Distinguished Research Professor

John Drake

on March 2, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2017

John Drake, professor in the Odum School of Ecology, is a globally recognized authority on the ecology of infectious diseases. Described by an external evaluator as “possibly the leading ecologist of his generation,” Drake conducts research in the interdisciplinary field of population biology, crossing boundaries between ecology, evolutionary biology and epidemiology. His contributions include new theoretical results, original experiments and the development of new quantitative methods for reconciling theory and data. He developed a novel experimental system that showed for the first time that characteristic statistical fluctuations known as “critical slowing down” may be used to devise early warning signals of environmental deterioration. He developed a new approach to model-independent early-warning systems for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. He is now working on an approach to anticipate and respond to emerging infectious diseases that is proactive and data-driven. In 2016, he founded and now directs the UGA Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2014

Tianming Liu

on March 2, 2016

Tianming Liu, professor of computer science, is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of brain imaging and mapping. In addition to building a fundamental understanding of the brain, his research has enabled our understanding of the relationship between brain anatomy and function, with applications to medical and surgical interventions and the treatment of psychological and psychiatric disorders. Highlights of Liu’s distinguished record include the discovery of a novel mechanism of cerebral cortex folding, which offers a general framework for describing and modeling the anatomical connectional and functional architectures of the brain. His research group developed a map of the human brain named DICCCOL, which shows great promise as a new guide to the inner workings of the body’s most complex and critical organ. Recently, Liu and his group developed holistic atlases of functional networks and interactions, and he discovered and characterized the interactions between external multimedia streams and the brain’s functional responses.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2014

Noel Fallows

on March 2, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2015

Noel Fallows is Associate Dean of International and Multidisciplinary Programs and the senior Professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages. Literary critic, historian, translator, and editor, Fallows is one of the foremost authorities in the world in the field of Medieval and Renaissance chivalric culture. His work focuses on Western Europe, with particular emphasis on the Iberian Peninsula. He has published a large number of influential books and articles on topics as varied as jousts, tournaments, military medicine, early equine medicine, knightly cults of wounds, propaganda campaigns, psychological warfare, mounted combat and riding techniques and arms and armor. The clear and accessible style of his books and articles offers a wide range of readers the opportunity to consider social and political questions from the past that remain powerfully resonant today, including questions of war and peace as well as the complexities of relations between Christians and Muslims. His research publications have garnered numerous international awards, and have been widely acclaimed for their innovative interdisciplinary research, meticulous textual analysis, and thorough cultural contextualization.

Previous Award

Albert Christ-Janer Award 2014
Creative Research Medal 2013

John Burke

on March 2, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2019

John Burke, professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is a world leader in fusing traditional evolutionary analyses with state-of-the-art genomic approaches in plant domestication research. His research has increased understanding of the genetics and genomics of crop domestication, the critical role of hybridization in plant evolution, and the risks associated with crop-wild gene flow. In his studies of sunflowers and related species (Helianthus species complex), he has examined the molecular and phenotypic evolution of crop plants and the potential for such research to inform modern breeding efforts. Burke has advanced knowledge of the genomic basis of how plants respond to stressful environmental conditions and how hybridization can facilitate such adaptation. These insights, along with the tools and genomic resources that he has developed, represent major contributions to the discipline. In addition, his research on gene flow and introgression is widely recognized as significant in the growing field of risk assessment of genetically engineered crops.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2013

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.

Claudio Saunt

on March 2, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2017

Claudio Saunt, Richard B. Russell Professor in American History, has made tremendous contributions to the fields of early American, Native American and digital history, and to understanding the complexities of our world. He is among an elite cohort of historians who have gained scholarly and public attention for their inclusive, continental approaches to American history, and his perspectives permeate virtually all new historical scholarship. Saunt has published three award-winning books, but his belief that history is not merely for academicians has also guided his expansion into the digital world, including creating an online presence for American history. One of the first scholars to recognize the value and possibilities of digital technology, he has used mega-data to create highly demonstrative digital mapping and interactive projects that reconstruct changing American population dynamics, land cessions, disease and Native demography. His forthcoming book, Aboriginia: Mass Deportation and the Road to Indian Territory, is anticipated to become the leading history of Indian Removal.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2006

Boris Striepen

on February 24, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2015

Boris Striepen, Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator and professor of cellular biology, has made tremendous contributions towards our understanding of the cell and molecular biology of human parasites. His work has focused particularly on Toxoplasma, an opportunistic pathogen that causes severe disease in patients with weakened immune systems, such as AIDS patients or organ transplant recipients. Striepen studied a novel cell component, which is required for parasite survival and an attractive target for drug development. More recently, his laboratory has investigated the parasite Cryptosporidium. This organism is a leading cause of diarrheal disease and death in infants and toddlers around the world. Striepen and his colleagues have developed technology to genetically manipulate this organism, which up to now has been notoriously difficult to study. They are using this technology to work towards urgently needed drugs and vaccines. His genetic analyses of various parasites have also generated a clearer picture of the evolutionary origin and fundamental composition of dangerous pathogens. Striepen views teaching and the training of young scientists as an important and most enjoyable part of his work.

Susan Mattern

on February 24, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2015

Susan Mattern, professor of history, has established an outstanding national and international reputation as an expert on the history of Rome. Her first book, Rome and the Enemy, is widely regarded as one of the most important contributions to the topic of Roman imperialism and was among the first to emphasize the informal nature of Roman rule that relied more on negotiation and patronage than scholars had previously realized. Mattern’s second book, Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing, represents a major shift in her research focus. In it, she argues that medicine was inflected by Greek ways of thinking about social values such as citizenship and masculinity. Therapy, she illustrates, was both an intimate dialogue between doctor and patient and a negotiation over power in the patient’s household. Mattern continued to break new ground in her third book, The Prince of Medicine, which is the first to systematically set the prominent Greek physician Galen in his social and environmental context—the ancient Mediterranean world of infectious disease. Previously portrayed as a dogmatic pedant, Mattern argues that Galen carried on an exhausting clinical practice that included several years of battle with the Mediterranean world’s first smallpox epidemic.

Nancy Manley

on February 24, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2015

Nancy Manley, professor of genetics and director of UGA’s Developmental Biology Alliance, is internationally recognized as an expert on the development, function and aging of the thymus and parathyroid organs. These areas are highly relevant to the function of the immune and endocrine systems. Manley has carved a unique niche at the intersection of development, immunology and aging. By using molecular genetic approaches to investigate the biology of the thymus across the entire lifespan, she has been able to uncover fundamental principles of organ development and aging, including mechanisms regulating stability of cell fate and degeneration of the immune system with aging. These principles have particular relevance to developing therapeutic interventions aimed at improving the immune system in the elderly by rejuvenating or replacing an aged thymus. She was recently part of a research team that was the first to grow a fully functional thymus in a living animal from transplanted cells. This discovery could one day aid in the development of laboratory-grown replacement organs, and it may form the basis of a thymus transplant for people with weakened immune systems.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2011

Peter Brosius

on February 24, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2015

Peter Brosius, professor of anthropology, has been at the forefront of efforts to transform the field of environmental anthropology. He is widely recognized as an authority on the Penan hunter-gather peoples in Malaysian Borneo, and he is also a leading scholar on the political ecology of conservation. Brosius has used his scholarly expertise to analyze the impact of environmental degradation on local and indigenous communities and to demonstrate the multiple linkages that connect those communities to global institutions and processes. He is also the founding director of UGA’s Center for Integrative and Conservation Research, which promotes interdisciplinary research collaborations that foster the evolution of the integrative approaches that make space for multiple perspectives and ways of thinking about complex trade-offs in conservation and development. Brosius and his colleagues have used this approach to examine a variety of conservation topics, including the social acceptability of bioenergy in the American South. He also continues an active research trajectory focused on the interactions between local communities, conservation and development in Malaysia and Indonesia.