Category: Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award

Danielle Jensen-Ryan

ovprweb on April 2, 2018

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Awards 2018

Danielle Jensen-Ryan, a recent doctoral candidate in anthropology, is recognized for her innovative work in environmental policy. She asks fundamental but previously neglected questions about how policy decisions are made and where science might belong—if at all—in the hierarchy of influences. In her dissertation, she integrated two methods typically applied in isolation: a meta-synthesis of published case study data in Georgia to explore the formal features of a science-policy interface and ethnographic research to understand the informal factors shaping water policy. Her current work includes an ethnographic analysis of three case studies, allowing her to explore the internal dynamics of Georgia’s water-policy process. In another study, she found an outsized influence of informal factors on water-policy outcomes with decisions guided by social capital, established relationships and existing power relations. After her postdoc, she will serve as grants director with the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Foundation to help fund health care programs in Wyoming.

Jonathon Vandezande

ovprweb on April 2, 2018

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Awards 2018

Jonathon Vandezande, a recent doctoral candidate in computational and quantum chemistry, has established a record of distinction in both academics and independent research. With a creative understanding of how to overcome scientific challenges, he has shown a strong ability to bring chemical insight into reaction mechanisms. During his time at UGA, he co-authored four papers on the design of catalysts for the reduction of carbon dioxide, and he has recently published another manuscript on the mechanistic pathway of the catalyst. He also collaborated extensively with experimentalists, using computations to illuminate their results. He continues to tackle new challenges as shown by his recent research on spin-orbit splitting in p-block elements. His work with the developmental computer code (BAGEL) indicates an ability to tackle complex problems, helping developers improve their code and learn the intricacies of relativistic quantum mechanics. He is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung in Mulheim an der Ruhr, Germany.

Joseph Kindler

ovprweb on April 2, 2018

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Awards 2018

Joseph Kindler, a recent doctoral graduate in foods and nutrition, has created a body of work that is already influencing the field of nutrition and bone health on an international scale, publishing as the lead or co-author on nine peer-reviewed publications. His innovative research suggests that obesity and Type 2 diabetes progression in childhood might adversely influence bone health. His most recent manuscript published in Calcified Tissues International demonstrated in a case-control design that obese adolescents have inferior bone strength compared to non-obese adolescents, challenging the common belief that obesity is protective of bone. Kindler has developed sophisticated skills in numerous laboratory techniques, including bone and body composition imaging, cardiovascular health assessment and structural equation modeling statistical techniques. He is now a postdoctoral trainee at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dan Du

ovprweb on April 2, 2018

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Awards 2018

Dan Du, a recent doctoral candidate in history, combines analytical methods drawn from economics, cultural studies, and material culture in an extraordinarily innovative way. Her dissertation examined the impacts of the Sino-American tea trade from 1784 through the early 20th century. During this era, global commodity markets became more integrated, European powers established colonies or foreign concessions in Chinese coastal cities, and Western consumers increasingly used exotic Asian foodstuffs. Her pathbreaking work traces the commodity chain through a huge cast of characters from peasant producers who grew the tea, men who transported it, workers who processed the leaves, Canton tea merchants (and American and British buyers), to American retailers and consumers. Unlike previous work in this field, her dissertation is culturally sensitive to Chinese, Americans and Europeans alike. Outside foundations, understanding the significance of her research, have repeatedly granted her predoctoral fellowships. She now holds a one-year visiting position at Wake Forest University.

Kyle Benowitz

ovprweb on April 2, 2018

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Awards 2018

Kyle Benowitz, a doctoral graduate in genetics, has distinguished himself as one of the top researchers applying molecular studies to evolutionary aspects of animal behavior. He has published several papers in top journals examining species-specific aspects of behavior in two species of burying beetles. His dissertation produced a major paper published in Evolution, the leading journal in his field, in which he examines variation in transcription among the most divergent individuals in a population. He developed strong bioinformatics skills and pioneered the use of unusual and sophisticated methods that allowed him to look for subtle transcription variation. His novel approach and paper have been highlighted by Evolution’s “Digest” section. Although his Ph.D. was performed in the laboratory, he was willing and able to visit field stations to collect beetles and has proved a talented observer of behavior. He is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona.

Matt Hauer

ovprweb on April 14, 2017

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2017

Matt Hauer, a recent doctoral graduate in geography, has academic training spanning sociology, demography and population geography, or “spatial demography.” He displays remarkable acumen in identifying timely policy-relevant research topics and is recognized for his dissertation, which explored sea level rise and human migration. He developed his own population projection methods that addressed the limitations of existing approaches, and, working with detailed geographic assessments of sea level, he generated the first national estimates of sea level rise-induced migration and its impacts. He has already developed a keen ability to communicate his research in a variety of governmental and nongovernmental settings and is a sought-after speaker and participant in policy-making. Hauer is currently a faculty member at UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government and serves as director of the CVIOG Applied Demography Program.

Charles Adron Farris III

ovprweb on April 14, 2017

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2017

Charles Adron Farris III, a recent doctoral graduate in theatre and performance studies with a certificate in Native American Studies, is recognized for his contributions to the study of indigenous American theater and performance. His dissertation was the first intensive study of two well-known Cherokee outdoor dramas originally intended to attract tourists: Unto These Hills, performed since 1950 in North Carolina, and Trail of Tears, performed since 1969 in Oklahoma. Farris analyzed the plays’ construction of misleading historical narratives, recent efforts to replace the scripts with more accurate and culturally sensitive versions, and the mixed response from Cherokee communities and tourists. He identified the need for historical outdoor drama to match the cultural expectations of audiences as the cause of repeated commercial disappointment, and ultimately the decline of this theatrical genre.

Brian Crawford

ovprweb on April 14, 2017

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2016

Brian Crawford, a recent doctoral graduate in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, is recognized for his dissertation, which integrated creative field research, ecological population modeling, assessments of stakeholder attitudes toward management and stakeholder-based structured decision-making. He was instrumental in the development of a conservation plan for diamondback terrapins, which are killed by the thousands on the causeways to Georgia’s barrier islands. His research, combined with his willingness to understand the priorities and needs of various stakeholders, resulted in the first-in-the-nation “smart” warning system for wildlife, which alerts motorists when turtles are most likely to appear on the road. Crawford is continuing his work as a postdoctoral researcher in the Georgia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

Nickolas Castro

ovprweb on April 14, 2017

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2017

Nickolas Castro, a recent doctoral graduate in mathematics, distinguished himself by making a major breakthrough in mathematics in his thesis on decomposition of smooth 4-manifolds, a 4-dimensional space like the space-time universe we live in. His research has proved essential for the development of the theory of trisections of 4-manifolds—the idea that smooth 4-manifolds can be understood by cutting them into three pieces, each with simple topology. He provided an elegant and simple proof of a theorem, thereby opening up a new way of thinking about smooth 4-dimensional topology with many new wonderful questions. Castro has been recognized nationally and internationally. He is now working at the University of California, Davis, as a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow.

Hannah Bullock

ovprweb on April 14, 2017

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2017

Hannah Bullock, a recent doctoral graduate in microbiology, is recognized for the new insights her research has provided into a major pathway of the ocean sulfur cycle. Her work focuses on the metabolism by marine bacteria of an organosulfur compound named dimethylsulfoniopropionate that is a major source of the atmospheric sulfur that facilitates cloud formation. Her research offers new insights into the biochemical regulation of the pathway as well as its evolutionary history. Bullock has also made essential contributions to three other papers, has distinguished herself as a contributor to scientific work outside her own field, and has been an active collaborator with fellow graduate students and a mentor for undergraduate students in the laboratory. She currently is a postdoctoral associate in microbiology at UGA.