By Sara Drake
The Creative Research Awards
are presented each year to faculty who have achieved international
recognition for outstanding scholarly or creative work.
This year Steven R.H. Beach received the William
A. Owens Award for research in the social and behavioral
sciences and David J. Benson received the Lamar
Dodd Award for research in the sciences. The Albert
Christ-Janer Award for the humanities was not awarded.
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Steven Beach |
Steven R.H. Beach, director
of the Institute for Behavioral Research and professor of
psychology, studies the relationship between marital discord
and depression. Beach has shown that marital relationships
can play a role in recovery from depression and his research
highlights how marriage can help preserve physical and mental
health. He has written two books based on his research,
Depression in Marriage
and Marital and Family Processes
in Depression. Beach also studies physical aggression,
defensiveness and forgiveness in relation to marriage and
the family. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed
papers and has received more than $1.8 million in research
funding.
 |
|
David J. Benson, Distinguished
Research Professor of Mathematics, has made important contributions
to basic mathematical research. In addition to investigating
representation theory and algebraic topology, Benson studies
cohomology of finite groups—a branch of algebra that
has applications in chemistry and physics.
He has published four research-related books, and his two-volume
series on representations and cohomology has become a standard
reference tool. Benson, who is currently working on a book
about music and mathematics, was awarded the London Mathematical
Society’s Junior Whitehead Prize in 1993 and a UGA
Creative Research Medal in 1998.
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Richard Meagher |
One award is presented annually to an inventor who has
made a unique and innovative discovery that has had a beneficial
impact on the community. Richard
B. Meagher, a genetics professor, received the
Inventor’s Award for his contributions to molecular
biology and to the field of phytoremediation—the use
of plants to clean up the environment. Meagher developed
the first genetically engineered plants to remove mercury
from contaminated soil by inserting mercury detoxifying
genes, merA and merB,
into a plant’s genome. He conducted the first field
test of trees containing these genes at a mercury-contaminated
site in Danbury, Conn., where a hat factory once stood.
Meagher has co-founded three biotechnology companies, two
of which apply his phytoremediation technology. His work
has garnered numerous awards, including UGA’s Creative
Research Medal in 1987 and the Lamar Dodd Award in 2001.
Meagher’s phytoremediation work will be included in
a 2004 National Geographic
special on the environment.
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Davud Puett |
J. David Puett, head
of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology,
received the Georgia Research Alliance Catalyst Award. Puett
was recognized for his crucial, behind-the-scenes work to
advance GRA projects, especially in biotechnology and cancer
research. Puett studies molecular and cellular biochemical
endocrinology. His research on specific hormones has important
implications in reproductive, cardiovascular and pulmonary
studies. The Catalyst Award was created by the GRA, a partnership
of business, industry and academia devoted to bringing high-tech
research and development projects to Georgia. The award
honors an academic administrator who has helped the state
of Georgia and GRA achieve mutual goals. This is only the
third time the award has been presented; the previous recipients
were P.C. Tai of Georgia State University and Roger Webb
of Georgia Institute of Technology.
Creative Research Medals
are given to faculty for outstanding research or creative
activities on a single theme while at UGA. This year’s
recipients are Gary A. Dudley,
Uwe Happek, Dino J. Lorenzini, Robert J. Maier and
William H. Quinn.
 |
Gary Dudley |
Gary Dudley, Distinguished
Research Professor and director of UGA’s muscle biology
laboratory, has found that the high rates of diabetes, heart
disease and obesity that often plague individuals with spinal
cord injuries may be related to a loss of skeletal muscle
mass. His studies show that electrical stimulation can restore
inactive muscles to pre-injury size. Dudley is currently
examining whether electrical stimulation to restore these
muscles can improve overall health and reverse diabetes
in both spinal cord-injured patients and able-bodied individuals.
Dudley works closely with the nation’s largest hospital
for spinal cord injuries, the Shepherd Center in Atlanta.
Uwe Happek, a physics
professor, conducts research on condensed matter, an area
of physics that investigates materials and their properties.
Happek studies the light-emitting properties of phosphors,
which are materials widely used in fluorescent lighting,
TV screens and medical imaging equipment. Phosphors, made
of a “host” material interspersed with rare
earth or transition metal ions, emit visible light following
exposure to ultraviolet light. Happek has developed two
new methods to measure energy levels of rare earth ions
and host materials. Such information may contribute to developing
better phosphors. Happek collaborates with researchers in
the United States, Europe and Asia and has working ties
with industry.
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Dino
Lorenzini |
Dino Lorenzini, a mathematics
professor, is a leader in the field of arithmetic geometry,
the study of polynomial equations and their solutions. His
research involves equations that can elucidate the structure
of curves and related objects. In collaboration with Siegfried
Bosch of the Universität Müenster, Lorenzini found
a relationship between the model of a curve and an associated
geometric object. His research also has provided insight
into Thue equations—polynomial equations whose solutions
have been sought by mathematicians for almost a century.
Lorenzini published two papers in the prestigious mathematics
journal Inventiones Mathematicae
in the same year.
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Robert Maier |
Robert Maier, GRA-Ramsey
Eminent Scholar in Microbial Physiology, studies hydrogenases,
which are enzymes that play a role in bacterial energy metabolism.
Maier has shown that a stomach-inhabiting bacterium possesses
a specific hydrogenase that enables it to use hydrogen as
an energy source. The bacterium, Helicobacter
pylori, is common in the human stomach and is linked
to peptic ulcers and stomach cancer. This is the first demonstration
of the role of hydrogen gas in disease-causing organisms.
The hydrogenase does not occur in humans and could be a
target for future drug development. Ongoing work may link
hydrogen gas with other pathogenic bacteria, such as those
associated with liver cancer, typhoid fever and food poisoning.
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William Quinn |
William Quinn, a child
and family development professor, directs the Family Solutions
Program. The non-profit organization draws on UGA research
findings to help juvenile first-offenders choose a different
life path. Of the 750 program graduates, only 24 percent
have been charged a second time, compared with 59 percent
of a control group who did not participate. The UGA-developed
program is currently in use in Georgia, Illinois, Kansas
and Texas, and is effective for males, females, blacks,
whites and pre-teens through older teens. Quinn and several
colleagues received a multimillion-dollar grant from the
CDC to implement this and other programs to reduce middle
school violence.
•
Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate
Teaching
•
Meigs Award for Exellence in Teaching
•
Regents Award for Exellence in Teaching
