A proposed Science Learning Center to be built on the University of Georgia’s South Campus is one of two major capital construction projects approved by the Board of Regents today for submission to the governor as part of the fiscal year 2015 budget request. The $44.7 million requested for design and construction of the approximately 122,500 square foot facility would provide modern, efficient and flexible space for undergraduate laboratory teaching in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math). Once completed, the project would be supplemented by $10 million in institutional funds to begin a program to modernize space where such courses are now taught in the 1960s-era Chemistry and Biological Sciences buildings, with much of that space being repurposed to support faculty research.
The University of Georgia continues to rank well in the U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges 2014 edition, landing at No. 20 among the nation's top public universities and No. 60 among best national universities this year. In undergraduate business programs offered nationwide, the Terry College of Business topped the competition with a first-place ranking for its insurance and risk management specialty. Its real estate program tied for third with the University of California, Berkeley, and the college rose to 27th overall, up from 31st, for best business programs.
Fall enrollment numbers for courses in the University of Georgia's Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities are the largest in the history of the program. This semester, almost 20 percent more students are requesting CURO courses for individualized research opportunities. A record 234 UGA students are participating in fall semester research projects. This continues the trend in increased CURO participation.
Researchers at the University of Georgia have received a five-year, $10.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support the National Center for Biomedical Glycomics, a consortium of UGA faculty and staff working to develop new technologies for the analysis of glycans. Once thought to be relatively unimportant, scientists now recognize that glycans play critical roles in cell regulation, human health and disease progression.
According to Benjamin Franklin, "nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." But what if Franklin had it wrong—at least about death? University of Georgia ecologist Richard P. Shefferson explored this question in the Journal of Ecology in a special issue he coedited about the latest research on senescence—the physical process of aging and death—in plants and, in particular, the idea that certain plants might be immune from this seemingly universal phenomenon.
Minority groups in the U.S. will command unprecedented economic clout this year and well into the future, according to the annual Multicultural Economy report from the Selig Center for Economic Growth in the University of Georgia Terry College of Business.
The 2013 report provides a comprehensive statistical overview of the buying power (or the amount of income left after taxes, not including savings or borrowed money) of African-Americans, Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics from 1990-2018. It includes national statistics as well as breakdowns for each state.
Eight University of Georgia students were awarded international travel-study grants from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program for the 2013-2014 academic year. Recipients of the U.S. Student Full Grants, which cover research, study and creative opportunities, include two students who recently earned undergraduate degrees at UGA: spring 2013 graduate Katherine Lacksen of Sparta; and fall 2012 graduate Tierney O'Sullivan of Roswell. Two current doctoral students also received Full Grants: Derek Bentley of Fayetteville; and Gregory Moss of Lawrenceville.
University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead is continuing his commitment to students through a personal contribution establishing a need-based scholarship fund, in honor of his parents, designed to help undergraduates study in the nation’s capital.
With nearly 7,000 students attending the university who are eligible for the Pell Grant, “raising support for need-based scholarships is one of my priorities,” Morehead said, “and I hope to lead the way for many others to help students with financial need.”
Lee Becker, a professor of journalism in University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, recently received the 2013 Paul J. Deutschmann Award for Excellence in Research from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Becker directs the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research within UGA’s Grady College. Becker was the 24th recipient of the award since it was inaugurated in 1969. Previous recipients include Wilbur Schramm and Ralph O. Nafziger, founders of the field of journalism and mass communication, and prominent scholars such as George Gerbner, Jack M. McLeod, Steven Chaffee and Maxwell E. McCombs.
The University of Georgia raised more than $117 million in gifts and new commitments for the 2013 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. It marked the eighth consecutive year that private giving to the university has topped $100 million and a 14 percent increase over the 2012 fiscal year. The total includes gifts and pledges from 54,797 contributors. Of the total, $17 million was designated for scholarships.
