|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Monday, April 23, 2001
|
|
University Council takes up lengthy agenda at final meeting
Gwinnett University Center CEO to speak at Graduate School Commencement
Gorbachev accepts Delta Prize for Global Understanding
Service planned for deceased UGA faculty, staff, students
Honors & Awards: Meigs Teaching Awards
Honors & Awards: Russell Teaching Awards
|
|
Honors & Awards: Research Awards |
|
Creative Research Awards
Faculty members and current and former graduate students were honored for their research, creativity and scholarly achievements at the 22nd annual Research Awards Banquet April 12. The annual awards program is sponsored by the non-profit UGA Research Foundation. |
|
|
Albert Christ-Janer Award
Edward Larson |
|
The Albert Christ-Janer Award recognizes outstanding creativity and scholarship in the arts and  humanities. This year’s winner was Edward J. Larson, Richard B. Russell Professor of History, whose book, Summer for the Gods, won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History.
Larson had established his reputation as an innovative historian of America’s fitful encounter with modernity with two earlier books. His first book, Trial and Error, deals with the creation-evolution controversy; his second, Sex, Race, and Science, examines the eugenics movement in the South. In both books, Larson used meticulous archival research to examine how Americans used, misused and rebelled against modern science. Widely praised by both scientists and historians, the books benefited from Larson’s dual training in law and the history of science, which enables him to study the role of courts and legislatures in mediating between science and religion in 20th-century American society.
Larson’s most recent book, Evolution’s Workshop: God and Science on the Galapagos Islands, was published this year by Basic Books in the United States and Penguin in the United Kingdom. It chronicles the heretofore untold story of the history of science on the Galapagos Islands. The book is destined to reach both a scholarly and a popular audience, examining the impact of the Galapagos on our understanding of life. The range of sources is particularly impressive, covering both the voluminous scientific materials, but also excerpts and insights from popular articles, books, movies, television documentaries--even graffiti from walls in the islands.
Larson has also produced several interesting and insightful articles. Of particular note is the series in the journals Nature and Scientific American, presenting his findings from his surveys and studies of the religious beliefs of American scientists. These surveys have been the subject of front-page coverage in the New York Times and other publications and have become a benchmark in the academic literature.
|
|
|
William A. Owens Award
Chor Pang Lo |
|
The Owens Award recognizes scholarly or creative activity in the social and behavioral sciences. It  goes this year to Chor Pang Lo, professor of geography, who bridges physical, social and technical science for the advancement of urban-suburban research.
Remote sensing is the art and science of extracting information about an object without actually touching it. It is widely used in mapping terrains and human activities on the earth’s surface. A sensor on an aerial or satellite platform can detect reflectance and emittance from objects on the earth’s surface. The results are analog or digital data, from which photographs and images can be created to show the characteristics of the objects.
Lo’s application of remote sensing to the study of the urban environment is a major effort. The urban environment is a complex milieu where different social forces are unleashed. Lo has used remote sensing in three important areas--estimation of population and population characteristics, assessment of the quality of life by integrating biophysical variables acquired from remotely sensed data with socio-economic data obtained from the census, and urban land use/cover change detection and its environmental impact.
Lo is also regarded as one of the top scholars in the use of geographicinformation-systems approaches for examining population-environment interactions. His research has been integral to a large interdisciplinary research project, funded by NASA, that has investigated how land cover and land use changes in the Atlanta metropolitan area over the past 25 years have affected meteorology and air quality over the city.
Lo’s work on the relationship between urban sprawl and the urban heat-island effect has unequivocally illustrated how remote-sensing data, in conjunction with population information, can be used to derive better quantitative information on human-induced land-cover changes and to assess their effects on the environment.
|
|
|
Lamar Dodd Award
Richard Meagher |
|
 The Lamar Dodd Award recognizes outstanding scientific work. This year the winner is Richard B. Meagher, professor of genetics, a pioneer in developing genetically engineered plants to clean up toxic-waste sites--or phytoremediation. Meagher has isolated and modified bacterial genes that can transform mercury in the soil and has inserted those genes into plants, transferring to the plants the bacterial abilities to detoxify heavy metals. His success in developing these transgenic plants has garnered widespread international interest.
Some bacteria detoxify toxic metals in polluted soils and water in order to survive. Bacteria which have genes in the mer operon can transform various toxic mercury species into the much less harmful metallic Hg(0). Plants, on the other hand, generally cannot efficiently detoxify mercury or other heavy metals. Plants are, however, the dominant energy producers in nearly all ecosystems, and they do have the advantage of extensive root systems, which make them natural “miners” for heavy metals.
In 1985, the Meagher lab produced the first transgenic plants--plants containing a modified version of the bacterial merA gene. They did not work. In 1995, however, the Meagher lab produced the first successful transgenic mer plants using a small plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus the lab has successfully extended to plants the metal-ion reducing portion of the bacterial mer system for mercury detoxification. Current efforts are building a plant that will extract mercury from soil and water and hyperaccumulate it above ground.
Meagher’s current research suggests that plants can also be altered to hyperaccumulate other heavy metals, such as lead, copper, arsenic and cadmium. His newest effort is focused on extracting arsenic from soil and hyperaccumulating it in plant leaves and stems. He and Scott Merkle have collaborated to introduce modified mer genes into yellow poplar, cottonwood, tobacco, rice, and Brassica napus, to be used in applied cleanup efforts.
|
|
|
|
|
Other research award winners |
|
Distinguished Research Professors: Donald M. Kurtz, chemistry and biochemistry and molecular biology; Thomas F. Murray, physiology and pharmacology; William W. Stueck, history; Robert O. Teskey, forest resources; and Richard D. Winfield, philosophy
Creative Research Medals: Valery Alexeev, mathematics; Karen S. Calhoun, psychology; Andrew Herod, geography; Michael H. Kernis, psychology; Janet Westpheling, genetics
Inventor’s Award: Lois Miller, genetics and entomology (given posthumously)
|
|
Teaching, research, service awards
Given by UGA colleges, schools, other units
Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
Sandy Beaver Award for Excellence in Teaching: Malcolm Adams, mathematics; José Alvarez, Romance languages; Alexis Brewer, anthropology; Bonnie Dow, speech communication; and Jean Martin, music
Sandy Beaver Teaching Professorship: Marcus Fechheimer, cellular biology, and Sybila Beckmann Kazez, mathematics
Professional/Staff Adviser Award: Sarah Ford
Faculty Adviser Award: Randy Hammond, psychology
M.G. Michael Award for research: Claudio Saunt, history, and Elizabeth Wright, Romance languages
Terry College of Business
Outstanding Teaching Faculty Awards: Ben Ayers, accounting; Kathryn Brohman, management information systems; David Downs, insurance, legal studies and real estate; Mark Huber, management information systems; Marc Lipson, finance; Brian McNatt, management; Marcus Stewart, management; and Greg Trandel, economics
Outstanding Research Award: Linda Smith Bamber, accounting
Outstanding Teaching Award: Marc L. Lipson, finance
College of Education
D. Keith Osborn Awards for Teaching Excellence: Lynn Bryan, science education, and David Jackson, science education
Outstanding Teaching Faculty Awards: Stacey Neuharth-Pritchett, elementary education; Jack V. Powell, elementary education; and Dorothy White, mathematics education
Aderhold Distinguished Professorship: Judith Priessle, social foundations of education
Warnell School of Forest Resources
Outstanding Teaching Awards: Karl Miller and Barry Shiver
Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching: Todd Rasmussen
Gamma Sigma Delta Distinguished Senior Faculty Award: Bob Warren
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
Outstanding Teaching Awards: David Hazinski, telecommunications, and Ron Lane, advertising
School of Law
Phi Delta Phi John C. O’Byrne Memorial Faculty Award for Significant Contributions furthering Student-Faculty Relations: J. Randy Beck
Student Bar Association Faculty Book Award for Excellence in Teaching: Ronald L. Carlson
Student Bar Association and Younger Lawyers Section of the State Bar of Georgia Award for the Teaching of Legal Ethics: C. Ronald Ellington
College of Veterinary Medicine
Class of 2002 Faculty Recognition Award: Corrie Brown
Class of 2004 Faculty Recognition Award: Scott Brown
Norden Distinguished Teacher Award: Karen Cornell
Class of 2001 Faculty Recognition Award: Craig Greene
Class of 2003 Faculty Recognition Award: Susan Little
John Bowen Award: John J. Maurer
David Tyler Award for Advances in Teaching: Thomas Purinton
Laboratory Service Award: Susan Sanchez
Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence: Raghubir Sharma
Outstanding Hospital Service Award: M.A. Stevenson
Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities
CURO Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring Awards: Marcus Fechheimer, cellular biology |
|
|
|
|
|
UGA Today ] News Bureau ] Master Calendar ] Columns ] Georgia Magazine ]
UGA Home ] Admissions ] Directories ] Sports ] Alumni ] Weather ]
Search this site ] Search UGA sites ]
Published by University of Georgia News Service.
Beth Roberts, Columns editor; Juliett Dinkins, Columns managing editor;
Janet Beckley, Columns art director; Peter Frey, Columns photo editor.
This site works best with the latest version of
Netscape Navigator 4+ and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4+.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
