Tags: Human Nature


The Impact of Giving

Scholarship and research support from private giving to the Franklin College avails our students and faculty of broad opportunities across every aspect of society. This short video, featuring a student and one of our donors, elaborates on the impact of giving:      

transporting miscanthus
New genetics research: direct conversion of biomass

More potentially transformative new research from the department of genetics, this time in the realm of transportation fuels. For sometime now, biofuels have held great promise - and have been the focus of great controversy. But the economics of the conversion process of grasses to fuels may have finally seen its last barrier fall: Pre-treatment of the biomass feedstock—non-food crops such as switchgrass and miscanthus—is the step of…


Alums We Love

We love all of our alums and play no favorites here - and we especially love when our graduates and their exploits find their way into the media, as is the case today with great friend of the blog, Chris Bilheimer: For more than two decades Chris Bilheimer has designed album covers, concert posters, rock T-shirts and more as art director for R.E.M. and freelancer for other bands, notably Green Day, Widespread Panic and Neutral Milk Hotel. Now he…


Staff profile: Jerry Daniel

"It's been very rewarding; I've grown a lot personally and professionally," Daniel said. "I've also met a lot of great people in private businesses and at UGA." Thanks to a great colleague, one of the many people who make the university such a great place to work and to learn. Image: Jerry Daniel, courtesy of UGA Photographic Services.


Study deepens the connection between hypoxia and cancer growth

There are a number of species that have a low to negligible probability of developing cancer. These include squirrels, turtles, the mole rat and certain whales. The reasons why are linked to these species' ability to adapt their oxygen demand when faced with a low oxygen supply. That connection itself goes back to a discover by the great physiologist and Nobel laureate Otto Warburg, who hypothesized in 1924 that, whatever the secondary causes of…


Knox tornado research and social media

Research by associate professor of geography John Knox on the use of Facebook to track tornado debris was one of our biggest stories of last year. A nice story this week on Knox and his research in his hometown paper in Birmingham, AL: Knox's research can be applied to more than household debris. Toxic waste, for example. What would happen if a tornado hit a Superfund site? "So maybe at some deep point in the future we'll be issuing watch boxes…


Amazing student Allison Koch

A.B. in anthropology, A.B. in Latin American and Caribbean studies, minor in ecology Freshman year, I pursued interests in archeology, interning for a semester in the archeology lab under Jared Wood. I worked on digitizing data for a Native American mound site in Southwest Georgia. The following summer, I interned in Malang, Indonesia, teaching English at a kindergarten and living with a host family for nearly two months. This was a…


A brush with royalty

  Marshall Scholar and Franklin College alumnus Matt Sellers (BA ’12) recently attended a reception with Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales and Honorary Patron of the Association of Marshall Scholars, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Marshall Scholarships. At the reception, held at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, the Prince of Wales awarded several Marshall Medals to individuals of outstanding achievement. The event…


Joye: Deepwater Horizon spill effects require long-term study

A new study in Nature Geoscience by UGA marine scientist Samantha Joye questions the fate of methane released from the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf and provides evidence that microbes may not be capable of removing contaminants as quickly and easily as once thought. "Most of the gas injected into the Gulf was methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change, so we were naturally concerned that this potent greenhouse…


Gragson to lead research project in France

The south of France contains some of the richest evidence documenting human activity across the ages. Anthropology professor Ted Gragson, who regularly works in the region, will now a lead a major research project at the Université de Toulouse: Gragson has been awarded more than $900,000 as part of a research project and visiting professor appointment funded by the French government. The IDEX—Initiatives d'excellence—program is designed to…


NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Graduate research fellowships are some of the most important investments of extramural funding. This is 'seed money' for tomorrow's best scientists, many of whom are right here on the UGA campus. Evidence of that is 11 new National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships announced today: The program fellowships, which recognize and support outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, are among the…

stadium at night
Spring Commencement 2014

It's a great week on campus. The 2014 Spring Undergraduate Commencement exercise will be held on Friday, May 9, 2014 at 7 p.m. inside Sanford Stadium. Athens is beginning to flow with excited and proud parents, family members as well as the graduates themselves. An exciting time for all involved, and the reason at the center of all activity at the university. Commencement itself then is a spectacle equal to grandeur of the occasion. And in that…

Obama with group
Presidential Early Career Award

Our highly accomplished faculty members are awarded a number of grants and individual honors on a regular basis, which of course keeps the Chronicles blog humming right along. This acknowledge of chemistry professor Gary Douberly by President Obama is yet again a very significant distinction we are quite pleased to share: [Douberly] was among a group of over 100 leading researchers nationwide who were honored recently at the White House as…


American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Some of the world's most accomplished leaders from academia, business, public affairs, the humanities, and the arts have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Joining their ranks this year is professor in our department of anthropology, Elizabeth Reitz: One of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies, the Academy is also a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to Academy…


April Kudos

April is the month when many awards are announced and this April is no different at the Franklin College. Our students and faculty distinguished themselves and our entire community with major accomplishments, including: Sarah Mirza, an Honors student majoring in Spanish and geography, has received a 2014 Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which recognizes juniors with exceptional leadership potential who are committed to careers in government and…


Chiral metamaterials

Most materials in nature take their properties from the atoms of which they are made-we can see through glass because it is made from silicon dioxide, which has an atomic structure that does not impede visible light. Scientists can arrange matter to interact differently with light, or to interact in specific ways. The resulting metamaterials take their properties both from their structure and the materials from which they are made. This is a…


Faculty in the Media, April 2014

University of Georgia oceanographer Mandy Joye talks about the work scientists will be doing in the Gulf of Mexico on board the research vessel Atlantis and and the submersible Alvin, background. JOHN FITZHUGH — SUN HERALD On the leading issues of day, new discoveries, prestigious awards and newly published studies, Franklin Faculty continue to speak out and receive coverage across a variety of media. A sample: Joye leads research group back to…


Bulldogs Excel at GW's Lafayette Debates

Last week, we reported that UGA sent two students to the 2014 Lafayette Debates hosted by George Washington University and the French government in Washington, D.C. How'd they do? Pretty well, of course: The team of Amy Feinberg and Eilidh Geddes had a wondefully successful tournament at the recent Lafayette Debates held at George Washington University and sponsored by the French Embassy.  The team defeated teams from Georgetown, Ecole de…

Dhar in her lab
New drug formulation for cancer treatment

Great new research from the department of chemistry: The drug dichloroacetate, or DCA, was touted as a cure-all, but after years of work, scientists are still searching for ways to make the unique treatment as effective as possible. Now, researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered a new way to deliver this drug that may one day make it a viable treatment for numerous forms of cancer. They published their findings in the American…

people playing intruments
Athens Music Project Symposium April 17

Besides providing a gratuitous opportunity to post this phot of Pylon from 1979 (wow), the Athens Music Project, a Willson Center Research Cluster featuring Franklin faculty, is presenting the community with signifciant cultural dividends: The Athens Music Project will hold its first symposium April 17 from 4-8 p.m. in the auditorium of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries at the University of Georgia. The AMP is a…

student with computer
Goldwater Scholars, Carnegie Junior Research Fellowship

Franklin College students continue to distinguish the University of Georgia by winning elite scholarships and fellowships. Earlier this week, Honors students Tuan Nguyen and Amy Webster were named 2014 Barry M. Goldwater Scholars: The UGA Goldwater Scholars are among a group of 283 recipients of the one- and two-year scholarships that recognize exceptional sophomores and juniors in engineering, mathematics and the natural sciences. UGA students…


Fashion and the Georgia Museum of Art

The Georgia Museum of Art will host a day of events on April 3 that bring together important parts of what will be highlighted during Thinc week as well. Start-ups are in fashion, in more ways than one: The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia will present a free lecture by Spoonflower cofounder Stephen Fraser April 3 at 11 a.m. in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium. Spoonflower is a web-based digital printing company that allows…


Ice sheet melt into the oceans: what to expect

  Image: meltwater runoff from the ice sheet margin in Greenland during summer 2013, courtesy of Thomas Mote.


2014 CURO Symposium

Once again the best in UGA undergraduate research, heavy with Franklin College students, will be presented at the annual symposium by the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities March 31 and April 1 at the Classic Center in downtown Athens: Since its inception in 1999, the CURO Symposium has provided a public space for students from all academic disciplines to share their research with their peers, the UGA research community and…

girls on steps, with laptops smiling
Maymester 2014: Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Arts and Sciences

Current UGA students are availed of a unique opportunity for course credit and valuable career preparation this upcoming Maymester, 2014. Boot Camp: Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Arts and Sciences FCID 3800: Leadership in the Arts and Sciences (3 credits) Students will explore the application of arts and sciences educational foundations to practical issues of leadership and innovation. Individual assessments of leadership skills will help…
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