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UGA Celebrates World Water Day 2019

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Water lettuce plants float in cups inside a plant biology grow room.

Water lettuce plants float in cups inside a plant biology grow room.

Water is nearly everywhere, and it’s important.

Whether it is flowing through the College of Engineering’s new 35-foot water tunnel, through Athens’s own Oconee rivers, or being enjoyed and stewarded by the UGA community, it affects our lives. As with the rest of nature, even our understanding of water and the ecological systems it participates is constantly growing.

 

Today has been designated World Water Day by the United Nations for a host of reasons. It is a finite resource in a world with a growing population, and many people are without access to clean water or reliable irrigation methods; these challenges are serious across the world, including our very own Georgia. This is why it is so exciting to have people like Professor George Vellidis here at the University of Georgia, who is taking a critical look at traditional agricultural irrigation systems in use in the state’s farming industry and developing solutions for smarter water use.

 

(L-R) Professor George Vellidis and graduate student Anna Orfanou check the circuit board of a UGA Smart Sensor Array node in an experimental crop field on the Tifton campus.

(L-R) Professor George Vellidis and graduate student Anna Orfanou check the circuit board of a UGA Smart Sensor Array node in an experimental crop field on the Tifton campus.

If you’re like me and don’t have a background in agricultural science, there are still plenty of ways you can help, in the Bulldog spirit of taking on these grand challenges together.

 

  • Reducing water usage and water-related waste. Showers over baths, shutting off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth, and using refillable water bottles instead of plastic are all ways you can save water and reduce water-related waste. When you do so at work and home, you’re being frugal for yourself, stewarding the university’s resources well, and leaving more fresh water for later.
  • Supporting organizations that are solving water challenges. I’ll let you do your own research on those; there are many worthy organizations out there. As a part of UGA, you should be aware of the Crop Soil Sciences Discretionary Fund, related to Professor Vellidis’s work mentioned earlier, and the College of Environment and Design’s fundraiser for a water bottle refilling station (with only a few days left in its fundraising effort).

 

Water is a precious resource, and deserves our attention as it affects both our state and many other people across the rest of the world. Pick up a water bottle for use at work, put a sticky note in your bathroom mirror to remember to turn off the sink, or whatever creative way you can think of to make your own drop in the bucket for World Water Day.

Science for the benefit of humanity: Dr. Cori Bargmann

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When Dr. Cori Bargmann (BS ’81) graduated from the University of Georgia in 1981 with a degree in biochemistry, she had no idea she would one day lead a $3 billion initiative dedicated to eradicating disease by 2100. Dr. Bargmann explained she was a typical freshman in Mell Hall who lived off Ritz Crackers and Oreos, but she began to get hands-on lab experience thanks to her favorite professor, Dr. Sidney Kushner. A genetics professor, Kushner was also Bargmann’s undergraduate advisor, who “paid me to work in the lab even though I mostly broke things.”

Bargmann is currently the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor at The Rockefeller University in genetics and neurosciences. She studies animal neurology, specifically that of round worms, as it relates to genetics and environment. In 2016 she became the Head of Science for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), an initiative co-founded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician and teacher. The mission of the initiative is to build a better future for everyone, which in Bargmann’s words, means to “find new ways to leverage technology, community-drive(n) solutions, and collaboration to accelerate progress in Science, Education, and within our Justice & Opportunity work.”

Bargmann’s favorite UGA memory is gathering with her friends every Saturday night at IHop on Baxter Street to rehash the week. Her friends and she followed that ritual regardless of other social plans. Ultimately, her college friends became like family. She says the No. 1 thing she learned from UGA was how many different subjects people are passionate about and how they all bring different backgrounds and experiences to the table.

Bargmann doesn’t claim to be an early riser or a night owl, rather responding with “what is this thing called sleep?” Which makes sense with the list of problems facing her. She says this generation has a lot of challenges, from solving disease to making education more accessible to removing barrier to success, and she agrees with Zuckerberg that these goals need to be ambitious. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was started in 2015, and Bargmann is excited because it is “starting something brand new” where they are “solving today’s challenges today.”

The UGA grad’s proudest achievement isn’t a research discovery or one of the awards she has received. She is most proud of her graduate students who have gone on to do great things. She says “they were great to start with, but I didn’t stand in their way.” Seeing them succeed gives her work meaning.

Her work will gain even more meaning as she continues to pursue solutions to some of society’s great challenges through the CZI. But, of course, we all want to know: what was it like meeting Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg? She was impressed by how young they were–just like her graduate students–and how committed they are to giving back. Bargmann says that like Chan and Zuckerberg, she wants to give back, and her hope is that her research is more than scientific discovery, she wants it to be “science for the benefit of humanity.”

Down to Earth: How one alumnus found his passion in soil research

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Frank Henning (PHD ’10) currently works as a senior scientist in the Duluth, Georgia, office of Woodard & Curran, an integrated engineering, science and operations company. Dr. Henning graduated from the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences with a Ph.D. in horticulture. He coordinates environmental field studies, scientific investigations, Clean Water Act permitting, environmental policy studies, restoration projects and environmental construction management.

Dr. Henning says he chose to study soil because “soil is the ultimate recycling bin; it has the most amazing capacity to transform wastes into life.”

While many think of soil as critical in the agricultural realm, he said it is important to study soil for conservation as well.

His appreciation for soil grows with every project. These projects include restoring native vegetation along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, developing geospatial tools to reduce erosion in fire stricken areas of California, and monitoring changes in salinity along the Georgia coast.

He also has worked on preventative projects to protect water resources from erosion during development and has designed urban landscapes that treat pollutants and infiltrate runoff.

If you’re interested in joining Dr. Henning in solving grand challenges that face our agricultural and environmental futures, please consider giving to the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Fund.