WRITER: Sara Drake, (706) 583-0599, rcomm@uga.edu Embargoed until UGA FACULTY, GRADUATE STUDENTS HONORED
FOR RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENT CREATIVE RESEARCH AWARDS The Creative Research Awards are presented to UGA faculty
who have achieved national and international recognition for outstanding
scholarly or creative work. This year Steven
R. H. Beach received the William A. Owens Award for research in the
social and behavioral sciences and David
J. Benson received the Lamar Dodd Award for research in the sciences.
The Albert Christ-Janer Award for the humanities was not awarded. Steven R. H.
Beach, director of the Institute for Behavioral Research and psychology
professor, studies the relationship between marital discord and depression.
Beach has shown that marital relationships can play a role in recovery
from depression and his research highlights how marriage can help preserve
physical and mental health. He has written two books based on his research, Depression
in Marriage and Marital and Family Processes in Depression.
Beach also studies physical aggression, defensiveness and forgiveness
in relation to marriage and the family. He has published more than
100 peer-reviewed papers and has received more than $1.8 million in
research funding. David J. Benson, Distinguished Research Professor of Mathematics, has made important contributions to basic mathematical research. In addition to investigating representation theory and algebraic topology, Benson studies cohomology of finite groups - a branch of algebra that has applications in chemistry and physics. Among the four books he has published related to his research, Benson's two-volume series on representations and cohomology has become a standard reference tool. Benson, who is currently working on a book about music and mathematics, was awarded the London Mathematical Society's Junior Whitehead Prize in 1993 and a UGA Creative Research Medal in 1998. INVENTOR'S AWARD One award is presented annually to an inventor who has
made a unique and innovative discovery that has had a beneficial impact
on the community. Richard B. Meagher,
a genetics professor, received the Inventor's Award for his contributions
to molecular biology and to the field of phytoremediation - the use of
plants to clean up the environment. Meagher developed the first genetically
engineered plants to remove mercury from contaminated soil by inserting
mercury detoxifying genes, merA and merB, into a plant's genome. He conducted
the first field test of trees containing these genes at a mercury-contaminated
site in CREATIVE RESEARCH MEDALS Creative Research Medals are given to faculty for outstanding
research or creative activities on a single theme while at UGA. This
year's recipients are Gary A.
Dudley, Uwe Happek, Dino J. Lorenzini, Robert J. Maier and William
H. Quinn. Dudley, Distinguished
Research Professor and director of UGA's muscle
biology laboratory, has found that the high rates of diabetes, heart
disease and obesity that often plague individuals with spinal cord injuries
may be related to a loss of skeletal muscle mass. His studies show that
electrical stimulation can restore inactive muscles to pre-injury size. Happek,
a physics professor, conducts research on condensed matter, an area
of physics that investigates materials and their properties. Happek
studies the light-emitting properties of phosphors, which are materials
widely used in fluorescent lighting, TV screens and medical imaging
equipment. Phosphors, made of a "host" material interspersed with rare
earth or transition metal ions, emit visible light following exposure
to UV light. Happek has developed two new methods to measure energy
levels of rare earth ions and host materials. Such information may contribute to developing better phosphors.
Happek collaborates with researchers in the Lorenzini,
a mathematics professor, is a leader in the field of arithmetic geometry,
the study of polynomial equations and their solutions. His research involves
equations that can elucidate the structure of curves and related objects.
In collaboration with Professor Siegfried Bosch of the Universität Müenster,
Lorenzini found a relationship between the model of a curve and an associated
geometric object. His research also has provided insight into Thue equations - polynomial
equations whose solutions have been sought by mathematicians for almost
a century. Lorenzini published two papers in the prestigious mathematics
journal, Inventiones Mathematicae,
in the same year. Maier, GRA-Ramsey
Eminent Scholar in Microbial Physiology, studies hydrogenases, which
are enzymes that play a role in bacterial energy metabolism. Maier has
shown that a stomach-inhabiting bacterium possesses a specific hydrogenase
that enables it to use hydrogen as an energy source. The bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, is common in the human stomach and is linked
to peptic ulcers and stomach cancer. This is the first demonstration
of the role of hydrogen gas in disease-causing organisms. The hydrogenase
does not occur in humans and could be a target for future drug development.
Ongoing work may link hydrogen gas with other pathogenic bacteria, such
as those associated with liver cancer, typhoid fever and food poisoning. Quinn, a
child and family development professor, directs the Family Solutions
Program. The non-profit organization draws on UGA research findings to
help juvenile first-offenders choose a different life path. Of the 750
program graduates, only 24 percent have been charged a second time compared
with 59 percent of a control group who did not participate. The UGA-developed
program is currently in use in DISTINGUISHED RESEARCH PROFESSORS This designation is awarded to professors whose work
is nationally and internationally recognized as being of the highest
caliber. The five faculty honored this year are Casimir
C. Akoh, Valery Alexeev, Francis B. Assaf, Gary D. Grossman and Randy
W. Kamphaus. Akoh, a food
science and technology professor, creates structured lipids, such as
low-calorie fats, by breaking apart plant and animal fatty acid chains
and recombining them into simpler, more nutritious fat substitutes. His
work contributed to Alexeev,
a mathematics professor, focuses on issues in algebraic geometry. Alexeev published an extensive, 97-page work in the Annals of Mathematics in 2002 that covered
a new branch of research in algebraic geometry. He shares his mathematical
expertise with the community by helping to organize high school math
competitions and preparing high school students for the American Regional
Mathematics League. He has been awarded the Sloan Foundation fellowship
and a 2002 UGA Creative Research Medal. Alexeev collaborates with leading
mathematicians, such as Shigefumi Mori, a Fields Medalist, and has been
called "a brilliant and original mathematician." Assaf, a
French professor, studies the literature and culture of 17th and
18th century Grossman, an animal ecology professor, studies the effects of species interactions
and the environment on freshwater fish community structure and resource
use. Grossman conducts his long-term research in Kamphaus, professor and head of the department of educational psychology, has
developed a student assessment tool, called the Behavior Assessment
System for Children, that evaluates behavior based on a range of characteristics.
The system helps teachers group children into seven distinct types
of behavioral adjustment ranging from well adapted to disruptive. One
of the world's most recommended evaluation systems, the assessment
system helps educators determine the needs of individual students.
Currently, Kamphaus is using the system to assess 5,000 children in
a CDC-funded study of middle school violence. Kamphaus has written
or edited nine books including the Clinical Assessment of Children's Intelligence, a popular text used by top universities. ROBERT C. ANDERSON MEMORIAL AWARDS This award is given to a recent graduate who exhibits
outstanding research while at UGA and immediately thereafter. It is named
for the late Robert C. Anderson, UGA's former vice president for research
and former president of the Junglas,
a recent graduate in management information systems, explores "ultimate
commerce" or u-commerce. This emerging way of doing business may someday
enable people and businesses to interact "anytime, anywhere" about "anything" via
mobile devices. U-commerce would also provide information about a user's
identity, geographical position and preferences. Junglas established
an experimental wireless network on campus and developed software to
track an individual's location using mobile devices, such as personal
digital assistants. Her work has been featured in The New
York Times and International Herald Tribune. Zhong, a recent doctoral graduate in cellular biology, studies proteins that regulate cell cycles. Using the nematode C. elegans, Zhong discovered that the proteins CUL-2 and CUL-4 regulate key processes in cell division, including S phase when DNA is synthesized. CUL-2 facilitates the beginning of S phase and ensures equal distribution of DNA between two daughter cells upon cell division; CUL-4 prevents over-replication of DNA in S phase. Zhong's work has applications in basic cell cycle studies as well as in cancer research. JAMES L. CARMON AWARD This award is named for the late UGA faculty member
James L. Carmon who was a leader in computer research and development. Eric R. Rochester and Qin Zhang were presented with the James
L. Carmon Award for their novel use of computers. Zhang, a doctoral candidate in physics, is developing a "virtual nano-lab" to study tiny clusters of atoms called nanoparticles. Zhang already has used his virtual lab to investigate metal-carbide nanocrystals, microscopic complexes of metal and carbon with potential applications that range from sensitive chemical detectors to superior heat-resistant materials. Once refined, a simpler form of his virtual lab will be available for undergraduate physics courses. GRADUATE STUDENT EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARDS These awards are presented to graduate students who
have exhibited exceptional scholarship in humanities and letters, professional
and applied studies, fine arts, life sciences, and mathematical and physical
sciences. This year's recipients are Rebecca
L. Childs, Ajit M. Menon, Cynthia A. Payne and Kathryn P. Sutherland. The award for
mathematical and physical sciences was not given this year. Childs, a
doctoral candidate in linguistics, examines the vowel pronunciation of
African Americans in Menon, a
doctoral candidate in the Payne, a
recent doctoral graduate in art history, studied a High-Renaissance mosaic
in a small chapel of a church in Sutherland,
a recent doctoral graduate in marine sciences, has identified the disease
agent responsible for the decimation of corals in the waters surrounding For more information, visit the Web site www.ovpr.uga.edu/creativeresearch/index.html
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