Centers

Center for Family Research

Co-Directors: Gene Brody & Steven Beach

Interdisciplinary teams of scientists at the Center for Family Research conduct longitudinal, epidemiological research on the causes and consequences of substance use and abuse, mental health and health outcomes for rural populations in Georgia with a particular focus on family, community, and genetic processes. Prevention scientists at the Center for Family Research use these findings to inform the design and development of prevention programs to deter the development of drug use and abuse, mental health problems, and chronic diseases among rural Georgians.

Center for Gambling Research

Director: Adam Goodie

The Center for Gambling Research brings together researchers from various disciplines to foster collaborative research and continuing education and training on the diverse impacts of gambling activity. The primary goals of the CGR are (1) to foster constructive, collaborative engagement between faculty of different departments, colleges and universities; (2) to enhance the availability of intellectual and material resources to graduate students from around UGA who are interested in studying gambling; (3) to create increased opportunities for faculty continuing education on relevant topics; and (4) to promote the development of grant proposals, research reports and other scholarly works dealing with gambling.

Center on Biological Embedding of Social Events and Relationships

Co-Directors: Steven Beach and Ron Simons

The Center on Biological Embedding of Social Events and Relationships brings together behavioral and biological scientists interested in understanding the intersections of genetic and environmental contributions to health, health behavior, and interpersonal outcomes. The focus of the group is on strengthening the infrastructure for collaborative research and grant proposal writing.

Center for Integrative Conservation Research

Director: Nate Nibbelink

The Center for Integrative Conservation Research (CICR) was established in January 2007 with the support of a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for the research initiative Advancing Conservation in a Social Context: Working in a World of Trade-offs (ACSC). Since that time, CICR has dramatically raised UGA’s profile in the area of conservation, linking the University with international organizations, prestigious research universities and institutions, and international policy makers. Because conservation today necessitates an engagement with issues of energy use, water quantity and quality, land use, and urbanization, CICR has evolved a more holistic approach to its research agenda, which must now be more appropriately characterized as focusing on sustainability. In the coming years, CICR will play a leading role in advancing the frontier of sustainability science through its unique ability to bring together researchers from different disciplines, practitioners, and policy makers.

Center for Research on Behavioral Health and Human Services Delivery

Director: Paul Roman

The Center for Research on Behavioral Health and Human Services Delivery is a broad umbrella for health services research as well as a wide range of studies touching upon a multitude of human health and social policy issues. Its mandate is to provide opportunities for interdisciplinary interaction and collaboration for faculty concerned with the 21st century arenas of behavioral science activity related to health: responding to the huge population “bubble” that comprises the middle aged and elderly, and looking at the delivery systems for a variety of behavioral health issues such as post-traumatic stress, alcohol dependence, and drug addiction. Other developing studies examine the impact of marijuana legalization and the network development for the effective implementation of innovations.

Scientists Engaged in Educational Research (SEER) center

Director: Paula Lemons

The SEER Center includes faculty, postdocs, and graduate students across the University of Georgia who perform research in collegiate STEM education. As science and technology continue to expand their relevance for life in the 21st century, and as a scientifically educated workforce is under increasingly short supply, there is a pressing need for solutions to improving science education in the United States, and specifically to transform how science is taught and learned in colleges and universities.