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There are so many reasons that Benjamin Franklin was chosen as the namesake for the Franklin College - and every one of them accrues to our benefit as well as feeds our ambitions for what the College should be. None of the noble epithets with which we connect Franklin demonstrates that more than the unfinished autobiography he worked on but purposefully left unfinished so as  ' to immerse his reader in the formal and textual atmosphere of a deliberately "unfinished" life.'

A new book by the Sterling-Goodman Professor of English at UGA Douglas Anderson on the Franklin autobiography explores and elucidates this and other points about the great man's life, work and ideas on both:

In presenting Franklin's autobiography as an exemplary formal experiment in an era that its author once called the Age of Experiments, The Unfinished Life of Benjamin Franklin veers away from the familiar practices of traditional biographers, viewing history through the lens of literary imagination rather than the other way around. Anderson's carefully considered work makes a persuasive case for revisiting this celebrated book with a keener appreciation for the subtlety and beauty of Franklin's performance.

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Franklin Professor and Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry Gregory H. Robinson is among the awardees of the 2012 Humboldt Research Award.

The award, which is presented to up to 100 scientists worldwide annually, is granted in recognition of a researcher's entire achievements to date and is presented to academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.

Robinson is internationally known for his work synthesizing chemical compounds that other scientists had dismissed as impossible. In a landmark 1995 paper, he demonstrated that metals can display electronic behavior that was previously only thought possible with carbon-based ring systems such as benzene. These chemical compounds, known as aromatics, are particularly stable, and Robinson's innovations have the potential to improve the performance of semiconductors and electronics. His research team subsequently installed a triple bond between two gallium atoms and later prepared a compound containing an iron-gallium triple bond. In another landmark paper published in 2008, Robinson's team stabilized a new form, or allotrope, of silicon and developed a technique to stabilize highly reactive molecules that otherwise would be fleeting.

"Dr. Robinson's research continues to receive international acclaim, and his accomplishments underscore how research in the basic sciences creates new knowledge with far-reaching applications," said Hugh Ruppersburg, interim dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "The fact that Dr. Henry Schaefer earned a Humboldt Research Award last year is further indication of the esteem with which our faculty members are held."

img_ctegd.jpg The Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases is a UGA-wide, multi-disciplinary center establshed in 1998 to bring together research, education and service resources in parasitology, immunology, cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics. The Franklin College has been one its core institutional partners from the beginning, recognizing that facilitating expertise from a wide-range of disciplines is the key to fighting diseases in the developing world - often treatable diseases that ravage the lives of millions of people.

One of these is toxoplasmosis, one of the most common parasitic infections in the world:

Now, thanks in part to a five-year, $1.8-million grant from the National Institutes of Health, University of Georgia researcher Silvia Moreno has identified a potential target for new therapies against toxoplasma infection, which may help to protect people with compromised immune systems, developing fetuses and other sensitive populations from serious harm.

Toxoplasma works by invading healthy cells within the body, and once it has taken over, the cell's membranes protect the parasite from the immune system. However, as it replicates and fills the cell, some parasites must venture out to find new cells to attack. It is during this process, when toxoplasma is outside the protective walls of the host cell, that Moreno sees an opportunity to combat the parasite.

"We are interested in knowing how the parasite is able to survive long enough to find another host cell," said Moreno, professor of cellular biology in the UGA Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

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The accolades for Franklin College's Bethany Moreton continue to roll in:

Bethany Moreton, a University of Georgia associate professor of history and women's studies, was one of 25 professors nationwide selected this year to join the speaker's bureau of the Organization of American Historians, the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history.

As an OAH Distinguished Lecturer, Moreton will bring her expertise to college campuses and conferences as well as to historical societies, libraries, museums and teacher workshops. Moreton studies the interactions between religious conservatism and the 20th-century economy. Her book, To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise (Harvard University Press, 2009), has received a number of accolades and awards, including the OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for the best first book in U.S. history. The New York Times Book Review described it as "a gracefully written and meticulously researched account of why people not only have been willing to work for the company, but often have also developed fierce loyalty to it."

The dean of an arts and sciences college of the size and dimensions of the Franklin College really has his or her hands full. Outside of the extraordinary administrative duties of the position and alongside the constant fundraising responsibilities and appearances, the dean is our ambassador and spokesperson; introducing speakers and addressing graduates with an eloquent and memorable message could itself be a full-time occupation. Interim dean Hugh Ruppersburg has proven adept at all of the above duties, but he has truly excelled in this latter one. Here are his introductory remarks for the 18th Andrea Coley Lecture on April 6:

On behalf of the Franklin College and the University I welcome you to the 18^th Andrea Carson Coley lecture. This is always an important event on the spring semester calendar for Women’s Studies. In memory and honor of Andrea Coley, a young woman who came out as a lesbian and suffered hostility and non-acceptance that led to her suicide, the Coley lecture seeks to foster understanding and acceptance of people who are different. It speaks for the spirit and practice of fairness, tolerance, appreciation and equity for all people. This year in particular seems particularly relevant. The current political campaign, as surly and uncivil as I can ever recall a campaign having been, has focused unfortunately on a very narrow and singular definition of what it means to be an American, of what it means to be human. Those who don’t fit that definition are regarded by some as suspect, second-rate, undeserving of full status as human beings. Not only do we witness attacks on gays, lesbians, transgendered, and others who are different. We are also witnessing attacks on women in general, on the fundamental concept of difference and self-empowerment. We recently heard a young woman lambasted on a national radio program for the mere fact of her testimony before Congress. And we have seen in Florida how a teenage boy with dark skin, who behaved and dressed in what one observer interpreted as a suspicious manner, ended up dead on the lawn of a small-town neighborhood. These are extremist attacks, extremist acts, extremist views, you might say, but the current political climate demonstrates all too well how fast extremes can become the middle ground. In this environment, where the gains of the last fifty years are cast into doubt and sometimes even scorn, the importance of programs that highlight, study, teach, and promote issues of gender, race, and difference becomes all the more clear.

I am so pleased to see everyone at this important event today. Thank you to the staff, students, and faculty of Women’s Studies for all that you do. Since the Institute was established 35 years ago, more than 10,000 students have completed Women’s Studies courses. These students – and thousands of others who experience a first-class liberal arts and sciences education – are equipped to enter the public discourse with tolerance and generosity: the wisdom, justice, and moderation that are the pillars of the UGA Arch. Thank you to Kathy and Andrew Coley for endowing this event in honor of their daughter. I cannot imagine a more powerful legacy for Andrea, than fostering those crucial values for our students, faculty, and community. And thank you in advance to my friend and colleague, Tricia Lootens, for the talk she is giving today. As a teacher, scholar, and citizen, she has had a tremendous and beneficial impact on her department, this institute, and the University. I look forward to her remarks. Thank you.

Der Paukenspieler (The Drummer Boy) by Paul Klee, 1940

During interviews and conversations with faculty members over the years, I've heard scientists, historians and artists all mention this same subject: the importance of wonder and curiosity to their disciplines. While some lament the decreasing capacity of wonder in many students today, I can't help but wonder whether it may have, down through the ages, always have seemed like this. Whatever the case may be, most agree that one of their unwritten duties is to help unlock the wonder in their students. As this essay makes clear, it is one of the most important elements to living an examined life:

Undisciplined wonder was thought to induce stupefaction. Descartes distinguished useful wonder (admiration) from useless wonder (astonishment, literally a “turning to stone” that “makes the whole body remain immobile like a statue”). Useful wonder focused the attention; it was, Descartes said, “a sudden surprise of the soul which makes it tend to consider alternatively those objects which seem to it rare and extraordinary”. If the “new philosophers” of the 17th century conceded wonder at all, it was as a source of admiration, not debilitating fear. The Northern Lights might seem “frightful” to the “vulgar Beholder”, wrote Edmond Halley, but to him they would be “a most agreeable and wish’d for Spectacle”.