Lawrence Harris, a college adviser at Clarke Central High School in Athens and a member of the Georgia College Advising Corps, a program sponsored by the University of Georgia's Institute of Higher Education and part of the national College Advising Corps, was recognized by President Barack Obama at the White House summit on expanding college access held on Jan. 16.
"Lawrence went to the University of Georgia, and like a lot of first-generation college students it wasn't easy for him," Obama said. "He had to take remedial classes. He had to work two part-time jobs to make ends meet. At one point, he had to leave school for a year while he helped support his mom and his baby brother. Those are the kinds of just day-to-day challenges that a lot of these young people with enormous talent are having to overcome. Now, he stuck with it. He graduated.
"But now he's giving back. He's made it his mission to help other young people like him graduate, as a college advisor at Clarke Central High School in Athens, Georgia. And today the National College Advising Corps, the program that placed Lawrence in Clarke Central, is announcing plans to add 129 more advisors who will serve more than 80,000 students over the next three years."
Glen Nowak, a professor in the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, has been tapped to provide communication leadership for a key part of the global polio eradication effort.
As part of a six-month assignment with the Task Force for Global Health, Nowak, director of the UGA Center for Health and Risk Communication, will be helping develop and implement a communication strategy for a worldwide effort to get 124 countries that are currently only using oral polio vaccines to introduce at least one dose of inactivated polio vaccine to their childhood immunization programs by the end of 2015.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has included $44.7 million for the construction of a Science Learning Center on the University of Georgia's South Campus in his budget proposal submitted to the General Assembly on Jan. 15.
The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved UGA's request for design and construction of the approximately 122,500-square-foot facility in September as part of its fiscal year 2015 budget request to the governor.
Buried deep in the mud along the banks of a remote salt lake near Yosemite National Park are colonies of bacteria with an unusual property: they breathe a toxic metal to survive. Researchers from the University of Georgia discovered the bacteria on a recent field expedition to Mono Lake in California, and their experiments with this unusual organism show that it may one day become a useful tool for industry and environmental protection.
The bacteria use elements that are notoriously poisonous to humans, such as antimony and arsenic, in place of oxygen, an ability that lets them survive buried in the mud of a hot spring in this unique saline soda basin.
UGA has applied for patents to protect these unique processes as well as the bacterium itself, and they are currently testing the bacteria's efficacy in different environments and conditions to discover how the bacteria react when they are exposed to a variety of metals simultaneously.
Researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a new prodrug that promises to reduce many of the negative side effects caused by cisplatin, a commonly prescribed chemotherapy treatment. Reducing these negative side effects will not only provide the patient with a better quality of life during and after treatment, but it may also make oncologists less hesitant to prescribe cisplatin.
Beth Phillips, a clinical professor in the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy, has been named the first Rite Aid Professor in Community Pharmacy. The college's newest professorship fosters excellence in community pharmacy practice in the clinical or tenure track. Phillips took on her new role Dec. 1.
Derek Eberhart has been appointed director of the University of Georgia Technology Commercialization Office, under the Office of the Vice President for Research, effective Jan. 1, 2014. He has served as interim director since July.
Through intellectual property licensing and other efforts, TCO serves the UGA community by connecting industry with university expertise and inventions for the public good, promoting economic development, and increasing research visibility.
The University of Georgia Office of Sustainability has awarded $28,000 to fund nine interdisciplinary student projects through its annual Campus Sustainability Grants Program. The program, funded by student green fees, provides financial and staff resources to implement student-initiated projects that further the university's sustainability goals.
Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered a specific gene may play a major role in the development of a life-threatening birth defect called congenital diaphragmatic hernia, or CDH, which affects approximately one out of every 3,000 live births.
The University of Georgia College of Education tied for No. 22-up from No. 87-in U.S. News and World Report's 2014 Best Online Programs rankings for its master's degree programs. The overall ranking recognizes the college's programs in adult education, educational psychology, reading education and workforce education.
