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Category: Distinguished Research Professor

Christine Szymanski

akatki on March 19, 2025

Distinguished Research Professor 2025

Christine Szymanski, professor in the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and the Franklin College Department of Microbiology, is a leading expert in microbial glycobiology. Her research has transformed understanding of how bacterial glycosylation influences microbial pathogenesis, host interactions, and vaccine development. She was the first to demonstrate that bacteria can modify proteins with N-linked glycans—proteins with attached oligosaccharides—a discovery that reshaped the field of bacterial glycobiology and paved the way for novel therapeutic strategies. Szymanski has authored 130 peer-reviewed publications, holds 13 patents, and has secured or helped secure tens of millions of dollars in research funding from NIH, NSF, and industrial collaborations. Her translational work has led to two biotech spin-offs focused on glycoconjugate vaccine development, attracting global interest in combatting diarrheal diseases and antimicrobial resistance. A Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the National Academy of Inventors, Szymanski’s pioneering research continues to advance vaccine innovation and microbial pathogenesis.

Barbara McCaskill

akatki on March 19, 2025

Distinguished Research Professor 2025

Barbara McCaskill, professor in the Franklin College Department of English and associate academic director of the Willson Center for Humanities & Arts, is a leading scholar of African American literature whose work has reshaped understanding of Black literary history and public humanities. Her research has been pivotal in recovering the lives and writings of historical Black figures, particularly William and Ellen Craft, whose daring escape from slavery in Georgia she examined in “Love, Liberation, and Escaping Slavery” (University of Georgia Press, 2015), and her critical edition of “Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom.” McCaskill has secured over $2 million in external funding, co-leads the Willson Center’s Mellon Foundation-funded project, “Culture and Community at the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District,” and developed public-facing resources such as the award-winning Civil Rights Digital Library. Her research has been featured in high-impact journals, podcasts, and national media. Through her scholarship and public engagement, she continues to illuminate African American literary and historical legacies.

Natarajan Kannan

akatki on March 19, 2025

Distinguished Research Professor 2025

Natarajan Kannan, professor in the Institute of Bioinformatics and the Franklin College Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, is a leader in molecular evolution, computational biology, and protein bioinformatics. His research has transformed the understanding of how complex signaling systems evolve at the molecular level. By combining computational and experimental approaches, he has mapped the origin and evolution of biomedically important signaling proteins such as protein kinases and glycosyltransferases, uncovering novel regulatory mechanisms and therapeutic targets. Kannan’s work has led to more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including in top scientific journals such as Nature Communications, PNAS, and Science Signaling, and has been cited over 8,000 times. His $10 million in research funding includes major grants from NIH, NSF, and the American Cancer Society. He has also developed open-source bioinformatics tools widely used by the scientific community. Kannan’s interdisciplinary research continues to shape biomedical sciences and advance innovations in computational and artificial intelligence/machine learning technologies.

Luis Correa-Díaz

akatki on March 19, 2025

Distinguished Research Professor 2025

Luis Correa-Díaz, professor of Spanish in the Franklin College Department of Romance Languages, is a pioneering scholar and poet whose work has transformed Latin American literary studies, digital humanities, and cultural theory. His research bridges classical and contemporary literature, with groundbreaking contributions to the study of digital poetics and artificial intelligence in literature. His monograph “Novissima Verba” and co-edited volume “Latin America Digital Poetics” explore how digital technologies and artificial intelligence are reshaping literary production and interpretation. Elected to the Academia Chilena de la Lengua and Spain’s Real Academia de Córdoba, Correa-Díaz is internationally recognized for his scholarship on Cervantes, Ercilla, Latin American poetry, and literature’s role in human rights discourse. He has authored over 20 poetry collections, 12 scholarly books, and numerous journal articles, influencing generations of students and scholars worldwide. His interdisciplinary and multilingual research continues to push the boundaries of literary studies in the digital age.

Aaron Mitchell

akatki on March 13, 2024

Distinguished Research Professor 2024

Photograph of aron mitchell

Aaron Mitchell, professor and head of the Department of Microbiology, is a world leader in the genetics, molecular biology, and virulence mechanisms of pathogenic fungi— particularly Candida albicans, the most prevalent fungal pathogen in humans. Contributing to a greater understanding of biology and infectious diseases, he has enabled modern molecular biological studies of C. albicans, using genetic and genomic tools to explore fungal pathogenesis and drug resistance. His discoveries include a greater understanding of the genetic basis for biofilm formation, which can render microbial pathogens resistant to antimicrobial agents and even physical removal. These advances on fungal biofilms are paradigm shifting. His group’s recent research, drawing on advances in omics, reveals natural variations in the genetic regulation of biofilms and the core network that might be targeted for antifungal therapy. He advances these fields of inquiry by generously sharing his knowledge and research materials with the scientific community and the next generation of researchers.

Samuel E. Aggrey

akatki on March 13, 2024

Distinguished Research Professor 2024

Photograph of samuel aggrey

Samuel E. Aggrey, Richard B. Russell Endowed Chair and Professor in the Department of Poultry Science, is a global leader in developing and applying emerging technologies of quantitative genetics, molecular biology, and bioinformatics to critical issues in the poultry industry. His research interests include genome selection, genomics of nutrient utilization, molecular and cellular bases of stressors, and genetic improvement of poultry. He has made advances in understanding linkages among nutrient components, parasite load, and genetics that affect birds’ microbiome and gut health. As part of an international consortium, he helped identify and map 14,000 genes associated with growth and development in poultry, which aid breeders in producing more disease-resistant, feed-efficient, and heat-tolerant birds. He has also improved understanding of certain pressures on poultry production, such as water intake, heat stress, and a genus of parasites called Eimeria, which are capable of causing the disease coccidiosis in poultry and other animals.

Christopher West

slquinlan on April 7, 2023

Distinguished Research Professor 2023

Photograph of Christopher West

Christopher West, head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a researcher in the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, belongs to a small group of internationally recognized parasite glycobiologists. His rigorous, transformative research explores cellular processes involving various structures, enzymes and roles of glycans, or sugar chains. His studies have identified fundamental cell-to-cell mechanisms of environmental sensing and signaling in glycobiology. Some of his seminal discoveries involve the biosynthesis and roles of novel glycan molecules in the model organism, Dictyostelium discoideum. One of his crucial contributions to glycobiology has been to describe at molecular resolution that organism’s biochemical response pathway to altered oxygen levels, allowing it to respond to its environment’s available oxygen. Since arriving at UGA, he has translated these findings to an opportunistic human pathogen, Toxoplasma gondii, which can grow and infect cells in low-oxygen environments. His research with collaborators at UGA and internationally has opened a new field of oxygen-sensing in protists, exploring how this environmental factor can control the behavior and virulence of pathogenic parasites.

Joshua D. Miller

slquinlan on April 7, 2023

Distinguished Research Professor 2023

Photograph of Joshua Miller

Joshua D. Miller, professor in the Department of Psychology, is a preeminent researcher in the field of psychopathological impairment, specifically in personality disorders with a focus on narcissism and psychopathy. Among his accomplishments is demonstrating that personality disorders are “built” from the same basic components found in “normal” personality but represent problematic configurations because of their extremity and inflexibility. Many clinicians prefer this approach because it provides more focused tools for conceptualization, assessment, and treatment. Over the past two decades, his research helped lay the groundwork for changes in the official “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition.” He is an exceptionally productive and influential scholar, producing 325 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, an acclaimed edited text on narcissism and a recent edited handbook on the assessment and treatment of antagonism. According to Google Scholar, he has been cited more than 33,000 times, and about 21,000 of those have been in the last five years.

Sujata Iyengar

slquinlan on April 7, 2023

Distinguished Research Professor 2023

Photograph of Sujata Iyengar

Sujata Iyengar, professor in the Department of English, has established herself as an internationally influential voice across a range of fields, including book history, early modern women studies, disability studies, critical race and gender studies, digital scholarship, medical humanities, pedagogy and editing. But she is perhaps best known as the preeminent authority on Shakespearean appropriation, exploring how audiences engage with, undo or transform Shakespeare. Iyengar has published three single-authored books, “Shakespeare and Adaptation Theory” (2022), “Shakespeare’s Medical Language” (2011), and “Shades of Difference” (2005), which have transformed the study of Shakespeare and the British Renaissance. She is the founding co-editor of the award-winning digital peer-reviewed journal, “Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation,” a premiere venue not only for scholarship but also an important forum for educators and students of Shakespeare  She has co-authored seven books, producing collections of essays that have enabled and supported communities of practice.

James E. (Jeb) Byers

jennbryant on April 11, 2022

Distinguished Research Professor 2024

Photograph of James E. (Jeb) Byers

James E. “Jeb” Byers, UGA Athletic Association Professor in the Odum School of Ecology, is an internationally prominent scientist in the disciplines of population, community, and marine ecology. He is best known for his research quantifying and predicting the success of biological invasions. Byers has performed some of the world’s leading ecological studies on interactions among native organisms and nonnative species, including along Georgia’s coast. He has built mechanistic mathematical models to analyze the impacts of climate change, including expansions of invasive parasites and subtropical species into the state’s marine and freshwater resources. His approach combines experimental work and fieldwork at local, regional, and continent-wide scales with computational models, providing critical theoretical insights. Byers also is known for contributions to host-parasite ecology, ecosystem engineering, and the maintenance and evolution of species-range boundaries. His body of research has been cited more than 16,500 times, with 17 papers exceeding 200 citations each.