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Author: ovprweb

Mable Fok

ovprweb on March 21, 2019

Mable Fok outsideCreative Research Medal 2019

Mable Fok, associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, conducts interdisciplinary research that spans system design, hardware implementation and algorithms in an effort to overcome the future crunch in spectral bandwidth. She has identified some of the bandwidth limitations of emerging 5G wireless systems and proposed a combined use of light and artificial neural algorithms to address them. Light can provide the flexibility, bandwidth and speed lacking in existing electronics. Artificial neural algorithms can provide the necessary computer recognition and automation tasks. Turning to nature for inspiration, her research team has employed a light-based device that mimics an algorithm in an electric fish’s jamming avoidance response. The experimental device can autonomously move the frequency of an emitted signal away from other signals, potentially reducing interference. This research could inspire new ways to accommodate increasing numbers of wireless devices and data transmissions competing for space on limited available bandwidth.

Nathan T. Carter

ovprweb on March 21, 2019

Nathan Carter outsideCreative Research Medal 2019

Nathan T. Carter, associate professor of psychology, is a leading researcher in the fields of industrial-organizational psychology and personality assessment. His work challenges the traditional assumption that higher levels of personality traits—agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion and openness—are associated with improved work outcomes such as task performance and broader well-being outcomes such as job and life satisfaction. But with his expertise in measurement theory and statistical analysis, Carter has shown that individuals with extremely high levels of personality traits actually often show fewer positive outcomes at work and other life outcomes than those with more moderate standing. Limitations in standard scoring and analysis practices had obscured accurate associations, resulting in a mixed literature on the topic. In Carter’s current research, he is developing insights that further our understanding of personality and its role in work behavior and other important life outcomes.

Justin A. Lavner

ovprweb on March 21, 2019

Justin Lavner in front of bookcaseCharles B. Knapp Early Career Scholar Award 2019

Justin A. Lavner, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, has advanced our understanding of how marriages change and why some relationships succeed and others struggle. He has focused on the newlywed years as a critical period of risk in marital life and identified a set of baseline vulnerability factors that increase the likelihood of more negative marital trajectories and divorce during this period. These vulnerability factors include maladaptive personality traits, poor communication and elevated levels of stress. He has outlined practical implications of his research, suggesting an expanded set of targets for preventive interventions for couples and families. Interventions, Lavner argues, should not only build a couple’s skills but also focus on reducing stress. His findings offer the field a flexible, broadly applicable framework for understanding relationships that is capable of guiding family policy and clinical interventions to promote well-being for couples and families.

Hitesh Handa

ovprweb on March 21, 2019

Creative Research Medal

University of Georgia researcher Hitesh Handa

Hitesh Handa, associate professor and Distinguished Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical, Material, and Biomedical Engineering, is developing nitric oxide (NO) releasing biomaterials for medical devices to decrease the morbidity, mortality, and hospitalization costs associated with thrombosis and infection. NO is a potent anti-inflammatory and inhibitor of platelet activation. Handa’s group is designing novel surfaces that release NO, mimicking the human physiology of NO production to make medical devices hemocompatible and antimicrobial. This state-of-the-art coating is now progressing toward commercialization. Handa’s startup, Nytricx, Inc., has received more than $3.5 million in funding from a National Institutes of Health Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant and Defense Medical Research Development award to expedite the commercialization process.

Previous Award

  • Fred C. Davison Early Career Scholar Award 2019
  • Entrepreneur of the Year 2021

Liza Stepanova

ovprweb on March 21, 2019

Creative Research Medal 2021

Liza Stepanova in front of piano

Liza Stepanova, associate professor of piano in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, conceived a project in 2017 to respond to anti-immigrant sentiment. After meticulous research including a newly commissioned work, Stepanova gathered works by nine living composers with immigrant backgrounds living and working in the United States. Three years later, the result was her 2020 album E. Pluribus Unum, released on Navona Records, featuring piano works by well-known and established composers plus up-and-coming young artists. As an immigrant herself, she has brought together compositions that address and reflect composers’ origins, immigrant experiences and distinct contributions to American musical life. The album has been praised and reviewed in significant national and international outlets, including all three of the top classical musical journals in the United Kingdom. In this project and others, she reveals a penetrating intellect, a deep sense of purpose, and a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Previous Award

  • Michael F. Adams Early Career Scholar Award 2019

Marc van Iersel

ovprweb on March 21, 2019

Marc van Iersel in greenhouseEntrepreneur of the Year Award 2019

Marc van Iersel is the Vincent J. Dooley Professor of Horticulture in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and has spent more than 20 years supporting the horticulture industry through his research examining crop physiology and smart greenhouse production systems. A pioneer in optimizing controlled environment agriculture, van Iersel was elected as a fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science in 2018, recognizing his lifetime contributions to the horticulture industry. In 2017, he and colleague Erico Mattos co-founded Candidus Inc., a UGA agtech startup that is delivering customized lighting solutions for greenhouse agriculture, maximizing plant growth while minimizing electricity costs. Candidus’ novel technology creates predictability for growers by providing consistent lighting, which yields stronger, healthier plants. In addition to his role as CTO of Candidus, van Iersel served as mentor and advisor of UGA startup Reservoir LLC, a wireless irrigation company with a patent-pending sensor designed to improve irrigation efficiency.

Holly Sellers

ovprweb on March 21, 2019

Holly Sellers in labInventor of the Year Award 2019

Holly Sellers, professor at the Poultry Diagnostic & Research Center, pursues clinical and molecular virology research with an emphasis on viruses that cause respiratory, enteric and musculoskeletal diseases in poultry, focusing on the identification, characterization and control of those viruses. She also directs virology services at PDRC and mentors graduate and professional students. Her research has led to 12 invention disclosures and five U.S. patents, with another application pending and a multitude of foreign patents and applications. Sellers’ technologies have been made available to industry partners through more than 20 license agreements, leading to four commercial poultry vaccines as well as numerous autogenous vaccines that together support and secure Georgia’s $22.9 billion poultry industry. Sellers is a UGA alumna who received both her master’s and Ph.D. in medical microbiology from the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Jeffrey Meier

ovprweb on March 21, 2019

Postdoctoral Research Award 2019

Jeffrey Meier, a postdoctoral research and teaching associate in the Department of Mathematics, addresses the field of low-dimensional topology. “Low-dimensional” generally refers to dimensions less than five, and topology research often probes the structures of spaces by looking at embedded objects in those spaces. A major low-dimensional topology problem is to understand three-dimensional spaces, four-dimensional spaces and the interactions between them. Meier’s research has focused on the interplay between three- and four-dimensional topology with a special attention to knot theory in those dimensions. Knotting phenomena occur when looking at embedded surfaces in four-dimensional space. Such surfaces may be thought of as surfaces swept out in space-time by a knot that is moving around in space over a period of time. Very little is known about four-dimensional knot theory, but he has made several significant contributions to the subject since beginning his postdoctoral position.

Monica Cartelle Gestal

ovprweb on March 21, 2019

Postdoctoral Research Award 2019

Monica Cartelle Gestal, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Infectious Diseases, has developed critical expertise in host-pathogen interactions of Bordetella spp., the bacteria that produce pertussis. Whooping cough, as it’s more commonly known, was designated a priority emergence infectious disease by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in 2015. Among the reasons for its rise is that the current vaccine efficiently protects against disease but not colonization or transmission. Cartelle Gestal has proposed a novel approach for vaccine and therapeutic development, focusing on the bacteria’s ability to manipulate the host response. Her work, recently submitted to Science, demonstrates that Bordetella spp. have the ability to sense the host’s response and manipulate immune signals in order to dampen adaptive immunity and increase persistence. Her research has produced a novel Bordetella spp. vaccine that has been submitted for patent and currently is being tested for dogs and cats.

Mojtaba S. Fazli

ovprweb on March 21, 2019

James L. Carmon Award 2019

Mojtaba S. Fazli, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science, focuses on developing computational tools for tracking and modeling biological systems on multiple scales. In one project, he uses cutting-edge machine learning and computer vision techniques to observe dynamic motion patterns of Toxoplasma gondii, one of the most common parasites and the causal agent of toxoplasmosis, which is estimated to infect over a billion people worldwide. As the parasite’s motion is linked to its pathogenicity, Fazli’s novel algorithms automatically track and model its motion patterns, helping to identify and develop therapeutic countermeasures. In a second project, he is studying morphological changes in the mitochondria of lung cells in response to infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. Through the development of innovative machine learning tools, Fazli is measuring changes in mitochondrial shape and quantity, which could provide insights into the pathogenicity of different bacterial mutants and lead to treatment strategies.