University Rankings, UGA’s department of entomology achieved this distinction because of the efforts of Mike Strand and his colleagues.”

and academic excellence,” said Provost S. Jack Hu. “We look forward to collaborating with our partners in the IChange Network as we seek new and innovative ways to expand participation in STEM education.”

BREAKFAST from page 1 Strand came to the university in 2001.

He holds an appointment in the entomology department in CAES and is a member of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and the Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases. His work as principal or co-principal investigator has generated more than $31 million in competitive extramural funding and has been published in the world’s most selective research journals, including Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Strand’s research has been cited at a level that places him in the top 1% of cited biologists. He has delivered invited seminars

Bulletin Board Holiday payroll reminder

In November, there will be normal pay schedules and deadlines, but employees paid monthly are reminded that the pay dates for November and December are on the last business day of the month and occur during UGA holidays: Nov. 29 and Dec. 31.

December payroll deadlines will be earlier for monthly and biweekly employees. For monthly employees, absences must be submitted and approved by Dec. 19. For biweekly employees, timesheets should be submitted and approved by Dec. 23 and will be paid on Jan. 3. Units may need biweekly employees to enter estimated time for Dec. 23-28 but employees clocking time can continue to use both Kaba and Webclocks.

Detailed payroll calendars for HR practitioners can be found at https://busfin.uga.edu/payroll/calendar/.

The end of year also brings the 360 hour calendar year-end annual leave limit. To ensure annual leave is not lost in error, monthly employee leave requests must be entered and approved by the Dec. 19 deadline, and biweekly employee requests by the Dec. 23 deadline. No action is needed to adjust balances over 360 hours; this will be an automatic process.

Innovation Fellows

Peter Frey

Applications are now open for the spring 2020 cohort of Innovation Fellows. This program aims to encourage UGA faculty and staff to pursue their interest in commercialization and product development. Fellows will be immersed in UGA’s innovation culture and be given time to explore the connection between their research ideas and industry. In addition, each Fellow will receive up to $10,000 to

facilitate customer discovery and build industry relationships.

A semester-long commitment, the Fellows program starts with a weeklong immersion in UGA’s Innovation Curriculum (based on NSF I-Corps) and then a minimum eight hours/week.

For more details or to apply by Dec. 1, visit https://bit.ly/32CVGLy.

Course reserve lists

The UGA Libraries is accepting course reserve lists for spring semester, which begins Jan. 7.

A free service provided by the UGA Libraries, course reserves ensure timely access to course-related journal articles and/or books. Requests submitted by the guarantee date will be completed by the first day of classes. For spring semester 2020, the guarantee date is Nov. 29.

Requests received after this date will be processed as quickly as possible, but their availability cannot be guaranteed by the start of classes.

Turn in the submission form at the circulation desks of any of the course reserves locations or fill out the form online at https://bit.ly/36OegTZ. For more information about the lists, contact Ben Lawrence, reserves coordinator for the Main Library, at 706-542-2081 or mainresv@uga.edu or Brenda Robbins, reserves supervisor for the Science Library, at sciresv@uga.edu or 706-542-4535.

Capturing Science deadline

The UGA Libraries and the Office of Research invite students to enter the Capturing Science Contest, a competition to encourage STEM engagement in innovative and interdisciplinary ways. The deadline for the contest is 5 p.m. on Dec. 2.

The contest, now in its third year,

and symposia in nearly every department of entomology in the United States, numerous universities in Europe, Asia and Australia and many international meetings.

Strand is an elected member of the ­National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Fellow of the Entomological Society of America. He is the recipient of the Entomological Society of America’s highest award in physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology and has also received the Brooks Award, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ highest recognition for research.

offers two prize categories: one for undergraduates and another for graduate students. Within each category, first place wins $1,000, second place receives $350 and third place earns $150. Submissions will be evaluated according to their clarity of expression, creativity and appeal to a broad audience. Group projects and multiple submissions are acceptable. Winners will be announced in January 2020.

Visit guides.libs.uga.edu/ capturingscience for contest rules, previous winners and all past submissions. The contest site also includes commentary from contest judges explaining how previous winning entries exemplified the spirit of the contest.

For any questions, contact Chandler Christoffel at christof@uga.edu.

Operation Safe Drive

All UGA students, staff and faculty are invited to take part in Operation Safe Drive on Nov. 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Tate Student Center Parking Deck.

During the event, mechanics from UGA Transportation and Parking Services will top off fluids, check belts and wiper blades, pressurize tires and do a quick visual inspection of vehicles free of charge. The UGA Office of Sustainability, in partnership with Bike Athens, will offer free bicycle safety inspections and tuneups.

While waiting, enjoy a beverage provided by Campus Catering and learn some tips about transportation safety on campus and beyond, presented by Watch for Dawgs.

University Woman’s Club

The University Woman’s Club will hold its holiday luncheon, “Be a Light,” Dec. 3 at 11 a.m. at the Athens Country Club, 2700 Jefferson Road.

1987, both from the University of Georgia.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast honors the legacy of the late civil rights leader and recognizes local community members dedicated to contributing to race relations, justice and human rights with the President’s Fulfilling the Dream Award.

Tickets are $25 for individuals, or $200 for a table of eight, and are available for purchase online at https://bit.ly/2NAcRsO. Tickets will not be sold the day of the event, and initial ticket sales are limited to one table.

To request additional tables, email Sonya Sinkfield-Dixon at diverse@uga.edu.

The deadline to purchase tickets, which are required for admission, is Nov. 22. Contact Pat Davis, assistant treasurer, by phone (334-318-1451) or email (patd4427@gmail.com) for ticket information. Contact Diana HubenyMcCall by phone (248-417-7533) or email (diana.mccall@gmail.com) by Nov. 22 about dietary restrictions.

The UWC’s next general meeting will be held Jan. 14 in the Fellowship Hall of Alps Road Presbyterian Church, 380 Alps Road.

Guest speaker for the program, which will begin at 11:30 a.m., is Charlotte Marshall, local historian and author. She will give a talk titled “Memorable Characters from Athens’ Past.”

Holiday pottery sale

The UGA Ceramic Student Organization will hold its annual holiday pottery sale Dec. 3-4 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the first-floor lobby of the Lamar Dodd School of Art, which is located at 270 River Road.

Work on sale will include handbuilt sculpture as well as functional pottery: mugs, plates, vases, lidded boxes and bowls. All work was made by ceramic students or faculty. Prices will range from $8 and up.

Proceeds from the ceramic sale will support student educational field trips to ceramic conferences and bring visiting artists to campus.

By-the-hour parking is available at the Performing Arts Parking Deck, which is located next to the Performing Arts Center on River Road.

For further information, contact Ted Saupe, professor of art and area chair for ceramics, at tsaupe@uga.edu.

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