Taking Initiative - President’s Annual Report 2018

M. Stephen Trent (center), the UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor of Infectious Diseases, recently received a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to optimize vaccine development and administration. Trent was one of five faculty members who were recruited to UGA through the Extraordinary Research Faculty Hiring Initiative.

Faculty are…

… the lifeblood of the University of Georgia. They teach and inspire our outstanding students, preparing them for success after graduation. They conduct research and scholarship to expand human understanding and improve our quality of life.

They also apply their expertise in communities throughout Georgia and around the world to build leadership capacity, foster economic development, and address pressing challenges.

The capacity of the University to make a positive difference is tied directly to the strength of its faculty. That is why, over the past five years, UGA has launched a number of major hiring initiatives to recruit more leading scholars and scientists to campus. These initiatives are elevating the University’s capabilities to fulfill its vital missions of teaching, research, and service.

Presidential Hiring Initiatives

2013

Interdisciplinary Hiring Initiative

Targeted faculty members who conduct research across traditional academic disciplines, where many of the world’s most complex problems now reside. Faculty hired through this initiative are working in areas such as mobile health computing technology, poultry health and production, and biological imaging and brain mapping.

2014

Extraordinary Research Faculty Hiring Initiative

Recruited world-class scientists to establish and expand their research programs at UGA. Faculty hired through this initiative are seeking new treatments for deadly infectious diseases, developing tools to diagnose and combat cancer, and developing methods to improve the yield and quality of fruit and vegetable crops.

2015

Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholars

Since 2015, the University has recruited six Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholars, bringing the total to 18. On the left is Art Edison, a GRA Eminent Scholar in NMR Spectroscopy. On the right, Karen Norris, a GRA Eminent Scholar in Immunology and Translational Biomedical Research. These highly accomplished scientists have two goals: 1) to conduct research that addresses the grand challenges facing the world and 2) to do so while fostering science- and technology-based economic development.

Informatics Hiring Initiative

Expanded instruction and research in the rapidly growing field of informatics. Faculty hired through this initiative are using big data to address challenges ranging from the spread of infectious diseases to securing our nation’s energy grids.

Small Class Sizes Initiative

Hired more than 50 new faculty members to reduce class sizes in a number of majors. More than 300 new course sections were created through this initiative, the majority with fewer than 20 seats, to promote more personalized instruction and mentorship.

WenZhan Song, the Georgia Power Mickey A. Brown Professor of Engineering, was recruited to UGA through the Informatics Hiring Initiative. Song’s research focuses in part on cyber-physical systems, also known as “the internet of things,” which are smart systems that link the physical world with the virtual world of information processing through sensor technology.

2016

Investing in the Sciences

Aimed at faculty with funded research portfolios in science disciplines. Scientists recruited through this initiative are conducting research aligned with UGA’s three Great Commitments: healthier people, a more secure future, and stronger communities.

2017

Investing in the Student Experience I

Focused on faculty members in academic disciplines that are seeing dramatic growth in student demand at UGA, such as engineering, computer science, finance, and biology. This initiative also included hiring additional academic advisors to support undergraduate students pursuing degrees in these high-demand areas.

Investing in the Research Enterprise I

Provided additional start-up funding to attract outstanding faculty members to the University to establish their research programs and contribute to the institution’s growing research enterprise.

2018

Investing in the Student Experience II and Investing in the Research Enterprise 3I

Implemented to expand the impact of the 2017 presidential hiring initiatives.