2021 in Review: Research & Grants

Editor’s Note: This is part of our  five-part series highlighting stories produced by Grady College in 2021. The features includes three stories in each of the following subjects:

• Student Successes

• Faculty Honors

• College Headlines

• Research & Grants

• Service & Partnerships

This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, but instead highlight a sample of just a few of the more than 210 stories about accomplishments by our students, faculty/staff and alumni.

We invite you to visit our Grady College News page for a full list of features posted in 2021. 

Research and teaching are the cornerstones of the work at the College and 2021 was no exception. Our Ph.D. students researched vital topics in their disciplines, winning honors and awards, while our faculty received accolades for their work, especially through their involvement with the 2021 AEJMC conference. Several faculty received grants this year, as well. Following are among the highlights of a busy year:

AdPR excels in advertising research productivity: A study published in July by the Journal of Business Research named faculty in our Department of Advertising and Public Relations the most visible authors or co-authors in the three leading peer-reviewed advertising research journals from 2008 to 2019. The study, “A Decade (2008-2019) of Advertising Research Productivity: A Bibliometric Review,” involved two reference and citation reviews: one of 818 articles published in Journal of Advertising (JA), Journal of Advertising Research (JAR), and Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising (JCIRA), and the second of 1,532 articles published in those journals plus 15 other journals where scholarly research in advertising is frequently published.

Michael Cacciatore awarded $2.5 million grant for research: Michael Cacciatore, co-director of the Center for Health and Risk Communication at Grady College, was awarded a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal STEM Learning program in August. The funds will provide research for PBS Digital Studios’ TERRA, its science-themed hub on YouTube, as they launch a new slate of STEM content.

Ahn leads VR project with grant from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association: In September, Sun Joo “Grace” Ahn and a team of researchers were announced as recipients of a nearly $500,000 grant funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The grant will fund a project called “Salient, Interactive, Relevant, Confidence, and Action (SIRCA): Using Virtual Reality Storm Surge Simulations to Increase Risk Perception and Prevention Behaviors.” The project uses VR to better communicate and educate the risks of storm surge and climate change among coastal residents of Georgia and South Carolina.