Creative Research Medal – Page 12

Casimir C. Akoh

on February 23, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2004

Casimir C. Akoh, Professor of Food Science and Technology, conducts basic and applied research on lipids, edible oils and healthy fat substitutes. Using enzymes, he breaks apart short-, medium- and long-chain fatty acids from plant and animal fats, then restructures the fatty acids into nutritious, medically beneficial, low-calorie fats called structured lipids. These modified fats can be used in infant formulas, disease-specific nutrient supplements and foods such as margarine, salad dressing, snacks and confections. Early work helped create the fat substitute olestra, now called Olean. Dr. Akoh has been granted three patents and has received more than $2.7 million in research funding. With more than 120 peer-reviewed publications, he has been cited more than 1,800 times; his 2002 review article on structured lipids was downloaded more than 900 times in one month from the Institute of Food Technologists’ (IFT) Web site. He has edited 3 books, including a food lipids textbook, written 24 book chapters and consulted with researchers in Japan, France, Korea, Taiwan, Spain and Brazil. Research awards include UGA’s 2003 D.W. Brooks Award, a 1999 UGA Creative Research Medal, the 1998 IFT’s Samuel Cate Prescott Award and the International Life Sciences Institute 1996-97 Future Leader Award. Dr. Akoh will receive the American Oil Chemists’ Society Stephen S. Chang Award in May 2004.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 1999

Valery Alexeev

on February 23, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor, 2004

Valery Alexeev, Professor of Mathematics, settled several fundamental problems in algebraic geometry, a field concerned with systems of algebraic equations and their solutions. Leading algebraic geometers call him “a brilliant and original mathematician,” comparing him with luminaries who have received math’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize – the Fields Medal, awarded every four years. Dr. Alexeev collaborates with such leading mathematics researchers as Fields Medalist Shigefumi Mori and has received continuous NSF research funding since 1994. His collaboration with University of Grenoble’s Michel Brion opened a new research area in algebraic geometry. In 2002, the Annals of Mathematics published his 97-page work. It was also selected for the AMS Featured Review, among the fewer than 1 percent of those submitted. A dedicated educator, Dr. Alexeev co-organized his department’s high school math competitions and coached Georgia high school students for the American Regional Mathematics League. He also participates on his department’s NSF grant to help prepare graduate students for math careers. His awards include a Sloan Foundation fellowship, a prestigious award given to young scientists, and a 2001 UGA Creative Research Medal.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2001

Gary A. Dudley

on February 23, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2004

Gary A. Dudley, Distinguished Research Professor and Director of UGA’s Muscle Biology Laboratory, conducts research that may help patients with spinal cord injuries recover their fitness, health and well-being. For more than 20 years, he has studied skeletal muscles and their metabolic characteristics, function and adaptation under a wide range of conditions including exercise, disuse, disease and injury. In recent years his research has focused on what happens to skeletal muscle following spinal cord injury. Loss of skeletal muscle mass may be linked to the high rate of diabetes, heart disease, obesity and bone loss in individuals with spinal cord injuries. Dr. Dudley discovered that although skeletal muscles atrophied during the first six months following spinal cord injury, muscle quality was not lost and electrical stimulation could be used to build up inactive muscles, often to their pre-injury size. Currently, he is investigating whether electrical stimulation to help bulk up the skeletal muscles improves overall health and reverse diabetes and obesity in this population. If restored fitness in skeletal muscle is effective in slowing type II diabetes following spinal cord injury, then exercise may have a similar benefit in able-bodied people. Dr. Dudley works collaboratively in a biomedical research initiative that partners UGA and the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, the nation’s largest hospital for brain and spinal cord injuries.

Previous Award

Distinguished Research Professor 2002

Michael J. Yabsley

on February 18, 2016

Creative Research Medal in Natural Sciences and Engineering 2018

Michael Yabsley, professor in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources and College of Veterinary Medicine, discovered an unexpected pathway of infection for dracunculiasis, also known as Guinea worm disease (GWD), which has caused widespread suffering in West Africa. GWD was already known to spread through unfiltered drinking water contaminated by the parasitic worm Dracunculus medinensis, causing debilitating pain, fever, nausea and occasionally death. After a successful international GWD eradication campaign, human cases fell from 3.5 million in 1986 to only 25 cases in 2016. In 2013, however, GWD infections were found in a new host—dogs—with further potential for transmission to humans. He hypothesized that dogs acquired GWD infections by ingesting aquatic hosts, possibly fish or frogs, which carried the parasite in their tissues. This discovery of possible foodborne transmission, rather than waterborne transmission, allowed policymakers to implement targeted disease prevention strategies for human and canine populations.

Previous award

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2005

Karen S. Calhoun

on February 18, 2016

William A. Owens Award 2002

Karen S. Calhoun, Professor of Psychology, is considered one of the world’s experts in the field of sexual violence. Her groundbreaking research is significant for defining the scope and consequences of sexual assault, as well as its treatment and prevention.

Sexual aggression is surprisingly common in the United States, with estimates indicating one in eight adult women has been raped. Not only do these victims face psychological problems, they also encounter economic consequences, physical health problems, and high rates of substance abuse and suicide. The costs of sexual violence are overwhelmingly high for the victims and society as a whole. Dr. Calhoun seeks to develop a deeper understanding of sexual violence by deciphering both its causes and consequences. She has been one of only a handful of researchers to focus on both the victim and the perpetrator. Her early work established that rape victims are often subjected to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and that PTSD arising from sexual assault is second only to that from military combat.

Through her pioneering research, Dr. Calhoun has discovered that, for still unknown reasons, initial sexual victimization drastically increases the risk for further victimization. She continues to shed light on this puzzle by identifying attention and memory deficits following sexual assault. Additionally, she studies perpetrator behavior, which also contributes to understanding prevention. As a result, she and her colleagues have developed a preventive intervention program that shows promise in reducing sexual assault rates.

Recognized as a leading theoretician and researcher on sexual violence, Dr. Calhoun has received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Justice, and the National Institute of Mental Health for her innovative studies. Her work is published in the field’s top journals, some of which have a 90 percent rejection rate.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2001