Welcome
We’ve just passed our one-year anniversary as the world’s first standalone School of ecology. As we knew from the start, there would be ups and downs, but the trend line clearly points towards an upward success. We’re already proud of some very exciting accomplishments and look forward to our vibrant future. In general, while building on an important past of the Institute of Ecology and the legacy of Drs. Odum and Golley, the Odum School has continued to excel at cutting-edge research, stellar teaching and outreach that is important for the future of our planet.
Our research accomplishments are impressive. Exceptional honors have been bestowed on the faculty – a Guggenheim Fellowship (Pej Rohani), NSF Early Development Career Award (Sonia Altizer), the Walter B. Hill Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Service and Outreach (Laurie Fowler) and much more. Our graduate students continue to receive a variety of awards and fellowships, including extremely competitive ones from the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency STAR Fellowship. And we recently hired three new faculty members in population and evolutionary ecology, disease ecology and marine ecology.
The number of undergraduate majors in Ecology continues to grown both in numbers and quality; currently we have one of the highest levels of honors students with roughly around 25% qualifying. We’re also enthusiastic about our new minor in Ecology to meet the growing need of students in arts, law, medicine, business and other areas to have a solid background in ecology, no matter their major. We have continued to have strong participation in study abroad opportunities, in locations from Costa Rica to Brazil and beyond.
Of course, your continued support is essential to keep us going and growing as leader in ecology. I’m so pleased that we have already received many generous gifts even though we’re still a “start-up” as a School.
Recent gift examples include a $1 million gift from Columbus attorney James Butler who established three graduate student fellowships. The Butler Fellows in Ecology will be given through the Odum School of Ecology’s River Basin Center for graduate students studying environmental issues including water quality and land use.
In addition, a recent gift from Mrs. Priscilla Golley and the late Dr. Frank B. Golley established a fund that will help support graduate student education. Also, Dr. and Mrs. Jim Richardson made a gift that will help support future generations of undergraduates. Besides these gifts, the donations that many of our alumni and donors sent have fulfilled a variety of needs as well.
With your support, we will continue to build on our past strengths in research and education, while making new and important discoveries for the future. The Odum School is dedicated to research that will help ensure our natural ecosystems and humans coexist on a more sustainable planet. I look forward to hearing from you – I want to know what you think is important for us to be working on in the first School of Ecology!
JOHN L. GITTLEMAN, DEAN
UGA RESOURCES FOR ALUMNI
Development Office
Director of Development
Elisabeth Butler
ehbutler@uga.edu
(706) 542-6007
