News

Since landing at the University of Georgia in 2018, Kristen Dunning has been building opportunities. While at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, she has become a student leader and researcher, started a successful personal care products business, and developed an idea to make the industry she loves more transparent in its history and more equitable in its future.

The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension’s novel Master Forager program has spots available for curious Georgians interested in learning how to safely harvest and use herbs, fungi and more. The first class for the program, which begins Aug. 24, will be held at the UGA Research and Education Garden in Griffin, Georgia.

Researchers at the University of Georgia are developing a new way to detect potentially deadly Listeria contamination in food. Listeriosis, an infection caused by eating food contaminated by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, can cause severe illness in pregnant women, newborns, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.

Say hello to Watson. A four-wheeled, phenotyping robot that operates autonomously or under human control, Watson is taking shape in Changying “Charlie” Li’s lab at the Phenomics and Plant Robotics Center (PPRC) on the University of Georgia’s Athens campus in collaboration with researchers in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

The common bean — which includes many varieties of dry beans, from navy and black beans to red, pinto and green beans — are an important nutritional source for many world populations. However, rapidly changing climate conditions are making them increasingly difficult to grow in many locations due to high temperatures and susceptibility to diseases and pests.

Peanuts, although a major crop in Georgia, are a minor crop in the U.S., with only about 1.5 million acres planted. Due to its limited acreage, there are not many herbicides solely developed for peanuts. Emerging herbicide resistance is an increasing concern in peanut-producing states, and growers need more tools to combat pernicious weeds like Palmer amaranth.

In a lab on the bottom floor of the Miller Plant Sciences building, Dakota Walker pulled a sample of plant tissue to further examine gene expression under the microscope — an experience she never foresaw having at the University of Georgia, having originally applied to Fort Valley State University as a marketing major.

Many studies have shown that prenatal stress in mothers can be linked to adverse outcomes in the physical, emotional, cognitive and behavioral well-being of children. Now a study at the University of Georgia is examining how pre-hatch exposure to the stress-associated hormone corticosterone influences immune function in baby bluebirds.

The University of Georgia Southeast Research and Education Center will host its annual field day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10. The annual event is an open house tour of current research projects taking place at the center where College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences faculty will highlight the work they are doing in cotton, peanuts, soybeans, corn, small grains and cover crops.