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Research on common bacterium opens door to fighting gastric cancers RESEARCH NEWS
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Performing Arts Center to present Artrageous mix of art, music, choreography
November 7, 2016
Vol. 44, No. 16
columns.uga.edu
UGA GUIDE
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$1.3M grant from NIH will be used for new statistical tools By Jessica Luton jluton@uga.edu
UGA’s Ping Ma will use a new grant to crunch big data numbers, which is not uncommon for a statistics professor. What is unusual is that his work may help save lives. Ma has been awarded $1.3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health to develop statistical tools to further clarify the causes of many diseases, including cancer, heart disease and agingrelated illnesses. Over four years, Ma and his team of researchers will look at something known as small RNAs, hoping to unravel their regulatory role on abnormal variations in genetic transcription. Present in all living cells, RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is incredibly
President Jere W. Morehead with students before the Presidents Club Reception.
Going public
Commit to Georgia Campaign will launch Nov. 10 with campus celebration By Elizabeth Elmore eelmore@uga.edu
The University of Georgia is embarking on the most ambitious fundraising campaign in its history. Over the past four years, during what is referred to as the quiet phase, more than $650 million has been raised, funding 48 endowed faculty positions, providing more than 25,000 individual scholarships and supporting facilities such as the Veterinary Medical Center, Delta Hall, the Business Learning Community and the Indoor Athletic Facility. This success is just the b eginning. On Nov. 10, the university will launch the public phase of the Commit to Georgia Campaign with a kickoff celebration in Tate Grand Hall from noon to 2 p.m. The purpose of the event is to thank the UGA community for its unyielding support during the quiet phase and to build excitement around the priorities
of the campaign moving forward. The public phase of the campaign is focused on three priorities: • Opening Doors and Removing Financial Barriers. The top priority is to raise private support for scholarships and need-based aid to ensure that all academically qualified students—regardless of their financial background—have access to a UGA education. • Enhancing the Learning Environment. The goal of this priority is to prepare UGA graduates to lead in their careers and serve in their communities by expanding experiential learning opportunities and student-faculty mentorship and enhancing academic facilities. •Solving Grand Challenges. The third priority illustrates UGA’s commitment to advancing the state of Georgia and the state of the world by increasing See CAMPAIGN on page 8
DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS
important in the human body. Small RNA primarily acts as a messenger for DNA and regulates various biological processes. Ma, a professor in the statistics department of UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is lead investigator on the project. He will work to analyze big data sets that contain biomedical information on various diseases and create smart algorithms. His goal is to allow researchers to accurately analyze large sets of data without the need for expensive supercomputers. “Multiple interconnected research programs for tackling the challenge of big data have been actively pursued by my lab,” he said. “An example of exciting progress, achieved through a collaborative See GRANT on page 8
CELEBRATING OUR ETHICAL CULTURE WEEK
Internal Auditing Division promotes ethical culture By Krista Richmond krichmond@uga.edu
Financial wrongdoing that led to the termination of three employees. The misrepresentation of a home address by a student to qualify for in-state tuition that led to an investigation by the UGA Police Department. The falsification of work hours by employees that led to stronger monitoring by department managers. These are all examples of investigations UGA’s Internal Auditing Division has completed. According to Matthew Whitley, the division’s director, a little bit of prevention can go a long way to stop infractions before
they happen. To help promote an ethical culture on campus and raise awareness about ethics resources available at UGA, the division is hosting Celebrating Our Ethical Culture Week Nov. 14-18 in conjunction with the University System of Georgia’s International Fraud Awareness Week. “People think we are in the business of catching fraudsters, but really our hope is to educate and prevent fraud,” said Whitley. “We’d much rather prevent fraud and educate people about how to create an ethical culture so that we don’t have to deal with the aftermath.” The highlight of Celebrating
See CULTURE on page 8
A new home base: Student veterans bring OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL DIVERSITY range of backgrounds, experiences to UGA Freedom Breakfast features By Aaron Hale
keynote from Atlanta pastor
Undergraduate Jamal Shelton spent most of his military career performing the difficult, but necessary, task of handling the remains of U.S. Marines killed in service. Shelton, who plans to apply to the Terry College of Business, spent much of his time in the Marine Corps’ Mortuary Affairs unit in Marietta. But he also did a tour in Afghanistan. His unit handled the evacuation and receiving of remains of fallen service members in Afghanistan before they were returned to their families at Dover Air Force Base. “The job was probably one of
By Matt Chambers
aahale@uga.edu
mattdc@uga.edu
Dorothy Kozlowski
UGA has programs in place to help student veterans, such as Jamal Shelton and Maria Munoz, transition to campus.
the most respectable and honorable things that I will ever do in my life,” Shelton said. “I was proud to be that buffer—that first line in the long process of giving the fallen hero a
proper burial.” Shelton is one of about 250 student veterans who bring a range of backgrounds and See VETERANS on page 8
The Rev. Raphael Gamaliel Warnock, senior pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, will give the keynote address for the 14th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast Jan. 13 at 7:30 a.m. in the Grand Hall of the Tate Student Center. Sponsored by UGA, the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government and the Clarke County School District, the MLK Freedom Breakfast commemorates the life of the late civil rights
leader. This year’s theme is “The Power of the Dream: Inspiring a Nation from the Pulpit.” “The university is extremely proud Rev. Warnock to host the Rev. Raphael Warnock for our Martin Luther King Jr. F reedom Breakfast,” said M ichelle Garfield Cook, associate provost and chief diversity officer. See BREAKFAST on page 2