Channel your inner Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern’s character in "Jurassic Park") at Tech’s Spatial Ecology and Paleontology Lab for Fossil Fridays. Sifting through dirt pulled from the Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming, community members can help researchers find fossils up to 30,000 years old. “We’re interested in ‘citizen science’ and making sure our community knows what we’re working on and feels included,” says Julia Schap, a third-year PhD candidate and one of the hosts of Fossil Fridays. “We don’t like this idea that science happens behind closed doors.”
Fossil Fridays begin Friday, September 2. Learn more and register here.
"CITIZEN SCIENTISTS" ARE WELCOME DURING FOSSIL FRIDAYS AT GEORGIA TECH.
This story by Jennifer Herseim first appeared in Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine.
Eleven-year-old Matthew and his brother Joey, age 7, are hunched over a small pile of dirt in Tech’s Spatial Ecology and Paleontology Lab. The brothers aren’t students at Georgia Tech—at least not yet, says their mother, Christine Conwell, PhD Chem 04, who works at Georgia Tech and is married to fellow Yellow Jacket David Gaul, PhD Chem 98.
Nevertheless, the two young fossil hunters are doing important work for the lab: helping researchers find fossilized bones, some of which could be 30,000 years old. Matthew and Joey are just two of the citizen scientists who have lent a hand during “Fossil Fridays,” an open, two-hour session when members of the community can come learn about paleontology and dig through dirt samples in search of real fossils.
“We’re interested in ‘citizen science’ and making sure our community knows what we’re working on and feels included,” says Julia Schap, a third-year PhD candidate and one of the hosts of Fossil Fridays. “We don’t like this idea that science happens behind closed doors.”
The program started in 2014 as a hands-on community activity, but also, partly, as a much-needed solution to help researchers in Jenny McGuire’s Spatial Ecology & Paleontology Lab at Georgia Tech sift through literally a ton of dirt pulled from the Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming.
As the name implies, the cave’s unique geography has made it an ideal spot for paleontologists—a large hole in a plateau above the cave acts as a natural trap. For hundreds of thousands of years, animals have fallen through the hole to an 80-foot drop below, explains Schap. The stack of bones below the hole is a treasure trove for researchers like Schap. She visited the cave with McGuire last summer. Their team bagged and shipped 2,000 pounds of sediment back to Atlanta.
Some of the fossils found in the samples come from rodents, rabbits, lizards, snakes, birds, frogs, and occasionally fish that get brought in by the birds. “A lot of Tech students like Fossil Fridays, especially those who are interested in medical school, because they become more familiar with what animal bones look like compared to humans,” Schap says. “Also, people think it’s just fascinating that you can touch fossils.”
The lab uses fossils in a variety of research areas. Schap studies fossils of small mammals to find out how these species were affected by climate at different periods of history. Her findings are useful for current conservation efforts.
Fossil Fridays are on pause for the summer but will resume in the fall. During a typical session, Schap likes to play movie soundtracks in the background to help fossil hunters unwind. “I sometimes play the Jurassic Park soundtrack to really help everyone get in the mood and to feel like they’re doing really important work—because they are.
Channel your inner Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern’s character in "Jurassic Park") at Tech’s Spatial Ecology and Paleontology Lab for Fossil Fridays. Sifting through dirt pulled from the Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming, community members can help researchers find fossils up to 30,000 years old. “We’re interested in ‘citizen science’ and making sure our community knows what we’re working on and feels included,” says Julia Schap, a third-year PhD candidate and one of the hosts of Fossil Fridays. “We don’t like this idea that science happens behind closed doors.”
Fossil Fridays begin Friday, September 2. Learn more and register here.
"CITIZEN SCIENTISTS" ARE WELCOME DURING FOSSIL FRIDAYS AT GEORGIA TECH.
This story by Jennifer Herseim first appeared in Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine.
Eleven-year-old Matthew and his brother Joey, age 7, are hunched over a small pile of dirt in Tech’s Spatial Ecology and Paleontology Lab. The brothers aren’t students at Georgia Tech—at least not yet, says their mother, Christine Conwell, PhD Chem 04, who works at Georgia Tech and is married to fellow Yellow Jacket David Gaul, PhD Chem 98.
Nevertheless, the two young fossil hunters are doing important work for the lab: helping researchers find fossilized bones, some of which could be 30,000 years old. Matthew and Joey are just two of the citizen scientists who have lent a hand during “Fossil Fridays,” an open, two-hour session when members of the community can come learn about paleontology and dig through dirt samples in search of real fossils.
“We’re interested in ‘citizen science’ and making sure our community knows what we’re working on and feels included,” says Julia Schap, a third-year PhD candidate and one of the hosts of Fossil Fridays. “We don’t like this idea that science happens behind closed doors.”
The program started in 2014 as a hands-on community activity, but also, partly, as a much-needed solution to help researchers in Jenny McGuire’s Spatial Ecology & Paleontology Lab at Georgia Tech sift through literally a ton of dirt pulled from the Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming.
As the name implies, the cave’s unique geography has made it an ideal spot for paleontologists—a large hole in a plateau above the cave acts as a natural trap. For hundreds of thousands of years, animals have fallen through the hole to an 80-foot drop below, explains Schap. The stack of bones below the hole is a treasure trove for researchers like Schap. She visited the cave with McGuire last summer. Their team bagged and shipped 2,000 pounds of sediment back to Atlanta.
Some of the fossils found in the samples come from rodents, rabbits, lizards, snakes, birds, frogs, and occasionally fish that get brought in by the birds. “A lot of Tech students like Fossil Fridays, especially those who are interested in medical school, because they become more familiar with what animal bones look like compared to humans,” Schap says. “Also, people think it’s just fascinating that you can touch fossils.”
The lab uses fossils in a variety of research areas. Schap studies fossils of small mammals to find out how these species were affected by climate at different periods of history. Her findings are useful for current conservation efforts.
Fossil Fridays are on pause for the summer but will resume in the fall. During a typical session, Schap likes to play movie soundtracks in the background to help fossil hunters unwind. “I sometimes play the Jurassic Park soundtrack to really help everyone get in the mood and to feel like they’re doing really important work—because they are.
The Office of the Vice President for Interdisciplinary Research invites you to join us for a brown bag virtual information session with guest presenter Connie Casteel on Wednesday, August 10, 2022, from Noon to 1:00 pm. Please find the Zoom link below. This event is open to all Georgia Tech faculty, staff, and students.
Need funding to advance your research from lab to product? The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs provide funding to transform basic research into market-ready products; they help ready your innovations for commercialization. Known as “America’s Seed Fund,” SBIR/STTR funding has helped launch thousands of startup companies around the country with research awards up to $1.5M. Whether launching your own company or partnering with an existing business, SBIR/STTR can move a technology down the development pipeline toward a product.
Not sure if SBIR/STTR is right for you? This Info Session is designed for those who know little or nothing about SBIR or STTR; it will be a starting point for anyone considering SBIR/STTR funding and will provide a forum to answer your questions. Come learn about the programs and see how they might be utilized to help commercialize your research.
Connie Casteel, of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), helps researchers, entrepreneurs, and companies around the state understand and secure federal funding from the SBIR and STTR programs. ATDC, Georgia’s state-funded technology business incubator, helps launch, grow, and scale startups in Georgia.
Registration is not required. To join, follow this link: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/96325411583?pwd=MGJzUWFvZ0RZcjhVQUxuQUhra1hHUT09 Open the attached calendar invitation to add this event to your calendar. We hope to see you there!
Event Details
Please join the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business at the Scheller College of Business and the Georgia Tech College of Sciences to celebrate the collective accomplishments of our students at the Carbon Reduction Challenge Finalist Expo!
Join us as Students share their created projects that reduce CO2 emissions and save money at organizations ranging from Truist, Delta, City of Atlanta, universities, public schools, and more.
August 19th | 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT
The winning team(s) will be announced at the conclusion of the Finalist Poster Expo and awarded cash prizes for their work. First prize is $2,000, second place is $1,000 and third place is $500.
The event will be held on the zoom platform. the link will be in the RSVP link.
Read more about the Carbon Reduction Challenge Program on our website.
Contact Carbonreduction@gatech.edu for more information.
Event Details
The Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) at Georgia Tech has installed a new inorganic m spectrometry facility. The facility includes two new inductively couple plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) systems: a Thermo iCAP RQ quadrupole ICP-MS for streamlined and high-throughput determinations of elemental concentrations and a Thermo Neoma multicollector ICP-MS with collision cell technology for the precise determinations of isotope ratios within a given sample.
Each instrument can measure elemental variability in both dissolved aqueous samples as well as solids/minerals via laser ablation microsampling from a Teledyne Iridia laser ablation system. Together the system can measure isotopes at precision in elemental systems from Li and U.
Planned applications include: (1) high-resolution measurements of Ca, Sr, Ba, Mg, and B elemental and isotopic variability in seawater and marine and terrestrial carbonates for paleoclimate reconstructions, (2) (U-Th)/Pb dating and Hf isotope measurements to study the origin of critical mineral deposits, with a potential engineering application and the development of novel methods for increasing precision/accuracy and minimizing sample consumption during routine analyses of water quality and environmental contamination.
The MCF welcomes users interested in these and other potential applications of this new facility to their scientific and engineering research to contact David Tavakoli (atavakoli6@gatech.edu).
The Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) at Georgia Tech has installed a new inorganic m spectrometry facility. The facility includes two new inductively couple plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) systems: a Thermo iCAP RQ quadrupole ICP-MS for streamlined and high-throughput determinations of elemental concentrations and a Thermo Neoma multicollector ICP-MS with collision cell technology for the precise determinations of isotope ratios within a given sample.
Each instrument can measure elemental variability in both dissolved aqueous samples as well as solids/minerals via laser ablation microsampling from a Teledyne Iridia laser ablation system. Together the system can measure isotopes at precision in elemental systems from Li and U.
Planned applications include: (1) high-resolution measurements of Ca, Sr, Ba, Mg, and B elemental and isotopic variability in seawater and marine and terrestrial carbonates for paleoclimate reconstructions, (2) (U-Th)/Pb dating and Hf isotope measurements to study the origin of critical mineral deposits, with a potential engineering application and the development of novel methods for increasing precision/accuracy and minimizing sample consumption during routine analyses of water quality and environmental contamination.
The MCF welcomes users interested in these and other potential applications of this new facility to their scientific and engineering research to contact David Tavakoli (atavakoli6@gatech.edu).
As the mercury climbed across Atlanta this summer, student research heated up across the College of Sciences, thanks to special summer programs for undergraduates from around the globe that help undergraduates get a head start on research experience for STEM careers in academia, industry, and beyond.
This year’s initiatives included National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF REU) programs, a new initiative to engage Georgia community college students, summer workshops in computational chemistry and quantitative biosciences, and more.
Through the workshops, students learned to navigate new methods of research that involve data analysis and computational aspects of disciplines like chemistry and biology — as well as communicate connections across concepts like group theory, topology, combinatorics, and number theory.
Meanwhile, the NSF REU programs across the College’s six Schools of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Physics, Psychology, and Mathematics, as well as the Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, allowed early-year students to get their first taste of in-depth research with unique expertise and equipment available at Georgia Tech.
Other students took advantage of special fellowships to attend summer conferences in their chosen disciplines, where they networked with fellow young scientists and mathematicians while soaking up knowledge from peers and mentors.
Here’s a roundup of some of the 2022 summer undergraduate student research programs and events led by the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech:
The Summer Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (STACC) Workshop
Undergraduates eager to try calculations in areas such as quantum dynamics, electronic structure theory, and classical molecular dynamics — and who want to know more about new data science and machine learning tools — got their chance during this two-week early summer computational chemistry workshop.
“Theoretical and computational studies provide a necessary complement to experimental investigations because they are able to obtain the atomistic level of detail that is near impossible to probe with experiment,” said Joshua Kretchmer, assistant professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
“It is becoming more and more routine to use these techniques, even outside of pure theory research groups, as computers have become more powerful and more easy-to-use software is being developed to perform these calculations,” Kretchmer said. “It is thus important for students to be exposed to these techniques early on in their undergraduate education so they have a basic understanding of how and when the slew of different computational techniques are best utilized.”
2022 was the first year for the STACC Workshop, and Kretchmer added that the students “seem to be engaged and excited by the material, both in terms of learning the technical skills necessary to utilize high-performance computers and the unique aspects that can be learned about chemical systems from computer simulations.”
Those thoughts were echoed by University of South Florida student Nicholas Giunto. “After simulating and calculating these various processes, I realized how theoretical chemistry can do so much more than just simulate these scenarios. This technique of chemistry can be used in many other fields of science as well,” Giunto said. “This workshop has broadened my perspective of chemistry, and taught me a whole new field of science that is innovative and prudent.”
For more information, check out the STACC website here.
Summer College Research Internship
Thanks to a grant from the Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Dean’s Chair, community college students in Georgia were paired up with a Georgia Tech College of Sciences lab — at no cost to the students — for the inaugural Summer College Research Internship (SCRI).
The idea for SCRI grew from Shania Khatri’s experiences conducting research for the first time. Khatri, a fourth-year Biological Sciences major scheduled to graduate in December 2022, began research in high school through a program at a local university that placed students, especially those historically underrepresented in STEM, in labs to complete their own summer research projects.
“I felt firsthand how important mentorship was in building confidence in STEM, promoting belonging, and ultimately influencing my decision to pursue higher education and research,” Khatri said. “Research shows that students who complete high school and undergraduate programs are more likely to pursue STEM majors and consider doctoral degrees, underscoring that mentorship early in careers can improve achievement and retention of these students.”
SCRI students helped design experiments, collected and analyzed data, and presented the results of their work. They worked closely with their Ph.D. student mentors, learning from them as well as the broader community of their host labs. They also heard weekly lectures from College of Science faculty as they learned about the broader research environment at Georgia Tech.
“The accepted students have strong scholastic potential, and we hope that we can excite them about the research happening at Georgia Tech and potentially recruit them to join our programs, either as transfer students or future graduate students,” said William Ratcliff, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences Program. Ratcliff also co-leads the SCRI with Todd Streelman, professor and chair of the School of Biological Sciences at Tech.
Three students from two-year community college programs in Georgia were chosen for the inaugural SCRI, Ratcliff said. With diverse interests, all three researched in labs within the Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI).
“While this was not part of our review criteria, two of the three students are members of groups that are underrepresented in science according to National Institutes of Health criteria, so this is a great opportunity to broaden participation in academic research,” Ratcliff added.
“When discussing diversity in STEM and retention of underrepresented minorities, community college students should be at the forefront of the discussion,” Khatri said. “It is my hope that through this program the students will gain confidence in their own abilities, and learn skills of science communication, data analysis, critical thinking, collaborative work, and problem solving that will aid them in any career path.”
More information on the Summer College Research Internship is available here.
Child Lab Day
Child Lab Day is the capstone assignment for students in the School of Psychology course PSYC 2103 Human Development. Christopher Stanzione, senior lecturer and associate chair for undergraduate studies for the School, said his students conducted cognitive, language, and conceptual assessments in June on children ranging in age from four months to nine years old.
“This is a great applied experience for the Georgia Tech students,” Stanzione said. “All semester we study these concepts, but to see development in action is special. They’ll likely see the gradual change between concepts by administering the assessments to kids of different ages.”
The first Child Lab Day was in 2019. This summer, students majoring in psychology, biomedical engineering, computer science, biology, neuroscience, and economics took part in this second one. “They loved it,” Stanzione said.
National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF REUs)
For the first time, this year all six schools across the College of Sciences — plus the Neuroscience program at Tech — led Research Experiences for Undergraduates, a National Science Foundation initiative.
Each student was associated with a specific research project, and worked closely with school faculty and other researchers. Students were given stipends and, in many cases, assistance with housing and travel to help cover the experience.
“Since most of the undergraduate participants are recruited from institutions that do not have extensive research infrastructure, the immersive research experience available to them in these programs can be transformational,” said David Collard, professor and senior associate dean in the College, who previously led the REU program in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry for more than a decade.
“A measure of success of the REU programs in the College of Sciences is that many of the undergraduate participants subsequently go on to complete their Ph.D., some at Georgia Tech, and others elsewhere,” Collard added.
The following are the details for each College of Sciences school’s REU program. Learn more about future Summer Research Programs for Undergraduates here.
School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences REU:
Georgia Tech Broadening Participation in Atmospheric Science, Oceanography, and Geosciences
Working under the supervision of a School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) faculty member, participants focused on a single research project, but also gained a broad perspective on research in Earth and atmospheric sciences by participating in the dynamic research environment. This interdisciplinary REU program had projects ranging from planetary science to meteorology to oceanography. In addition to full time research, undergraduate researchers participated in a number of professional development activities, seminars with faculty and research scientists, presentation and research poster symposiums, and social activities with other summer REU students.
Schools of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering REU:
Aquatic Chemical Ecology (ACE) at Georgia Tech
The Aquatic Chemical Ecology REU gave students the opportunity to perform research with faculty from five Georgia Tech schools.
Students participated in research with one or more faculty members, learned about careers in science and engineering, and saw how scientists blend knowledge and skills from physics, chemistry, and biology to investigate some of the most challenging problems in environmental sciences.
This was the first REU experience for Jenn Newlon, a rising senior at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In fact, “I’d actually never heard of an REU before I came here,” she said. “It’s been a really good experience. I never really saw this side of research in my institution. While I did get to do undergraduate research, it was more of, ‘do this in a lab, this is what happens.’ I had to present my findings every week to my PI (principal investigator), who gave really good feedback. And all the people in my lab were really kind and helpful.”
Schools of Psychology, Biological Sciences REU:
Neuroscience Research Experience for Undergraduates
The first week of the inaugural Neuroscience/Psychology REU was a Neuroscience Bootcamp, where students engaged in hands-on activities to learn about brain anatomy, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), encephalography, and other techniques. Then the student researchers spent time working on projects in the laboratories of mentors in either the School of Psychology, School of Biological Sciences, or with researchers at Georgia State University. They also attended professional development and social activities with other REU students.
“There is tremendous interest in neuroscience, and we have seen an incredible expansion of technology in our ability to record from the human nervous system,” said Lewis Wheaton, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences and co-director of the Neuroscience/Psychology REU.
“At the same time, many students do not have access to these technologies at their academic institutions because of expense,” Wheaton said. “We feel that it is vital to ensure that students who do not have access to these technologies at their universities get exposure to the tools and approaches to understand the human brain. I am excited to further focus on providing opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities to engage in this research.”
A unique feature of the Neuroscience REU program is that it allows some students to come back for a two-year experience, “which can really provide a great opportunity to enhance their research, and put these students in a stronger position to advance their careers,” Wheaton added.
“It is also great that we can show them the research and educational environment at Georgia Tech and in the broader Atlanta area,” said Eric Schumacher, professor in the School of Psychology and co-director of the Neuroscience/Psychology REU. “This is an opportune time to showcase our two schools and the Institute, given that both schools are working with the College and Institute to offer a cross-disciplinary Neuroscience Ph.D. program soon.”
That was the impression that Alexa Toliver came away with. The fourth year student at Arizona State University is majoring in neurobiology, “but I always wanted to do neuroscience research,” she said during the recent REUs poster session at the Ford Environmental Science and Technology Building. “It was a little new, but it was a great opportunity and I never felt uncomfortable with any of the topics. This was the only neuroscience REU that I could find, and I applied to it and I got it, so I was excited.”
School of Physics REU:
Georgia Tech Broadening Participation in Physics
Working under the supervision of a physics faculty member, participants focused on a single research project but also gained a broad perspective on research in physics by participating in the dynamic research environment.
Available projects for the REU spanned the field of physics ranging from quantum materials, quantum simulation/sensing, astrophysics, physics of living systems, and non-linear dynamics.
In addition to full time research, undergraduate researchers participated in a number of professional development seminars, research horizon lunches, and social activities with other summer REU students.
Brendan D’Aquino, a rising senior at Northeastern University in Boston, had planned to use his computer science background to get an industry job after graduation. Then he attended the 2022 School of Physics REU.
“After doing an internship last year at a software company that does physics, I kind of realized I wanted to make the switch,” D’Aquino said. “So I applied to the program. I got to work here. And I thought it was super cool. So this was my first time doing research. I kind of had grad school in the back of my mind for a while. But 10 weeks here kind of makes me more sure that I want to get into that in the future.”
The School of Mathematics has a rich tradition of offering summer undergraduate research programs. The projects have been mentored by faculty and postdocs covering a range of topics, such as graph coloring, random matrices, contact homology, knots, bounded operators, harmonic analysis, and toric varieties.
Previous Math REU students have published many papers, won a number of awards, and have been very successful in their graduate school applications.
“The main purpose of our REU is to give students research experience which should help them decide if they want to do math research for a living, and in particular, go to a math grad school,” said Igor Belegradek, professor and director of Teaching Effectiveness in the School of Mathematics. Belegradek also coordinates the Math REU. “Also, if there is a publication or poster at a conference, their grad school application will definitely become more competitive.”
Sometimes that application is sent to Georgia Tech. “We did have a few students who were accepted to our grad school after attending an REU with us,” Belegradek said. “It definitely helps put Georgia Tech Mathematics on the map. This summer we have 22 REU students, and only two of them are from Georgia Tech.”
Mathematics topics for the 2022 REU included aspects of graph coloring, Legendrian contact homology, Eigenvectors from eigenvalues and Gaussian random matrices, and applications of Donaldson's Diagonalization theorem.
Read more about the 2021 Mathematics REUs here.
In July, the School of Mathematics also hosted its biennial Topology Students Workshop, organized by Professor Dan Margalit since 2012.
Events included a public lecture on campus, “Juggling Numbers, Algebra, and Topology”, accessible for curious people of all ages and backgrounds.
“One goal of mathematics is to describe the patterns in the world, from weather to population growth to disease transmission,” event organizers said. The workshop used mathematics to describe juggling patterns, count the different kinds of patterns, and create new patterns, “making surprising connections to group theory, topology, combinatorics, and number theory.”
The 36th Annual Symposium of the Protein Society
From microproteins, protein condensates, synthetic biology and biosensors, to the latest developments in machine learning and imaging technologies, to addressing health disparities, the Protein Society Symposium, held in San Francisco in early July, provided a state-of-the-art view of the most exciting areas of research in biology and medicine.
Four students of Raquel Lieberman’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry lab attended, thanks to Protein Society travel fellowships:
Lydia Kenney, fourth-year undergraduate and Beckman Scholar in the Lieberman lab. Kenney was also selected to give an oral presentation in a dedicated session to undergraduates
Minh Thu (Alice) Ma, fourth-year Ph.D.student
Emily Saccuzzo, fourth-year Ph.D. student
Gwendell Thomas, first-year Ph.D. student
Kenney and Ma won Best Poster awards at the symposium, and Saccuzzo won an honorable mention.
“The conference was amazing! We saw so many great speakers and presentations about protein science, and it was a great way to meet scientists from all over the world,” Kenney said. “I’m so grateful for this experience, especially as I begin to apply to graduate school and think about my future career in science. It was a great experience, and one that has truly deepened my appreciation for science and research.”
“To have each of these superstars selected for travel fellowships puts them in an elite cohort of trainees at this 500-plus person meeting,” Lieberman said. “I am so excited for them to present their thesis research and to get feedback from colleagues in our field from all over the world. I’m sure new ideas, collaborations, and other opportunities will emerge from this experience. It’s just the boost they and I need after a challenging couple of years as experimental biochemists.”
As the mercury climbed across Atlanta this summer, student research heated up across the College of Sciences, thanks to special summer programs for undergraduates from around the globe that help undergraduates get a head start on research experience for STEM careers in academia, industry, and beyond.
This year’s initiatives included National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF REU) programs, a new initiative to engage Georgia community college students, summer workshops in computational chemistry and quantitative biosciences, and more.
Through the workshops, students learned to navigate new methods of research that involve data analysis and computational aspects of disciplines like chemistry and biology — as well as communicate connections across concepts like group theory, topology, combinatorics, and number theory.
Meanwhile, the NSF REU programs across the College’s six Schools of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Physics, Psychology, and Mathematics, as well as the Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, allowed early-year students to get their first taste of in-depth research with unique expertise and equipment available at Georgia Tech.
Other students took advantage of special fellowships to attend summer conferences in their chosen disciplines, where they networked with fellow young scientists and mathematicians while soaking up knowledge from peers and mentors.
Here’s a roundup of some of the 2022 summer undergraduate student research programs and events led by the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech:
The Summer Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (STACC) Workshop
Undergraduates eager to try calculations in areas such as quantum dynamics, electronic structure theory, and classical molecular dynamics — and who want to know more about new data science and machine learning tools — got their chance during this two-week early summer computational chemistry workshop.
“Theoretical and computational studies provide a necessary complement to experimental investigations because they are able to obtain the atomistic level of detail that is near impossible to probe with experiment,” said Joshua Kretchmer, assistant professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
“It is becoming more and more routine to use these techniques, even outside of pure theory research groups, as computers have become more powerful and more easy-to-use software is being developed to perform these calculations,” Kretchmer said. “It is thus important for students to be exposed to these techniques early on in their undergraduate education so they have a basic understanding of how and when the slew of different computational techniques are best utilized.”
2022 was the first year for the STACC Workshop, and Kretchmer added that the students “seem to be engaged and excited by the material, both in terms of learning the technical skills necessary to utilize high-performance computers and the unique aspects that can be learned about chemical systems from computer simulations.”
Those thoughts were echoed by University of South Florida student Nicholas Giunto. “After simulating and calculating these various processes, I realized how theoretical chemistry can do so much more than just simulate these scenarios. This technique of chemistry can be used in many other fields of science as well,” Giunto said. “This workshop has broadened my perspective of chemistry, and taught me a whole new field of science that is innovative and prudent.”
For more information, check out the STACC website here.
Summer College Research Internship
Thanks to a grant from the Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Dean’s Chair, community college students in Georgia were paired up with a Georgia Tech College of Sciences lab — at no cost to the students — for the inaugural Summer College Research Internship (SCRI).
The idea for SCRI grew from Shania Khatri’s experiences conducting research for the first time. Khatri, a fourth-year Biological Sciences major scheduled to graduate in December 2022, began research in high school through a program at a local university that placed students, especially those historically underrepresented in STEM, in labs to complete their own summer research projects.
“I felt firsthand how important mentorship was in building confidence in STEM, promoting belonging, and ultimately influencing my decision to pursue higher education and research,” Khatri said. “Research shows that students who complete high school and undergraduate programs are more likely to pursue STEM majors and consider doctoral degrees, underscoring that mentorship early in careers can improve achievement and retention of these students.”
SCRI students helped design experiments, collected and analyzed data, and presented the results of their work. They worked closely with their Ph.D. student mentors, learning from them as well as the broader community of their host labs. They also heard weekly lectures from College of Science faculty as they learned about the broader research environment at Georgia Tech.
“The accepted students have strong scholastic potential, and we hope that we can excite them about the research happening at Georgia Tech and potentially recruit them to join our programs, either as transfer students or future graduate students,” said William Ratcliff, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences Program. Ratcliff also co-leads the SCRI with Todd Streelman, professor and chair of the School of Biological Sciences at Tech.
Three students from two-year community college programs in Georgia were chosen for the inaugural SCRI, Ratcliff said. With diverse interests, all three researched in labs within the Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI).
“While this was not part of our review criteria, two of the three students are members of groups that are underrepresented in science according to National Institutes of Health criteria, so this is a great opportunity to broaden participation in academic research,” Ratcliff added.
“When discussing diversity in STEM and retention of underrepresented minorities, community college students should be at the forefront of the discussion,” Khatri said. “It is my hope that through this program the students will gain confidence in their own abilities, and learn skills of science communication, data analysis, critical thinking, collaborative work, and problem solving that will aid them in any career path.”
More information on the Summer College Research Internship is available here.
Child Lab Day
Child Lab Day is the capstone assignment for students in the School of Psychology course PSYC 2103 Human Development. Christopher Stanzione, senior lecturer and associate chair for undergraduate studies for the School, said his students conducted cognitive, language, and conceptual assessments in June on children ranging in age from four months to nine years old.
“This is a great applied experience for the Georgia Tech students,” Stanzione said. “All semester we study these concepts, but to see development in action is special. They’ll likely see the gradual change between concepts by administering the assessments to kids of different ages.”
The first Child Lab Day was in 2019. This summer, students majoring in psychology, biomedical engineering, computer science, biology, neuroscience, and economics took part in this second one. “They loved it,” Stanzione said.
National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF REUs)
For the first time, this year all six schools across the College of Sciences — plus the Neuroscience program at Tech — led Research Experiences for Undergraduates, a National Science Foundation initiative.
Each student was associated with a specific research project, and worked closely with school faculty and other researchers. Students were given stipends and, in many cases, assistance with housing and travel to help cover the experience.
“Since most of the undergraduate participants are recruited from institutions that do not have extensive research infrastructure, the immersive research experience available to them in these programs can be transformational,” said David Collard, professor and senior associate dean in the College, who previously led the REU program in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry for more than a decade.
“A measure of success of the REU programs in the College of Sciences is that many of the undergraduate participants subsequently go on to complete their Ph.D., some at Georgia Tech, and others elsewhere,” Collard added.
The following are the details for each College of Sciences school’s REU program. Learn more about future Summer Research Programs for Undergraduates here.
School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences REU:
Georgia Tech Broadening Participation in Atmospheric Science, Oceanography, and Geosciences
Working under the supervision of a School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) faculty member, participants focused on a single research project, but also gained a broad perspective on research in Earth and atmospheric sciences by participating in the dynamic research environment. This interdisciplinary REU program had projects ranging from planetary science to meteorology to oceanography. In addition to full time research, undergraduate researchers participated in a number of professional development activities, seminars with faculty and research scientists, presentation and research poster symposiums, and social activities with other summer REU students.
Schools of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering REU:
Aquatic Chemical Ecology (ACE) at Georgia Tech
The Aquatic Chemical Ecology REU gave students the opportunity to perform research with faculty from five Georgia Tech schools.
Students participated in research with one or more faculty members, learned about careers in science and engineering, and saw how scientists blend knowledge and skills from physics, chemistry, and biology to investigate some of the most challenging problems in environmental sciences.
This was the first REU experience for Jenn Newlon, a rising senior at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In fact, “I’d actually never heard of an REU before I came here,” she said. “It’s been a really good experience. I never really saw this side of research in my institution. While I did get to do undergraduate research, it was more of, ‘do this in a lab, this is what happens.’ I had to present my findings every week to my PI (principal investigator), who gave really good feedback. And all the people in my lab were really kind and helpful.”
Schools of Psychology, Biological Sciences REU:
Neuroscience Research Experience for Undergraduates
The first week of the inaugural Neuroscience/Psychology REU was a Neuroscience Bootcamp, where students engaged in hands-on activities to learn about brain anatomy, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), encephalography, and other techniques. Then the student researchers spent time working on projects in the laboratories of mentors in either the School of Psychology, School of Biological Sciences, or with researchers at Georgia State University. They also attended professional development and social activities with other REU students.
“There is tremendous interest in neuroscience, and we have seen an incredible expansion of technology in our ability to record from the human nervous system,” said Lewis Wheaton, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences and co-director of the Neuroscience/Psychology REU.
“At the same time, many students do not have access to these technologies at their academic institutions because of expense,” Wheaton said. “We feel that it is vital to ensure that students who do not have access to these technologies at their universities get exposure to the tools and approaches to understand the human brain. I am excited to further focus on providing opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities to engage in this research.”
A unique feature of the Neuroscience REU program is that it allows some students to come back for a two-year experience, “which can really provide a great opportunity to enhance their research, and put these students in a stronger position to advance their careers,” Wheaton added.
“It is also great that we can show them the research and educational environment at Georgia Tech and in the broader Atlanta area,” said Eric Schumacher, professor in the School of Psychology and co-director of the Neuroscience/Psychology REU. “This is an opportune time to showcase our two schools and the Institute, given that both schools are working with the College and Institute to offer a cross-disciplinary Neuroscience Ph.D. program soon.”
That was the impression that Alexa Toliver came away with. The fourth year student at Arizona State University is majoring in neurobiology, “but I always wanted to do neuroscience research,” she said during the recent REUs poster session at the Ford Environmental Science and Technology Building. “It was a little new, but it was a great opportunity and I never felt uncomfortable with any of the topics. This was the only neuroscience REU that I could find, and I applied to it and I got it, so I was excited.”
School of Physics REU:
Georgia Tech Broadening Participation in Physics
Working under the supervision of a physics faculty member, participants focused on a single research project but also gained a broad perspective on research in physics by participating in the dynamic research environment.
Available projects for the REU spanned the field of physics ranging from quantum materials, quantum simulation/sensing, astrophysics, physics of living systems, and non-linear dynamics.
In addition to full time research, undergraduate researchers participated in a number of professional development seminars, research horizon lunches, and social activities with other summer REU students.
Brendan D’Aquino, a rising senior at Northeastern University in Boston, had planned to use his computer science background to get an industry job after graduation. Then he attended the 2022 School of Physics REU.
“After doing an internship last year at a software company that does physics, I kind of realized I wanted to make the switch,” D’Aquino said. “So I applied to the program. I got to work here. And I thought it was super cool. So this was my first time doing research. I kind of had grad school in the back of my mind for a while. But 10 weeks here kind of makes me more sure that I want to get into that in the future.”
The School of Mathematics has a rich tradition of offering summer undergraduate research programs. The projects have been mentored by faculty and postdocs covering a range of topics, such as graph coloring, random matrices, contact homology, knots, bounded operators, harmonic analysis, and toric varieties.
Previous Math REU students have published many papers, won a number of awards, and have been very successful in their graduate school applications.
“The main purpose of our REU is to give students research experience which should help them decide if they want to do math research for a living, and in particular, go to a math grad school,” said Igor Belegradek, professor and director of Teaching Effectiveness in the School of Mathematics. Belegradek also coordinates the Math REU. “Also, if there is a publication or poster at a conference, their grad school application will definitely become more competitive.”
Sometimes that application is sent to Georgia Tech. “We did have a few students who were accepted to our grad school after attending an REU with us,” Belegradek said. “It definitely helps put Georgia Tech Mathematics on the map. This summer we have 22 REU students, and only two of them are from Georgia Tech.”
Mathematics topics for the 2022 REU included aspects of graph coloring, Legendrian contact homology, Eigenvectors from eigenvalues and Gaussian random matrices, and applications of Donaldson's Diagonalization theorem.
Read more about the 2021 Mathematics REUs here.
In July, the School of Mathematics also hosted its biennial Topology Students Workshop, organized by Professor Dan Margalit since 2012.
Events included a public lecture on campus, “Juggling Numbers, Algebra, and Topology”, accessible for curious people of all ages and backgrounds.
“One goal of mathematics is to describe the patterns in the world, from weather to population growth to disease transmission,” event organizers said. The workshop used mathematics to describe juggling patterns, count the different kinds of patterns, and create new patterns, “making surprising connections to group theory, topology, combinatorics, and number theory.”
The 36th Annual Symposium of the Protein Society
From microproteins, protein condensates, synthetic biology and biosensors, to the latest developments in machine learning and imaging technologies, to addressing health disparities, the Protein Society Symposium, held in San Francisco in early July, provided a state-of-the-art view of the most exciting areas of research in biology and medicine.
Four students of Raquel Lieberman’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry lab attended, thanks to Protein Society travel fellowships:
Lydia Kenney, fourth-year undergraduate and Beckman Scholar in the Lieberman lab. Kenney was also selected to give an oral presentation in a dedicated session to undergraduates
Minh Thu (Alice) Ma, fourth-year Ph.D.student
Emily Saccuzzo, fourth-year Ph.D. student
Gwendell Thomas, first-year Ph.D. student
Kenney and Ma won Best Poster awards at the symposium, and Saccuzzo won an honorable mention.
“The conference was amazing! We saw so many great speakers and presentations about protein science, and it was a great way to meet scientists from all over the world,” Kenney said. “I’m so grateful for this experience, especially as I begin to apply to graduate school and think about my future career in science. It was a great experience, and one that has truly deepened my appreciation for science and research.”
“To have each of these superstars selected for travel fellowships puts them in an elite cohort of trainees at this 500-plus person meeting,” Lieberman said. “I am so excited for them to present their thesis research and to get feedback from colleagues in our field from all over the world. I’m sure new ideas, collaborations, and other opportunities will emerge from this experience. It’s just the boost they and I need after a challenging couple of years as experimental biochemists.”
Viruses play an important role in shaping both environmental and human health. School of Biological Sciences Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair Joshua Weitz has long used theory, computational modeling, and model-data integration to understand how viruses influence the dynamics of individual hosts, populations, and ecosystems.
Weitz – who has courtesy appointments in the School of Physics and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, serves as the founding director of the Quantitative Biosciences graduate program, and holds the Blaise Pascal Chair at the Institut d’Biologie of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris until 2023 – will continue building on his research in quantitative viral dynamics via a Simons Investigator award in the area of theoretical physics in life sciences.
“Joshua Weitz has made tremendous public and scholarly contributions by applying principles of physics to biological problems,” shared Todd Streelman, professor and chair of the School of Biological Sciences, and Michael Schatz, interim chair and professor in the School of Physics, in their letter to nominate Weitz for the award. “The Simons Investigator award will provide resources to accelerate his trajectory and advance his research on virus dynamics.”
Appointed by the Simons Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation supporting “discovery-driven” research, Simons Investigators are “outstanding theoretical scientists” chosen from a list of nominees. With $100,000 per year of support for five years, the Foundation enables Simons Investigators to “undertake the long-term study of fundamental questions.”
“The nomination from the School of Physics and the School of Biological Sciences speaks to what Weitz’s group, and Georgia Tech in general, do well — fundamental research at the boundaries,” said Streelman. “It is clear that human health depends strongly on environmental health. Joshua’s group does agenda-setting research in this sphere, and this award is apt recognition.”
Small and Mighty
“Viruses infect a diversity of hosts – this diversity is both fascinating and daunting,” Weitz shared. “Our group uses a combination of theory, computational modeling, and model-data integration to understand virus impacts on microbes, populations, and ecosystem functioning. We strive to identify principles that transcend particular systems while also leveraging our findings to advance key areas where viruses of microbes could have a transformative effect on health, including phage therapy and marine ecosystem functioning.”
Understanding the dynamics of marine microbes and viruses is a central area of focus for Weitz’s group, which works collaboratively with a global network of microbiologists, virologists, and oceanographers to learn more about an often-hidden component of marine life.
“Marine viruses are ubiquitous; precisely because they are so abundant and diverse it is essential to use theory and modeling as a means to link processes at vastly different
scales – to understand how viruses transform cellular life in the global oceans and understand how the cascading effects of viral infection might change in a changing climate,” Weitz explained.
Along with research on microbial and viral ecology, Weitz and his team have used their expertise to study the dynamics of infectious diseases, including Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19).
Weitz’s work in infectious disease dynamics has emphasized the translation of epidemic principles to mitigate and control spread. Notably, in mid-2020, Weitz led an interdisciplinary collaboration to develop and release the Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool, allowing individuals to assess Covid-19 exposure risk in counties across the U.S. and around the world. Since its release, more than 16 million visitors have made upwards of 60 million risk predictions using the planning tool online – helping individuals assess their risk in crowded indoor spaces and encouraging them to take preemptive steps to reduce their risk of exposure and infection. Weitz was also a co-lead of the scientific team that organized Georgia Tech’s asymptomatic testing program beginning in August 2020.
“Joshua’s public service during the Covid pandemic has had tremendous impact locally, nationally, and globally,” said Schatz and Streelman.
“The [Simons Investigator] research support is catalytic,” Weitz added, “enabling support of early career training needs and collaborations in our interdisciplinary group while reducing barriers to taking on fundamental challenges spanning both viral ecology and epidemiology.”
“I am excited about the additional freedom this sustained support provides to work across disciplines,” Weitz said, “to understand the emergence and consequences of diverse virus-host interactions for human and environmental health.”
Viruses play an important role in shaping both environmental and human health. School of Biological Sciences Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair Joshua Weitz has long used theory, computational modeling, and model-data integration to understand how viruses influence the dynamics of individual hosts, populations, and ecosystems.
Weitz – who has courtesy appointments in the School of Physics and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, serves as the founding director of the Quantitative Biosciences graduate program, and holds the Blaise Pascal Chair at the Institut d’Biologie of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris until 2023 – will continue building on his research in quantitative viral dynamics via a Simons Investigator award in the area of theoretical physics in life sciences.
“Joshua Weitz has made tremendous public and scholarly contributions by applying principles of physics to biological problems,” shared Todd Streelman, professor and chair of the School of Biological Sciences, and Michael Schatz, interim chair and professor in the School of Physics, in their letter to nominate Weitz for the award. “The Simons Investigator award will provide resources to accelerate his trajectory and advance his research on virus dynamics.”
Appointed by the Simons Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation supporting “discovery-driven” research, Simons Investigators are “outstanding theoretical scientists” chosen from a list of nominees. With $100,000 per year of support for five years, the Foundation enables Simons Investigators to “undertake the long-term study of fundamental questions.”
“The nomination from the School of Physics and the School of Biological Sciences speaks to what Weitz’s group, and Georgia Tech in general, do well — fundamental research at the boundaries,” said Streelman. “It is clear that human health depends strongly on environmental health. Joshua’s group does agenda-setting research in this sphere, and this award is apt recognition.”
Small and Mighty
“Viruses infect a diversity of hosts – this diversity is both fascinating and daunting,” Weitz shared. “Our group uses a combination of theory, computational modeling, and model-data integration to understand virus impacts on microbes, populations, and ecosystem functioning. We strive to identify principles that transcend particular systems while also leveraging our findings to advance key areas where viruses of microbes could have a transformative effect on health, including phage therapy and marine ecosystem functioning.”
Understanding the dynamics of marine microbes and viruses is a central area of focus for Weitz’s group, which works collaboratively with a global network of microbiologists, virologists, and oceanographers to learn more about an often-hidden component of marine life.
“Marine viruses are ubiquitous; precisely because they are so abundant and diverse it is essential to use theory and modeling as a means to link processes at vastly different
scales – to understand how viruses transform cellular life in the global oceans and understand how the cascading effects of viral infection might change in a changing climate,” Weitz explained.
Along with research on microbial and viral ecology, Weitz and his team have used their expertise to study the dynamics of infectious diseases, including Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19).
Weitz’s work in infectious disease dynamics has emphasized the translation of epidemic principles to mitigate and control spread. Notably, in mid-2020, Weitz led an interdisciplinary collaboration to develop and release the Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool, allowing individuals to assess Covid-19 exposure risk in counties across the U.S. and around the world. Since its release, more than 16 million visitors have made upwards of 60 million risk predictions using the planning tool online – helping individuals assess their risk in crowded indoor spaces and encouraging them to take preemptive steps to reduce their risk of exposure and infection. Weitz was also a co-lead of the scientific team that organized Georgia Tech’s asymptomatic testing program beginning in August 2020.
“Joshua’s public service during the Covid pandemic has had tremendous impact locally, nationally, and globally,” said Schatz and Streelman.
“The [Simons Investigator] research support is catalytic,” Weitz added, “enabling support of early career training needs and collaborations in our interdisciplinary group while reducing barriers to taking on fundamental challenges spanning both viral ecology and epidemiology.”
“I am excited about the additional freedom this sustained support provides to work across disciplines,” Weitz said, “to understand the emergence and consequences of diverse virus-host interactions for human and environmental health.”
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