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Author: ovprweb

Jenna Jambeck

ovprweb on March 22, 2016

UGA researcher at landfillCreative Research Medal 2016

Jenna Jambeck, associate professor of engineering, is recognized for her groundbreaking work on waste management and marine debris. Over the last three years, she led a collaborative research initiative that, for the first time, rigorously quantified the amount of mismanaged plastic that flows into the global ocean from 192 countries with coastal access. Jambeck and her colleagues calculated that eight million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans every year, the majority from rapidly developing economies with lagging infrastructure. Without intervention, this annual input is expected to double by 2025. Jambeck’s study, published in the journal Science, has provided a new and important perspective on the issue of marine debris and plastic in our oceans. Her work has also spurred governments, industry and non-profit organizations to protect ocean wildlife and ecosystem health by developing and financing better waste management infrastructure to stem the tide of plastics entering the oceans.

Vanessa Ezenwa

ovprweb on March 22, 2016

UGA researcher in lab

Creative Research Medal 2016

Vanessa Ezenwa, associate professor of ecology and infectious diseases, is internationally recognized for her research on the consequences of parasite coinfection. Ezenwa has helped bring a new perspective to this burgeoning discipline by using a combination of longitudinal and experimental field studies to examine coinfection in wild African buffalo populations, which are commonly affected by parasitic worms and bovine tuberculosis simultaneously. Previous research performed in laboratory animals and humans has linked worm infestations to increased microbial disease severity, resulting in calls for integrating deworming therapies into intervention strategies for the microbial diseases of humans. However, Ezenwa has demonstrated that under some conditions, public health interventions aimed at controlling worm infections may exacerbate, rather than moderate, the spread of other microbes. Her insights have profound implications for how we treat and manage infections, particularly in our most vulnerable populations.

Pete Bettinger

ovprweb on March 22, 2016

UGA researcher standing in front of map

Creative Research Medal 2016

Pete Bettinger, professor of forestry and natural resources, is known and widely respected for his extensive contributions to the development and application of forest planning and resource assessment models. These models are critically important for land management and the sustainable use of forest resources. Through his research, Bettinger has developed forest plans that mitigate risks from wind or fire damage; he has developed methods to protect wildlife habitats; and he has used his expertise to promote urban tree growth as a means to increase carbon sequestration. His research group uses advanced techniques, including global positioning systems, geographic information systems and remote sensor imagery to provide high-quality objective information necessary for advanced decision-making. Bettinger is also widely celebrated for his books, including Forest Plans of North America, Introduction to Forestry and Natural Resources, and Forest Management and Planning.

Michelle vanDellen

ovprweb on March 22, 2016

UGA researcher

Charles B. Knapp Early Career Scholar Award 2016

Michelle vanDellen, assistant professor of psychology, is a highly productive and engaged scholar who studies the psychological and social aspects of self-regulation—the means by which people order their lives and control their behavior. Her dissertation research was the first to show that causing people to think about others they know who are good or bad at self-control leads to improvement or decline in their own ability to control their behavior when confronted with temptations. Her more recent work focuses on self-regulation in the context of close relationships. With colleagues, vanDellen has developed a novel theoretical framework that defines all goal pursuits as inherently interpersonal. Whereas current research thinks of relationship satisfaction as primarily involving affective and emotional processes, this theory suggests it is the practicalities of figuring out how to pursue goals in collaboration with others that lead to long-lasting, happy and productive relationships.

Nina Wurzburger

ovprweb on March 22, 2016

Wurzburger-Nina-1024x1024

Fred C. Davison Early Career Scholar Award 2016

Nina Wurzburger, assistant professor of ecology, has an established track record of excellent scholarship focused on the biogeochemical processes of land ecosystems. Some of her most important and novel achievements come from research in tropical forests, which play a fundamental role in the regulation of Earth’s climate. The ability of tropical forests to fulfill this role depends on nutrients like nitrogen, and Wurzburger discovered a number of processes that limit nutrient availability and forest growth. More recently, she has turned her attention to one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America—longleaf pine savannas. As part of a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, she is examining how nitrogen fixation facilitates the ecosystem’s recovery from physical disturbances, including prior land use and fire. She is also part of a research team investigating how a more variable climate may affect the structure and function of forest ecosystems in the southern Appalachians.

Cody Marrs

ovprweb on March 22, 2016

UGA researcher

Michael F. Adams Early Career Scholar Award 2016

Cody Marrs, assistant professor of English, is an accomplished junior scholar and author of the recently published book Nineteenth-Century American Literature and the Long Civil War. In it, Marrs analyzes the writings of four major authors—Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson—whose careers spanned both sides of the conflict. He argues against the traditional division of 19th century literature into either antebellum or postbellum categories, describing these authors as “transbellum.” Marrs is currently working on several related projects, including a second book titled The Civil War: A Literary History. This wide-ranging book is about the war’s cultural afterlife, from the 19th century to the 21st. He is editing a special issue of Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies on Melville’s late works. He is also co-editing Timelines of American Literature, a collection of essays that seek to reimagine American literature.

Mark Jackwood

ovprweb on March 22, 2016

Ed Pavlic

Inventor’s Award 2016

Mark Jackwood, the J.R. Glisson Professor of Avian Medicine and head of the department of population health, studies respiratory viruses including avian coronavirus, infectious bronchitis virus and avian influenza virus. His work involves the use of molecular techniques for the identification, characterization, and control of those viruses. He also studies genetic diversity, mutation rates and evolutionary trends among coronaviruses to elucidate mechanisms that can lead to the emergence of new viruses capable of causing disease. Jackwood has submitted more than dozen invention disclosures leading to four issued patents and two pending patent applications. Several of his technologies have been licensed to industry partners leading to four commercial poultry vaccines as well as autogenous vaccines used by the poultry industry. In addition to his vaccine development work, he co-developed a patented rapid diagnostic technique for infectious bronchitis virus, several antibody research tools, and he is co-inventor of a vaccine spray cabinet which has been licensed to a large animal health company.

Valentine Nzengung

ovprweb on March 22, 2016

Regents’ Entrepreneur 2024

Photograph of Valentine Nzengung

Valentine Nzengung, professor of environmental geochemistry in the Department of Geology, researches and develops new technologies for the cleanup of contaminated water, sediment, and soils. For more than two decades, he has been a trailblazer in sustainable, environmental remediation technologies capable of instantly neutralizing bulk explosives, bomb fillers, improvised explosive devices, chemical warfare materiel, and other explosive remnants of wars. His company, MuniRem Environmental, LLC, works with authorized partners to carry out a wide range of environmental remediation projects globally. MuniRem worked with the U.S. Navy to safely salvage the Confederate ironclad gunboat CSS Georgia from the Savannah River in the mid-2010s, helping to mitigate ordnance still intact and containing explosive black powder after more than 150 years. Utilizing MuniRem, each shell was rendered inert, ensuring the safety of the artifacts for further examination and preservation efforts. Nzengung is a former UGA Entrepreneur of the Year and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.