June 2004: Vol. 83, No. 3

UGA in the news

HAS HOUSING MARKET PEAKED? According to the Associated Press, almost half of the nation’s new homes are built in the Southern region, which stretches from Oklahoma to Delaware. However, some analysts don’t think the Southern home market can continue to prosper if mortgage rates rise. “This may be one of the last of the really strong, positive reports,” said Jeffrey Humphreys, UGA’s chief economic forecaster. “I’m not expecting the housing market to tank, but I do think it’s probably not going to go much higher from here. I think we’ve pretty much peaked.” WISTERIA: THE NEW KUDZU The Japanese and Chinese wisteria vines that commonly adorn Southern porches have reportedly become the “new kudzu,” climbing trees and shrubs and damaging or killing them by blocking sunlight and strangling them. According to an article in USA Today, plentiful rainfall in 2003 coupled with no late frost this year allowed the attractive purple vines to seed and flower more abundantly than desired. “People think it’s pretty until they see what it can do to trees,” said Mark Czarnota, an ornamental weed specialist at UGA. PENALTY FOR MURDER DISPUTED Law enforcement officials and the family of Amy Yates, the 8-year-old Georgia girl strangled by a 12-year-old boy, are not satisfied that the stiffest penalty the boy can receive if convicted is two years in juvenile detention. According to the Los Angeles Times, other state regulations allow 12-year-olds to receive mandatory minimum sentences of life without parole. Anne Proffitt Dupre, a child law specialist at UGA, said Georgia lawmakers assume children do not commit society’s worst crimes. However, Dupre believes Yates’ death is especially troubling. “You’ve got to be up close to do that,” said Dupre. “It’s a very personal, violent act. You don’t do it by accident.” MCKINNEY FACES UPHILL BATTLE The New York Times is keeping an eye on Georgia’s first black congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, who hopes to return to Washington after losing in the Democratic primary to Denise Majette in 2002. McKinney, who had held her seat for 10 years, caused a furor when her comments about the Mideast and terrorism appeared to criticize President Bush and support Palestinian causes. UGA political scientist Charles Bullock said McKinney’s comments would definitely harm her chances of regaining her seat. “She’s such a well-known quantity now, it would be difficult to redefine herself,” said Bullock, who noted that white voters were key to the 2002 primary victory of Majette, who, like McKinney, is an African American. CURING BAD TASTE AND “FISH BURPS” Omega-3 fish oil, credited with a number of health benefits—reduced risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes—also has had a significant drawback: bad taste in the liquid form and “fish burps” from the capsules. UGA food scientist Casimir Akoh told The Indianapolis Star that he has curbed these problems by creating a new odorless, non-fishy oil that is more easily metabolized.

Molecular genetics prof is pioneer in the analysis of plant genomes
NAS taps Bennetzen

Bennetzen is the first UGA faculty member named to NAS since Susan Wessler was elected in 1998 (see related story at right). Bennetzen joins a select group of UGA faculty and alumni who are NAS members. They include Wessler, plant sciences; Wyatt Anderson, John Avise, and Norman Giles (now retired), genetics; Norman Allinger, chemistry; Brent Berlin, anthropology; and Glenn Burton, agron-omy. The late Eugene Odum of ecology and Lois Miller of the departments of entomology and genetics were also members, as are alums Cynthia Kenyon and Cori Bargmann (see feature story on p. 32).

“Jeff Bennetzen’s election not only is a testament to the quality of the University of Georgia faculty but demonstrates once again the vitality of the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar program,” says President Michael F. Adams. “I congratulate Jeff, who has been at the University less than a year, and I appreciate the efforts of the GRA, which was of great assistance in his recruitment.”

“It’s a great pleasure to be elected to the Academy by my fellow scientists,” says Bennetzen. “The students and other colleagues in my laboratory over the years deserve to share in this honor, as their inspiration and hard work were largely responsible for what we have accomplished.”

Bennetzen is a pioneer in the comparative analysis of plant genomes, especially the contribution of transposable elements as generators of diversity. Among his most notable discoveries was the identification of mechanisms of genome growth in grasses.

A professor at Purdue for two decades, Bennetzen received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the UC-San Diego in 1974 and his doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University of Washington in 1980. After earning his Ph.D., he served as a post-doctoral fellow at Washington University, Stanford, and the University of California at Berkeley. From 1981-83, he was a research scientist at the International Plant Research Institute in San Carlos, Calif., before joining the department of biological sciences at Purdue.

Wessler named NAS councilor

Susan Wessler, Distinguished Research Professor of plant sciences, has been elected a councilor of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. An NAS member since 1998, Wessler joins the Council of the Academy, which is governed by five officers and 12 councilors, elected from among the membership.

A native of New York City, Wessler received her bachelor’s degree in biology, with honors, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her doctoral degree in biochemistry from Cornell. After serving a postdoctoral fellowship at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. (sponsored by the American Cancer Society and the Carnegie Foundation), she began her career at UGA in 1983 as an assistant professor of botany (now plant sciences), rising through the ranks to full professor of botany in 1992. She became a professor of botany and genetics in the fall of 1993 and a research professor in 1994. She was director of UGA’s Center for Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology from 1991-1996.

Once a tiny school on North Campus, it’s now a full-fledged college on South Campus
A century of pharmacy

UGA’s College of Pharmacy just wrapped up a year of events celebrating the program’s centennial anniversary.

The pharmacy school first opened its doors to students in September 1903, when it occupied three rooms in Science Hall on North Campus. Two months later, Science Hall was destroyed by fire, and classes were delayed until 1905 when they resumed with six students in the newly rebuilt Terrell Hall.

One hundred years later, the school has become a college and it occupies a 100,000-square-foot building on South Campus. It is the fourth centenarian college on campus, in-cluding: Franklin College of Arts and Sciences (1801), College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (1859), School of Law (1859).

A granite marker has been installed on a sidewalk in front of the pharmacy building. The marker bears the college’s centennial logo and was created by Kenneth Williams of the Lamar Dodd School of Art.

FAREWELL TO A FRIEND
On April 16, a memorial service was held in honor of UGA English professor Hugh Kenner, one of the giants of 20th-century literary criticism. The service included video footage of Kenner (see photo at left). Among the featured speakers was author and political commentator William F. Buckley (inset), who was a long-time friend of Kenner. Considered the country’s leading expert on the works of Ezra Pound and James Joyce, Kenner spent the last decade of his career on the faculty at UGA. Upon his death, in November at the age of 80, The New York Times published an obituary that ran nearly 1,000 words.