Tags: Earth

photo of grads in caps and gowns
Spring Commencement 2018

Today is The Day - all of the studying, books, classes, exams, friends, professors, meetings, study guides, notecards, letters home, study abroad experiences, internships, parttime jobs, scholarships, sporting events, weekends, pranks, performances, all-nighters, early coffees, late dinners, awards, honors, roommates, majors, DECISIONS, networking, buses, connections, papers, grades, interviews, accomplishments. It has all built up to this.…

grid of six headshots
Kudos, April 2018

Awards season celebrates many of our best and the accolades continue for Franklin College faculty and students. Among the many honors, inductions and elections: Janet Westpheling, professor of genetics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is president-electof the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. SIMB is a nonprofit, international association dedicated to the advancement of microbiological sciences,…

Photo one woman treating another in a lab
Undergraduates present research at CURO Symposium

Presentations on the best of UGA undergraduate research are underway at the annual CURO Symposium, held this year on April 9-10 at the Classic Center in downtown Athens: Hosted by CURO, the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities, this year’s symposium is the largest to date, with more than 575 participants. These undergraduates are pursuing 103 different majors from 14 UGA schools and colleges. Collectively, they are…

photo of woman with graphics
World Anthropology Day, Feb 15

color tapestry based on CERN
Capturing Science contest winners

Congratulations to the student winners of the Inaugural Capturing Science contest sponsored by the University of Georgia Libraries and the Office of Research to communicate science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, concepts using any media or genre: In the graduate category, the first-place winner [microbiology PhD candidate] Megan Prescott received $500 for her submission “Designing Science-Fashion Content.” Katlin Shae […

woman with telescope in the background
Focus on the faculty: Robin Shelton

The impact of my research is that it has moved forward our understanding of the galaxy in which we live. How does your research or scholarship inspire your teaching, and vice versa? Students greatly enjoy when I tell them about the newest astronomical discoveries. Some of that information is learned at scientific meetings that I attend as part of my research and scholarship duties. Probably, my scientific presentations have benefited from…

photo of kids with microscope and computer
Bio sciences lab team brings science to life for elementary school students

"Our community and our school have deep schisms in our population, having both students whose families live in poverty and those who live in affluence, so it is crucial that we provide extra enrichment and sparks to learning for them all," Mullins said. "UGA is a treasure trove for us and the community at large." Indeed, Ms. Mullins. And Barrow Elementary is itself one of our community jewels, educating Athens school kids adjacent to UGA in a…

woman at smart board, photo
Interdisciplinary classroom: Go ask ALICE

Created by Gutierrez, professor of ­mathematics, and his students as a part of a National Science Foundation grant, ALICE is 21 years in the making and originally began as a program called Literatronica as part of an adaptive learning grant.  In discovering how and why UGA continues its ascent among colleges and universities, the answers keep tumbling out of creative faculty, engaged students and novel uses of technology within the…

honey been taking pollen from asparagus plant
How sex chromosomes diverged within a species

New research from an international team of breeders, genome scientists, and plant biologists at UGA sheds light on longstanding questions about the origin and early evolution of sex chromosomes, and at the same time serves as a foundation for asparagus breeding efforts: While most flowering plants are hermaphrodites, garden asparagus plants are typically either male (XY) or female (XX), although YY "supermales" can be produced in the…

climate map shaded red
Courage on Climate Change

The Office of Sustainability hosts a discussion today with former U.S. congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC), "Finding the Courage to Come Together on Climate Change": Mr. Inglis is a six term congressman from South Carolina who is advocating a free market approach to begin dealing with the problems associated with the burning of fossil fuels. He is currently Executive Director of republicEn.org, a growing grassroots community of over 3,750…

photo of actors in stage
Noted and Quoted, October 2017

Franklin faculty, students and alumni continue to appear in a variety of media around the world. A sampling of October news about and by our colleagues: Study provides first estimate of total U.S. population with felony convictions – research by associate professor of sociology Sarah Shannon at Phys.org “Something tropical” in the Gulf of Mexico this weekend? Hurricane season is not over, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor…

photo collage with book cover
Kudos, October 2017

New research projects, diversity certificates and a musical premiere highlight accomplishments of faculty, students and staff during October. A sample: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) awarded more than $9 million in grants to explore gaps in knowledge about antibiotic resistance and pilot innovative solutions in the healthcare, veterinary, and agriculture industries. Professor of plant biology and Franklin College associate dean Michelle…

portion of book cover, with photo and text
Indigeneity and the Sacred

A new book on sacred natural sites, Indigeneity and the Sacred: Indigenous Revival and the Conservation of Sacred Natural Sites in the Americas, was recently published by Berghahn Books: The conservation of sites that indigenous people hold sacred has taken urgency as globalization and population growth increased demands for resources in the mountains of the Western Hemisphere.  Fausto O. Sarmiento, a professor of Geography and director of…

graphic sketch of people and symbols
Eminent Scholars at UGA

Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholars at the University of Georgia are engaged in groundbreaking scientific research that not only tackles grand challenges facing the world, but also has the potential to create jobs: Since 1990, the nonprofit Georgia Research Alliance has partnered with the state's research universities to recruit world-class scientists who foster science- and technology-based economic development. At UGA, these…

switchgrass with blue sky, photo
Unlocking the potential of biomass: DOE announces new projects

The Department of Energy’s Agile BioFoundry announced October 2 the commencement of seven projects with industry partners and a University of Georgia microbiology lab under the recent $5M Directed Funding Opportunity: The Agile BioFoundry is focused on developing, deploying and uniting tools, technologies, software, and instrumentation across the National Laboratory system for the robust and predictive engineering of biology for the production…

photo of man with books
Cherokee scholar to present AIR talk Sept. 21

Justice is professor in First Nations and Indigenous Studies in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, with a cross-appointment in English, at the University of British Columbia. He is author of Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History and numerous essays in the field of indigenous literary studies, as well as co-editor of a number of critical and creative anthologies and journals. The richness of American…

woman in lab with fish tank
CUREnet will expand undergraduate research experiences

Despite a nationwide emphasis on increasing the number of students entering science, technology, engineering and math fields, many leave the disciplines within their first two years. Now a group of institutions led by the University of Georgia will spearhead a new phase of development of a national network to support integration of research experiences into undergraduate life science lab courses. The network, called "Course-based Undergraduate…


The eclipse and Sanford Stadium as a classroom

Earlier this week, the UGA community had an opportunity to view the eclipse from a perspective that will go down in the history books. More than 20,000 students, faculty, staff and community members showed up to Sanford Stadium to witness the eclipse, alongside the helpful educational guidance of event organizers from our very own department of geography and atmospheric sciences program. While Athens was not in the path of totality, the event…

eclipse graphic - black and white
Solar eclipse of 2017

Today is the day. Beginning about 1 p.m. and peaking at approximately 2:38 p.m., the Moon will pass between the Sun and the Earth. Professor of geography John Knox, who led the organization of a massive viewing opportunity at Stanford Stadum, explains.     Go to the stadium, or just get outside somewhere this afternoon for this very rare event. Some reminders: -Viewing the eclipse directly without protective glasses may result in…

two head shots, man and woman
Joye, Shepherd receive major career awards

Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Arts and Sciences Samantha Joye and Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor Marshall Shepherd recently received career-defining professional awards: Professor of marine sciences and director of the Ecosystem Impacts of Oil and Gas Inputs to the Gulf research consortium, Joye has been elected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. An international nonprofit scientific…

graphic of global circulation
Solar eclipse - teachable afternoon about the sun and climate

The University of Georgia will host a viewing party of the solar eclipse on August 21. Professor Marshall Shepherd uses his Forbes column to underscore a crucial point about the rare event: Intuitively, I think most people understand that we have seasons because the Earth is tilted on its axis as it rotates around the sun. We are currently in northern (southern) hemisphere summer (winter) because that hemisphere is tilting toward…

seawall with beach
Marine scientists evaluate coastal armoring

Overlapping constituencies and interests strive to preserve an appreciation for beauty and "nature" but perhaps without the accompanying respect for how nature actually works. This new NSF-supported study highlights that there is just so much that we don't understand about how the world works: For nearly a century, the O'Shaughnessy seawall has held back the sand and seas of San Francisco's Ocean Beach. At work even longer: the Galveston seawall…

photo of GORILLA IN THE JUNGLE
Anthropology professor helps Hollywood get 'Apes' right

A rare story combining social science scholarship and the entertainment industry brings anthropology professor Roberta Salmi to the movies: Recordings of gorilla sounds are extremely rare, so sounds used in the entertainment industry are generally not obtained from actual gorillas. In films, they are usually portrayed as screaming, aggressive beasts, when they are actually the opposite. For this summer's blockbuster "War for the Planet of the…

man in marsh, photo
Alexander named director of Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

Marine sciences professor Clark Alexander has been named director of the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography: [Alexander] has served as interim director of the Skidaway Institute for the past year. As director of the Skidaway Institute, he will continue to oversee its personnel, budgets and facilities and report to the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. "The Skidaway Institute of…

graphic with text and radar
The science of rain delays

Spatio-temporal rainfall patterns around Atlanta, Georgia and possible relationships to urban land cover. Great stuff. Baseball fans (and teams) are weather watchers comparable perhaps only to farmers. This new work builds on the urban heat island phenomenon Shepherd has published on previously, and like the best science, may help the public make sense out of a puzzling situation.  
Subscribe to Earth

Support Franklin College

We appreciate your financial support. Your gift is important to us and helps support critical opportunities for students and faculty alike, including lectures, travel support, and any number of educational events that augment the classroom experience. Click here to learn more about giving.

Every dollar given has a direct impact upon our students and faculty.