Evin Winkelman Richardson

Postdoctoral Research Award 2021

Evin Winkelman Richardson, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Human Development and Family Science, focuses on the study of family systems and resilience within high-stress contexts, with a particular focus on interparental relationships within foster and military families. She is co-principal investigator on a five-year, $6.2 million grant project that will study nearly 2,300 at-risk, distressed couples across Georgia, and she has co-authored 11 publications since becoming a postdoctoral research associate in August 2017.

Tobias Brett

Postdoctoral Research Award 2021

Tobias Brett, postdoctoral researcher in the Odum School of Ecology and the Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases, develops new approaches for predicting and mitigating threats from emerging infectious diseases. He designed a detection algorithm that combines early-warning signals into a single measure of emergence risk, successfully applying it to four emerging disease outbreaks, and developed a model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics that demonstrated the infeasibility of achieving herd immunity by allowing the virus to spread, producing a paper that was downloaded 80,000 times in about six months.

Cas Mudde

Distinguished Research Professor 2021

University of Georgia researcher Cas Mudde

Cas Mudde, Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF Professor in the Department of International Affairs, is recognized as one of the world’s leading social scientists writing on populism and far-right politics. Instead of viewing radical-right parties as fleeting or outside modern democracy, he has argued that they are part of modern democracy, even if their existence could threaten democratic ideals. He has conceived of populism as a “thin-centered ideology” that views society as split between a corrupt elite and a virtuous people, and as an illiberal but somewhat democratic response to liberal but somewhat undemocratic governance. In eight authored or co-authored books and 58 journal articles, he has influenced a new generation of scholars who apply his insights to a wide range of political phenomena. His recently co-authored book is an original, empirical study of contemporary Israeli settlers as a social movement and of their impact on Israeli politics and society.

Debra Mohnen

Distinguished Research Professor 2021

University of Georgia researcher Debra Mohnen

Debra Mohnen, Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Complex Carbohydrate Research and professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has made internationally recognized contributions to the field of plant cell-wall glycobiology with significant impacts on biomass and bioenergy research. In 75 peer-reviewed publications, which have generated more than 500 citations annually since 2013, she has advanced understanding of complex carbohydrates (glycans) that form the outer layer of plant cells. Pectin is essential for plant growth and form, yet the biosynthesis of this molecule was essentially a mystery. She took a biochemical approach, establishing assays, purifying enzymes and identifying the associated genes. She also discovered novel aspects of cell-wall biosynthesis that have transformed the field, including discoveries that pectin has many more forms and roles than previously expected. Greater understanding of pectin biosynthesis in multiple crops is enabling plant modification to increase agricultural output at a time of sustainability crisis for the world.

Ping Ma

Distinguished Research Professor 2021

University of Georgia researcher Ping Ma

Ping Ma, professor in the Department of Statistics, is a world leader in developing statistics, machine learning and data science tools to address modern scientific problems. With rapid advances in technology, the volume of information that scientists can collect has increased dramatically, but these giant datasets often require powerful supercomputers for effective analysis. In a true breakthrough, Ma developed algorithms that enable scientists who lack supercomputing access to analyze big data using personal computers and even iPads and smartphones. He is a pioneer in introducing so-called “nonparametric” theory and methods to “let data decide the optimal model automatically.” And he has collaborated productively with scientists from a variety of fields, allowing them to draw valid conclusions and predictions from experimental and observational data, including those of seismic data based on dynamics of the Earth, streaming data from the Internet of Things, and epigenetic modifications unique to every individual.

Nik Heynen

Distinguished Research Professor 2021

University of Georgia researcher Nik Heynen

The work of Nik Heynen, professor in the Department of Geography, is centered in the scholar-activism of social and environmental justice and has helped forge closer connections between the academy and society. He is interested in how the social constructs of race, class and gender have intersected to produce uneven geographical development. He studies how social movement institutions organize across space to identify and secure adequate resources for communities. Heynen currently serves as the co-director of UGA’s Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land and Agriculture. He is a steering committee member of the NSF “Housing Justice in Unequal Cities” research network, bringing together research communities to study evictions, homelessness, displacement, segregation and informal housing settlements. He is also an advisory board member for a new partnership, funded by the Mellon Foundation, between UGA’s Willson Center for Humanities and Arts and the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District.

Zachary Wood

Creative Research Medal 2021

University of Georgia researcher Zachary Wood

Zachary Wood, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and his team have challenged the longstanding structure-function paradigm in biology. In a 2018 paper published in Nature, Wood and graduate student Nicholas Keul reported results of experiments on the function of unfolded parts of proteins called intrinsically disordered segments. For 50 years, biologists believed that only the folded structure of proteins was important for function, and the unfolded portions were considered “junk segments” left over from evolution. But Wood and his team discovered that the unfolded segments harness entropy to produce a force that can alter the activity of the folded portion of a protein. This finding shows that disordered segments can be functional, and since the only requirement is a lack of structure, these segments are easy to evolve. Wood and his team have inspired new research initiatives worldwide and could reshape understanding of protein structure for decades to come.

David T. Gay

Creative Research Medal 2021

University of Georgia researcher David Gay

David T. Gay, professor of mathematics, has made breakthroughs in topology through the development of “trisections of 4-manifolds,” a novel way of representing and studying the topology and geometry of 4-dimensional spaces. In dimensions 3 and 4, manifolds are the models for our universe (considering space as 3-dimensional, and space-time as 4-dimensional). In recent decades, the study of manifolds has been one of the most active fields of research in mathematics, building historical interactions between mathematics and physics. In 2016 Gay, in collaboration with Robion Kirby, introduced the notion of a trisection of a 4-manifold and proved the foundational existence and uniqueness results, an effective way of constructing and studying all smooth 4-manifolds. This transformative finding led to a series of papers by Gay and others, introducing new concepts and approaching longstanding problems in new ways.

Amanda J. Abraham

Creative Research Medal 2021

University of Georgia researcher Amanda Abraham

Amanda J. Abraham, associate professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy, is a top researcher in the field of addiction health services. She studies sociological dimensions of addiction treatment, ranging from organizational change to the impact of government policy on treatment accessibility and quality. She has identified crucial policy questions involving the opioid epidemic, pursued new research approaches, and offered evidence-based policy recommendations that could change the epidemic’s trajectory. Her research has documented what type of insurance coverage matters most for gaining or restricting access to needed medications and services during the epidemic. Her studies also highlight where serious gaps in treatment occur for Medicare and Medicaid enrollees. She pinpoints particular geographic areas, such as the Southeast, with the largest gaps between opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment need and estimated treatment capacity for Medicaid enrollees. Her research also reveals a serious shortage of OUD medication providers in Medicare and highlights implications for access to needed treatment.

Zheng-Hua Ye

Inventor of the Year 2020

Zheng-hua Ye portrait

Zheng-Hua Ye, professor in the Department of Plant Biology, developed a trait that reduces lignin content in alfalfa without reducing the cultivar’s strength with funding from the Department of Energy. Lignin allows alfalfa to stand up vertically in the field, but it is not very digestible as forage. The new trait “rewires” how the plant produces lignin, resulting in strong but more digestible alfalfa. The trait was licensed by the University of Georgia Research Foundation (UGARF) to the Oklahoma-based Noble Research Institute, which commercialized it as HarvXtra® Alfalfa. Noble sublicensed the trait to Forage Genetics International, which sells the product, generating UGARF nearly $1 million in U.S. license revenue. HarvXtra® Alfalfa is the most advanced alfalfa trait on the market and the first genetically engineered trait developed to maximize quality by reducing lignin content. This is the first time UGARF has received a share of a genetic “trait fee” associated with an improved plant cultivar.