August Kudos

Here are just a few of the terrific honors recently received by Franklin College faculty and students (plus one from an alumnus).

Faculty

Senior associate dean Hugh Ruppersburg was named interim vice provost for academic ­affairs and began the new position on Aug 1. Earlier this year, Ruppersburg was named University Professor, an honor bestowed electively on UGA faculty who have had a significant impact on the university in addition to fulfilling their normal academic responsibilities.

Gregory H. Robinson, Franklin Professor and Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been appointed the UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor in Chemistry. Approved by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia at its May meeting, the special appointment became effective in August.

Lillian Eby, professor of psychology, has been appointed director of the William A. and Barbara R. Owens Institute for Behavioral Research. She succeeds Stephen Beach, Distinguished Research Professor in the university's clinical psychology program, who has served as the institute's director since 2003.

J. Marshall Shepherd, professor of geography and research meteorologist, has been appointed the inaugural Athletic Association Professor in the Social Sciences by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Barbara A. Biesecker, professor and head of the department of communication studies is the recipient of the 2013 Frances Merritt Award winner, a lifetime achievement award from the Communication Research and Theory Network, a service of the National Communication Association.

students

Emily Kane, a PhD in the English department, has been named as a 2013 ACLS Public Fellow. Kane joins a cohort of 20 Public Fellows who will take up two-year assignments at one of a diverse set of partnering host organizations in government and the non-profit sector, including Amnesty International, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and the Digital Public Library of America. Kane was appointed as Program Officer for the Center for Global Education, Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Another PhD in English, Matthew Nye, was selected as the sixth winner of the Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer’s Residency and Book Prize for his manuscript, Pile and Bloom.

And congratulations to alumnus Jonathan Grant (AB ’76, English). His novel about Forsyth County’s history, Brambleman, a, recently won the Benjamin Franklin award for popular fiction from the Independent Book Publishers Association during ceremonies in New York City during Book Expo America. link