Rhodes Named Athletic Association Professor
by Beth Gavrilles, bethgav@uga.edu
Contact: Olin “Gene” Rhodes, rhodes@srel.uga.edu
Olin “Gene” Rhodes, a professor in the Odum School of Ecology, has been named a University of Georgia Athletic Association Professor. His appointment was recently approved by the Board of Regents.
Rhodes, the director of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, conducts multidisciplinary research that spans genetics, conservation biology, wildlife ecology and applied ecology, and has produced more than 200 scholarly publications. He has received recognition for his teaching and research, and his work has been highlighted hundreds of times in the popular media, including coverage by USA TODAY, ABC News, Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel.
Throughout his career he has advised twenty-seven graduate students, eleven postdoctoral researchers, and provided experiential learning opportunities for more than forty undergraduate students.
Since being named director in 2012, he has rebuilt SREL into a highly productive and internationally recognized ecological research center while strengthening ties with academic units on the main UGA campus. Under his leadership, SREL’s external research funding has nearly quadrupled, and the number of faculty, staff and students has grown from 46 when he arrived to more than 150 today. He has also more than doubled SREL’s community engagement, with outreach programs now reaching 70,000 people annually.
Vanessa Ezenwa, professor of ecology and director of the Interdisciplinary Disease Ecology Across Scales, or IDEAS, doctoral training program , also received the appointment in the Odum School.
Rhodes and Ezenwa join professors Sonia Altizer and Pejman Rohani as the Odum School’s Athletic Association Professors.