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Category: William A. Owens Award

Robert E. Rhoades

on February 23, 2016

Robert E. RhoadesDistinguished Research Professor 2006

Robert E. Rhoades, Professor of Anthropology, works on agricultural and environmental issues in developing countries. His research, which involved studying the ways that indigenous people’s traditional knowledge of agriculture contributes to sustainable production, challenged the widespread assumptions that third world farming systems are inefficient. He demonstrated the need to incorporate traditional knowledge into policy by illustrating how local knowledge must be crossed with scientific understanding in order for villagers – who may not entirely understand the concept of global warming – to cope with the melting of the Andean glaciers.

Previous Award

William A. Owens Award 2003

Celeste Condit

on February 23, 2016

William A. Owens Award 2005

Celeste Condit analyzes the effectiveness of different means of communicating genetic research to the public. As scientific advances increase doctors’ ability to identify an individual’s genetic make-up, the focus on genetic services and testing intensifies, along with media coverage and public interest and concern. She studies how terms may evoke different meanings for medical researchers and the public. For example, the word mutation has one meaning for a physician but may suggest alienating images of the Twilight Zone to a patient. Similarly, patients may understand that having “a gene that causes cancer” means the disease will occur whereas physicians and researchers use the phrase to indicate risk for the disease, not causation.

She has identified specific ways in which lay concepts of disease causation provide resistance to information about medical genetics. Recently, her research has focused on “race-based medicine,” a method of diagnosis and prescription based on informally determined information about differences in gene frequencies among race-categorized groups. Her research has shown a deep-seated tendency to resist doctors’ attempts to assign drugs to a specific population, in part because cultural feelings about race impact the public’s interpretation of the concept. She has predicted serious further erosion of trust between the medical establishment and minority communities when ethnically labeled drugs eventually generate instances of serious or fatal side effects (as in the recent mainstream experience with Vioxx and other COX-2 inhibitors).

Dr. Condit is a much sought-after speaker in this rapidly evolving field and has published in Nature Review, American Journal of Medical Genetics and the Journal of the American Medical Association, among others. She also has published and edited six volumes in her field. Dr. Condit has been an invited participant at forums such as the 6th International Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Conference, The National Human Genome Research Center’s “Race Roundtable” and the Whitehead Institute’s “Press Seminar.” Her research has been supported by more than $1 million in grants from the NIH and the CDC. The National Communication Association recognized Dr. Condit as a Distinguished Scholar and invited her to present the 2004 Carroll C. Arnold Distinguished Lecture, the most prestigious lecture in the field. UGA has previously honored her with Creative Research Medal and an appointment as Distinguished Research Professor.

Previous Award

Distinguished Research Professor 1999

 

Jerome Morris

on February 18, 2016

Jerome MorrisWilliam A. Owens Award 2014

Jerome Morris, professor of social foundations of education, is one of the premier scholars of race, social class and the geography of educational opportunity. Also a research fellow with the Owens Institute for Behavioral Research, his interdisciplinary program of research addresses issues related to race and education in the U.S., focusing specifically on the relationship between community, families, youth culture and schooling in the lives of African-American students. Morris has researched black schooling in poor and urban settings in major cities such as Atlanta, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Nashville, and he conducted longitudinal investigations of issues of identity, social class and achievement in middle class and predominantly black suburban contexts in metropolitan Atlanta. Moreover, he is a leading scholar in highlighting the centrality of the U.S. South in understanding contemporary African Americans’ experiences across a range of areas, especially in education. His book, Troubling the Waters: Fulfilling the Promise of Quality Public Schooling for Black Children, has received tremendous praise for its very persuasive use of case study examples and well-crafted theory surrounding his idea of “communally-bonded schools.”

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2010

Lillian Eby

on February 18, 2016

Lillian EbyWilliam A. Owens Award 2013

Lillian Eby, professor of psychology, is a pioneer in the field of industrial and organizational psychology who has contributed significantly to the study of career-related issues. Much of Eby’s research explores the efficacy of mentoring relationships, experiences and programs. Prior to her groundbreaking research on negative mentoring, the field focused almost exclusively on the benefits of mentoring, ignoring the reality that some relationships go awry and can cause suffering for both protégés and mentors. Her conclusions have proved transformational in the field of psychology, and her recommendations for carefully designed mentoring programs are applied to help ensure high-quality workplace relationships in a variety of settings, including health care and substance abuse treatment centers. She is also recognized for her more recent contributions to the field of occupational health and the impact of large-scale organizational change on employee well-being, attitudes and behavior at work.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2010

Martha Carr

on February 18, 2016

Martha CarrWilliam A. Owens Award 2011

Martha Carr, Aderhold Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology, and Research Fellow, UGA Institute of Behavioral Research, studies the factors that promote or inhibit mathematics achievement or “literacy” at various ages and educational stages.

Her first work to attract national attention — the application of self-regulating theory to mathematics — was groundbreaking in that it had been applied to reading and memory but never to mathematics. It has advanced both theory and practice by explaining how many factors combine to influence the development (or not) of more advanced mathematical skills, including metacognition, beliefs, effort and ability, self-confidence, and gender. Her longitudinal studies follow children over the course of many years and emphasize the interplay of psychological factors over time.

Her work, funded by more than $700,000 in federal grants, provides critical recommendations for improved mathematics instruction, especially in the elementary school years — and has led to notable strategies for closing the gender gap in mathematics learning.

Andrea Hohmann

on February 18, 2016

Andrea HohmannWilliam A. Owens Award 2010

Andrea Hohmann, professor of psychology and neuroscience, is a worldwide authority on the role of the endocannabinoid system in pain physiology. Her research strives to exploit the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids to suppress pain—while bypassing the psychoactive side effects associated with tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana. Her group was the first to demonstrate that cannabinoids act at a neural level to suppress pain, and the first to identify an enzyme, monoacylglycerol lipase, as an unrecognized target for the treatment of pain and stress-related disorders. This work has led to a better understanding of the mechanisms of pain, its control, and to theoretical advances in the field. Hohmann has several published patents from this work and has received more than $4.4 million in extramural grants to support her research. In 2007 Hohmann received the Young Investigator Award presented by the International Cannabinoid Research Society for her outstanding work. She was also elected a full member of the Somatosensory and Chemosensory Systems Study Sec- tion, which reviews grants for the National Institutes of Health. Through her research and professional affiliations, Hohmann has, and continues to have, an important impact on the fields of both pain pharmacology and the chemical control of neural function.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2006

David M. DeJoy

on February 18, 2016

David M. DeJoyWilliam A. Owens Award 2008

David M. DeJoy, professor of health promotion and behavior, studies the behavioral and psychological aspects of workplace safety, particularly the organizational factors that promote or obstruct it. In 1993 DeJoy authored, in the Journal of Occupational Medicine, a seminal paper that made the case for integrating the scientific and business aspects of workplace safety. His model emphasized organizational factors, as opposed to blaming accidents on workers or a lack of training; it is based on increased cooperation between unrelated departments to achieve common goals such as improved safety. This and DeJoy’s other work on integrating human resources within organizations have inspired new research directions in the field, as well as numerous real-world applications. Today many of the country’s largest employers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention among them, have adopted his model.

Virginia Nazarea

on February 18, 2016

Virginia NazareaWilliam A. Owens Award 2007

Virginia Nazarea, Professor of Anthropology, has, through her highly original research and writing, articulated the novel perspective that local knowledge and cultural memory can counteract the loss of biodiversity. Her position — that biodiversity is nurtured in marginal spaces that provide a sense of place, belonging and resistance affords people a degree of sovereignty — is a radical departure from science’s earlier focus on macro trends and programmatic design. Her work has been influential in redirecting the focus of research and development in academic programs, international centers and interdisciplinary research projects to instead focus attention on the role of indigenous peoples, women, elders, subsistence farmers and small-scale gardeners in conserving biodiversity.

Gail M. Williamson

on February 18, 2016

Gail M. WilliamsonWilliam A. Owens Award 2006

Gail M. Williamson, Professor of Psychology, is a health psychologist. She was among the first to document the interconnected challenges confronted by the elderly and their caregivers and has led the way in determining factors that contribute to neglectful and abusive care. Her research is both theoretically and methodically sophisticated, and at the same time provides clear directions for effective new interventions to promote well-being among caregivers and care recipients. Her model of the social and psychological consequences of restricted activity has attracted the sustained interest of researchers in the field of aging, and the impact of her work has extended beyond aging and the caregiving relationship to issues in a range of life threatening and incapacitating health disorders. Her publications have appeared in the most respected disciplinary journals of psychology, social sciences, sexuality, health, rehabilitation, Alzheimer’s disease and gerontology, and her works are widely cited.

Karen S. Calhoun

on February 18, 2016

Karen S. CalhounWilliam A. Owens Award 2002

Karen S. Calhoun, Professor of Psychology, is considered one of the world’s experts in the field of sexual violence. Her groundbreaking research is significant for defining the scope and consequences of sexual assault, as well as its treatment and prevention.

Sexual aggression is surprisingly common in the United States, with estimates indicating one in eight adult women has been raped. Not only do these victims face psychological problems, they also encounter economic consequences, physical health problems, and high rates of substance abuse and suicide. The costs of sexual violence are overwhelmingly high for the victims and society as a whole. Dr. Calhoun seeks to develop a deeper understanding of sexual violence by deciphering both its causes and consequences. She has been one of only a handful of researchers to focus on both the victim and the perpetrator. Her early work established that rape victims are often subjected to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and that PTSD arising from sexual assault is second only to that from military combat.

Through her pioneering research, Dr. Calhoun has discovered that, for still unknown reasons, initial sexual victimization drastically increases the risk for further victimization. She continues to shed light on this puzzle by identifying attention and memory deficits following sexual assault. Additionally, she studies perpetrator behavior, which also contributes to understanding prevention. As a result, she and her colleagues have developed a preventive intervention program that shows promise in reducing sexual assault rates.

Recognized as a leading theoretician and researcher on sexual violence, Dr. Calhoun has received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Justice, and the National Institute of Mental Health for her innovative studies. Her work is published in the field’s top journals, some of which have a 90 percent rejection rate.

Previous Award

Creative Research Medal 2001