University of Georgia Office of Research
Jorge Majfud-Albernaz, a doctoral student in Latin American literature and culture, has written essays, books, articles, short stories and poetry focused on globalization, human rights, Latin American democracy and women’s issues. His works have been published in French, Spanish and English.
Jason W. Solomon, a doctoral student in music, concentrates on the perception and analysis of musical sounds as they relate to the nature of music and an audience’s acculturated responses to it. He has been credited with opening a “new route of inquiry” in the field, and has presented his work at HarvardUniversity, where it was later requested for use in a seminar on perceptual issues.
John Hearn, a doctoral student in chemistry, studies the components of aerosol particles and how these tiny particles that are usually dispersed in gas interact in and affect the atmosphere. Hearn built his own laboratory equipment before conducting his investigations.
Thomas W. H. Ng, a doctoral student in management, studies the reconceptualization of psychological empowerment, or the perceived feelings of competence and control and internalization by employees of a company’s goals and objectives. Ng has presented multiple papers at Academy of Management and Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology meetings in addition to being invited to author two book chapters.
Qi Wu, a doctoral student in cellular biology, uses fruitflies as models for studying neural pathways that are involved in the hunger process. He recognized that an insulin signaling system regulates most aspects of hunger in Fruit flies, and this likely is the case in vertebrates as well. Wu’s research has been published in Neuroscience, Neuro, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Esther M. Skelley, a doctoral student in international affairs, studies U.S. democracy programs abroad and analyzes how to measure their results. She has found that developing democracies are likely to alternate between progression and regression for several decades. She also has concluded that U.S. intervention necessitates a long-term commitment to the consolidation process. Her publications include two articles and a book chapter and she co-authored a monograph on Latin American politics, Communism and elections. Ms. Skelley received the Hillenbrand Fellowship, awarded annually to a high-ranking graduate student in international affairs, and a research assistantship with Dr. Howard Wiarda, Dean Rusk Professor of International Relations.
Victoria Baramidze, a doctoral candidate in mathematics, studies and develops applied mathematical methods that have applications for earth and atmospheric sciences. She specializes in the use of spherical splines, which are mathematical tools that represent functions over spherical objects like the Earth. Ms. Baramidze and her UGA mentor, Professor of Mathematics Ming-Jun Lai, use these splines to describe gravitational fields and densities based on satellite data to advance geodetic and atmospheric science research. Ms. Baramidze received the William Armour Wills Memorial Scholarship in 2002 and the Outstanding Teaching Award in 2004 from the UGA Mathematics Department. She also received the best student paper award at the 2000 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Southeast Atlantic Section Meeting.
Peter T. Gianiodis, a doctoral student in strategic management, studies the process of transferring and commercializing university discoveries and technologies to industry. His work has shown that how technology transfer offices are configured affects a university’s commercialization success. For example, universities that quickly commercialize inventions produce more revenue. Mr. Gianiodis is a member of a research team that won two best-paper awards: The 2004 Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Award from the foremost scholarly forum for entrepreneurial research and the 2003 McKinsey/Strategic Management Society Best Paper Award from the world’s premier conference in the management field. Mr. Gianiodis, who has presented papers at international venues, has four papers currently in print or under review.
Creative Research Medal in Natural Sciences and Engineering 2018Michael 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
John W. Amoss, a master’s degree candidate in printmaking, incorporates a Japanese woodblock printing technique called moku-hanga with his background in commercial illustration to create artworks that combine sculpture, painting and print media in a multicultural, multigenerational style. He carves multiple wooden print blocks for one image and then adds metal sheets to give the scene depth. After inventing this technique, he collaborated with a Japanese master printer to design an internationally distributed woodcut. Mr. Amoss’ artwork has been exhibited in Scotland, Uganda and Japan. He has been invited to present his research findings during the Southern Graphics Convention at the Corcoran School of Art and Design in Washington, D.C., on April 1, 2005.