News Stories - Page 8

Kevin Vogel, an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Georgia, has received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award from the National Science Foundation. Supported by the more than $1 million CAREER grant, Vogel and his team will spend the next five years building upon the still-limited body of research regarding the symbiotic relationship between kissing bugs and a highly specified bacterium that resides in their gut.

What began as a grassroots growers cooperative in the 1970s has become one of the Southeast’s most prestigious, member-supported nonprofit farming organizations. Having just wrapped up its 25th annual conference in Perry, Georgia, the organization continues its long-standing partnership with the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and UGA Cooperative Extension.

Each semester, the University of Georgia welcomes scholars from across the globe to promote collaborative research. The Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program awards merit-based grants to international academics who seek to further their education and participate in research projects at American universities. More than 800 international scholars come to universities in the U.S. annually, with visits ranging from three months to one year.

“If you ever need someone to help with bartending at the pub, just give me a call and I’d be happy to come over one night and help out.” This was the parting offer from a local landscaper to the owners of Soldier of the Sea Distillery, Mark Davis and Jennifer Berry, at the close of a discussion about future plans for a patio and outdoor space at their newly opened distillery in Comer, Georgia.

As a child, Michelle Samuel-Foo would wake early on Saturday mornings to help her mother get the crops ready for market. She loved working on her family’s farm, where they grew everything from spinach to okra to tomatoes. Being in the field and watching insects do their jobs to help — or sometimes hinder — the family’s efforts to make a living from the land were a favorite pastime.

Three University of Georgia faculty were chosen to participate in the 19th class of the LEAD21 program, a leadership program aimed at developing leaders in land-grant institutions and their strategic partners who link research, academics and extension for leadership roles at colleges and universities across the nation.