Griffin Campus

A tried and true Georgia “boy,” University of Georgia blueberry breeder Scott NeSmith takes pride in creating new blueberry varieties for farmers in Georgia and across the Southeast. Now he can boast that blueberry varieties he’s bred through the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences have gone global.

Two southern highbush blueberry varieties bred by NeSmith in research plots on the UGA Griffin campus are grown in territories in Europe and several countries in Africa, including Namibia and Zimbabwe, he said.

These UGA-bred blueberry plants grow well in the Southeastern United States and will now be grown by African farmers “primarily for export to Europe and some parts of Asia,” said NeSmith, who was named UGA Inventor of the Year in 2013.

At 54, Becky Griffin was the oldest University of Georgia student on the Griffin campus to be awarded a degree this fall, but that fact only fueled her drive to succeed.

After putting her graduate studies on hold for 30 years, Griffin juggled a full-time job and put thousands of miles on her car to complete her master’s degree. The mother of two adult daughters, both of whom are UGA graduates, Griffin was encouraged to finish her degree by Kris Braman, a former UGA Griffin researcher who now heads the UGA Department of Entomology.

“Deciding to go back to school after 30 years was a huge decision. When I told Dr. Kris Braman why I didn’t have a master’s degree, she said, ‘Well, we need to fix that.’ She encouraged me to apply, helped me map out a plan and served as my major professor throughout this process. She was the first person on my team,” Griffin said.

Three University of Georgia Griffin campus scientists have been awarded D.W. Brooks Awards for Excellence for their extraordinary commitment to the mission of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

CAES began selecting D.W. Brooks Awards recipients more than 30 years ago in honor of Brooks, who devoted his career to improving life through contributions to agriculture. The founder of Gold Kist Inc., Brooks was an alumnus and faculty member of the college.

The University of Georgia’s Double Dawgs program is now being offered on the UGA campus in Griffin. The program allows students to simultaneously work towards a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree and complete both degrees in five years or less. The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) is the first to bring the Double Dawgs program to Griffin, Georgia.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 18 percent of all jobs will require a master’s degree by 2022. The Double Dawgs program is designed to help students reach that goal sooner.

“Double Dawgs programs give students the opportunity to earn a valuable second degree in about the same amount of time it would take to earn a bachelor’s degree, in most cases,” said Melissa Gordon, assistant director of academic affairs. “Basically, you start working on your master’s degree while you are finishing your bachelor’s degree. It’s amazing that you can get two UGA degrees in such a short length of time.”

More than 100 Double Dawgs programs are now available to UGA students at the university’s main campus in Athens, Georgia.

Students at the Griffin campus who are working toward a bachelor’s degree in environmental resource science from CAES can enter the Double Dawgs program to earn a master’s degree in plant protection and pest management. 

Renovation of a 1913 mule barn on the University of Georgia Griffin campus is complete, with a ceremonial ribbon cutting Oct. 4 signifying its new purpose as the Dundee Cafe.

Made possible by a $1 million gift from the Dundee Community Association, the cafe will serve students, employees and visitors as well as keep the memory of Dundee Mills and the historic mule barn alive through historical photos and exhibits.

“The University of Georgia is tremendously grateful to the Dundee Mills Community Association for this generous gift, which has allowed us to create a vibrant hub on the Griffin campus and further strengthen the connections between UGA-Griffin and the surrounding community,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead.

The mule barn was constructed in 1913 after the previous structure burned to the ground following a lightning strike. The replacement barn was constructed using the slip form concrete method to demonstrate what was then a new construction technique.

During the same time period, across the street from the campus, Dundee Mills produced towels and other textiles. It was the area’s largest employer for nearly a century, when Griffin was known as a textile town.

The 2018 Agro-Forestry & Wildlife Field Day was held Thursday, Sept. 20 at University of Georgia Griffin Campus Westbrook Research Farm on Ellis Road.

The event, which began in 1987 and is currently held every three years, is an opportunity for property owners and students to learn from and ask questions of experts in a variety of topics related to forestry and wildlife.

George Granade, Research Station Superintendent at UGA-Griffin, helped organize the event.

It is hard to believe that Young Scholars is in the home stretch already! Our students have been finishing up their research and projects which they will present on July 10th. On Tuesday they were able to attend the campus wide Watermelon Social and on Thursday we featured students Lauren Moyer and Meghan Rogers on the radio with their mentor Dr. Kirk Kealey and Lauren Hatcher. Then on Friday, we held our final Fun Friday with the Young Scholars and what a fun day it was! The students started the day by touring FoodPIC with Dr. Kealey and his crew where they had a chocolate tasting and toured the facility. Then had a Business Etiquette workshop with Dawn Tyus, Project Director of the Southeast Addiction Technology Transfer Center (SATTC) at Morehouse School of Medicine before having a Meet-N-Eat lunch networking social with the programs mentors where they could practice the skills they had just learned. After lunch, former Young Scholar Breanna Coursey who is now the Director of Student and Employer Engagement for CAES UGA/Athens, spoke to the group about the transition from high school to college. It was a great week!

It is hard to believe that Young Scholars is in the home stretch already! Our students have been finishing up their research and projects which they will present on July 10th. On Tuesday they were able to attend the campus wide Watermelon Social and on Thursday we featured students Lauren Moyer and Meghan Rogers on the radio with their mentor Dr. Kirk Kealey and Lauren Hatcher. Then on Friday, we held our final Fun Friday with the Young Scholars and what a fun day it was! The students started the day by touring FoodPIC with Dr. Kealey and his crew where they had a chocolate tasting and toured the facility. Then had a Business Etiquette workshop with Dawn Tyus, Project Director of the Southeast Addiction Technology Transfer Center (SATTC) at Morehouse School of Medicine before having a Meet-N-Eat lunch networking social with the programs mentors where they could practice the skills they had just learned. After lunch, former Young Scholar Breanna Coursey who is now the Director of Student and Employer Engagement for CAES UGA/Athens, spoke to the group about the transition from high school to college. It was a great week!

The 2018 Young Scholars Program kicked off on Monday, June 4^th at the University of Georgia Griffin Campus with 20 students participating in the six-week internship program. High school students from the region were selected from a pool of 86 applicants to participate in YSP where they will spend the summer working alongside world-renowned research scientists at UGA Griffin.

This year we have eight returning young scholars: Austin Duncan, Tamara English, Mary Grace Johnson, Maddox Jordan, Sheilendria Rawls, Jolie Ryff, Martha Sikora and Sarah Smyly. Joining YSP for the first time are: William Anong, Samuel Cross, Joshua Duffey, Taaseen Khan, Yuheon Lee, Lauren Moyer, Meghan Rogers, Emily Shi, Melanie Wagner, Robert “Lee” Wall, Dean Watson and Caroline Zhang. The students will spend Monday through Thursday working with their mentors and on Fridays they will have exploratory site visits to various areas on campus and work-shops from insightful presenters about college/life skills.

University of Georgia horticulturists Rachel Itle and Dario Chavez recently traveled to Australia to collect seeds from wild raspberries and peaches to bring back to the UGA Griffin campus. As scientists in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Itle and Chavez research Georgia-grown fruit.