Georgia
Georgia Southern engineering professor one of 10 honored with DOE EnergyTech University Prize Faculty Explorers Award | Newsroom
Sevki Cesmeci, Ph.D., was recently honored with the EnergyTech University Prize Faculty Explorers Award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions. An associate professor of mechanical engineering in the Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing at Georgia Southern University, Cesmeci was one of only 10 individuals across the United States to earn the award.
“My students encouraged me to participate,” Cesmeci said. “The main focus for this award is teaching, so I explained my background in this field and translated how my experience and my students’ successes would make me an ideal fit for this opportunity to increase emphasis on energy innovation at Georgia Southern.”
The Faculty Explorers Award comes with a $5,000 prize and honors faculty members who bridge the gap between technical expertise and practical applications of energy engineering through innovation and commercialization. For Cesmeci, this achievement aligns with his drive to empower the next generation of engineers and technology developers.
“This recognition is especially meaningful to me as it represents the intersection of my passions for teaching and research,” Cesmeci said. “Over the years, I have integrated student training into my research, which has led to numerous student successes and awards.”
Since joining Georgia Southern in fall 2019, Cesmeci has worked to establish himself as a transformative educator and researcher. His teaching philosophy emphasizes preparation, student engagement, innovative teaching methodologies, real-life application and continuous self-improvement – leaving a lasting impact on his students.
“I am passionate about what I do and will continue in this direction regardless of awards, but this recognition is another confirmation and validation that my work here is important,” Cesmeci said. “While I’m proud to have been honored, I think that this award is equally important for representing Georgia Southern on a national stage.”
Cesmeci has previously been recognized for research excellence at Georgia Southern with the 2023-2024 Georgia Southern University Award of Excellence in Faculty Discovery and Innovation and the 2022-2023 Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing Faculty Award for Scholarship.
In his research, Cesmeci focuses on high-risk, high-reward technologies in the energy and healthcare industries. As a sole principal investigator, he has contributed to projects with funding exceeding $1.7 million from organizations including the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force and diabetes research and advocacy organization Breakthrough T1D.
“I am deeply grateful to the DOE and all of our funders for their support and for encouraging the cultivation of the next generation of innovators and problem-solvers,” Cesmeci said.
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Kirk Fordice-like Rick Jackson is sounding a whole lot like Daniel Kirkwood Fordice as he tries to be elected Georgia’s next governor.
Fordice came out of nowhere — actually, Vicksburg is somewhere but you know what I mean — in 1991 to become a two-term Mississippi governor.
He had money but nothing like Jackson, a billionaire businessman who’s also trying to emerge from nowhere politically to win Georgia’s top office.
“The establishment hated Trump, because they couldn’t control him. They are going to hate me,” Jackson says in an ad for Georgia’s Republican Primary on May 19, sounding like one of my favorite Mississippi governors — Fordice, because of his unpredictable personality (he could vilify or charm you, all in one sentence), not his politics. He died in 2004 of cancer.
I stood by a cafe entrance one morning, waiting to cover a Fordice speech. When he appeared, I stuck out my hand to shake his. “I’m not shaking your damn hand. You’re part of the problem down there (referring to the newspaper),” he told me, smiling and moving on.
Jackson rose to become one of economic giant-Georgia’s wealthiest people. He came from Atlanta’s rough midtown area, ending up in the foster care system. He left college due to poor financial circumstances.
The 71-year-old Jackson wormed his way into the dynamic city’s business scene in the late 1970s, mostly of the healthcare variety with mixed success before starting a workforce staffing and services company and later an antibiotics manufacturing plant. He turned those businesses into billion-dollar enterprises.
“It’s God’s money,” he said in rural Blakely, and he’s been charitable with it.
Jackson doesn’t try to hide his vast wealth. His family lives in a 48,000-square-foot mansion at Cumming, a place of nearly 100,000 people near Atlanta in Forsyth County, which once promoted its almost all-white population as a virtue.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy recently wrote that Jackson will spend a ton of his own money in seeking another mansion, the one occupied by Georgia’s governor. Torpy noted that present Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was once heavily favored to win the primary race, but he’s fallen behind Jackson’s bold money bid.
“The one-time front-runner in the Republican primary (Jones) has been relegated to No. 2, the result of a $100 million Mack truck running him over.
Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare tycoon, a man with a sly smile and reptilian gaze, is the guy driving that truck,” Torpy wrote.
The GOP field includes Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who spurned Trump’s demand to find 11,780 votes that would’ve allowed him to win Georgia in 2020.
Fordice was effective with some bombastic rhetoric during his run for governor, but I don’t remember it reaching the histrionic level employed by Jackson. In a major ad blitz, often referencing (Georgia college student) Laken Riley’s murderer, Jackson promises that unauthorized immigrants committing violent crimes will be “deported or departed … any questions?”
In another ad, Jackson growled, “Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians.”
Fordice spent only $1 million to get himself elected Mississippi’s governor. He somewhat sneaked up on the establishment, riding no escalator to the first floor of his Vicksburg concrete river mats-contracting office to declare his intentions. Who could ever forget his announcement seeking the governorship that ran on page 5 of the Clarion Ledger?
Recent polling ahead of Georgia’s May primaries for governor shows the eventual Republican nominee faces a strong Democrat in the November general election, most likely former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. That’ll require another whole pot of money.
— Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired Mississippi newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
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