The University of Georgia’s newest Regents’ Professors, Andrew Herod and Stephen Trent, discussed their internationally recognized research during the 2025 Charter Lecture on March 26 at the Chapel.
“The two Regents’ Professors we have with us today are doing research that has pushed the boundaries of their fields to create new areas of inquiry and generate new solutions to global challenges,” said President Jere W. Morehead during his welcoming remarks. “They set the standard for excellence that is helping the University of Georgia continue its rise among the best research institutions in the nation, and we are very proud of their accomplishments.”
Herod, a Distinguished Research Professor in the department of geography in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, highlighted his research on the connections between labor, geography and the circular economy. Trent, a UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor in the department of infectious diseases in the College of Veterinary Medicine, discussed his laboratory’s efforts to fight antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics.
Herod and Trent were both named Regents’ Professors this year in recognition of their innovative and pace-setting research. The honor is the highest professorial recognition bestowed by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
Labor, geography and the circular economy
During his talk, Herod focused on the connections between places and events. His most recent research examines how parts of the world are linked by the processes of product assembly and disassembly and how these global networks impact the world economy.
He spoke about Boeing aircraft assembly as an example of these connections. Boeing aircraft are assembled at three locations in the United States, but the individual components of the company’s planes are produced in several states and at least 10 countries. Meanwhile, global disassembly networks are growing as manufacturers look for ways to secure raw materials from recycled products.
Herod mentioned a 2018 report from the World Bank that estimated the world generates more than 2 billion tons of municipal solid waste annually, a figure that is projected to grow to 3.4 billion tons annually by 2050. Much of this waste is transported to developing countries in Asia and Africa.
“The reason that this becomes important is that some of these commodities contain large quantities of quite valuable materials,” Herod said. “A mobile phone, if you get enough of them together, has large quantities of copper, silver, gold and palladium.”
Once reusable components are recovered, Herod said they become the starting point of new industrial processes. Electronic waste is incorporated into new computers and 3D printers, copper and aluminum flow into construction industries and platinum and gold flow into the jewelry industry.
A silent pandemic
Trent called antimicrobial resistance a “silent pandemic” during his lecture. While antibiotics have extended the average lifespan by approximately 25 years since their first use in the 1940s, he said a “perfect storm” of increasing bacterial resistance, antibiotic misuse and a lack of new drug discovery threatens to undo those advances by 2050.
Several studies predict antimicrobial resistance will surpass cancer as a cause of death in the next 25 years and will claim approximately 10 million lives annually. Despite the threat, the number of large pharmaceutical companies involved in antibiotic research and development dropped from 18 in 1990 to six in 2020.
“I’ve described this very daunting problem — can we solve it? I believe we totally can. I believe in human innovation. Look at how quickly we made the COVID vaccine,” Trent said.
Trent described his lab’s efforts to develop next generation antibiotics by identifying ways to target the bacterial cell surface or cell envelope. Among other discoveries, his lab has identified mechanisms that bacteria employ to modify their surface to enhance their survival in different environments and to protect themselves from attack from the human immune system.
He spoke on several ways people can help fight the rise of antimicrobial resistance: support the responsible use of antibiotics, support basic scientific research and support agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the largest funder of medical research.
UGA established the Charter Lecture in 1988 to honor the ideals expressed in the 1785 charter that made the university the birthplace of public higher education in America. Since 2020, the lecture has served as a platform for the university’s most recent Regents’ Professors to discuss their scholarship and research. The Charter Lecture is hosted by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.
