Research

Georgia Southern student, faculty research shows surprising findings about pet ownership, potential health risks for women

The health benefits of owning pets have been well-documented. However, a research team in Georgia Southern University’s Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health led by professor and medical epidemiologist, Jian Zhang, M.D., DrPH, has been exploring the other side of pet ownership to answer the question — could furry companions actually be harmful to your health?

Department of Biology researchers host Citizen Scientist Training Workshop

Researchers from the Georgia Southern University Department of Biology hosted a Citizen Scientist Training Workshop earlier this summer in Waverly, Georgia. The workshop was funded by Georgia Southern University’s Office of the Provost through a faculty service award and was organized and led by biology professors Loren Mathews, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Sargent, Ph.D., and biology alumna Lindsey Stanfield Jones.

Mathews and Sargent are members of the interdisciplinary Satilla Science Group, whose goal is to study, restore and protect the ecologically important Satilla River estuary.

“Our hope was to give participants the knowledge and basic skills needed to collect scientific data,” Mathews said. “This will allow them to play an active role in research, conservation and restoration efforts in the Satilla River and other coastal Georgia ecosystems.”

Participants learned important measures of coastal water quality, such as temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, light, turbidity, and the types, sources and potential biological impacts of microplastics. Participants then received hands-on training on how to use field equipment to measure and record these data.

Georgia Southern students go ‘bananas’ for local baseball team, create new merchandise concepts

Fans at home games of the Savannah Bananas baseball team have a new, appealing way to stay cool on sweltering Savannah days thanks to the creativity of several Georgia Southern University Parker College of Business students.