News Archive - 2024

Nashville native Nakita Barakadyn's journey into the world of linguistics began with her curiosity about the origins of Japanese. “I became a linguist in the first place because I heard the tantalizing statement ‘Nobody knows where Japanese came from,’” she says. “I was a kid at the time, but now I understand they just meant that Japanese is a language isolate—it has no known relatives.” Encountering this linguistic mystery imbued with her a…

In a new study, UGA researchers analyzed survey responses and brain imaging data to assess how the part of the brain that detects threats and regulates emotions, known as the amygdala, reacts under conditions simulating the experience of racial discrimination. Results suggest some Black youth are internalizing racial discrimination, which may increase their rates of depression and anxiety: The analysis is part of a national study that followed…

University of Georgia senior Jordyn Faucette was one of 19 students across the nation to be awarded the Beinecke Scholarship this spring, UGA's third winner of the scholarship and its first since 2019. A first-generation college student and a McNair Scholar, Faucette is majoring in philosophy and English in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and political science in the School of Public and International Affairs. She is also working…

On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom were black, marched onto…

What began in 2004 as a relatively small group of researchers has since grown to include more than 40 members spanning seven colleges, including the College of Engineering, the College of Public Health, and the College of Pharmacy. Together, the scientists aim to tackle medical challenges and develop cures and treatments for devastating diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and stroke. What is Regenerative Bioscience? You’re working in the…

UGA Trustee Becky Winkler believes everyone has a narrative. You just need to keep it pointed in the right direction. "My dad was a Jamaican immigrant and he taught me the secret to the meaning of life is it's all made up," Winkler said. "Raised by an immigrant, I was taught to question things that other people consider normal." The cogent advice has led Winkler (AB '98) to chart her own circuitous path that, in retrospect, appears rather direct…

Assistant professor of horn in the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music, James Naigus received the 2024 Michael F. Adams Early Career Scholar Award at the UGA Research Awards. Naigus recently sat down with our colleagues in UGA Research Communications and discussed his career as a performer and composer, his love for John Williams scores, and having the New York Philharmonic perform one of his pieces: What drew you to the horn? Because I’m a glutton…

As responses to climate change move toward adaptive solutions, plant genetics research faculty at the University of Georgia are seeking plant-based solutions. Some of these colleagues – from across campus, within and beyond the Franklin College – conduct studies at the cellular level, while others investigate plants as whole organisms. Still others are exploring how epigenetics shape entire ecosystems. And while a number of UGA geneticists…

The Athens Film Project will launch the first three of its very short films at Ciné’s Lab at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 17. A project of the Athens Historical Society that began during the early days of the pandemic, the Film Project’s goal is to create films on Athens history for local 11th grade U.S. History classes. The first two films are already…

Marine sciences faculty member Natalie Cohen has received a multi-year grant from the Simons Foundation to support her phytoplankton research investigations off the Georgia coast: Cohen, assistant professor of marine sciences in the University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has been named a 2024 Simons Early Career Investigator. The three-year grant provides $810,000 to fund her work tracking shifts in phytoplankton…