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Tag: Honor

‘Prestigious recognition’: UGA entomologist elected to National Academy of Sciences

Donna Huber on May 16, 2017

Michael Strand
University of Georgia Regents’ Professor Michael Strand became the university’s eighth member of the National Academies with his election to the National Academy of Sciences. Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski
By Sam Fahmy | May 15, 2017
First appeared in ColumnsUniversity of Georgia Regents’ Professor Michael R. Strand has received one of the highest honors a scientist can receive—election to the National Academy of Sciences.

Strand, who holds an appointment in the entomology department of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and an affiliated appointment in the genetics department of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is UGA’s eighth member of the National Academies, which include the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine.

“The University of Georgia commends Dr. Strand on this most prestigious recognition,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “Dr. Strand’s influential research is representative of the high caliber of faculty at UGA and the strength of our growing research enterprise.

It is an honor to have him represent this university in an organization of such tremendous national importance.”

Strand’s primary research interests are in the study of the interactions among insects, parasites and microorganisms. Applications of his work focus on insects that are important to agriculture and that transmit human diseases such as malaria and Zika virus. His work has garnered nearly $28 million in external funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation. He has published more than 220 research papers, and his findings have been cited at a level that places him in the top 1 percent of entomologists and among the top 5 percent in the fields of biology and biochemistry.

“Dr. Strand’s work underscores the profound impacts that basic science can have on agriculture and human health,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “He exemplifies the kind of world-changing research and instruction that make the University of Georgia one of the nation’s leading public universities.”

Strand’s expertise is sought around the globe. He has delivered invited seminars and symposia in nearly every department of entomology in the U.S. and at universities and conferences in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and Australia. In Athens, he has taught undergraduate survey courses in entomology and has mentored more than 50 doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to careers in government, industry and academia.

Strand has earned several honors over the course of his career, including being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Entomological Society of America. In 2013, he was named Regents’ Professor, an honor bestowed by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to distinguished faculty whose scholarship or creative activity is recognized both nationally and internationally as innovative and pace setting.

He joined the UGA faculty in 2001 and is a member of the university’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and its Faculty of Infectious Diseases. He earned his bachelor’s degree and doctorate from Texas A&M University and was a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and—with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine—provides science, engineering and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.

 

UGA entomologist Michael Strand elected to National Academy of Sciences

Donna Huber on May 2, 2017

Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia Regents’ Professor Michael R. Strand has received one of the highest honors a scientist can receive-election to the National Academy of Sciences.

Strand, who holds an appointment in the entomology department of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and an affiliated appointment in the genetics department of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is UGA’s eighth member of the National Academies, which include the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine.

“The University of Georgia commends Dr. Strand on this most prestigious recognition,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “Dr. Strand’s influential research is representative of the high caliber of faculty at UGA and the strength of our growing research enterprise. It is an honor to have him represent this university in an organization of such tremendous national importance.”

Strand’s primary research interests are in the study of the interactions among insects, parasites and microorganisms. Applications of his work focus on insects that are important to agriculture and that transmit human diseases such as malaria and Zika virus. His work has garnered nearly $28 million in external funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation. He has published more than 220 research papers, and his findings have been cited at a level that places him in the top 1 percent of entomologists and among the top 5 percent in the fields of biology and biochemistry.

“Dr. Strand’s work underscores the profound impacts that basic science can have on agriculture and human health,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “He exemplifies the kind of world-changing research and instruction that make the University of Georgia one of the nation’s leading public universities.”

Strand’s expertise is sought around the globe. He has delivered invited seminars and symposia in nearly every department of entomology in the United States and at universities and conferences in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Australia. In Athens, he has taught undergraduate survey courses in entomology and has mentored more than 50 doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to careers in government, industry and academia.

Strand has earned several honors over the course of his career, including being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Entomological Society of America. In 2013, he was named Regents’ Professor, an honor bestowed by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to distinguished faculty whose scholarship or creative activity is recognized both nationally and internationally as innovative and pace setting.

He joined the UGA faculty in 2001 and is a member of the university’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and its Faculty of Infectious Diseases. He earned his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and was a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and-with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine-provides science, engineering and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.

Writer: Sam Fahmy

Roberto Docampo named UGA recipient of SEC Faculty Achievement Award

Donna Huber on March 30, 2017

Roberto Docampo

Athens, Ga. – Roberto Docampo, Distinguished Research Professor of Cellular Biology and Barbara and Sanford Orkin/Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, has been named the University of Georgia’s recipient of the 2017 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award.

The award, which is administered by provosts at the 14 universities in the SEC, recognizes professors with outstanding records in teaching and scholarship who serve as role models for students and other faculty members. Winners receive a $5,000 honorarium.

Docampo, a faculty member in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, is a world-renowned researcher known for his work on neglected parasitic diseases including malaria, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness. He also is credited with the discovery of a novel organelle, the acidocalcisome, conserved from bacteria to human platelets, where it has a role in blood coagulation. His most recent work at UGA includes the successful use of the CRISPR/Cas9 technique to edit the genome of Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease. He also has characterized a key signaling pathway in the parasite, which could allow for advances in drugs or vaccines to treat or prevent parasitic diseases.

“Dr. Docampo is advancing research with implications for millions of people around the world while also educating and mentoring students who themselves will go on to improve global health,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “His work exemplifies the vital role this institution plays in creating healthier communities in Georgia and beyond.”

Docampo joined the UGA faculty in 2005 after serving as a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His career also included serving as a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and as a visiting professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and at Rockefeller University.

Docampo, who has written more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in top scientific journals, currently acts as the principal investigator on four grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling more than $7.2 million, and Brazilian grants fund a second laboratory in Campinas, São Paulo. In total, his research has garnered more than $20 million from organizations such as the NIH, World Health Organization, American Health Association, Georgia Research Alliance and GlaxoSmithKline.

Docampo has received numerous teaching and mentoring awards, and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He currently serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, as well as on the editorial boards of four additional journals. In addition to the medical degree and two doctoral degrees he earned from the University of Buenos Aires and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Docampo was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the National University of San Martin in Argentina in 2013.

For more information about the SEC Faculty Achievement Awards, see http://www.thesecu.com/programs/sec-faculty-achievement-awards/.

Writer: Camie Williams

Cellular biology professor Rick Tarleton named Regents’ Professor at UGA

Donna Huber on March 21, 2017

Rick Tarleton

Athens, Ga. – Rick Tarleton, Distinguished Research Professor and University of georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in Biological Sciences in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has been named Regents’ Professor, effective July 1.

Regents’ Professorships are bestowed by the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents on faculty members whose scholarship or creative activity is recognized nationally and internationally as innovative and pace-setting.

Tarleton, who is a professor in the department of cellular biology and founder of UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, has made research advances that have the potential to transform the lives of the 10 million to 20 million people suffering from Chagas disease, a potentially deadly parasitic infection that primarily affects people in Central and South America.

“Through the founding of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases in 1998, Dr. Tarleton has helped make the University of Georgia a leader in promoting global health,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “His research into Chagas disease has implications for millions of people and inspires hope in the fight against one of the world’s most neglected parasitic diseases.”

Tarleton’s laboratory established the Chagas Drug Discovery Consortium, which has brought together international researchers, pharmaceutical companies and not-for-profit groups to improve existing drug protocols and to establish new protocols for Chagas disease. Tarleton’s research has resulted in findings that explained the host-parasite relationship regarding the immune system, and he has continued his research to encompass the development of diagnostics and the evaluation of drugs and vaccines.

“Dr. Tarleton’s superb, innovative research has revolutionized our understanding of Chagas disease and is guiding efforts to translate that scientific revolution into practice both in vaccine production and drug discovery, as well as treatment for the affliction,” Kojo Mensa-Wilmot, professor and head of the department of cellular biology, wrote in a nomination letter.

Tarleton’s work has resulted in five patents and the founding of a proteomics software company known as BioInquire, which was acquired by biotech firm NuSep Holdings, as well as numerous public-private partnerships.

As the founding director of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, Tarleton was instrumental in recruiting additional world-renowned researchers and attracting funding that has enhanced field research in 20 countries. The center has garnered more than $135 million in research funding over the past 15 years and has 24 faculty members from eight units across campus.

“This center has garnered international recognition through Professor Tarleton’s research, as well as his vision and ability to attract key talent to expand the scope of research conducted in CTEGD,” Robert T. Jacobs, vice president of Anacor Pharmaceuticals, wrote in his nomination letter. “The impact of CTEGD goes beyond the science conducted by its researchers, as it has increased the international reputation of the University of Georgia as an important player in the scientific research community.”

In addition to holding the title of Distinguished Research Professor, Tarleton is a recipient of the 2012 Lamar Dodd Award.

The Regents’ Professorship includes a $10,000 salary increase and is granted for an initial period of three years, which may be renewed. No more than one Regents’ Professorship is given in any year at UGA.

For more information about the Regents’ Professorship, see http://provost.uga.edu/index.php/resources/professorships/regents-professorships.

Writer: Camie Williams

Noted parasitologist Dennis Kyle named GRA Eminent Scholar at UGA

Donna Huber on November 8, 2016

 

Dennis Kyle

Athens, Ga. — Dennis Kyle, one of the nation’s leading infectious disease researchers, will join the University of Georgia faculty as its newest Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar.

Kyle, currently a Distinguished Health Professor at the University of South Florida, will join UGA on Jan. 3, 2017, as the GRA Eminent Scholar in Antiparasitic Drug Discovery. He also will serve as the new director of UGA’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, which Daniel Colley, a professor of microbiology, has led since 2001.

Established in 1998, CTEGD is made up of a wide range of research programs focused on the development of medical and public health interventions for diseases that contribute enormously to global death, disability and instability—including malaria, sleeping sickness, cryptosporidiosis, schistosomiasis and Chagas disease.

“Dr. Kyle is one of the world’s foremost authorities on malaria and other parasitic diseases,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “I am pleased that he will be joining UGA to advance the worldwide reputation of CTEGD and to strengthen the university’s partnerships across GRA institutions in the development of new drug therapies.”

Kyle will have a joint appointment in the department of cellular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the department of infectious diseases in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

The Georgia Research Alliance has partnered with Georgia’s research universities to recruit world-class scientists who foster science- and technology-based economic development since 1990. GRA also invests in technology in strategic areas, helps commercialize university-based inventions and facilitates collaboration among academia, business and government. Kyle will be the 17th active GRA Eminent Scholar at UGA and the fifth to join the university in the past two years.

His research focuses on the mechanisms of antimalarial drug resistance and discovery of new antiparasitic drugs for a variety of infectious diseases, including malaria and visceral leishmaniasis, the world’s first and second most deadly parasitic infections, respectively.

Kyle was part of an international research team that identified a new antimalarial drug called ELQ-300, which has shown great promise in preclinical trials. The drug not only functions as a therapeutic but also blocks the transmission of malaria from mosquitoes to humans, potentially eradicating the disease entirely by breaking its life cycle.

With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Kyle led another project to develop human liver models that could more quickly and accurately test potential drug candidates for malaria.

“We are very pleased to have Dr. Kyle join the GRA Academy of Eminent Scholars,” said C. Michael Cassidy, president and CEO of the Georgia Research Alliance. “His research is bringing a greater understanding of the effects of parasitic diseases and helping to develop drugs to combat some of the world’s deadliest diseases.”

Kyle’s laboratory also studies the brain-eating amoeba known as Naegleria fowleri, which causes a rare and devastating infection of the brain called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM.

PAM normally has a fatality rate of about 95 percent, but Kyle’s laboratory is making new headway in the fight against this deadly disease. His laboratory recently discovered two new compounds that are 500 times more potent than drugs currently used to treat PAM infections-most of which were developed to treat other diseases-and his research could pave the way to new and desperately needed therapeutics.

“Millions of people have a stake in the research that’s being conducted in our Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “With the addition of Dr. Kyle to this extraordinary group of faculty members, the University of Georgia is poised to play an even greater role in improving human health around the world.”

Kyle received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and his Ph.D. from Clemson University. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral research associate in UGA’s department of poultry science.

Before joining USF, Kyle served in a number of positions both in the U.S. and abroad. He was chief of the Malaria Research Laboratory at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; chief of parasitology for the Armed Forces Research Institute of the Medical Sciences in Bangkok, Thailand; and he served as deputy director of the Division of Experimental Therapeutics for the U.S. Army’s Drug and Vaccine Development program in Washington, D.C.

He also served as chair of the Genomics and Discovery Research Steering Committee and the Compound Evaluation Network for the World Health Organization.

Among other awards, he received the U.S. Army Achievement Medal in 1990, the U.S. Army Commendation Medal in 1988 and the U.S. Army Meritorious Service Medal. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he was named Scientist of the Year by Malaria Foundation International in 2006.

Writer: James Hataway
Contact:David Lee