2007
Graduate Student Awards
ROBERT C. ANDERSON MEMORIAL AWARDS
for outstanding
research by recent UGA graduates
Each year two awards are given -- one in natural sciences and one in another field – for an outstanding record of graduate research and innovation. The award is named for the late Robert C. Anderson, UGA’s former vice president for research and former president of the UGA Research Foundation. Jolly Mazumdar and Mariana Souto-Manning received this year’s awards.
Jolly Mazumdar, a recent doctoral graduate in cellular biology, designed, performed and published experiments of exceptional clarity that led to a breakthrough in understanding the fatty acid metabolism of Toxoplasma, an important human parasite. Her work directly benefits drug development programs for several infectious diseases, including malaria and toxoplasmosis. She performed a number of careful studies in tissue culture and mouse models to demonstrate the essentiality of the pathway for sustained parasite growth, both in culture and for pathogenesis in the animal. In the process, she also produced an important data set that will help researchers move forward with this research. Her outstanding research and presentation skills led to a prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where she is working in a leading cancer research lab.
Mariana Souto-Manning, a recent doctoral graduate in language education, established critical narrative analysis as a novel and creative methodology that combines critical discourse and narrative analyses in a mutually beneficial union. She applied this significant qualitative research methodology as a scholar of bilingualism in the early years. In her recently published article in the Bilingual Research Journal, she employs critical narrative analysis to question the legitimacy of specific bilingualism discourses in two Southeastern public schools. Her work shows how bilingualism discourse continues to reflect a deficit orientation and how such an orientation affects students’ educational experiences. Published in the summer of 2006, her work is already being employed by researchers in the U.S., China, Thailand and Israel. She is now an assistant professor in UGA’s Department of Child and Family Development.
JAMES L. CARMON AWARD
for innovative use of computers by a UGA graduate student
These are given in memory of the late James L. Carmon, a professor who was integral to the advancement of computer research and development at UGA. Chih-Horng Kuo received the James L. Carmon Honorarium, and Emily Pritchett received the James L. Carmon Award for their innovative use of computers.
Chih-Horng Kuo, a doctoral candidate in genetics, is working on computational approaches to address two related but quite different biological systems. One project looks at the mathematical modeling of host-parasite interaction and co-evolution. The second focuses on genome evolution in protozoan parasites. For both projects, Kuo developed novel computational approaches to address questions of biological and evolutionary significance. The innovative tools he developed are directly applicable to genome science, a field of growing importance to all aspects of biology. These tools not only benefit Kuo’s own research but also represent a major advance in computational approaches to study genomes. He published three papers from his master’s work, and in his first three years as a PhD candidate, he published three more and is already writing a fourth.
Emily Pritchett, a doctoral candidate in physics and astronomy, is working on the physical implementation of a functional quantum computer. In her first year of graduate school, Pritchett completed a research project using a nanomechanical resonator as a quantum memory element, a basic ingredient for a quantum computer. The project led to a published paper on which she is first author. In a second project, Pritchett devised a highly original and clever way of measuring the quantum friction coefficient, a protocol that experimental collaborators plan to use as soon as possible. This was an unsolved problem in the nanoelectromechanical systems and quantum computing communities. Pritchett’s simulations required not only a deep understanding of quantum mechanics but also a creative and innovative approach that emphasize ingenuity over scale.
GRADUATE STUDENT EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH AWARDS
for significant graduate student scholarship
Presented to recognize the quality and significance of graduate student scholarship, the awards were initiated in 1999 and include $1,000 for each recipient. Awards may be given in five areas: Fine Arts, Humanities and Letters, Life Sciences, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and Professional and Applied Studies.This year’s recipients are Pamela Jane Bonner, Giuseppe Lupis, and Tonya Westbrook.
Pamela Jane Bonner, a recent doctoral graduate in microbiology, made several important discoveries concerning signal transduction and developmental pathways in the bacterium Myxococcusxanthus. From this work she published seven research articles, three as first author, which appeared in top journals, including Molecular Microbiology, Journal of Bacteriology and Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. In addition to her exceptional research, Bonner is also an outstanding teacher and mentor. She received the first Joy Porter Williams Award, a special departmental prize of $1,500 that recognizes excellence in research, teaching and service. In 2004, she received the UGA Teaching Assistant Award, the Presidential Graduate Fellowship, and the ARCS scholarship, among many other awards. She also served as president of the Microbiology Graduate Student Association and as the faculty liaison to the GraduateAffairs Committee.
Giuseppe Lupis, a recent doctoral graduate in music, is a virtuoso pianist whose dissertation, The Published Music of Keith Emerson: Expanding the Solo Piano Repertoire, makes a scholarly and performance-oriented contribution to the field of music. This work presents, for the first time, a biography of Emerson as a composer. It also focuses on three large Emerson works that could convincingly form a full-length solopiano recital. The bibliography material Lupis amassed will be a source of research for years to come. International interest in his work is a testament to the impact this research will have on both music historyand performance.
Tonya Westbrook, a recent doctoral graduate in social work, addressed a significant gap in social work knowledge in her dissertation, Initial Development and Validation of the Child Welfare Organizational Structure Inventory. It defined and measured organizational culture as an important multi-dimensional construct that permeates child welfare practice. Westbrook used existing, professionally endorsed guidelines and recommended practices as well as a sophisticated statistical analysis to explorethe initial validity and reliability characteristics of this new measure. Her work has important implications for addressing employee retention and reducing turnover.
Source: 28th Annual Research
Awards Program (2007)
