Category: Lamar Dodd Award

Lamar Dodd Award 2014

Jeffrey Bennetzen, Norman and Doris Giles Professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, has established an outstanding national and international reputation as a leader in plant genetics and genomics. He was the first to isolate and sequence a plant transposable element, which is a kind of DNA sequence that can change positions within the genome to create or reverse mutations. His lab also produced the first genetic map of sorghum, an important grain and biofuel crop. In addition, his research group was first to identify the natures and rates of chromosome instability in plants. His broad research interests include the role of gene families in the evolution of plant traits such as disease resistance; genetic diversity in crop plants and their wild relatives; biomass improvement for bioenergy; and the analysis of under-utilized crops that are of key importance for subsistence farming. Bennetzen has authored or co-authored more than 180 publications in top journals, and he is an elected fellow of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Lamar Dodd Award 2008

Bi-Cheng Wang, professor and GRA Eminent Scholar of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, is internationally known for his major contributions to structural biology, crystallographic education, and structural genomics. Developer of the solvent-flattening method, Wang has more recently pioneered a new technique, direct crystallography, to expedite determinations of structure from native protein crystals. In addition to building a world-class facility for X-ray structural biology at the University of Georgia, Wang helped found and serves as director of the Southeast Regional Collaborative Access Team (SER-CAT)—a $25-million shared facility, constructed and operated by UGA, at the Advanced Photon Source of the Argonne National Laboratory. Wang, who received the 2008 A. Lindo Patterson Award from the American Crystallographic Association, also serves as director of the Southeast Collaboratory for Structural Genomics, an NIH-funded project that has attracted more than $30 million in support over the past seven years.

Lamar Dodd Award 2005

William M. Yen has been studying the optical properties of solids, especially those that emit light, for more than 40 years. He began working in this area as a post doctoral associate in Nobel Laureate Arthur Schawlow’s laboratory at Stanford University. His research has influenced “every branch of solid state physics, from the study of electronic and magnetic to vibrationalproperties of solids,” the nominators said.

Dr. Yen’s research has contributed to development of improved laser materials and phosphors and has stimulated much theoretical work. Many of his papers opened new avenues of research, said George Imbusch, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He is regarded as “the leading active researcher in the field of optical properties of magnetic ions in solids worldwide,” said David Huber, a physics professor at the University of Madison-Wisconsin.

Dr. Yen invented and patented a new breed of glow-in-the-dark pigments or “long-persistence phosphors.” After just a few minutes’ exposure to light, these inorganic compounds emit a bright glow for more than 20 hours — twice the time of similar substances. The low-cost, non-toxic materials can be engineered to produce any color. Future applications may include emergency signage, military uses, toys and clothing. Dr. Yen also co-edited The Phosphors Handbook, a technical manual of phosphor properties and uses that is the standard reference book for the field.

He was an early pioneer in the use of lasers to study condensed matter physics, a research area that underpins recent advancements in electronics, optics and computer technology. He also was a principal in leveraging a method called “laser-heated pedestal growth” for creating optically active crystal fibers that previously were too costly or impractical to make. X-ray and UV imaging techniques developed in his laboratory are now widely used in materials and biological microscopy.

A much sought-after speaker, in the past six months Dr. Yen gave keynote plenary addresses at four international conferences. He has published more than 275 refereed journal articles, attracted more than $20 million in external funding and has been awarded four patents. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, co-founder of two conference series and a prominent physicist in professional societies.

Lamar Dodd Award 2003

David P. Landau, distinguished research professor and director of the Center for Simulational Physics, received the Lamar Dodd Award. Landau uses supercomputer simulations to study how solids and liquids behave at atomic levels. His research on the behavior of magnets has applications for semiconductors and other thin film devices. Landau’s group discovered fatal flaws in random number generators used for supercomputer simulations and devised ways to fix the problems, an achievement reported in The New York Times. Co-editor of 17 books on computer simulations, Landau recently received the Aneesur Rahman Prize, the highest honor for outstanding computational physics given by the American Physical Society. His scientific papers have been cited more than 6,000 times.

Previous Award

Distinguished Research Professor 1984

Lamar Dodd Award 2002

Peter H. Hauschildt, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, is recognized by top astronomers as “the world leader, genuinely peerless,” in the development of the computational modeling of stellar atmospheres. With the development of his PHOENIX computer code, Dr. Hauschildt is able to solve problems that have an immense impact on the field of astrophysics.

Outside of our solar system, all our knowledge concerning astronomical objects and processes is based on observed electromagnetic energy emitted as light. However, the interior atmospheres and stellar cores of these bodies are hidden from view and cannot be observed directly. To understand the inner workings of a star and its evolution over time from such limited information is an enormous challenge. It requires building detailed and complex theoretical models, a feat that has eluded even the field’s most prominent scientists.

“This work presents such daunting computational and conceptual challenges that I had personally considered it to be impossible, at least within my lifetime,” said Dr. Dimitri Mihalas of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Using complex computer simulations, Dr. Hauschildt’s research group has met the challenge by constructing numerical models of stellar atmospheres. Their PHOENIX computer code is noted for its degree of realism and unparalleled value in interpreting spectroscopic observations. PHOENIX is applied to a broad range of astrophysical problems, thereby advancing the field as a whole.

Since joining UGA in 1996, Dr. Hauschildt has quickly gained recognition for the depth and breadth of his work. A prolific writer, he has 104 articles to his credit, 71 within the past five years. “Everything that Peter has published is so important that it is very hard to single out one contribution,” Dr. Mihalas adds. Dr. Hauschildt’s funding record is as remarkable as the magnitude of his research. In the past five years, he has generated almost $1.5 million from sources such as National Science Foundation and NASA, an excellent, highly unusual record in the realm of theory and computation.