Kudos, September 2020

Congratulations to our many colleagues on recent accolades and achievements, inspiring our work with their excellence in teaching, research and outreach:

Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt, Richard B. Russell Professor in American History, was named to the nonfiction Longlist for the 2020 National Book Award

Three University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences faculty members were recognized with 2020 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards from the National Science Foundation: assistant professor Rachel Roberts-Galbraith, associate professor Julie Stanton of the cellular biology department and assistant professor Jaewoo Lee of the computer science department

Michael White, assistant professor in the department of genetics, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program

Mathematics department assistant professor Lin Mu received a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge National Laboratories, competitive research awards that provide seed money for junior faculty members at ORAU member institutions

Gregory Strauss, assistant professor psychology, will lead UGA efforts as part of a 27-institution, $52M NIH grant to better understand the cause and effect of schizophrenia in some high-risk adolescents and young adults

Three UGA doctoral students have been named 2020 ARCS Scholars by the Office of Research. Alyssa Baugh, Katie Duval and Liju Mathew, all in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, will receive $8,000 each for the 2020-21 academic year

Mattia Pistone, assistant professor of petrology and vulcanology in the department of geology, is one five PIs based at European institutions recently funded by ICDP (International Continental Drilling Program) with $1M supporting the DIVE (Drilling the Ivrea-Verbano zonE) project. This project aims at unravelling the chemistry, physics, and microbiology of the roots of the Earth’s continental crust and the crust–mantle transition in the most complete crust–upper mantle archive in the world: the Ivrea–Verbano Zone (Western Alps, Italy)

The National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health recently granted a Career Award to Jiaying Liu, assistant professor in the department of communication studies. The five-year, nearly $1 million grant will allow Liu to gain additional training in functional magnetic resonance imaging methods (fMRI), investigate the underlying mechanisms of nicotine addiction, and conduct a longitudinal messaging intervention among young adult e-cigarette users

Plant Biology Doctoral Student Jacqueline Joye Peña and her advisor assistant Professor Douda Bensasson received the Gilliam Graduate Fellowship Grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which provides support for professional development workshops and a competitive stipend in addition to allowance for diversity and inclusion activities at the graduate level

Richard Meagher, Distinguished Research Professor of Genetics, and Ronald Orlando, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and chemistry, were named by the National Academy of Inventors to the 2020 class of NAI Senior Members, the first UGA researchers to receive the senior membership distinction

The University of Georgia Dual Degree Program in Engineering and German, one of the university’s signature initiatives combining Humanities and STEM disciplines, has been awarded a new grant from the Atlanta-based The Halle Foundation—named after the late Claus M. Halle, a German native who had a brilliant career with the Coca-Cola company—to support international engagement and recruitment initiatives

Image: The 2020 ARCS Scholars, from left, Alyssa Baugh, Liju Mathew and Katie Duval. (Photos by Abigail Butcher)