Celebrating Georgia Tech Women: Pathway of Progress is the new name of the forthcoming, permanent tribute to the impact of women from Georgia Tech, now under construction near the John Lewis Student Center and Stamps Commons. Set to open in Fall 2024, the physical installation and accompanying digital experience will celebrate 70 graduates, as well as 98 women and events with historical significance to the Institute. 

The Institute is proud to reveal the inaugural alumnae whose names and legacies will be recognized. The historical honorees will be announced this fall.

Inaugural honorees include several College of Sciences alumnae — see the honoree list and learn more about the project here.

Georgia Tech opened the 11th annual Atlanta Science Festival (ASF) with record attendance for Science and Engineering Day. Despite the drizzly weather, about 4,000 people of all ages from throughout metro Atlanta — more than double the number of attendees in 2023 — visited campus on Saturday, March 9, 2024, for the space-themed event. They explored more than 45 exhibitions and hands-on activities related to art, robotics, nanotechnology, chemical and systems engineering, and biology, as well as other STEAM areas. 

Visitors began their investigations at “Earth” (the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design), where they picked up a galactic passport specially designed to guide them from building to building — each designated with the name of a planet — and the demonstrations housed within.

At “Mars” (Marcus Nanotechnology Building), attendees measured their height in nanometers, experimented with fruit batteries, and took a window-tour of the largest cleanroom in the Southeast, where semiconductors are developed. Inside “Venus” (Parker H. Petit Biotech Building), budding scientists examined bioluminescent bacteria under a microscope and made Play-Doh models of the human brain. When visiting “Saturn” (Ford Environmental Sciences and Technology Building), visitors studied density by making DIY lava lamps and inspected human brain specimens the way a pathologist would.

“Getting to hold a human brain was cool,” said a 12-year-old participant from Alpharetta. “And I also liked comparing it to the brains of a pig and a mouse.”

Other activities included math games and puzzles, the opportunity to build an artificial hand and a gallery display of research-inspired artwork. Georgia Tech faculty, students, and staff hosted all the demonstrations and served as volunteers who helped Science and Engineering Day guests navigate campus and the demonstration sites.

For many participants, the undoubted highlight was the chance to hear a presentation by former NASA astronaut and Georgia Tech alumnus Shane Kimbrough, MS OR 1998. Kimbrough spent 388 days in space over three missions and served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016. He captivated the standing-room-only crowd with photos and descriptions of his time living and working aboard the ISS and answered questions from the kids in the audience.

“It’s really exciting to see all the activities around campus today … we’re inspiring the next generation of scientists and explorers for our country,” Kimbrough said afterward.

The event was a resounding success for Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Science Fair.

Lauren Overton-Kirk, who organized the event for the Institute, said, "Georgia Tech Science and Engineering Day 2024 was so wonderful to share with the community. What started years ago as a day for young scientific exploration became an all-ages, space-themed scientific spectacular. You could feel the passion for learning fill the campus in a way only Georgia Tech could do.”

Both the Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Science Festival teams are looking forward to next year’s Science and Engineering Day.

“As one of the founding organizations of the Atlanta Science Festival, Georgia Tech has been deeply invested in sharing the Institute’s innovations with the community,” said Meisa Salaita, ASF co-director. “And that investment was deeply evident on March 9th as they opened their doors to kick off the 11th annual Science Festival. Their students and faculty came out with enthusiasm to showcase science to the public. We couldn't be more thrilled with this partnership — and the many ways Tech has helped us show our community that Atlanta is a science city.”

This season, more than 30 College of Sciences faculty across all six schools and the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience are recognized by the Institute for their excellence in research and teaching. 

Excellence in Research

Every year, Georgia Tech’s research enterprise celebrates the remarkable contributions of its extraordinary researchers. The Office of the Executive Vice President for Research (EVPR) presents peer-nominated awards to exceptional faculty and staff for their commitment to “Research That Matters” — achievements fueled by a profound mission to advance science and technology for the betterment of society. 

This year, nearly 100 researchers were nominated for the 2024 EVPR Institute Research Awards spanning nine distinct categories that range from breakthroughs in innovation to community engagement and outreach. 

Joining a prestigious list of award winners dating back to 1986, 2024 College of Sciences award recipients include:

• Outstanding Faculty Research Author: Feryal Özel, professor and chair in the School of Physics
• Outstanding Achievement in Research Enterprise Enhancement: Anton Bryksin, Regents’ Researchers in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)

The EVPR Institute Research Awards will be presented at the Faculty and Staff Honors Luncheon on Friday, April 26.

Excellence in Teaching

More than 15 College of Sciences faculty are recognized for their teaching excellence by Georgia Tech’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) in the Fall 2023 Course Instructor Opinion Survey (CIOS).

Using optional feedback from students, the survey serves to celebrate instructors who exhibit exceptional respect and concern for students, ability to stimulate interest in the subject matter of the course, and enthusiasm for course content.

Three College of Sciences faculty have won the Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: CIOS Awards, which recognizes instructors with exceptional response rates (at least 85%) and scores on CIOS. The CIOS score used to determine winners of the award is based on the sum of three scale items: instructor’s respect and concern for students; instructor’s level of enthusiasm about teaching the course; and instructor’s ability to stimulate interest in the subject matter.

College of Sciences recipients of the Fall 2023 “Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: CIOS Awards” include:

Small Classes:

• Tiffiny Hughes-Troutman, professor of the practice, program director for the Minor in Science of Mental Health and Well-Being, School of Psychology

Large Classes:

• Adam Decker, senior academic professional and director of Anatomical Sciences, School of Biological Sciences
• Dobromir Rahnev, associate professor, School of Psychology

Additionally, 30 College of Sciences faculty are named to the Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Class of 1934 CIOS Honor Roll for Fall 2023. The Honor Roll is comprised of faculty who have at least a 70% response rate and place in the top 25% of the composite CIOS scores of three questions related to instructor concern for students, ability to stimulate interest in subject matter, and enthusiasm for course content.  

College of Sciences recipients of the Fall 2023 “Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Class of 1934 CIOS Honor Roll” include:

Small Classes: 

• Biological Sciences:
  • Samuel Brown, professor 
  • Young-Hui Chang, professor and associate dean for Faculty Development in the College of Sciences 
  • Cristian Crisan, postdoctoral researcher 
  • Stephen Diggle, professor and director of the Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection 
  • Colin Harrison, senior academic professional 
  • Julia Kubanek, professor and vice president for Interdisciplinary Research for Georgia Tech
• Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Sven Simon, professor, director of Teaching Effectiveness
• Mathematics:
  • Austin Christian, postdoctoral researcher 
  • Jonathan Simone, visiting assistant professor
• Neuroscience:
  • Matthew Nusnbaum, senior academic professional 
  • Haley Steele, visiting lecturer
• Psychology:
  • Tiffiny Hughes-Troutman, professor of the practice and program director for the Minor in Science of Mental Health and Well-Being 
  • James Roberts, associate professor

Large Classes:

• Biological Sciences:
  • Mirjana Brockett, senior academic professional 
  • Adam Decker, senior academic professional and director of Anatomical Sciences
  • Robert Richards, postdoctoral researcher
• Chemistry and Biochemistry:
  • David Collard, professor and senior associate dean in the College of Sciences 
  • Pamela Pollet, senior research scientist 
  • Marckace Rainey, Ph.D. student 
  • Anthony Rojas, academic professional
• Earth and Atmospheric Science: Chris Reinhard, associate professor and Georgia Power Chair
• Mathematics:
  • Zach Walsh, Hale Visiting Assistant Professor 
  • Haiyu Zou, lecturer
• Neuroscience: Christina Ragan, lecturer, School of Biological Sciences
• Psychology:
  • Meghan Babcock, academic professional 
  • Tansu Celikel, school chair and professor 
  • Scott Moffat, professor 
  • Dobromir Rahnev, associate professor 
  • William Stern, academic professional

Learn more about the Center for Teaching and Learning
 

The skin on our hands and feet collectively makes up roughly 5% of our surface area — at least, when it comes to our bodies. When you look at an important sensory area of the brain called the somatosensory cortex, which receives information about things like touch and pain from everywhere on the body’s surface, that number jumps to about 30%.

Liang Han recently received $550k from the National Science Foundation to uncover where in our nervous system that discrepancy in neural real estate might stem from. 

“The somatosensory cortex is like the output of the whole neural circuit — but the neural circuit takes multiple steps,” explains Han, an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences. “How does this neural circuit generate such a biased representation, and exactly which neurons are involved?”

Pinning down which step in the neural circuit is causing areas like the hands and feet to take up so much of the somatosensory cortex may give us insights into how our sensory systems evolved — and where best to treat them when things go wrong.

Itching for answers

The somatosensory cortex is on the surface of the brain and receives information from specialized sensors on the surface of the body about touch, bodily movement, pain, temperature, and itch. Though it’s organized in a way that roughly matches our body’s structure — areas receiving information from the feet light up next to areas sensing the legs versus the ears, for example — the surface area of the somatosensory cortex is heavily biased towards certain body parts, like the hands. 

To find out where in the nervous system this bias originates, Han and her team are planning to examine the cellular mechanisms of one particular sensation: itch. Specifically, itch on glabrous (or hairless) skin, like that on the hands and feet.

“We’ve been studying itch sensation for a long time, and our previous study identified a group of neurons that control glabrous skin itch sensation,” says Han. Led by Haley Steele, a former Ph.D. student working with Liang, the research gave Han and her team the ability to isolate and study the neurons responsible for sending glabrous skin itch sensation all the way from the fingertips, through the spinal cord, and finally to the somatosensory cortex in the brain.

Interestingly for Han’s team, recent data collected by Yanyan Xing, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Han lab, suggested that there were potential physical differences in the itch-sensing neural circuits for central body parts (like the torso) versus the overrepresented peripheral body parts (like the hands).

“If you ask me why we started this project, that's why,” says Hand, “because we saw that data and we thought, ‘Oh, this is interesting.’”

Going more than skin deep

Those physical differences are just one potential piece of the puzzle. When it comes to the cellular origins of brain’s sensory biases, there could also be more itch-sensing neurons in peripheral areas of the body, their physiology could be different, their signals could be amplified somewhere down the line (like in the spinal cord or brain stem), or it could be a combination.

Using their previously developed tools to genetically label neurons specific to glabrous skin itch sensation in mice, Han and her team plan on studying all that — plus how these neural circuits develop over time.

“Our nervous system evolved in a way that our central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) allocated more neural resources to those distal (peripheral) parts of the body for sensory processing,” explains Han. From exploring our environment to manipulating objects, having keen sensation in distal body parts like the hands and feet has been crucial for our survival. By understanding these sensory circuits, Han is hopeful that “this study will help us to understand how the nervous system evolved.”

Beyond gaining key insights into the sensory system, understanding this particular sensation may help improve treatments for chronic itch — an experience that roughly one in five people will have in their lifetime. 

“Itch is associated with so many different conditions,” says Han. “Understanding the basic mechanisms of the neural circuit will help us to eventually treat the condition.”

This research will be funded by the National Science Foundation.

Georgia Tech's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) reviews all research and teaching activities that involve vertebrate animal subjects. IACUC approval is required in advance for all activities conducted by faculty, staff, or students, regardless of location and funding source.

This news was originally released in the University of Helsinki newsroom. Read the full story here.

In a new study led by Georgia Tech and University of Helsinki, researchers have discovered a mechanism steering the evolution of multicellular life.

Co-authored by the School of Biological Sciences’ Dung Lac, Anthony Burnetti, Ozan Bozdag, and Will Ratcliff, the study, “Proteostatic tuning underpins the evolution of novel multicellular traits”, was published in Science Advances this month, and uncovers how altered protein folding drives multicellular evolution.

The team’s research centers on the ongoing Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment (MuLTEE) experiment, in which laboratory yeast are evolving novel multicellular functions, enabling researchers to investigate how these functions arise.

Among the most important multicellular innovations is the origin of robust bodies: over 3,000 generations, these ‘snowflake yeast’ started out weaker than gelatin but evolved to be as strong and tough as wood.

From an evolutionary perspective, this work highlights the power of non-genetic mechanisms in rapid evolutionary change. 

“We tend to focus on genetic change and were quite surprised to find such large changes in the behavior of chaperone proteins,” says Ratcliff. “This underscores how creative and unpredictable evolution can be when finding solutions to new problems, like building a tough body."