Two College of Education faculty members - Gary Dudley of exercise science and Andy Horne of counseling - have been named UGA Distinguished Research Professors.

Distinguished Research Professorships are granted in recognition of outstanding research and other creative, scholarly accomplishments. Awardees receive a $7,000 permanent increase in salary, and during their five-year appointment, receive annually a $10,000 fund to support scholarship. The title of Research Professor is awarded to those academicians recognized for creative and original contributions to knowledge and whose work promises to continue to foster significant new concepts and understanding.

Dudley, director of the Muscle Biology Laboratory in the College's School of Health and Human Performance, has a preeminent international reputation in the field of exercise physiology. His studies on the effects of loading on skeletal muscle protein expression have been pioneering and innovative, and have had widespread impact.

"He is widely recognized as one of the foremost authorities in the world on neuromuscular function and skeletal muscle adaptations to physical activity and inactivity," said Kirk Cureton, head of the exercise science department.

In 2001, he received a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a five-year-project to study changes in cardiorespiratory and muscular health following spinal cord injury in collaboration with the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, the nation's largest hospital for brain and spinal cord injuries.

Dudley came to UGA eight years ago. He previously held positions at Ohio University, the Kennedy Space Center and Marshall University. He received his Ph.D from The Ohio State University.

Horne has gained an international reputation as one of the top experts in bullying and behavior problems in children.

He is director of a multi-discipline research project that is helping to design and test a national model for the prevention of aggression in middle schools. The Multisite Violence Prevention Project, funded by a $12.8 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control, involves collaborative work with researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Virginia Commonwealth and Duke universities.

Horne is also director of Project A.C.T. Early: Advancing the Competencies of Teachers for Early Behavorial Interventions of At-Risk Children, which has won national attention over the last several years.

He was principal investigator for several National Institute of Health grants exploring developmental aspects of behavior problems in children and was director of the Family Research Program, a project that examined the collaborative methods of helping families, schools and juvenile justice systems address problems of conduct and oppositional defiant-disordered.

Horne is the author of eight books including his most recent, Bully Busters.

He came to UGA in 1989 as professor, department head and director of training in counseling psychology. He held previous positions at Indiana State University, Boston University, and Montana State University. He received his Ph.D. in counseling and educational psychology from Southern Illinois University.

The appointments, approved by the Board of Regents, are effective July 1 and are among five named on the UGA campus this year. The formal award will be made at the Research Awards dinner on April 3.

Dudley and Horne join six other COE faculty members who have been named Distinguished Research Professors in the last two decades.
 

They include:
    K. Noel Gregg, special education, 2000
    Donna Alvermann, reading education, 1998 (reappointeed)
    Donna Alvermann, reading education, 1993
    Robert Armstrong (ret.), physical education, 1991
    Leslie P. Steffe, mathematics education, 1990
    George Hynd, educational psychology, 1985
    George Gazda (ret.), counseling, 1983
 

Monday, March 11, 2002
Writer: Michael Childs, 706/542-5889, mchilds@coe.uga.edu
Contacts: Gary Dudley, 706/542-4101, gdudley@coe.uga.edu
                 Andy Horne, 706/542-4107, ahorne@coe.uga.edu