Athens, Ga. – The Odum School of Ecology honored faculty, students and staff for outstanding achievements during the 2019-2020 academic year at a virtual Spring Fling celebration, held this year via Zoom on April 24. Faculty members Richard Hall and Amy Rosemond served as masters of ceremonies.
Emma Bay Dickinson, a B.S. ecology student with a minor in studio art, and Jacob Simon, who is pursuing B.S. degrees in ecology, biology and interdisciplinary studies in marine sciences, were the recipients of the Thelma Richardson and Frank Golley Undergraduate Support Award. This award honors students who have demonstrated individual excellence in their undergraduate studies as well as helped to foster a sense of community in the Odum School and beyond.
The Seydel Award in Sustainability and Conservation was given to two teams of students in the A.B. program to fund projects focused on ecological dimensions of sustainability in the building and/or environs of the Odum School of Ecology. Thomas Brown, Katie Gwaltney, Lucas Lambert and Jackson Roper won for their project “Bee Campus,” to develop a local pollinator garden in collaboration with the bee campus initiative. Funding will be provided for “Connect to Protect” certification signage and materials for constructing native bee hotels. April McCoy, Ellie Duffy and Jenna McLoughlin received the award for their project “Audubon ‘Plants for Birds’ Native Plant Demonstration Garden.” In collaboration with Oconee Rivers Audubon Society, Lilly Branch Audubon Society, and Athens-Clarke County Office of Sustainability, they will design and construct an educational native garden for birds that is available to the community on a section of the North Oconee Greenway. Funding is being provided for bird houses and bee lodges.
Students were also recognized for honors received beyond the Odum School. Emma Bay Dickinson was named to the Blue Key Honor Society and received the UGA Libraries Undergraduate Research Award in the 1st-3rd Year Division for “Landscape and Local Determinants of Non-breeding Bird-Use in Powerlines.” Culzean Kennedy received the award for the CURO Best Paper in the Life Sciences for “Enhancing malaria vaccine immunogenicity and stability using VacSIM delivery method.” Diane Klement was honored with the UGA Presidential Award of Excellence.
Ania Majewska, who received her doctorate in ecology in December, won the Best Student Paper Award for “Multiple transmission routes sustain high prevalence of a virulent parasite in butterfly host,” published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Doctoral student Kelsey Solomon received the Distinguished Graduate Student Teaching Award.
The Frank Golley Memorial Scholarship, given in memory of the late former director of the Institute of Ecology, was awarded to Dessa Dunn, a master’s student in conservation ecology and sustainable development.
Talia Levine, a master’s student in conservation ecology and sustainable development, received the Graduate Diversity Award in Ecology for support of diversity initiatives of the graduate program.
The Robert A. Sheldon Award, established by Joanne Sharpe to honor the memory of her late husband who was an outstanding graduate student in zoology, was given to master’s of ecology student Alexandra Kenna.
Recognition of graduate students from beyond the Odum School was also noted. Incoming students Anecia Gentles and Adam McFall received Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation, and current students Jessie Motes, pursuing a master’s degree, and doctoral student Laura Naslund received honorable mentions. Doctoral student Reni Kaul received the Excellence in Teaching Award as well as a dissertation completion award from the UGA Graduate School. Doctoral student Claire Teitelbaum received the James L. Carmon Honorarium and Ania Majewska received a Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award, both from the UGA Office of Research.
Faculty, Staff and Postdoctoral Associate Awards
The Employee of the Year Award was given to two staff members. Mica Turner, the Odum School’s administrative financial director, received the award for “extreme dedication to the smooth budgetary and overall functioning of our unit, especially in times of major disruption including OneSource transition, staff turnover, and COVID-19 crisis.” Trippe Ross, administrative specialist for the Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases, was honored for “dedication in the last year in handling three complex new postdocs, overseeing the expansion of the CEID center, filling in for much of the role when IDEAS coordinator was unfilled, and his handling of many administrative tasks of the COVID-19 response from Ecology.”
Undergraduate Coordinator and Lecturer Amanda Rugenski and Asst. Prof. Richard Hall received the Odum School’s Outstanding Faculty Instructor of the Year Award, and were also named UGA Outstanding Teaching Faculty.
Other recognition from beyond the Odum School included Distinguished Research Prof. John M. Drake being named a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America; Professors Vanessa Ezenwa and Olin “Gene” Rhodes being appointed UGA Athletic Association Professors; Prof. Pejman Rohani being named UGA Regents Professor; and Postdoctoral Associate Mauricio Seguel receiving a Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award from the UGA Office of Research.
Special Awards
The Ecology Educator Award was established this year by undergraduate students to recognize and celebrate outstanding high school educators who have supported and inspired students to study ecology and achieve at high levels. The inaugural recipients were Jon Gustin, AP Environmental Science teacher at Cherokee High School in Canton, Ga., nominated by A.B. ecology and journalism student Amanda Budd, and Dr. William Fowler, AP Biology teacher at Greenbrier High School in Evans, Ga., nominated by A.B. student Diane Klement.
The Purple Heart Award, presented by the Ecology graduate students to a faculty or staff member who has gone beyond the requirements of his or her position to be exceptionally helpful to students, was given to IT Director Brian Perkins and IT Professional Principal Tyler Ingram for their extraordinary efforts all year and especially in helping with the disruption caused by COVID-19.
Finally, the Dean’s Award was given to “Odum All” in recognition of the Odum Community’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. “I want to thank you ALL for the profound work you’ve done in the face of such extreme, sudden and frightening stress. You’ve continued to create new ecological ideas, work effectively as a unit, and maintain an intensely high level of productivity – publishing, discovering, teaching and servicing,” wrote Dean John L. Gittleman in his remarks about this year’s award.
The evening ended, as is traditional, with the award for best costume in line with this year’s theme, Maskerade. With judging conducted by online vote, Asst. Prof. Richard Hall was declared the winner for his entry, “The Weed Exterminator.”
