University of Georgia alumnus Zachary Brendel gives new life to discarded things. You can see it throughout the streets of downtown Athens — from an old tire store that glows with reimagined life as Creature Comforts brewery or an audio recording school operating at full tilt within a converted shoe store. Both are revitalization projects completed by Athens-based Character Built Construction, which was co-founded by Brendel.

Recent data shows that the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences produced the third-most plant-breeding Ph.D. graduates between 2015 and 2020. With over 80% of alumni employed at public or private institutions, the plant breeding, genetics and genomics Ph.D. program also ranked highly for its graduate employment rate.

University of Georgia Professor Cesar Escalante has been awarded the 2022 Ketchum Prize — the FINRA Investor Education Foundation’s (FINRA Foundation) highest honor — in recognition of his pioneering research and advocacy to advance financial inclusion and alleviate racial and gender bias in agricultural lending.

They have been described as palm-sized, parachuting creatures with the potential to spread up the East Coast. Now dozens of webs are appearing in trees, on fences and in gardens around the Southeast, and social media and message boards are buzzing with Joro spider sightings. Discussions of eradication methods ranging from chemical sprays to “Joro sticks” are rampant. Joro season is here.

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.

As climate variability increasingly affects producers across the Southeastern U.S., Wes Porter spends a lot of time thinking about water — specifically, crop irrigation — and how available tools can benefit farmers threefold.

On June 9, Gopinath “Gopi” Munisamy, Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Marketing and interim head of the University of Georgia Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, shared the agricultural impact of trade issues with the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, chaired by U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia.

Athens-area residents familiar with driving past two University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences research farms will soon have the opportunity to go behind the scenes and learn more about CAES’ role in the future of farming.

As solar farms pop up across the U.S., researchers at the University of Georgia are working to improve the biodiversity on solar sites as part of a larger, multidisciplinary research program designed to support both sustainable energy and ecosystem health.