Creative Research Medal – Page 8

Wesley Allen

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2009

Wesley Allen, associate professor of chemistry, is a theoretical chemist who has been a leader in the development of new quantum chemical methods of unprecedented accuracy. In recent years, he has made several important contributions to electronic structure theory, particularly his work on multi-reference coupled cluster methods, which establish a new gold standard for accuracy. He also carried out computations related to the structure and stability of hydroxymethylene, an elusive singlet carbine species that has long been discussed but never before identified experimentally. Its definitive identification, carried out in the laboratory of German scientist Peter Schreiner, was possible only through Allen’s detailed and accurate computations. In a surprising discovery, hydroxymethylene was then shown to be an example par excellence of quantum mechanical tunneling. These achievements, reported in the journal Nature, received world-wide recognition, both for Allen and the University of Georgia.

Jessica Kissinger

mterrazas on March 2, 2016

Lamar Dodd Creative Research Award

Jessica Kissinger, Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Genetics and former director of the UGA Institute of Bioinformatics, has focused her interdisciplinary career on the question of how parasites evolve. She has been a driving force behind the groundbreaking effort to create and maintain novel bioinformatics databases covering omics data for hundreds of dangerous pathogens. The Eukaryotic Pathogen, Vector, and Host Informatics Resources knowledgebase (VEuPathDB.org) is an integrated, centralized resource for data mining on more than 500 organisms. Databases searches are free, permitting researchers to gain insights into and test hypotheses that may pave the way for new approaches to treating or preventing diseases such as malaria and Cryptosporidium (a waterborne parasite). Kissinger has used the databases and other bioinformatics tools to make remarkable discoveries, including tracing the evolution and movement of genes within the genomes of Apicomplexa, a phylum of microscopic parasites. She hosts bioinformatics workshops worldwide, helping to make these tools more accessible.

Ping Shen

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2009

Ping Shen, assistant professor of cellular biology, established the fruit fly Drosophila as a model system for the study of feeding motivation, social behavior, and alcoholism. His research showed that foraging motivation and food intake in Drosophila are regulated by the same molecules, signaling pathways, and neurochemical systems as those of mammals. Shen used the techniques of Drosophila genetics and developed novel tests to define neural circuits that modulate an animal’s willingness to take risks and work for food, which is difficult to do in other systems. His pioneering studies are helpful in understanding many human behaviors and disorders of biomedical importance, such as obesity and anorexia, which are increasingly understood as failures of motivated feeding behavior. By taking advantage of a feature of the fly life cycle—its food avoidance as it begins to pupate—he also uncovered an ancient anti-stress/pain pathway in Drosophila, which provides a powerful genetic model for future pain research.

Samantha B. Joye

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2008

Samantha B. Joye, professor of marine sciences, uses innovative experimental approaches for assessing the impacts of climate change and global warming on biological and geological processes, particularly those involving carbon, in coastal ecosystems. Joye’s manipulation of marine sediments has been a powerful contributor to deciphering the myriad interactions between microorganisms and their environment, and her work on the effect of temperature on “community metabolism” in marine environments has made marine scientists rethink many traditional ideas. Joye’s discoveries not only provide critical information that will benefit researchers in developing advanced global-warming models but also are valuable in outreach efforts aimed at helping students and the public understand environmental issues.

Wei-Jun Cai

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2008

Wei-Jun Cai, professor of marine sciences, studies the role of the oceans in regulating carbon-dioxide dynamics. Cai realized early in his career that traditional methods of sampling the oceans could not provide spatial and temporal data at the resolutions needed to accurately understand CO2 dynamics. He thus became a pioneer in developing deep-sea microelectrodes and automated shipboard sensors to obtain CO2 information. These new data greatly enhance scientists’ ability to predict global atmospheric CO2 concentrations and, potentially, to determine their contribution to global warming. His
research has drawn great attention to the role of coastal oceans in regulating CO2 dynamics. Cai challenged the notion that the oceans are simply a large sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide, and he offered a new approach that divides them into subsystems. If confirmed, his view could have major implications for carbon-cycle research and the modeling of global CO2 fluxes.

Phillip C. Stancil

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2008

Phillip C. Stancil, associate professor of physics and astronomy, is a leader in the application of atomic and molecular dynamics to astrophysics and astrochemistry. Characterized by a coupling of advanced computational and theoretical techniques, his work looks at the atomic and molecular collision processes that underlie important cosmic questions. By performing new calculations of collisions of sulfur and oxygen ions, Stancil and collaborators showed for the first time that Jovian X-ray emissions observed by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory could be explained by ions from the moon Io colliding with Jupiter’s atmosphere. Other recent work from Stancil’s group uncovered significant errors in widely used calculations for molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which could have important implications for the study of interstellar clouds. His research has resulted in more than $2.4 million in grants and 84 publications—43 in just the past five years.

Jonathon Crystal

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2008

Jonathon Crystal

Jonathon Crystal, associate professor of psychology, is an international authority on time perception and animal cognition. Using food as a reward, Crystal designed innovative experiments in which he showed that rats have “episodic-like memory”—the ability to recollect unique personal experiences. These findings give researchers an animal model that could help in understanding how humans with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders lose their memory. Crystal has also shown that rats are capable of metacognition, or an awareness of their own thinking; his is the first research to show that a non-primate species has this reasoning ability. His work has been published in premier journals such as Current Biology, and articles about his research have appeared in several high-profile popular publications, including Newsweek and The New York Times.

Jennifer Monahan

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2007

Jennifer Monahan, Associate Professor of Speech Communication and Fellow of the Institute for Behavioral Research, designed and implemented aunique research program examining how communication and social perceptions change when people are under the influence of alcohol. Her work culminated in a new model of alcohol and strategic communication behavior. The Alcohol and Communication Choices Model does away with the simple-minded view of alcohol as a social lubricant. Through her work, researchers now understand that, relative to being sober, inebriated people tend to focus more on themselves — and to overestimate their ability to achieve their goals while underestimating social cues relative to power and dominance. Monahan’s work has important implications for public health issues such as date rape, drunk driving, marital fidelity, shyness and social stress, aggression and spousal abuse, and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Pamela Orpinas

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2007

Pamela Orpinas, Professor of Health Promotion and Behavior, is recognized internationally as an expert on bullying and violence among school-aged children and adolescents. Drawing upon health promotion and psychological theories, Orpinas examined the determinants of violent behavior and developed evaluation programs to prevent and reduce aggression in this age group. She also translated her basic research into specific strategies to help educators and school administrators prevent bullying. The American Psychological Association invited Orpinas and coauthor and UGA colleague Arthur Horneto write a book on the subject.Bullying prevention: Creating a positive school climate and developing social competence is the only APA book on this topic. She also developed and published an “aggression scale,” which has been requested by scientists from around the world.

Pejman Rohani

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2007

Pejman Rohani, Associate Professor of Ecology, studies the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases. His work has led to a greater understanding of how pathogens spread through their host population and has addressed questions of interest to the public health community. His studies of the past decade culminated in development of a novel mathematical framework to explore interactions between unrelated infectious diseases or strains of the same pathogen within a host population. Rohani applied this model to explain recent epidemics of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease, which has reemerged in outbreaks of increasing size and severity. The research, published in the Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences, offered an approach for elucidating the relative contributions of immunological and ecological mechanisms in determining how dengue fever spreads — and also the pattern of sequential serotype replacement over successive epidemics. Rohani’s innovative work paves the way for understanding how pathogen strains or unrelated infectious diseases may interact.