The UGA Statistical Consulting Center (SCC) announces its inaugural short course, “Exploratory Data Analysis in Excel”. This two hour mini-workshop will be open to faculty, staff and students from Franklin College. The recommended audience is researchers who are new to quantitative research, and who want to learn some simple methods for understanding and displaying data in Excel. A background in statistics is not required.

This hands-on short course includes discussion that will

A major new grant to the department of mathematics to help in attracting students to this essential foundational discipline:

Behind every facet of digital communication is a well-trained mathematician, and the University of Georgia mathematics department is on the front lines of training for this ever-increasing field of employment.

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Having spent some time recently with one of our terrific (and longest-running) study abroad programs, I can vouch for the impact they have on our students. The echo of these experiences reverberate back on campus, in our classrooms, in the lives of our students as they resume their studies back in Athens, and in the host countries and cities our programs call home (away from home).

As science moves forward, disease treatment regimes become more refined, safer and more effective. Great news from Shanta Dhar's research lab in the department of chemistry:

Dhar, assistant professor of chemistry in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and Rakesh Pathak, a postdoctoral researcher in Dhar's lab, constructed a modified version of cisplatin called Platin-M, which is designed to overcome this resistance by attacking mitochondria within cancerous cells. They published their findings recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More on this soon, but 30 students (graduate and undergraduate) in the Lamar Dodd School of Art enjoyed a great experience on a new Maymester program in the spring - a field study in New York City. Students had the opportunity to visit all the big museums plus a number of galleries throughout the city, interact with many UGA alumni as well as incoming LDSOA director Chris Garvin. Now that's a fun way to learn.

Image collage courtesy of Marni Shindelman.

It is difficult to defend the humanities and simultaneously champion the idea that they must change with the times. An article in the CHE shows the Mellon Foundation grappling with this contradiction:

2014 doctoral graduate in the department of chemistry Robert J. Gilliard, Jr., has been awarded a UNCF/Merck Foundation Postdoctoral Science Research Fellowship. The award provides $92,000 and includes a stipend, research grant and travel funds for up to two years of fellowship tenure:

Athens and the University of Georgia enjoy a world-renown that far outstrips the dimensions of the Northeast Georgia town itself or even a major American university. Why is that? How is it possible that this local symbiosis produces acknowledgement and acclaim from every corner on the globe? Artists ansd supporters have been unpacking this question in a series of arts shows that continues through July 26. There is a lot to unearth, perhaps learn from but at least recognize the lasting effects of Art Rocks Athens: