News Archive - 2026

Grace Maavere paints a whale mandible
From discovery to art: Bringing a prehistoric whale mandible to life

Last spring, Scott Noakes approached student Grace Maavere with a special project. Maavere, an undergraduate majoring in marine sciences, had earned a fine arts degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design before coming to UGA. Noakes thought she was a perfect fit to realistically paint a cast of a 36,000-year-old gray whale mandible at the University of Georgia’s Center for Applied Isotope Studies (CAIS). Noakes, a CAIS senior research…

Cassandra Hall
NASA grant supports Franklin astrophysicist searching for Earth's origins

Some giant planets appear to have formed millions of years faster than prevailing theories predict. With more than $365,000 in new NASA funding, University of Georgia astrophysicist Cassandra Hall is investigating how that could happen.  Hall, an assistant professor of computational astrophysics in Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, will use computer simulations to determine how two planet formation theories may interact during the…

Anthropology faculty
Anthropology faculty leads $743,658 NEH project to preserve Georgia history

Amanda Roberts Thompson, Carey Garland, and Victor Thompson, faculty in the Department of Anthropology in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, are leading a three-year, $743,658 project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project will preserve materials documenting Georgia from its colonial founding through the Revolutionary era and early statehood. The collaboration will include the Georgia Museum of Natural History…

Students studying
Fiction Writers Program at the Oxbelly Retreat – Internship at the University of Georgia Spring 2027

Students are invited to apply for a Fiction Writers Program internship which will allow them to review the work of some of the most talented aspiring contemporary writers in the world. Students accepted for this internship will contribute to the review process for the 2027 Oxbelly Fiction Writers Program (https://www.oxbelly.com/fiction-writers-program). Interns will join a selection of reviewers from all over the world to review applications…

Thania Galvan and students
$425,000 award supports Franklin research on parenting stress in Latino families

For more than a decade, psychologist Thania Galvan has heard Latino parents describe a gap in the services intended to help their children. While teenagers may receive support through schools, counselors, and community programs, parents often have nowhere to turn with the pressures they carry themselves.  A five-year, $425,000 William T. Grant Scholars Award will allow the University of Georgia researcher to investigate how parenting…

Joseph Dainis and Kaelynn Parker
Cellular biology doctoral students receive NIH fellowships for parasitic disease research

University of Georgia Ph.D. students Joseph Dainis and Kaelynn Parker, both affiliated with the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Disease (CTEGD), have received prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards from the National Institutes of Health that will support their doctoral programs and help them prepare for careers in science. Through the fellowship, Dainis and Parker — doctoral students in Franklin's Department of…

Anna Stenport speaking from behind a podium
Research mixer unites big ideas, disciplines

Big ideas and hands-on learning took the spotlight Tuesday at “Futures, Networks & Creative Technologies,” a Franklin research mixer held in Atlanta. The research mixer  built on the success of previous salon-style events in Athens, featuring six ten-minute talks from faculty representing different disciplines in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.   This year the research mixer traveled to Atlanta as a closing…

image of biosensors (left) and Chris Dundas headshot (right)
UGA researchers build “living measuring sticks” to track impacts of engineered plants

RNA engineering has the potential to grow stronger, more resilient crops, but scientists still need to know how engineered plants impact their environment.  With $650,000 in new federal funding, University of Georgia plant biologist Chris Dundas is developing microbial biosensors—tiny environmental surveyors—to help answer that question.    Dundas's research team, along with Michigan State University chemical engineer and…

Mastodon album
This album rocks: UGA geologist brings fossil-pressed vinyl to life

It’s an album thousands of years in the making – or at least part of it is.    When Atlanta-based metal band Mastodon received real mastodon fossils from a fan, the band members wanted to do something special with them. But for about 20 years, they kept the fossilized teeth safe and intact.    Then, in August, the group approached Franklin’s Department of Geology with an unusual request: Did UGA have a geologist that…

2026 Alumni of Distinction headshots
Three Franklin alumni selected for UGA Graduate School's 2026 Alumni of Distinction

Three alumni from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences join the University of Georgia Graduate School's 2026 Class of Alumni of Distinction.  Derek Alderman, Asma Sharafi, and Monica Turner were recognized alongside four other alumni for their exceptional career success, mentoring, and significant impact in their communities.  Derek Alderman (MA Geography '93; Ph.D. Geography '98)  Alderman is a Chancellor’s Professor of…