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Feature Stories, News and Announcements, Press Releases, Second Century Initiative

Second Century Initiative Faculty Member Leads $1.4 Millon Study to Investigate Effects of E-Cigarette Regulations

Second Century Initiative Faculty Member Leads $1.4 Millon Study to Investigate Effects of E-Cigarette Regulations

Georgia State University has received $1.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to lead a four-year research initiative that will evaluate the effects of early attempts to regulate electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes).

The study is led by economist Michael Pesko, a fifth round Second Century Initiative hire in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State, in partnership with Cornell University, Temple University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Pennsylvania, and the School of Public Health at Georgia State.

Researchers will study the effects of e-cigarette-related regulations on pricing, access, public perception of the safety of e-cigarettes, and the use and sale of e-cigarettes, traditional cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco. They will also investigate the impact of e-cigarette regulations on sales of nicotine replacement therapies, such as gum and patches, for those who are seeking to quit smoking.

“There is a gap in understanding how to regulate or deregulate e-cigarettes in the most optimal way from the perspective of public health,” Pesko said, “and a lack of understanding of what spillover effects vaping regulations might have on other health behaviors.”

Feature Stories, News and Announcements

Next Generation Program: Brennen Dicker Appointed as New Executive Director of Creative Media Industries Institute

Next Generation Program: Brennen Dicker Appointed as New Executive Director of Creative Media Industries Institute

Brennen Dicker, a film and video professional with 20 years of experience, has been named executive director of Georgia State University’s Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII). CMII is a cross-college disciplinary institute, affiliated with the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of the Arts.

Dicker’s appointment as executive director of the CMII is part of Georgia State’s efforts to fulfill its strategic plan, aimed at elevating the university’s reputation for excellence and innovation in research, scholarship and creative endeavors. He joins Georgia State as a strategic hire under the Next Generation Program.

The CMII aligns with a strategic goal to highlight the arts and media, and to use the university’s strengths to create opportunities for exploration of the intersections among creativity, technology and entrepreneurship as metro Atlanta’s media industries in film, television, gaming and more form a vital part of the regional economy.

Feature Stories, News and Announcements, Research Stories, Second Century Initiative

A 2CI Scientist’s International Collaboration and a Neuroscience Breakthrough: How the Brain Controls Flexible Learning

A 2CI Scientist’s International Collaboration and a Neuroscience Breakthrough: How the Brain Controls Flexible Learning

A Second Century Initiative researcher at Georgia State University is a member of an international team of scientists who have made an important breakthrough in understanding the mechanisms in the brain that control cognitive flexibility.

Dr. Angela M. Mabb, a 2CI faculty member at Georgia State, collaborated with researchers at the University of Bradford and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. Their results were published in the Cell Press journal Neuron.

The study highlights the importance of a protein known as Arc in learning and memory and shows that proteins not only need to be switched on, but also need to be removed at the correct times for proper learning. More important, these findings show for the first time that the dynamic expression of a single protein has profound implications in replacing a previously learned task with a new one.

Faculty Profiles, Feature Stories, News and Announcements, Second Century Initiative

The Second Century Initiative’s Return On Investment: Faculty Collaborations – Didier Merlin

The Second Century Initiative’s Return On Investment: Faculty Collaborations – Didier Merlin

When Dr. Didier Merlin heard about an opportunity to expand beyond his research in medical biology through collaborations with other academic departments, he was excited to learn more about the open faculty appointment through the Second Century Initiative at Georgia State.

After accepting the faculty appointment in the Departments of Biology and Chemistry in 2011, he dove right into the university’s culture of research and scholarly collaboration among both long-time faculty and fellow 2CI hires.

“It was very fast paced,” he said. “I was able to establish so many collaborations at Georgia State early on, and I was able to have freedom to establish interdisciplinary research. My research program has improved a lot, and I think that the quality of my research is really higher now than a few years ago.”

Faculty Profiles, Feature Stories, News and Announcements, Second Century Initiative

The Second Century Initiative’s Return on Investment: Faculty Collaborations – Stuart Jefferies

The Second Century Initiative’s Return on Investment: Faculty Collaborations – Stuart Jefferies

Dr. Jefferies’ work has taken him around the world in efforts to better understand space, the sun and to improve imaging technology. As a 2CI faculty member, he joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy under the initiative’s second round, joining fellow 2CI hires Drs. Petrus Martens and Rafal Angryk as they started the Astroinformatics cluster.

Dr. Jefferies’ longtime collaborative work at the South Pole led to the start of a South Pole Solar Observatory in 2016 with Georgia State working alongside NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Rome Tor Vergata, the University of Hawaii and the European Space Agency, and with the support of the National Science Foundation.

The observatory stands with other world-class resources supported by Georgia State and colleague institutions, including Georgia State’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array at Mount Wilson, Calif.

Feature Stories, News and Announcements, Next Generation Round 3

A Revolution In Legal Services: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning And The Law

A Revolution In Legal Services: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning And The Law

Set to expand thanks to the third round of the Next Generation Program, Georgia State University’s Legal Analytics Lab leverages advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, programming and high-performance computing to extract data from large numbers of legal documents. The revolution is not solely in efficiency gains, but also in new insights.