2005
Graduate Student Awards
ROBERT C. ANDERSON MEMORIAL AWARDS
for outstanding
research by recent UGA graduates
Hannah K. Knudsen, a recent doctoral graduate in sociology, analyzes decision-making processes in large organizations. Her research encompasses many areas, including drug abuse treatment programs and the mental health effects of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Drawing on earlier work on drug abuse in the workplace, she determined that although Americans mourned the lives lost in the September 11th attacks, there was no lasting impact in terms of alcohol consumption and depression. As an assistant research scientist at the Center for Research on Behavioral Health and Human Services Delivery, Dr. Knudsen’s current work focuses on implementation of drug-abuse treatment innovations. Substance-abuse treatment organizations have considerable difficulties changing their practices due in part to high employee turnover rates. She helped identify the behaviors that cause this problem and now is finding ways to reduce turnover in the workplace. Dr. Knudsen’s publication record “unparalleled in scope and productivity,” said Thomas F. Hilton, Program Official for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She has published 10 journal articles in the past two years and participated in five conference presentations in 2004.
Rupal Thazhath, a recent doctoral graduate in cellular biology, studies a little-understood mechanism that affects normal cell functions such as movement and cell division. Cells have an internal support system of filaments made of a protein called tubulin. These filaments also occur in motile, hair-like structures called cilia found in many tissues including lungs. Dr. Thazhath analyzed changes that occur in tubulin during cell division. She discovered that if tubulin does not undergo an obscure biochemical process called glycylation, a cell will not divide but may develop multiple nuclei and eventually swell grotesquely or die. She also discovered that the process of glycylation controls assembly of cilia. Many types of diseases are caused by abnormal function of cilia including polycystic kidney disease, respiratory distress and infertility. Dr. Thazhath’s discoveries — which her nominators called “stunning and unexpected” — was published in Nature Cell Biology, Molecular Biology of the Cell and The Journal of Cell Biology. She was an invited speaker at the 2003 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s Ciliate Molecular Biology Conference.
JAMES L. CARMON AWARD
for innovative use of computers by a UGA graduate student
(James L. Carmon Honorarium)
Jeremy R. Gulley, a doctoral student in physics and astronomy, writes software that predicts the impact of laser pulses as they propagate through optical devices. Because modern commercial lasers can emit extremely short, high intensity pulses, they can alter optical components and systems by temporarily turning ordinary pieces of glass into high-powered lenses. Mr. Gulley’s software shows where this is a risk and also can predict instances where inferior quality equipment must be replaced to avoid jeopardizing the validity of experimental results or even damaging costly laboratory equipment. Mr. Gulley presented his work at the inaugural University of Georgia Engineering Conference and is considered an integral member of Dr. Bill Dennis’ nonlinear spectroscopy research group.
(James L. Carmon Scholarship Award)
Congzhou He, a doctoral student in computer science, uses computers to study and analyze speech patterns, especially of people with schizophrenia. For her master’s degree, she developed a computer program that detects the effects of a drug that produces schizophrenia-like impairments in speech patterns. Like people with schizophrenia, individuals who take the drug tend to speak slowly and monotonously and use simple sentences, although these symptoms are not always audible even to the trained ear. Ms. He’s program detected inaudible effects with 97 percent accuracy and helped reveal distinctive speech patterns common to schizophrenia. Ms. He is now combining her original algorithms with natural-language-understanding techniques to develop software that can can detect, analyze and diagnose speech patterns associated with schizophrenia.
GRADUATE STUDENT EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARDS
for significant graduate student scholarship
Excellence in fine arts
John W. Amoss, a master’s degree candidate in printmaking, incorporates a Japanese woodblock printing technique called moku-hanga with his background in commercial illustration to create artworks that combine sculpture, painting and print media in a multicultural, multigenerational style. He carves multiple wooden print blocks for one image and then adds metal sheets to give the scene depth. After inventing this technique, he collaborated with a Japanese master printer to design an internationally distributed woodcut. Mr. Amoss’ artwork has been exhibited in
Scotland,
Uganda and
Japan. He has been invited to present his research findings during the Southern Graphics Convention at the Corcoran School of Art and Design in
Washington, D.C., on
April 1, 2005.
Excellence in mathematics & physical science
Victoria Baramidze, a doctoral candidate in mathematics, studies and develops applied mathematical methods that have applications for earth and atmospheric sciences. She specializes in the use of spherical splines, which are mathematical tools that represent functions over spherical objects like the Earth. Ms. Baramidze and her UGA mentor, Professor of Mathematics Ming-Jun Lai, use these splines to describe gravitational fields and densities based on satellite data to advance geodetic and atmospheric science research. Ms. Baramidze received the William Armour Mills Memorial Scholarship in 2002 and the Outstanding Teaching Award in 2004 from the UGA Mathematics Department. She also received the best student paper award at the 2000 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Southeast Atlantic Section Meeting.
Excellence in professional & applied studies
Peter T. Gianiodis, a doctoral student in strategic management, studies the process of transferring and commercializing university discoveries and technologies to industry. His work has shown that how technology transfer offices are configured affects a university’s commercialization success. For example, universities that quickly commercialize inventions produce more revenue. Mr. Gianiodis is a member of a research team that won two best-paper awards: The 2004 Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Award from the foremost scholarly forum for entrepreneurial research and the 2003 McKinsey/Strategic Management Society Best Paper Award from the world’s premier conference in the management field. Mr. Gianiodis, who has presented papers at international venues, has four papers currently in print or under review.
Excellence in life sciences
Michael J. Yabsley, a recent doctoral graduate in veterinary parasitology, studies infectious and parasitic diseases of wildlife, especially those transmissible from animals to humans. His doctoral research focused on a tick-borne bacterium (Ehrlichia chaffeensis) that infects humans and white-tailed deer. He helped develop and validate a surveillance system to monitor the distribution and spread of this emerging disease. The system incorporates geographic information systems (GIS) and indicates locations with infection risks across 18 states. Dr. Yabsley is first author on 10 papers in peer-reviewed journals and a book chapter. His numerous honors include the Society for Tropical Veterinary Medicine’s Norval-Young Award and Achievement Rewards for College Scientists.
Excellence
in humanities & letters
Esther M. Skelley, a doctoral student in international affairs, studies
U.S. democracy programs abroad and analyzes how to measure their results. She has found that developing democracies are likely to alternate between progression and regression for several decades. She also has concluded that
U.S. intervention necessitates a long-term commitment to the consolidation process. Her publications include two articles and a book chapter and she co-authored a monograph on Latin American politics, Communism and elections. Ms. Skelley received the Hillenbrand Fellowship, awarded annually to a high-ranking graduate student in international affairs, and a research assistantship with Dr. Howard Wiarda, Dean Rusk Professor of International Relations.
Source: 26th Annual Research
Awards Program (2005)
