The Red and Black

Issue date: 1/8/09 Section: News

ALTIZER

FERTIG

Two University professors were among 67 from across the country recognized at the White House at a Dec. 19 ceremony with President George W. Bush for their scientific research.

Sonia Altizer, associate professor in the Odum School of Ecology, and Chad Fertig, assistant professor of physics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, are the first professors from the University to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

The PECASE program began in 1996 and is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists and engineers beginning their careers, according to the program's Web site.

Altizer was nominated for the award by the National Science Foundation for the work she has done on the population biology of infectious diseases.

"The project focused on understanding how long distance migration in animals influences the spread and evolution of infectious diseases using monarch butterflies as a model organism," she said in a phone interview.

Fertig was recognized for his research using ultra-cold atomic gases to study and generate a new understanding about the theory of magnetism. The techniques being developed will help improve the performance of new types of navigation systems and atomic clocks, he said in a phone interview.

"This is a new and exciting application of atomic physics to try and uncover and discover new things about magnetism that aren't known currently," Fertig said.

Nearly $1 million, to be distributed over five years, will be awarded to Fertig for further research.

"It might be surprising for others to know this, but scientists don't get a lot of feedback like this," Altizer said. "It's pretty amazing that there were two faculty here at UGA that got this award. I think that points to the fact that UGA is doing something right in bringing in and supporting faculty in the early stages of their career."

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