Franklin faculty awarded both 2023-2024 University Professorships

University of Georgia faculty members Keith Langston and Paula Lemons have been named the 2023-2024 University Professors in recognition of their influential vision and leadership. Congratulations to our colleagues on this recognition for their dedicated service to the university:

Langston is a professor and head of the department of linguistics and professor of Germanic and Slavic studies in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Lemons is a professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology and serves as the associate dean of social and behavioral sciences in the Franklin College.

For the past 28 years, Langston has shown exemplary commitment to UGA’s mission through his teaching and mentorship, curricular development and academic leadership. During his tenure as Russian language program coordinator in the department of Germanic and Slavic studies, Langston helped to create the A.B. Russian degree program and made numerous other curriculum improvements.

“Dr. Langston’s thoughtful, enthusiastic piloting of our Russian language course offerings was instrumental in UGA’s successful bid to host one of the nation’s eight Russian Flagship Programs,” said Charles Byrd, senior lecturer in the Franklin College department of Germanic and Slavic studies. “Our Russian Flagship Program is currently the nation’s largest and by many measures the most successful.”

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Lemons is a champion of innovation and collaboration at UGA. Most notably, she founded and served for seven years as executive director of the Scientists Engaged in Education Research Center. The center brings together nearly 50 faculty who conduct multidisciplinary STEM education research and use its outcomes in their teaching.

In 2018, Lemons and the SEER Center members received a $2.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to transform undergraduate STEM education at UGA. The resulting DeLTA Project has helped dozens of faculty and administrators improve their use of evidence-based teaching practices and pilot new teaching evaluation methods. As part of this project, Lemons led her colleagues in collaborating with UGA administration and faculty governance to pass two university policies on teaching evaluations.

Read the full announcement. Leadership from visionary scholars provides both innovative academic programs and steady administration for our departments and the Franklin College. Langston and Lemons have helped UGA advance its robust teaching environment, grounded in research and service opportunities for students at every level. Two of the very best.

Image: Keith Langston, a 2023-2024 University Professor. (Photo by Andrew Tucker/UGA)