The University of Georgia
Graduate
Fall 2006
Vo l u m e 2 Number 2
School
M A G A Z I N E
paying forward 2
switching off cancer 6 it’s too tragic to outgrow magic 14 the man who loves questions 17 la dolce vita in cortona 20 don’t swat that fly! 22
T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F G E O R G I A G R A D U AT E S C H O O L N E W S & H I G H L I G H T S
DEAN’S LETTER
M e s s a g e f ro m D e a n M a u re e n G r a s s o
Fall traditionally means the beginning of a new school year and the changing of
NANCY EVELYN
leaves. It is also a time of homecoming and reconnecting with our roots. Why not reconnect with UGA by making a gift to the Graduate School? A donation to graduate education enables the Graduate School to assist students in all departments at UGA, regardless of their degree or discipline. Your gift helps us recruit the best graduate students and faculty and provides resources for our current students. The Graduate School needs you to be the bridge between what we can offer today and what we can accomplish tomorrow. Let this fall be a time to give back so that others can move forward from every corner of our campus.
COVER: Eladio Abreu sees hope for a cancer cure.
Financial commitments from alumni and friends really do make a difference to graduate students. In this issue of the Graduate School Magazine we share stories of artists, researchers and students, all of whom epitomize the concepts of self-actualization and self-determination—and who have benefited from the benevolence of others. Their drive to achieve influences their work and our future. Eladio Abreu chose graduate school over medical school, and his cancer research holds much promise for generations to come. Brian Snyder counts his parents and his faculty mentor as influencing his study of the evolution of behavior, which he certainly believes will have significance beyond his life. Donna Leigh Jackins repurposes fabric to create magnificent tapestries, disparate elements melding to produce wonderful results. Eladio, Brian and Donna Leigh are engaged in work that will last long after they are gone. How many of us can say that? Actually, all of us, by supporting graduate education. Gifts made to the University of Georgia Graduate School are not disposable actions; they represent a most important form of recycling. What we give now in the form of fellowships, funds and scholarships, returns to us, to our children and to our children’s children. Financial commitments provide tangible links to further research that must be pursued for diseases to be eradicated, for behaviors to be understood and for lives to be improved. Our Graduate Education Advancement Board members, made up of alumni and friends of the Graduate School, recently endowed a fellowship. Their collective commitment will have a positive impact on many, many students to come, because it represents a financial foundation on which the Graduate School can build. I ask that you, too, consider a gift that will become part of a legacy in the learning cycle. Plant the seeds for future students to flourish in their graduate studies.
Photo by Nancy Evelyn
We’d love to hear from you this fall,
MAUREEN GRASSO Dean
FA L L CONTENTS T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F G E O R G I A G R A D U AT E S C H O O L N E W S & H I G H L I G H T S
2
6 10 features Graduate School Administration Maureen Grasso Dean Craig Edelbrock
2 Sheryl Sellaway Sellaway is purposeful and passionate
sculptor Giambologna.
22 Scholars for Tomorrow Brian Snyder: A man, a plan, a fly—
arenas of her full life.
learn how Brian Snyder decodes the
6 Eladio Abreu
Outreach and Diversity
might one day flip the off-switch on cancer.
Krista Haynes
in every issue
Admissions
mysteries of the sexes.
24 In Brief back cover Last Word Bank on a good education and you’re forever enriched.
10, 14 Generations
Lollie Hoots
Hardy Edwards speaks on dreams large
Communications
enough, and time.
Development
Tuscany—see how an art historian pursues
partnership that spills over into both
Meet a young cancer researcher who
Elisabeth Butler
Shannon Pritchard: Once upon a time in
the Graduate School have forged a
Assistant Dean
Enrolled Student Services
20 Ones to Watch
about her vocation and avocation. She and
Associate Dean Michael Johnson
20
Artist Donna Leigh Jackins composes her creative life like a great pizza maker. Only the freshest ingredients will do.
David Knox Information Technology
17 Where Are They Now? Michael Bunch: Why you don’t want to play Jeopardy with this guy.
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
1
NANCY EVELYN
S H E RY L S E L L A W AY
Pa y i n g i t Fo r w a r d I N L E A D E R S H I P, DA R I N G
As an Emblem of Achievement
Living with Intention: A High Sense of Purpose Exemplifies this Executive On a cloudless morning in Alpharetta, Georgia, sunlight reflects off the pond behind the wooded South Area headquarters of Verizon Wireless. Hundreds of employees bustle through the corporate buildings connected by walking trails. Meanwhile Sheryl Sellaway has been in an upstairs corner office for hours. She takes a daily run and breakfasts before others hit the snooze button on their alarm. After downing a smoothie, she is off to work. “That’s my routine,” she says. “By the time I get to work I’ve been up at least three hours.”
I
T I S A N I N T E N S E work environment. Given Verizon’s market dominance and her 18 years of telecommunications experience, Sellaway has a turbo-charged career. She is based at the Alpharetta business campus. Yet she devotes much of her time to the company’s South Area efforts, representing her company as a spokesperson. Sellaway does not usually give interviews; instead, she directs them. She oversees media, public relations,
and executive and employee communications for the nation’s second largest wireless carrier. The company’s record growth in 15 consecutive profitable quarters shows; the offices are sleekly minimal with gleaming granite and architectural refinements. Sellaway, too, is sleek, entering a Verizon Wireless conference room wearing a dark blue pantsuit and pearls. Smiling easily she introduces visitors and offers bottled water. She
speaks softly. “My rule is, you don’t yell unless the building’s on fire,” she says. “I don’t believe in handling things that way.” Most astonishingly, the next thing Sellaway does is turn off an incessantly ringing Blackberry. “Wireless technology is great,” she says firmly. “But I’m trying to live in the moment and trying to be attentive to you.” She places the phone on the glossy conference table. “Our CEO (Dennis F. Strigl)
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
3
weather. But opportunities presented themselves elsewhere. Since graduation, all of the jobs she has held were newly created. “I know it’s unusual, but all of the jobs I’ve held I was the first one in the chair,” she says.
Carving Out Private Time in a Public Life
challenges us to communicate person-to-person,” she explains.
Eyes Wide Open – and Seldom Shut
Sellaway says she cannot think of a time when she was bored. She is both a night owl and a morning person. “I’m not a big sleeper,” she admits. Sellaway is determined to make a difference in the world. She started working when she was 11, helping in her mother’s Savannah retail business. Sellaway credits her mother with teaching her to become a self-starter—to recognize and fill a need without being asked. Sellaway graduated from high school a year early and was on her own by age 17. To make ends meet, she had a fulltime manufacturing job and numerous part-time jobs during college and by her senior year, she was working for Nortel. The
4
company paid for her last year of undergraduate school. “I’m always striving to improve and grow,” she says. Sellaway calls herself a “structured creative,” who does not waste time and likes working for a performance-based company. “I enjoy what I do. Mainly because I believe that we offer a reliable service and a product that most people use in their personal lives, for business and especially in emergency situations. Our company’s focus on network reliability, customer service and best products and services really does resonate with our customers and that makes me feel good about the work I do every day. It really is a 24/7 business.” She also describes herself as an introvert who adapts to extroverted jobs. As a journalism and communications major, Sellaway once intended to become a disc jockey and deliver the news or
Sellaway devours books of all kinds. She reads the Bible daily and rereads childhood books such as The Wizard of Oz. “That was my favorite book. Oz is about adventures along the way—the yellow brick road.” She mentions that the book From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basel E. Frankweiler is also about the “wonderment of going to another place.” Sellaway knows a bit about going places, having jetted to a variety of places with her work. “And I have the battered luggage to prove it,” she adds. In her private life, Sellaway enjoys peace and quiet, reading, writing, pen collecting, running, doing community service work, live theater, second run movies and other pursuits. Each Wednesday for the past two years, Sellaway takes piano lessons. Sellaway is often “on” even during her off time. Her belief system is predicated in action. She mentions the “shadow of the leader” concept, a guiding principle at her workplace, and discusses how it extends to her social involvements. She mentors young people as a matter of course at her alma mater and is teaching a student to drive and to handle a budget. “I believe you can’t receive with your hands closed,” she says.
Sellaway especially seeks out mentoring opportunities with young college women. Sellaway recalls leading a multi-cultural conference at the Graduate School last year. “I was in my element,” she explains. “I feel it’s very important to give back.” Sellaway encourages constructive habits like establishing a savings account, self-improvement and self-reliance, with a college education at the top of the list. She meets several young students regularly. Together they chart progression toward their goals. “The community service work I feel most passionate about is domestic violence awareness and prevention, our company’s key community thrust. The fact that we can use our company’s wireless products and services to help domestic violence survivors rebuild their lives is certainly a lifeline that we don’t take for granted. And, we provide grants to nonprofits with
Sheryl Sellaway, public relations executive at Verizon Wireless and a Graduate Education Advancement Board member, “is one of the reasons you’re holding this magazine in your hands,” says Dean Maureen Grasso.
proceeds from the company’s phone recycling program, Hope Line. It really does help us focus on domestic violence and related issues such as child abuse, elder abuse and dating violence.” In addition to serving on the board of Partnership Against Domestic Violence, the largest domestic violence agency in Georgia, Sellaway is involved with other organizations that help prevent domestic violence. Verizon’s imprint is branded on Georgia; Sheryl Sellaway’s is as well, and it is easy to see that the people here are better for it. G
EDITOR’S NOTE: Cell phones can be recycled at any Verizon Wireless location for the benefit of Hope Line’s programs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Through the combined sponsorship of Verizon Wireless and printer Pictorial Offset, based in Carlstadt, New Jersey, the Graduate School Magazine publishes twice annually. Sellaway championed the publication from its inception a year ago after seeing the premier issue last fall. That is not the extent of Sellaway’s support, or Verizon’s. In addition to the publication, Verizon Wireless sponsors this and other Graduate School events such as the multicultural conference. Grasso says, “Verizon’s presence here and Sheryl’s personal contributions are enormous. Given her level of commitment, you would guess Sheryl has a personal connection with this campus. We would surely like to claim her as a dawg, though.” The Georgia native isn’t a University of Georgia alumna – Sellaway obtained degrees from Georgia State University and Amber University in Texas. “I do feel like an honorary graduate of UGA,” Sellaway says, “because of Dean Grasso and the way they’ve embraced the board members. To make a difference in the student’s life, is something that matters to me.” Her first trip to UGA was memorable. “The buildings, the trees…it’s just beautiful. I was even more amazed by the love students, faculty and administrators have for the school. Students are wearing UGA attire and they’re excited just to be there – you can feel it. And UGA has one of the strongest alumni programs I’ve ever seen. It’s almost like a family connection.” Sellaway chuckles. “The water definitely runs red in Athens, doesn’t it?”
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
5
COVER STORY
E l a d i o A b re u i s a
YOUNG SCIENTIST
NANCY EVELYN
on the VERGE
6
Numbers of gifted students eschew research work in favor of medical school. Not so, for graduate student Eladio Abreu, who broke ranks owing to the guiding intervention of supportive University of Georgia scientists and the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Accompanied by Rebecca Terns (one of his two UGA thesis advisors), Abreu presented his lab’s work at the Annual RNA Meeting in Seattle last June. The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Graduate School provided funding for him to attend the Seattle conference. “Scientists of every rank, members of the National Academy of Sciences and graduate students alike commented on the clarity of Eladio’s presentation, his scientific knowledge and poise (as well as the work)” says Terns. “Eladio is on the path to be a leader in the field of biomedical research and we believe that he has the potential to make that happen.” Abreu is currently in his second year of graduate studies.
Y
O U N G, D I S C I P L I N E D A N D
A C A D E M I C A L LY G I F T E D,
Eladio Abreu faced the summer of 2004 with a decision to make. Abreu is a member of the “millennial generation,” a group typified by drive and idealism. He loved science and planned on graduate school, but two questions remained: Where and to what purpose? He considered, like many of his fellow graduates at Morehouse College in Atlanta, proceeding to medical school and becoming a physician. With his propensity for science, it was a good default decision. Yet something essential bothered Abreu who doubted his motivation to become a physician. “If somebody were to ask why, I didn’t really have an answer.” At best, Abreu reasoned, he did not have sufficient rationale for going to medical school—not one
that resonated on a deeper level. The prestige and achievement the decision symbolized was certain, but for the son of professionals (his father works in the corrections system, and his mother is a nurse) the thought of achievement without social consciousness was empty. His family values had stressed a social awareness: “paying forward” is something the Abreus taught. “I feel that I have a responsibility not only to myself, but my family, my people and all those around me to earn all the blessings I have already received and get to a position where I can help others elevate themselves,” Abreu explains. No question: Abreu was at a crossroads. Then he met two UGA professors, Jonathan Arnold (who oversees the NSF Undergraduate Research Experience) and David Logan, co-investigators for the Fungal Genomics and
Computational Biology project. Arnold and his colleague, Logan, reach out to students at Morehouse and other schools to acquaint them with UGA’s programs. They engage the students in four weeks of a shared research experience, and then pair them with a mentor. The professors introduced Abreu to his new mentors, the Terns. Abreu’s destiny began to unfold.
Perhaps Abreu had been seeking a mentor since leaving a parochial New York school in 1999—one that understood his interest in developing his mind over athletic abilities. Before leaving Queens, Abreu’s family had talked about moving south for years. They fondly recalled their native North Carolina. After deliberation, they chose Atlanta instead. “We found our own little slice of happiness in Georgia,” he says.
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cancer. The big C. The word connotes such dread no one likes saying it aloud. But hope lies inside a laboratory in UGA’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, where a young researcher works alongside principal investigators Michael and Rebecca Terns to help relieve such dread. They’re conducting breakthrough research directed at the heart of cancer prevention. The husband and wife’s research centers upon the enzyme telomerase. “It is,” Rebecca Terns stresses, “a very challenging enzyme to study.” The enzyme telomerase interests researchers worldwide for its implications in cancer therapies. The National Cancer Institute defines cancer as a group of diseases in which abnormal cells divide uncontrollably; an ability ironically described as making cells “immortal.” Telomerase enables this uncontrolled cellular division that defines cancer. Cancerous cells are the ultimate stealth invaders: Once active, they can spread throughout the body via the lymphatic system and blood stream. There are many types of cancer that originate in various parts of the body: skin, tissue, fat, blood vessels, bone and bone marrow and even the immune system. Despite their diverse origins, they share a common ability—to evade the systems that normally limit the number of times a cell can divide. Telomerase allows this evasion. Think of telomerase as a cellular relay switch, enabling cancerous cells to continue their deadly progression. More than 90 percent of cancers of all origins have “switched on” telomerase. Researchers hope to find ways to turn off telomerase with anti-telomerase chemotherapies. However, doing this has been incredibly difficult, in part because the enzyme itself is difficult to study, let alone to subdue. There are very few molecules per cell. “Our lab was able to develop methods to visualize both the RNA and protein molecules that form the core of the enzyme,” explains Rebecca Terns. (The core is known as telomerase RNA and telomerase reverse transcriptase, or TERT.) The Terns focus on the intracellular trafficking and assembly of the enzyme. Meanwhile, their protégé, Abreu, becomes increasingly involved in the process.
Aspects of the move were less than ideal. He arrived in North Cobb as a high school student. “My parents never forced me to do anything,” Abreu says. “They only pushed me to do well in school, and to be sure that I was going somewhere.” Abreu felt it was a good move for him, but recalls that there was friction for him at the new school. His northern school had stressed academics. At his new high school, Abreu felt pressured into sports at
8
the expense of academics. Abreu pushed back. The scholar/athlete told a high school coach that advanced-placement biology and calculus would better serve his future than sports. He told himself, “I’ll prove to them why I’m here.” He abruptly quit football with his parents’ support. “My father was an athlete, but he was always supportive. He said, ‘You’re not me.’ He always wanted my life and the path I travel through it to be better than his own. … The
bottom line is that he is proud to have me as his son, not his clone, and he is behind any decision that is best for me,” says Abreu. “My parents are the only people I have known to be totally selfless toward not only their children, but everyone around them. Their deep moral and ethical values have and will always guide their actions, and they work harder than anyone I know.” Abreu’s scholarship offers poured in upon graduation. “I was able to decide who I was and what I
was going to be.” One of his favorite TV programs, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” interested him in forensics. Abreu suddenly realized that it could be very cool (USA Today reported that the drama ushered in an era of “geek chic”) to be a forensics expert or another type of scientist. Abreu was accepted at UGA’s undergraduate school, but instead accepted a full scholarship at Morehouse College in Atlanta, intent upon going to medical school or into research afterwards. His interest in biology waned, and at one point, Abreu came close to losing his scholarship. In order to keep it, he had to shoulder a heavy load and maintain a perfect average. He did. Armed with the confidence that he could do anything he wanted, Abreu completed school recharged. Many of his Morehouse professors lamented the lack of minority research scientists and researchers. Abreu began thinking about a career in research. By the end of his sophomore year, Arnold and Logan contacted him about the research experience for undergraduates. Once Abreu saw the lab, he was ready to sign up. When Abreu arrived in Athens two summers ago, he still did not know what he wanted to do. Medical school remained a possibility. He worked with a group research project, but it was something he could not imagine doing for five years of graduate study. Then Abreu attended a talk by Michael Terns concerning his work with novel RNAs like
telomerase. Telomerase, a kind of cellular relay switch, enables the uncontrolled cellular division that defines cancer. When Terns said, “Many of us know RNA as the messenger that makes a copy of the gene. Telomerase RNA is different,” Abreu’s ears pricked up. And with that, a research scientist was born.
--------------------------------ABOUT CANCER As a group of diseases, cancers vary in origin, cause, symptomology, treatment and cure. However, their hallmark is ungoverned cell growth. Physicians classify how the cancer has advanced or spread by “staging” it from Stage 1 to Stage 4. Stage 1 means there is no lymph node involvement, and it has not spread
Abreu will graduate in 2010 or 11. “I know I want to go into cancer research, either in a clinical or industrial setting. Maybe in academics.” Ten years from now, he says he hopes to be “leading research in my field in an industrial or academic setting.” In 20 years, he plans to be teaching at a small liberal arts college. When he stands at the mirror, Abreu tells himself he wants to give back. “Minority students ask where would I be if not for my alma mater? I don’t know if others look at theirs and ask this. But I do.” Eladio Abreu has found a purpose large enough to fit his ideals —one that just might flip the switch on cancer. G
from its place of origin (metastases). Stage 4 refers to cancer with lymph node involvement and other metastases. FACTS: + 5.3 million new cases of cancer and
3.5 million cancer deaths were reported worldwide in 2000. + While cancer affects all races and
all ages of people, nearly 80 percent of cancers occur at age 55 and beyond. + U.S. males have a 1 in 2 probability
of a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. + U.S. females have a 1 in 3 probability
of developing cancer. (Sources: The International Agency for Research on Cancer and NYT Guide to Knowledge)
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is the nation’s leading agency for cancer research and a partner with
POSTSCRIPT: Abreu was recently awarded a
private and nonprofit organizations.
Research Supplement by the National Cancer
NCI provides free cancer information
Institute “to support his work in our lab,”
services with answers to questions,
according to Rebecca Terns.
prevention information, materials and resources. Specialists provide the latest information by telephone and e-mail. For further information call, 800-4-CANCER (800-422-6237) or visit www.cancer.gov.
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
9
DOT PAUL DOT PAUL
1
The Aptly Named
HARDY
E D WA R D S
Fueled by
Soldiers on, THE POWER of B I G I D E A S
The same year poultry scientist Hardy Edwards received his doctorate from Cornell University, Francis Crick and James D. Watson published their seminal work on DNA. President Truman
NOW AND THEN.1953 was quite a
announced the hydrogen bomb’s development, and Albert
y e a r ! Scientists and historians were busy. Elizabeth II was crowned, President
Schweitzer snared the Nobel Prize. It was 1953; in a few years Edwards
Dwight Eisenhower took office, England’s
made his own mark as one of the nation’s foremost avian research
future prime minister Tony Blair was born
scientists. Honored by international research institutions and foreign
and Joseph Stalin died.
governments, Edwards was awarded four patents. By age 42 he
The Korean War ended and Sir Edmund
became the youngest academic dean at the University of Georgia.
Hillary scaled Mount Everest. The Chevrolet Corvette roared off the production line as Ian Fleming’s James
When Edwards moved to Athens in 1957, dairy and poultry farms were right on campus, an ideal situation for a man who saw infinite research possibilities in commonplace animals.
Bond novels debuted. Black and white became passé; the first color televisions (retail price: $1,100) hit stores. Meanwhile, emerging young scientist Hardy E d w a r d s received his doctorate at Cornell University and would soon make his mark at the University of Georgia.
D
last summer, Hardy Edwards baled hay on his 170-acre farm near Winterville. Back at his campus office, the scrappy professor shrugs off the idea of retirement at age 76. The crease in his pressed khaki pants is as sharp as his gray eyes, which narrow at the word. As far as Edwards is concerned, 50 years of work is not enough. As a professor in the poultry sciences department and U R I N G A B RU TA L H E AT WAV E
At left, Dr. Hardy M. Edwards, Jr., Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor of Poultry Science and Animal Nutrition
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
11
sometimes a farmer, he remains focused on the next problem, the next big idea. “I just enjoy working,” Edwards says, explaining a preference for desk chairs over rocking chairs. His mentor, Leo Chandler Norris, founded Cornell’s nutrition program. “He worked until right before he died in 1986.” Norris was 95. Edwards was born into a Louisiana family of physicians and lawyers. “I couldn’t imagine myself
an Army private posted to Germany to run a medical services lab for a colonel. “I was one of two PhDs in the unit,” he recalls. “At noon I had to go out and do my exercises and pick up cigarette butts with the other enlisted men.” After service, Edwards entered private research at the International Mineral and Chemical Corporation in 1955. “I made oodles of money in Chicago in industry as a scientist,”
There are 117 citations for work Edwards published as long ago as 1950. digging around in a courthouse, dealing with musty old deed rooms, worrying about the language on some silly contract. I can’t think of anything more boring.” he admits. “I grew up and looked at it and said, I don’t want to do that. So I went out and found something else.” Instead, Edwards elected to work with pigs while beginning studies in nutritional science. When he was 21, Edwards published his first paper, The Effect of Animal Protein Factor on Lowering Protein Needs of the Pig. Turning to a computer screen, Edwards demonstrates his work is still consulted. There are 117 citations for work he published as long ago as 1950. Later, he switched his research focus from pigs to chickens, discovering “they were a wonderful experimental animal.” By 1953, Edwards completed his doctorate and was immediately drafted into the Army. He became
12
he says. “I took a cut in pay of 60 percent to come here (to UGA) and enter academia.” Edwards was a codiscoverer of X-disease in chickens and of the antibiotic growth response in animals. Edwards was the first to recognize the significance of zinc deficiency in chickens. He also researched factors influencing the utilization of detary phytate phosphorus and vitamin D requirements of poultry. In 1964 Edwards spent a year as a research associate at the University of Lund, Sweden. Then, faculty did not normally seek out international research opportunities. “I made international contacts, and it was not done at that time.” His work netted him a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship in 1971, allowing Edwards to further his research in both France and in Britain at Cambridge University. He returned to the United States only a month
before a new challenge was presented. In June 1972, he was appointed dean of the Graduate School. As an administrator, Edwards openly challenged practices he found worrisome, speaking out against excessive use of funds for post doctoral research and redundant programs. He spoke bluntly and publicly about these issues. “I thought graduate students ought to be trained well enough when they got their PhD that they should be able to walk out the day they’re trained, do their own research, be faculty members and have full responsibilities. We don’t need to keep them around for post docs for three to five years.” Meanwhile, Edwards memorized the names and departments of 1,100 UGA staff and faculty, despite his work load. “They [his students] liked and broadened me,” he adds. He spent what time he could in the lab, but Edwards missed student contact and research. He left administration in 1979. In the ’80s he resumed international work. Twice Edwards returned to Denmark as a visiting professor at the Danish Agricultural and Veterinary Research Council. “It’s been an important part of my life. An important part of what I gave to the University of Georgia. Back in those days it was not promoted,” he recollects. In 1988 he was made a distinguished professor. In 1992 he received the Tom Newman Memorial Award for his contributions to poultry research.
“The award was for my research regarding the cause and prevention of leg abnormalities,” Edwards says. “It was presented to me in the House of Commons by the Minister of Food for Great Britain, Nicholas
Edwards’ work is internationally renown and actively consulted. Soames. He’s the grandson of Winston Churchill.” Sitting in his sparse, orderly campus office, Edwards peers over stacks of research material on his desk. “I run a library here,” he says, chuckling. Edwards published three papers this year. His reputation has international distinction and is documented on serious scientific Web sites. He is most enthusiastic about the work of promising graduate students like Anastassia
Liem. Together they are working on a statistical technique for what he calls a considerable challenge for “a rotatable design.” He alludes to other projects in the works. Edwards delves into mail that has backed up while he was in Canada accepting an award from the Poultry Science Association’s meeting at the University of Alberta. He modestly dismisses the award. To keep in touch with colleagues and friends, he lunches on the first Monday of every month with some history professors at Red Lobster. On the second Wednesday, Edwards meets with retired faculty from his department. Almost everyone in the lunch bunch is younger than Edwards. “Everybody’s in their 50s, 60, 70s … one’s in his 90s,” he says. But Edwards isn’t retiring. “Not even close,” he says with a triumphant grin. G
-------------------------------G R A D U AT E S C H O O L D E A N S Willis Henry Bocock (1910–1927) Roswell Powell Stephens (1927–1943) George Hugh Boyd (1943–1959) Gerald Boone Huff (1959–1968) Thomas Hillyer Whitehead (1968–1972) Hardy Malcolm Edwards, Jr. (1972–1979) John Clarkson Dowling (1979–1989) Gordhan L. Patel (1989–2002) Maureen Grasso (2002–Present)
In September of 1972, Hardy Edwards met the press concerning his new deanship. His appointment triggered a “furor in the poultry industry” among those anxious for him to continue his research, the Georgia
Alumni Record wrote. “I don’t plan to abandon my research,” Edwards assured industry leaders. “I’m still maintaining a laboratory on campus and I hope to be there about two half-days a week.” At the time, Edwards held a ResearchCareer Development Award from the National Institutes of Health, later becoming an Alumni Foundation distinguished professor of poultry science and animal nutrition.
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
13
NANCY EVELYN
I t ’s To o Tr a g i c t o O u t g ro w M a g i c
The
of
Magical Art & Invention
Jackins’ white, cropped hair and her nearly translucent green eyes are as distinctive as her art forms. She works in a basement studio where she constructs art quilts and other textile art embellished with her own poetry.
D O N N A L E I G H JA C K I N S
Virginia Beach native Donna Leigh Dorer Jackins (BFA, ’57) sold jewelry, graded tomatoes and worked for the county treasurer before turning to art fulltime. “I’ve done all kinds of things,” she admits in a mirthful, conspiratorial tone. Grading tomatoes probably looked like fun to an exuberant Jackins, who arrived in Athens in the ’50s, when accommodating locals still offered coeds rides.
14
D
O N N A L E I G H JA C K I N S
to the University of Georgia from The College of William and Mary to study art and be close to her beau, George Jackins, an engineering student at Georgia Tech. She was in Athens when Time magazine sent a reporter to observe how an art professor made students work in the dark. “He flipped up a slide and told us to sketch what we saw.” The students not only learned skills but also to trust their intuitive strengths. Jackins worked feverishly from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., catching up with studio and lecture classes. She learned to rely upon her artistic self, taking in the world through the wide-open lenses of her opalescent green eyes. While UGA offered serious art credentials — “in the art world, UGA drew respect” — she says, Jackins moved beyond the serious to find her signature style. Jackins produces art forms incorporating paper, fabric and other media from her Birmingham, Alabama, studio. She is a member of the Graduate Education Advancement Board, contributing the broad perspective of a working artist. Serendipity and scope underpins her artistic manifesto. “It’s too tragic to outgrow magic,” she writes. Jackins’ work nets honors in juried shows across the nation; she says she has been in too many shows to count, “more so in museums in the southeast, but also in other places.” As a result of her innovation in multi-media, the honors have accumulated. Jackins has been
TRANSFERRED
invited to the White House to present her work with other national artists. She has exhibited in Japan. She was asked to co-design a children’s gallery for the Birmingham Museum of Art. Jackins continuously conducts art programs at schools and speaks to organizations about art and creativity while producing her own work. “You have to step beyond what’s commercial,” she says. “But that’s a very hard corner to turn. It’s very hard to do it, but I have done it.” Her current work includes fantasy art quilts that “deal with magic,” intricate fabric art books painted with Jackins’ original verse, and paper making and collage forms. These are not grandmotherly quilts: One depicts a golf course. Another features a genie with a wicked grin. Jackins produces eight to 10 quilts each year. It is perhaps Jackins herself that is the most artful creation, still reveling in the very magic of art making. Since the age of 10 when given her first set of oils, Jackins applied a fresh perspective. “I painted a hobo sitting on a tombstone eating a hamburger,” she says, laughing. “I still have that painting.” She describes a transition from drawing, painting and paper making to devising new art forms inside her basement studio. These days, Jackins dresses expressively, too, preferring a brilliant palette. “I was in a white period for a long time,” she says. “I made paper ‘quilts’ that were all white.” And just like that—she snaps her finger—
Jackins stopped.Too much commercial success gave her pause; she does not intend to become formulaic. Rubber chickens, playhouses, hand-painted T-shirts glommed with fantastical designs, spools of ribbon, pots of paint, post-it notes and textiles spill out of bins carefully arranged along the studio’s walls. Bits of plastic, sequins, buttons or a spray of feathers wind up being incorporated into a new creation. “One year, one of my teachers said, ‘When are you going to get serious?’” Jackins reveals. It was a question that nearly broke the magic spell pervading her art. She did not work for two years. Finally, Jackins had an epiphany. She would not get serious.
“I always say that art ought to make you smile.” Jackins teases recognition and connection between the fanciful and the pragmatic. Quilts are festooned with everything from a spoof of Martha Stewart swinging a candelabrum and a wine bottle to ephemeral mermaids. Jackins
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
15
merrily relates the pizza quotient in a more recent spate of work. Discs of cotton, fiber, and thread transform into metaphoric quilted pizzas that Jackins once served up in real pizza boxes — her very first foray into culinary quilts. Like a satisfying pizza, her art is a confederation of ordinary objects. Asian collectors and people world-wide heard about the pizzas. “They were a big hit,” she admits. True to her own philosophy, she no longer produces the successful pizzas. “I don’t have any more left.” What Jackins has left are ideas. Her art has turned mystical. The Wizard, a creation years in the making, was one she “picked up and put it down … and while I worked
on this I probably did a dozen other quilts.” Jackins doesn’t know how many hours she toiled over the wizard design or many of the others. Even the indomitable artist is not immune to insecurity whenever a work is in progress. “I pick it up and put it down, and get so sick of them I fold them up and don’t even want to look at them. I’ll think, ‘I killed myself making this and it isn’t any good!’ I just have to get away from it,” Jackins admits. “You just second guess it all the time … and finally, I’ll bring it out and look at it and say, you know, that’s pretty good! I’ve had a piece get Best in Show and then get rejected by the next show I entered it in,” Jackins says pensively. A recently completed quilt diptych, composed of two pieces, will be entered in an upcoming competition. She also accepts commissions for whimsical “biographical quilts,” incorporating objects drawn from the patron’s life. Jackins’ own biographical quilt hangs upstairs in the living room. She points out irreverent details, grinning and reading a poem weaving through the design.
Recently, “declaring myself undomesticated — my husband says charred is a condiment,” — Jackins has abandoned the kitchen for more hours in the studio. She works out designs on a pool table apportioned as a work table. She quotes her poetry in a rush to explain her work as an artist and poet.
“Part of me is structured. Part of me is free. Part of me lives by the rules And part is on a spree. Society builds fences. Soul requires space. Conforming and confounding I run my human race.”
G
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A Statement about the Artist by the Artist “I am what I am — a southern, American, female, Mark Twain-Ogden Nash artist-poet — born and bred in historic Virginia, educated in Georgia (BFA from the University of,) and married to the state of Alabama. The poetry is as important to me as the visual art work (and maybe it’s better). I belong to the right associations and organizations (in some of which I work); have won a respectable number of “Best in Shows” and other awards (call for details;) and am included in the usual corporate and private collections (call for details). “I make art for the sheer joy of it using color, texture, design, imagination and more color to depict ideas that excite me. Humor always seems to find its way into the work — be it painting or poetry. After trying for years to be a ‘serious’ artist, I was finally successful in surpressing that unnatural urge and gave in to what happens naturally. Why not! Thus art/poems with a feel of fun and irony. I seek to make no profound statements about society; instead I would attempt to interject a sense of the positive. That’s the way I feel thus that’s the way I work. “I make art because I cannot NOT make art. If paintings/poems/quilts don’t put a smile in your life then YOU have not read them the way I wrote them.”
16
where are they now?
G R AY M AT T E R :
M E E T mastermind
Michael Bunch
R e m e m b e r f i l l i n g tiny
Bunch. His firm has written more than
circles with soft lead
20,000 questions for Georgia high
pencils during
school graduation tests and thousands
achievement tests?
more for tests given to Georgia
JOHNNY COZART
elementary and middle school students. When did England first lay claim to
There haven’t been many like the one
Georgia?
shown above, he says. Bunch
A. 1633
describes his standard for accepting a
B. 1717
question this way: “If 80 questions
C. 1730
stand between a student and
D. 1732
graduation, is this question important enough to be one of those 80?”
The answer to this question depends
Bunch is preoccupied with
on your point of view. “If you are an
assessment, scoring, research and
eighth grader hoping to pass Georgia
evaluation. But now, as always,
History, you’d better pick A,” says
Georgia is on his mind. Three UGA
Michael Bunch, senior vice president
diplomas hang over his office desk
of Measurement Incorporated. “But the
and campus scenes dot the walls. He
correct answer to this question and
returns there to contribute problem-
others like it is E – who cares,” he
solving skills, for challenge delights
deadpans.
this Georgia-born psychologist.
“This is cannon and king history in its purest form and testing at its lowest ebb.” claims Bunch, who adds, “we’re really more concerned with whether or not students can use or even comprehend information that is readily available.” And he should know. This is the business of psychometricians like
H
I S G O O D - N AT U R E D C O O L
defies measurement. Bunch sports a natty red UGA tie and suspenders over a creaseless white shirt. Weeds wither yet Michael Bunch (BS, ’72; MS, ’74;
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
17
PhD, ’76) looks crisp as the thermometer tops 100 degrees outside Measurement Incorporated’s (MI) headquarters in Durham, North Carolina. From here, Bunch oversees research and development as a senior vice president and director. Since 1982, he has solidified MI’s position as a trusted educational test developer. He oversees 80+ project directors, psychometricians, editors and content specialists—all brainiacs like him. In psychometric-speak, MI “develops criterion-referenced, highstakes testing programs.” Bunch’s corporation occupies the site where BC Powder’s manufacturing headquarters once
Game Show Wizard – Or Just Plain Wizard? Bunch enjoys nothing better than a clever query, and shrugging admits he is good at recognizing one. He’s addicted to Sudoku, bridge, Boggle, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. He rarely watches game shows, discounting them as pop culture. “They’re trivia,” he says about Jeopardy’s questions. “And we avoid trivia like the plague.” “If I were developing a game show,” Bunch jokes, “there would be about 12 people to watch it.” Bunch is privately dismayed that people don’t ask the big questions, he mentions. Bunch thinks a great
Education offers larger issues in life. It develops the intellect and helps form an outlook and a moral perspective, Bunch says. stood. The building, with retrofitted offices and exposed brick walls, once housed the world’s top grossing headache remedy. Today, instead of preventing headaches, MI causes many a K-12 student to develop them. In the last six years, MI has created 100,000 test items for various clients. “The great problem,” he explains, pushing wire rim glasses back, “is how to ask the right question.” He settles back in a burgundy chair. “Our business is coming up with the right question.”
18
deal about non-trivial pursuits, despite his affection for the board game. Education offers larger issues in life. It develops the intellect and helps form an outlook and a moral perspective, he says. “Everybody is too concerned about a high score. Learning is what it’s about!” “A score is just a number,” Bunch laments, equating the
“Parents sometimes complain ‘You’re testing those kids to death.’”
obsession with higher test scores with “making the thermometer dance.” A Non-Trivial Pursuit of Knowledge Growing up in Waycross, Georgia, with a population of 23,000, Bunch didn’t know anyone who was a psychologist or a psychometrician. He credits a wonderful high school geometry teacher with imparting the basis of logic. He was intent on going to school at UGA even before his sister, Michele, began her studies in Athens. (Later, five of his family members were students at UGA in various programs. Michele and her husband, his brother and his future wife were all on campus with Bunch.) Bunch discovered his future profession under the tutelage of professors Murray Tilman and Paul Torrance. The eureka moment came when he discovered the study of individual differences. He fondly
Pictured above, Michael and Katheryn Bunch with daughter Melissa Bunch as a young UGA family.
-------------------------------------P u z z l e s l i k e S u d o k u or crossword and games like Scrabble and Boggle stimulate the brain, just as regular physical exercise keeps muscles in tone. For achievement tests, though, there’s nothing like paying attention in class and doing your homework if you want a high score, advises Bunch. For examples of the kinds of questions students have to answer on national achievement tests, go to nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states. For more information about testing in Georgia, go to doe.k12.ga.us/curriculum/testing.
recalls professors Bill Owens, Lyle Schoenfeldt, Carl Huberty and Bob Lissitz. “Lyle was my major professor and head of our program. Dr. Owens was head of the Institute for Behavioral Research, over in the Graduate School.” Bunch remained at UGA for eight years until completing the course work for his doctorate in psychological measurement. He also discovered his life’s partner. Bunch married fellow student Kathryn Campbell in 1970. The couple moved into married housing (since razed) only a block from the present day Graduate School. Their eldest daughter, Melissa, was born at St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens as Bunch worked and studied full time. By 1976, the young family moved to Iowa — amidst cornfields and hogs, he chuckles. They relocated to Durham in 1978. The Research Triangle Park located nearby fostered enterprising research. Bunch joined MI two years after its founding. Since Waycross he has lived “where PhDs were a dime a dozen.” Kathryn Bunch works at MI part-time, coaching contractors in question formulation. More than 150 part time employees develop custom-designed tests. Clients include state departments of education nationwide, Georgia among them. Bunch and his team have worked closely with hundreds of teachers throughout Georgia to
make sure the graduation tests stay on target. It is not, Bunch stresses, nearly so complex a matter to know an answer as it is to formulate a sizzling, succinct question. So, what kind of question would pass Bunch’s test? Here’s an example, taken from the Georgia Department of Education Web site for the graduation test: How did the outcome of the tax revolt known as the “Whiskey Rebellion” demonstrate the effectiveness of Hamilton’s economic policies?
A. It shifted the tax burden from the middle to the upper class. B. It protected the interests of the farmers. C. It settled the issue of states’ rights. D. It proved that the federal government could enforce the law. Bunch defends the question and answer (D) as important enough to put on a graduation test. Questions like this one require students to think about connections rather than just isolated facts. One down, 79 to go, Bunch adds and grins. G
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
19
scholars worth watching
A R R I V I D E R C I AT H E N S CIAO CORTONA
S h a n n o n P r i t ch a r d
PETER FREY
Shares Her Buono Fortuna with Art Students Abroad
The hillside village of Cortona,
also the recipient of a 2006 Dean’s
courses in Italy this summer. I’m writing
Italy, has long been the locus of art
Award, which furthers doctoral
a dissertation on Italian sculpture, so
education for University of Georgia
research. The grant from the Graduate
this is the perfect blend of teaching
students abroad. Since 1969, students
School enabled Pritchard to
experience as well as a research
from the Lamar Dodd School of Art
simultaneously teach and research the
opportunity.
spend a 13 or eight week semester
Flemish-born Italian sculptor
immersed in this Etruscan town of only
Giambologna (Giovanni Bologna or
23,000 residents.
Jean du Boulogne).
With a Medici fortress and the
Giambologna, the subject of
Tuscan hillside beyond, Cortona is an
Pritchard’s dissertation, once enjoyed
artistic experience in itself. Laced with
success second only to Michelangelo.
picturesque streets, the town is a rich
During a return to Athens between
backdrop, offering historical
semesters, Pritchard shared some of
mementos preserved in the Museo
her experiences as an art historian and
Diocesano by Pietro Lorenzetti and Fra
scholar.
Angelico. Paintings by Luca Signorelli
being the home to Luca Signorelli, Pietro da Cortona and Gino Severini. It is a vibrant town, with people who are warm and generous, and despite its small town appearance, is surprisingly upscale in certain aspects (especially feel welcome. They’ve held special
church of San Niccolo. Students live in
Q: Buongiorno! How did your
a restored 15th-century monastery
appointment to the post in
while absorbing the vivid culture,
Cortona happen?
architecture and artistry of Italy. A: It came about through
Pritchard (MA, ’03; PhD ’09) has
conversations I had with my advisor,
worked and lectured in Cortona since
Dr. Shelley Zuraw, and the director of
last spring. Pritchard teaches art
the Cortona programs, Rick Johnson.
history courses and is the academic
The outgoing art historian had not yet
coordinator for the program. She is
been replaced, and it was a perfect opportunity for me to teach art history
20
A: Cortona has a rich artistic heritage,
shoes)! The whole town makes us all
are preserved in the 16th-century
Doctoral student Shannon
Q: What is it like to live in Italy, especially in such a storied place?
events for us and are genuinely happy to have us here. As you can imagine, the food here is great! I live in an apartment that the office manager helped me find. It is about a five minute walk (uphill!) to school. In the fall, I will be moving into a slightly smaller apartment that sits against the town walls and overlooks the valley.
There are two school buildings
Q: What happens next?
utilizing the archives in Florence to go
here, and I have an office in one of them, with a great view of the valley. I do speak Italian, although not fluently. The Cortonese are very willing to listen to anyone who is trying to communicate with them in their language, and, luckily, many of the locals here speak at least a little
A: The program ends November 21.
through primary documents—
I’m gong to stay on in Florence for
contracts, letters, and public records
another three weeks, to study at the
to get first-hand source of information
Kunsthistorisches Institut, a large
that is very important to my work.
German research library.
Even if other scholars have looked at
Q: How will the Dean’s Award further your research?
English, so we all manage to get along just fine! Q: How will you use the Cortona experience? A: The work matters because it is my chosen career…teaching a variety of upper level art history courses at this stage in my career is invaluable. Hopefully, the outcome of my time here will be that I will become a better art historian, as well as art history professor. I am also hoping that my immersion in the Italian culture will
will not only be at the Kunst, but also
these same documents, they may have been looking for very different information than I would have been
A: It’s important, especially for art
looking for and other additional info
historians, to see the objects you’re
that might be helpful. At the library in
studying. And if possible, to see it in
Florence they have an extraordinary
its original location and context.
amount of research material that is just
Florence is where Giambologna’s
not available in the United States. My
home was…to walk around and see
plan is to continue this aspect of my
the scale and proportion and finish to
research in the spring before the next
the surface (of his sculptures). All
semester starts in Cortona.
those things you just don’t get in a photograph. The funding I received
Arrivederci!
G
from the graduate school will help support me for two periods of study in Florence. In late fall and early spring I
add a greater depth to my doctoral research. Q: Describe your work experiences there as a teacher. A: I‘ve studied Italian, through the course of my academic career studying Italian Renaissance Art. I’ve had to learn to read and speak it to some degree. For me, teaching art history courses — it’s delightful. When we go on a field trip each Saturday we can actually go see the sculpture or painting or building we’ve been talking about all week. It’s a good experience; it’s good for me to be able to teach these different courses. You never learn so much as when you’re teaching and being directly involved
Pictured above, co-program and studio coordinator Christopher Robinson
with the work. I think it will enhance my
with Shannon Pritchard at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
dissertation and make me a better art historian and teacher.
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
21
scholars for tomorrow
A M A N , A P L A N , A F LY
BRIAN SNYDER DECODES THE M Y S T E R I E S of the
SEXES
ROBERT NEWCOMB
How
Why are males and females so different? An Internet search on the subject yields 19,500,000 responses. Researchers scrutinize barn swallows, rats and even flies, dissecting differences embedded in genetic material searching for the answer. Brian Snyder (PhD, ’08) does not reach for a swatter whenever a fly buzzes by. He reaches for a microscope. Snyder, a promising University of Georgia doctoral student, spends his days pondering the classic work of scientist A. J. Bateman. Sixty years ago, Bateman placed small numbers of male and female flies in vials and counted their matings. He counted using observable, or phenotypic, mutations. “The problem is,” Snyder says, “that Bateman’s study is horribly flawed. My advisor and I are about to present a paper about the problems with Bateman’s study.” His own research replicates Bateman’s with a major difference: Snyder uses modern molecular genetic techniques like DNA-based paternity analyses. “Now a replication of a flawed, but classic experiment is kind of cool,” Snyder explains. “But what I am really excited about is that we also have two independent methods for determining how much of the variance we observe in mating success is due to chance and how much is heritable.” One method uses a mathematic model developed by investigator Steve Hubbell. The other method uses inbred strains of flies that are genetically identical. “Since there can be no heritable variation between genetically identical individuals, then any variation that exists must be due to chance or social environment. So I have set up a series of Bateman-like experiments where I either allow social or genetic variation, or both or neither and can use all this data to get an estimate of how much variance is due to genetics, social environment and chance.” Snyder’s work may answer the question intriguing philosophers and scientists throughout the ages. “What is exciting,” he continues, “is that I have the chance to figure out how much variance in male and female mating success is due to chance and how much is due to heritable differences in males and females.”
22
A
U G U S T 15 I S A R E D - L E T T E R day, circled on Brian Snyder’s calendar. His pregnant wife’s ultrasound is that day. The ubiquitous test will reveal the gender of their first child, due in January. A pensive Snyder, perched on a stool in an Athens coffee house, sighs. “I can’t wait,” he admits. His scientist side recognizes the genetic significance of gender. His human side says it is irrelevant. Weeks later, Snyder is at the lab when the test results return. “It took a couple of hours for the smile to leave my face,” Snyder says. “It’s a girl. A Madeline or Katherine, perhaps,” he joyfully adds. The human side of the scientist is clear. Like everyone else, the new father to be is only anxious that little Madeline or Katherine is healthy. And that a grown-up Madeline or Katherine will be fulfilled. Stephen Snyder, Brian’s father, is a
Federal budgetary cutbacks have been devastating for research and for scientists. Despite his father’s influence on Snyder’s chosen path, little Madeline or Katherine may or may not model her father’s behaviors. For not even scientists agree if intelligence, personality and behaviors are heritable traits. Snyder’s work, alongside principle investigators Patty Gowaty, Steve Hubbell and Wyatt Anderson, offers a window into behaviors governing flies that may apply to humans as well, including aggression, and susceptibility to disease.
T h e M a n W h o Wo u l d n ’ t Kill a Rat… Snyder has always known he wanted to study the evolution of human behavior. While still in college, he tracked down Gowaty’s work on the
Snyder and his advisors have written numerous grants. Some are getting record numbers of rejections. Federal budgetary cutbacks have been devastating for research and for scientists. neurobiologist at the National Institutes of Health. There was no question what Snyder would become when he was merely five, visiting his dad’s Bethesda, Maryland laboratory. Snyder cannot yet say if he will urge his daughter to become a scientist. “I don’t know,” Snyder replies. “The disappointment… the grant rejections…” Snyder falls silent. He and his advisors have written numerous grants. Some are getting record numbers of rejections.
Internet and applied to UGA after looking at Cornell and Berkley. Gowaty’s work in the evolution of behavior sealed his interest in Georgia. “Evolutionary psychology has gotten a lot of criticism,” Snyder observes. “It was tempting to go into that research.” Instead, he entered microbiology. Today, Snyder’s friends tease him about his research centering upon flies. “People are generally confused about why I’m interested in flies. It’s practical. We use the fly because it’s
the easiest,” he explains. “The generation time is short. They’re cheap to maintain.” Labs in Arizona and Indiana supply three species, drosophila melanogaster, pseudoobscura and hydei to the UGA lab. Snyder breeds the stock, producing over 10,000 flies for research conducted with Gowaty. His father, on the other hand, conducted research on rats. “Of course I’d read Stuart Little,” he says with a rueful grin. His dad pretended to spare the lab rats that Snyder singled out. Snyder reflects. “It’s easier to kill flies than rats.” Sometimes, when Snyder becomes philosophical, he asks himself if what he’s doing is the most useful. But he knows it’s important. “A guy named Apollonius, who was at the library in Alexandria in 200 B.C., studied cones. Copernicus comes along…and later Johannes Kepler comes along and used Apollonius’ math on ellipses. Work done 1,800 to 1,700 years ago—they actually used it!” Snyder thinks about the legacy of his work, however mundane it may seem at times, and of Greek mathematician Apollonius. “Thinking about why males and females are the way they are,” he says pensively. “It’s of value. Scientific progress is good,” he adds, even when it arrives on the wings of an ordinary drosophila melanogaster. G
Graduate School Magazine
FALL 2006
23
in brief
Dorris Bazzini NC GOVENORS’ AWARD f o r E x c e l l e n c e i n Te a c h i n g APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Doris Bazzini, professor of psychology at Appalachian State University and UGA “double dawg,” received in May the 2006 North Carolina Board of Governors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching. Bazzini is one of 16 faculty members from all University of North Carolina campuses to earn this distinction, which recognizes and rewards superior teaching by tenured faculty within the university. Recipients of this honor are presented with $7,500 and a bronze medallion. Bazzini earned both a master’s and doctorate in psychology (in 1991 and 1993 respectively) from the University of Georgia. While at UGA, she served as a teaching assistant and received teaching awards for her efforts. She continues to encourage students not to be afraid of failure and also mentors new faculty members to succeed. A proponent of the use of creativity and humor in the classroom, she has been a member of the faculty at Appalachian State since 1993.
G From left, Graduate School Dean Maureen Grasso; Uttiyo Raychaudhuri (doctoral candidate); Tracy Lambert (PhD, '06); Maria del Puig Andres (PhD, MEd, '06; MA, '02); Anita DeRouen (doctoral candidate); Kristy Maddux (doctoral candidate); UGA President Michael F. Adams.
PAUL QUICK
G R A D U AT E S T U D E N T TEACHING Awards Each year, the Graduate School honors five exemplary graduate teaching assistants with the Graduate School Excellence in Teaching Award. Talented students and respected teachers, these graduate students share a passion for their subject matter and a desire to impart this passion in the classroom and laboratory. As part of this award, the 2006 recipients each received $1,000 and were recognized at the Faculty Recognition Banquet last April. The 2006 honorees are as follows: Maria del Puig Andres, who graduated spring semester 2006 with a doctorate in romance languages and a master of education in instructional technology (Maria also earned a master of arts in Spanish from UGA in summer 2002); Anita DeRouen, a doctoral candidate in English literature; Tracy Lambert, who graduated summer semester 2006 with a doctorate in industrial and organizational psychology; Kristy Maddux, a doctoral candidate in speech communication; and Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, a doctoral candidate in forest resources.
24
G
development
----------------------------------
G R A D U AT E S C H O O L D O N O R S
DEAN’S LIST OF DONORS T O T H E G R A D U AT E S C H O O L
T h e G r a d u a t e S c h o o l gratefully acknowledges all who have made a financial commitment to graduate education at the University of Georgia – from alumni to corporate sponsors to faculty and friends. By supporting graduate students, you are enabling research and creative works that affect so many facets of our lives. You are investing in our future and our children’s future, as well as our nation’s economy and security. You are also contributing to undergraduate education, enhancing our workforce and advancing discoveries that benefit us all.
1910 Society ($50,000 +) Beverly Hirsh Frank Laureate Society ($25,000 +) Verizon Wireless Dr. Annella Brown Benefactors ($10,000-$24,999) Ashland Oil Foundation, Inc. Terry Coffey Dean’s Circle ($5,000-$9,999)
Whether you helped create a named fellowship or contributed to an
Susan Lanigan
existing award, your gift is significant to enhancing all aspects of graduate education, from the quality of faculty to the scholarship to students. We appreciate your help in building a foundation of educational excellence and hope you will encourage others to participate in this worthwhile endeavor.
Centennial Club ($1,000-$4,999) Marc Ackerman Hamid Arabnia James Baine Michael Bunch Mary Case W. Ford Calhoun GlaxoSmithKline Foundation Maureen Grasso
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Griffith Murphy Oil Corporation
In Spring 2006,
Russell T. Quarterman
the charter members of the
Graduate Education Advancement Board created a $100,000 graduate fellowship.
Andrew Rosen August Staub
These alumni, educational and corporate leaders are setting a standard for advancing the
Graduate Club ($500-$999)
graduate work that touches us all. As funding requirements needed to attract the most promising
Peter J. Anderson
students continue to rise, the University of Georgia relies more and more on financial commit-
Friends of the Graduate School
ments such as this endowment. By giving to graduate education, donors help the Graduate
($100-$499) Wyatt Anderson
School assist departments across campus recruit top students. Regardless of your discipline, we hope you, like these board members, will support all graduate education at UGA.
Elisabeth Butler Jennifer Gaver Kenneth M. Gaver Ruth B. Harris Krista Haynes Lollie Hoots Michael Johnson Pamela K. Orpinas Madis Raukas Thomas Edward Weiss, Jr.
MAUREEN GRASSO Dean
NOTE: The above roster reflects gifts to the Graduate School since the establishment of its formal development program in 2002. The Graduate School gratefully acknowledges all donors who contributed before this date.
Bank on a good education and you’re forever enriched. Thurston LaDonnahue III wears a pin-striped suit and quite an attitude. Why shouldn’t he look a bit smug? LaDonnahue, one of 36 “bulldawg” sculptures placed temporarily in downtown Athens, Five Points, Normaltown, Ben Epps Airport and the parks, has made an investment that will never devalue. Beneath that vest beats the valiant red heart of a Georgia scholar.
Thurston LaDonnahue III, 124 E. Hancock Avenue, Athens, Georgia. Scott Sosebee, Artist
The University of Georgia Graduate School Boyd Graduate Studies Research Center Athens, Georgia 30602-7401 706-542-1739, FAX 706-542-3219
www.grad.uga.edu Editor
Editorial Offices
Cynthia Adams
UGA Graduate School
Design Julie Sanders.com
Boyd Graduate Studies Research Center Athens, Georgia 30602
Photography Paul Efland
© 2006 by the University of Georgia.
Nancy Evelyn
No part of this publication may be
Peter Frey
reproduced in any way without the
Dot Paul
written permission of the editor.
This publication was printed by generous gifts from Verizon and Pictorial Offset.
ANDREW ROSEN
NONPROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
ATHENS, GA. PERMIT NO. 165