Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

On and off Georgia Tech’s campus, there are countless opportunities for undergraduate students to gain practical skills, connections with industry leaders, and hands-on experience through research and internship opportunities.  

Below is a non-comprehensive list of available opportunities, along with advice for how to find out about other opportunities. 

Serve-Learn-Sustain Internships 

SLS seeks to provide its partners with support and resources, while providing its students with practical experience in supporting solutions for sustainable communities. The SLS internship program is offered every summer and is an opportunity for students looking to gain real-world experience related to sustainability and community engagement. Summer interns will earn internship course audit credit, and can choose between a part-time (15-20 hours per week) or full-time (30-40 hours per week) internship.  The SLS Summer Internship Program is a 12-week program (mid-May to mid-August). Students interested in a part-time internship for the fall or spring semesters can contact SLS and SLS will work with them to identify partners who may be interested in hosting an intern during the school year. 

This semester, internships include partnerships with the City of Savannah working on the Sea Level Sensor Project, Make Homeless Meals More Nutritious with Food4Lives, and Tracking and Reporting Georgia Tech's Scope 3 Emissions with the Georgia Tech Office of Campus Sustainability. Read about all the internship opportunities here, and apply for an internship here.  

Global Change Program 

The Global Change Program provides an avenue for Georgia Tech faculty, staff, and students to design and implement solutions to climate and global change challenges. Georgia Tech has extensive research expertise in climate science, energy policy, energy technology, and sustainable business, which support a host of activities in the classroom, across the state, and beyond. We aim to build new partnerships across Georgia Tech and with outside partners, both private and public, through innovation and the translation of research into practice. 

Research partnerships include Smart Sea Level Sensors, Drawdown Georgia and GT Air Travel Emissions. Learn more about research opportunities here. 

To stay connected with the Global Change Program and learn about upcoming opportunities, join their mailing list. 

Vertically Integrated Projects 

In VIP, teams of undergraduate students – from various years, disciplines and backgrounds – work with faculty and graduate students in their areas of scholarship and exploration. Undergraduate students earn academic credit for their work and have direct experience with the innovation process, while faculty and graduate students benefit from the extended efforts of their teams. 

Teams are open to students of all undergraduate majors, with the opportunity to work on projects related to the mechanical and physical properties of soils, rocks and ceramics; studying and developing solutions for care regimens for diabetics; and addressing health outcomes, nutrition, and general living conditions in developing nations.  

View a list of all teams here. 

To learn more, contact vip@gatech.edu or visit vip.gatech.edu. 

Undergraduate Research Ambassadors

Last month, the Undergraduate Research Ambassadors hosted an open house to answer any research-related questions. URA can help with anything from finding a position in a lab to printing a poster to communicating with your research mentor. 

To get connected with the Undergraduate Research Ambassadors and learn more about 2021 opportunities, visit their website here. 

Georgia Tech Research Institute Research Internships 

Through the 10-week Summer GTRI Research Internship Program (GRIP), students put effective, practical solutions into action. You'll have the opportunity to work with mentors and other students on tough problems facing government and industry across our nation and around the globe. Projects for College of Sciences students include “Secure key distribution in free space optics,” “Celestial PNT from Wide Field Imaging,” and “Fabrication and test of graphene batteries." 

The deadline to apply for summer 2021 GRIP internships was February 1, but you can learn more about the projects and the application process for future rounds here. 

International Research Experience for Students (IRES) in Lyon, France

Chemistry and biochemistry majors are invited to apply for an 8.5-week summer research experience hosted by Georgia Tech and Ecole Superieure de Chimie Physique Electronique (CPE) in Lyon, France. Tentative dates for the program are Monday, May 17-Thursday, July 15, 2021.

Project areas include design and synthesis of functional molecular architectures for optimized molecular regulation, metal free selective oxidation of sulfides, and preparation of double emulsions.

Read about the project areas and apply here.

Women, Science, and Technology 

The Center for the Study of Women, Science and Technology (WST) continues its program to support and to fund partnerships of undergraduates with faculty in research on women, science, and technology. 

Contact Dr. Mary Frank Fox for more information or visit the Women, Science, and Technology website. 

CSURP – Chemistry Summer Undergraduate Research Program

CSURP is a program for undergraduate students who are majoring in chemistry or chemical engineering and are interested in conducting supervised summer research. The program is supported by the NSF Center for Selective C-H Functionalization (CCHF). 

Undergraduate Student Opportunities at ORNL | Science Education Programs at ORNL 

Are you ready for a science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) research experience with Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s prestigious scientists and engineers? Are you looking for an internship opportunity with a research or technical focus? If you are an undergraduate student at a college or university, with an interest in STEM, ORNL may be the place for you! 

Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering/Sciences

Founded in 1992 by Gary May, a former Dean of the Georgia Tech College of Engineering, the Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering/Sciences (S.U.R.E.) program is committed to increasing the number of qualified students who are traditionally under-represented in STEM fields. These include but are not limited to students from racial/ethnic minority groups, women, or first generation college students. 

SURE Program in Robotics

SURE Robotics is a ten-week summer research program designed to attract qualified, underrepresented, and minority students into graduate school in the fields of engineering, computer science, or physics. 

NNCI Research Experience for Undergraduates

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs are an excellent way for undergraduates to become acquainted with scientific research and graduate student life. REU programs typically consist of an intensive 10-week summer research experience at a university different than your own. Most research centers sponsor REU-like programs as part of their education and outreach efforts. 

Clean Energy Bridge to Research Experience for Undergraduates

Clean Energy Bridge to Research (CEBR) is a summer program run by the University of Washington (UW) Clean Energy Institute (CEI) and Undergraduate Research Program, and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF 1559787). The CEBR Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program supports a select group of undergraduates, community college students, and tribal college students to participate in authentic research in solar, energy storage, and grid technologies under the mentorship of UW’s world-class faculty and grad students. Participants embark on a nine-week immersive research project in a single UW clean energy research lab, and produce an abstract and poster summarizing their work. All students that are accepted into the program are supported financially with competitive stipends. Housing, food allowance, and up to $500 in travel allowances are provided.

REU: Aquatic Chemical Ecology at Georgia Tech

Open to non-Georgia Tech undergraduate students only.

Aquatic Chemical Ecology (ACE) at Georgia Tech is a summer research program supported by the National Science Foundation REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) program. ACE at Georgia Tech gives you the opportunity to perform exciting research with our faculty in the schools of Biological Sciences, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. You'll participate in research with one or more of our faculty, learn about careers in science and engineering, and see how scientists blend knowledge and skills from physics, chemistry and biology to investigate some of the most challenging problems in environmental sciences. 

Research Experiences for Undergraduates at Georgia Tech: Chemistry

Open to non-Georgia Tech undergraduate students only.

Chemistry and Biochemistry undergraduate majors who are US citizens or Permanent Residents (from Colleges and Universities outside of Georgia Tech) are invited to apply for a ten-week (Sunday, May 17- Friday, July 24, 2020) research program. Program participants will receive a stipend of $5,000, a travel allowance, and housing. Participants supported must be US citizens or permanent residents of the US. Funding is pending support provided by the National Science Found and 3M Corporation.

REU students carry out a research project under the direction of a faculty member in School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech. Projects are available in analytical, biological, inorganic, organic, physical, and polymer chemistry with a number of projects involving interdisciplinary research perspectives. Contributions by undergraduate participants often result in publication of papers in the peer-reviewed literature with the student listed as an author.  In addition to full time research, students participate in a number of professional development seminars, site visits to scientific companies/government labs, and social activities with fellow students and other REU groups on the Georgia Tech campus.  

Interested in Summer Undergraduate Research in EAS? | EAS Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

Strong priority for non-Georgia Tech undergraduate students.

Undergraduates are invited to apply for a ten-week research program hosted by Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) during Summer 2021. 

Working under the supervision of an EAS faculty member, participants will focus on a single research project but also gain a broad perspective on research in earth and atmospheric sciences by participating in the dynamic research environment. This interdisciplinary REU program has projects ranging from planetary science to meteorology to oceanography. In addition to full time research, undergraduate researchers will participate in a number of professional development seminars, research horizon lunches, and social activities with other summer REU students.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates at Georgia Tech: Mathematics 

Open to all undergraduate students. 

The School of Mathematics at Georgia Tech has a rich tradition for undergraduate research. The projects have been mentored by many different faculty, on topics ranging from fad formation, to random walks, tropical geometry, one bit sensing, extremal graph theory, and convex polyhedra. Our students have published many papers, have won a number of awards, and have been very successful in their graduate school applications. 

Find more details on the FAQ page, and apply here.

The Atlanta University Center/Georgia Tech Broadening Participation REU Program in Physics

See program webpage for eligibility requirements.

Physics majors are invited to apply for a ten-week (Sunday, May 16 - Friday, July 23, 2021) research program hosted by Georgia Tech School of Physics. 

Working under the supervision of a physics faculty member, participants will focus on a single research project but also gain a broad perspective on research in physics by participating in the dynamic research environment. Available projects span the field of physics ranging from condensed matter and atomic physics to astrophysics and biophysics.  In addition to full time research, undergraduate researchers will participate in a number of professional development seminars, research horizon lunches, and social activities with other summer REU students. 

(Non-GT CoS REU) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) | Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics

The REU program at CBBG allows students from across the nation to visit, learn, and experience world-class bio-geotechnical engineering. Each student is given the opportunity to work closely with the Center faculty and other Center researchers. Students are granted stipends and assistance with housing and travel. 

Interested in finding other research opportunities? 

• Looking to stay updated with the latest research opportunities? Join the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programming Mailing List - Georgia Institute of Tech : Sign Up to Stay in Touch (constantcontact.com) 
• Read the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program’s 10 Steps to Get Involved in Research. 
• Conduct external research: students participating in research away from Georgia Tech may be eligible to have the experience listed on their official Georgia Tech transcript. 
• Find opportunities at Georgia Tech: Georgia Tech undergraduate students have many opportunities to participate in research with faculty across campus. 
• Research Internationally: Study abroad, international internships, and international research are all available for undergraduate students. 
• Summer Research: Read a non-exhaustive list of summer research opportunities suggested by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.  
• Learn more on the website of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. 
• Find additional Internship, Summer Research, and Study Abroad Opportunities for Georgia Tech Science and Math Undergraduates.

The Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) is the largest meeting of the year, bringing together researchers and academic professionals from every corner of the country and from every disicpline. Two of the invited speakers were SoM faculty, and one was an SoM alumni.

ASL Invited Address - Anton Bernshteyn

Descriptive combinatorics and distributed algorithms

Saturday January 9, 2021, 9:00 a.m.-9:50 a.m.

Descriptive combinatorics is the study of combinatorial problems (such as graph coloring) under additional topological or measure-theoretic regularity restrictions. It turns out that there is a close relationship between descriptive combinatorics and distributed computing, i.e., the area of computer science concerned with problems that can be solved efficiently by a decentralized network of processors. In this talk, I will outline this relationship and present a number of applications.

Current Events Bulletin Session (Lecture III) - Jennifer Hom

Getting a handle on the Conway knot

Friday January 8, 2021, 3:00 p.m.

When does a knot bound a disk? In three dimensions, the only knot that bounds a smoothly embedded disk is the unknot. However, if one considers disks in the four-ball, the answer becomes significantly more difficult.

A knot is called slice if it bounds a smooth disk in the four-ball. For 50 years, it was unknown whether a certain 11 crossing knot, called the Conway knot, was slice or not, and until recently, this was the only one of the thousands of knots with fewer than 13 crossings whose slice-status remained a mystery. In this talk, we will describe Lisa Piccirillo's proof that the Conway knot is not slice. The main idea of her proof is given in the title of this talk.

AMS Invited Address - Ryan Hynd (MSc 2004)

The Hamilton-Jacobi equation, past and present 

Friday January 8, 2021, 10:05 a.m.-10:55 a.m.

Nearly two centuries ago, William Rowan Hamilton observed that the equations of motion in classical mechanics can be derived by finding stationary points of a certain integral. In addition, he identified an equation satisfied by the integral itself, which is now known as the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. These ideas were later expanded upon by scientists who grappled with the challenges of understanding how to regulate machines, control spacecrafts, and optimize the production of goods. In recent years, mathematicians have made tremendous progress in developing a theory of control which prominently features a Hamilton-Jacobi equation. We will discuss the highlights of this theory, some applications, and a few theoretical issues of interest today.

More great news to share in terms of our ACO alumni. 

Luke Postle (ACO PhD 2012; advisor: Regents' Prof. Robin Thomas) is being recognized for his graph theory work with the 2021 Coxeter-James Prize! Congratulations to Luke on this well-deserved recognition!

Dr. Luke Postle is an exceptional young researcher in structural graph theory, earning his Ph.D. in 2012 in the Department of Mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He quickly earned a strong international reputation by using a broad and innovative range of tools to solve old and deep problems in combinatorics. He made several significant contributions, to difficult, important, and long-standing open problems in graph colouring.

About the Coxeter-James Prize

The Coxeter-James Prize was inaugurated in 1978 to recognize young mathematicians who have made outstanding contributions to mathematical research. The award is named for two former CMS presidents, Donald Coxeter, who is recognized as one of the world’s best geometers, and Ralph Duncan James, who was a great contributor to mathematical development in Canada.

For information about past recipients, visit: https://cms.math.ca/Prizes/info/cj.html

Georgia Tech's Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization (ACO) program, jointly sponsored by the School of Mathematics, the College of Computing, and the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, is celebrating awards for two of its alumni. Luke Postle, who received his ACO PhD in 2012, has won the 2021 Coxeter-James Prize from the Canadian Mathematical Society for his groundbreaking work on graph theory. Also, Adam W. Marcus (ACO PhD 2008) has won the Michael and Sheila Held Prize from the  National Academy of Sciences for "outstanding, innovative, creative, and influential research in the areas of combinatorial and discrete optimization, or related parts of computer science."

A recent ACO alum Adam Marcus (PhD 2008) and collaborators won one more accolade for their breakthrough work:

Adam W. Marcus, Daniel Alan Spielman, and Nikhil Srivastava (2021):

For their breakthrough works on the Kadison-Singer problem and on Ramanujan graphs, and the underlying theory that leads to new connections between computer science, mathematics and physics.

About the Michael and Sheila Held Prize

The Michael and Sheila Held Prize is presented annually and carries with it a $100,000 prize. The prize honors outstanding, innovative, creative, and influential research in the areas of combinatorial and discrete optimization, or related parts of computer science, such as the design and analysis of algorithms and complexity theory. This $100,000 prize is intended to recognize recent work (defined as published within the last eight years). The prize was established in 2017 by the bequest of Michael and Sheila Held.

More information (including previous winners) is here:

http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/michael-and-sheila-held-prize.html

The nine majors offered by the College of Sciences provide undergraduate students with countless opportunities for learning, growth, and discovery. In eight Major Monday features, which can be viewed on our Instagram, College of Sciences students told us why they chose to study their major, and what they enjoy about it.

Psychology - Sara Brockmeier

Graduate from Woodstock, Georgia

1. Why did you choose to study your major at Georgia Tech?  I really enjoyed my AP psychology class in high school and after looking at the psychology curriculum, I knew it was the major for me. 

2. What is the best part of your major?  Definitely the collegial atmosphere. Since the major is small, everyone knows each other and I get to take multiple classes with all of my friends. 

3. Use three words to describe your major.  Small but mighty! 

4. Tell us about your favorite class you’ve taken within your major.  My favorite class was Learning and Memory. It was awesome learning how phenomena like conditioning and habituation are present in the world around us.  

5. Who is a professor that has inspired you? Professor Sara Dommer over at Scheller. She's an incredible teacher and mentor! 

6. What do you plan to do after graduation?  I'm pursuing a PhD in Marketing at the University of British Columbia to study ethical consumer behavior. It's pretty rooted in psychological theory! 

Earth and Atmospheric Sciences - Dorien Minor

 Third Year from Port Republic, Maryland

1. Why did you choose to study your major at Georgia Tech? Since Atlanta is really close to many well-known broadcast stations, like The Weather Channel and CNN, having access to many opportunities in Atlanta combined with the amount of hands-on exposure students get within the EAS department made my decision to study at Tech easy. 

2. What is the best part of your major?  The best part of our major is how much all students and faculty are connected to each other. Since we are a really small major, being able to see familiar faces throughout classes helps us to grow with other colleagues and have more exposure to faculty members.  

3. Use three words to describe your major. Enriching, Lively, Creative 

4. Tell us about your favorite class you’ve taken within your major. WxChallenge (EAS 4801): This is a seminar course that allows us to compete in a weather forecasting competition against other meteorology schools in the US and Canada throughout the school year (and, we’re ranked number 4 this year!). 

5. Who is a professor that has inspired you? Dr. Zachary Handlos: He taught my Physics of the Weather class last semester, and being able to see how passionate he was whenever he talked about the weather left a lasting impression on me, and shows the scope of how important the weather is for all people.  

6. What do you plan to do after graduation? After graduation, my goal is to work for The Weather Channel or CNN as a broadcast meteorologist, then to own my own STEM-based television network. 

Mathematics - Steven Creech

Graduate from Cumming, Georgia

1. Why did you choose to study your major at Georgia Tech? I decided to major in mathematics as I saw that math was the language of the sciences. 

2. What is the best part of your major?  Whenever we prove a statement that statement is always true.  

3. Use three words to describe your major. Proofs, Beauty, Pure 

4. Tell us about your favorite class you’ve taken within your major. My favorite class has been algebraic geometry as it provided a dictionary between the language of algebra and geometry. 

5. Who is a professor that has inspired you? My research advisor Matt Baker has been the professor who has inspired me the most .  

6. What do you plan to do after graduation? After graduation, I plan to go to graduate school at Brown University to study number theory and algebraic geometry (specifically arithmetic geometry).

Neuroscience  - Yasmine Bassil

Graduate originally from Batroûn, Lebanon living in Marietta, Georgia.

1. Why did you choose to study your major at Georgia Tech? I was incredibly passionate about the interdisciplinarity and novelty of neuroscience as a prospective student, and I had heard that the Neuroscience major was to be made official soon. I was actually part of the first cohort of Neuroscience majors, and I switched into the major as soon as it came out. It was perfect timing – I got to attend a school that I loved and pursue a major that I was excited about!   

2. What is the best part of your major?  The best part of my major is its range of applications to a variety of different career paths and its interdisciplinary nature.  

3. Use three words to describe your major. Innovative. Collaborative. Creative. 

4. Tell us about your favorite class you’ve taken within your major. My favorite class was Methods in Neuroscience, through which we were able to design an experiment using a specific neuroscience method and present projected results, almost as if we had completed a full research project! 

5. Who is a professor that has inspired you? Dr. Cameron Tyson – he cares about the success, well-being, and growth of every one of his students. He is an empowering leader and an incredible mentor.  

6. What do you plan to do after graduation? I’ll be pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience at Emory University, hoping to study brain mapping and whole-brain functional connectivity. 

Biochemistry - Pooja Parikh

Fourth year with a Spanish minor on a pre-health track from Suwanee, Georgia. 

1. Why did you choose to study your major at Georgia Tech? I chose to study Biochemistry at Georgia Tech because it creates a sense of community that fosters curiosity and innovation.     

2. What is the best part of your major?  The best part of my major is its unique ability to relate complex cellular functions to an understanding of life at large.  

3. Use three words to describe your major. Life, exploration, connection.

4. Tell us about your favorite class you’ve taken within your major. My favorite class at Tech was Anatomy!   

5. Who is a professor that has inspired you? Dr. Tyson cares about the success of every student, and he was able to give us real world applications to the concepts we were learning.

6. What do you plan to do after graduation? I plan to enter the medical field and tie in my passion of promoting global health education.    

Chemistry - Charles Wood

Third year from Marietta, Georgia. 

1. Why did you choose to study your major at Georgia Tech? I chose to study chemistry at Tech because my high school chemistry teacher earned his doctorate in organic chemistry from Georgia Tech, and he really lit a spark in me for the subject. 

2. What is the best part of your major?  The best part about my major is the community. It's awesome because it's a relatively small major, and you get to know people pretty well in lab. Consequently, a few people have seen me bust a move or two in lab. Dr. Evans even gifts us free donuts and coffee at least twice a month, and Dr. Stephens and Dr. O'Mahony host a very wholesome chemistry knitting club open to anyone! 

3. Use three words to describe your major. Tight-knit; Empathetic; Catalytic.

4. Tell us about your favorite class you’ve taken within your major. My favorite class has been analytical chemistry because the lab and lecture corresponded really well to each other, and Dr. Fernandez and Dr. O'Mahony  are so so kind. The experience was really focused on the learning, so you could make the mistakes you had to make in order to do better. 

5. Who is a professor that has inspired you? Dr. Pollet inspires me with how compassionate she is for students. She's a fantastic lecturer that gets and applies constant feedback in order to accommodate her students. She's also hilarious and a wonderful research mentor. 

6. What do you plan to do after graduation? After my major, I plan to go to medical school to eventually become a psychiatrist. Being so involved with mental health on campus, I'm really motivated to continue helping others in this field.    

Biology - Sara Cleland

Graduate from Suwanee, Georgia.

1. Why did you choose to study your major at Georgia Tech? There are tons of research opportunities! 

2. What is the best part of your major?  The professors!

3. Use three words to describe your major. Relevant, engaging, innovative.

4. Tell us about your favorite class you’ve taken within your major. Genetics lab - I had the opportunity to learn useful research techniques in a low-stress setting! 

5. Who is a professor that has inspired you? Dr. Kerr! She is passionate and gets to know her students personally.

6. What do you plan to do after graduation? Grad school at Tech for a MS in Bioinformatics.

Physics -  Robin Glefke

Graduate minoring in Geophysics and Astrophysics from Warner Robbins, Georgia. .

1. Why did you choose to study your major at Georgia Tech? At first it was for the challenge and because space is awesome, but I’ve stayed because of the amazing way math can spit out connections between small scale structures and weird real life phenomena, like pearlescence in a crystal or X-ray emissions from pulsars! 

2. What is the best part of your major?  Finally putting together all the math and physical picture to understand a hard problem.

3. Use three words to describe your major. Challenging, Weird, Beautiful.

4. Tell us about your favorite class you’ve taken within your major. The higher level classes are the most interesting because you have to use all of these tools you’ve built up. Right now I’m in an atomic physics class and solid state physics class learning about lasers, photonics, and superconductivity from the perspective of a crystal lattice! 

5. Who is a professor that has inspired you? Martin Mourigal – he’s eccentric and has a very healthy view on learning and achievement.

6. What do you plan to do after graduation? I plan on grad school but because I graduate in the fall I’d like to maybe go to Alaska to work for the national park service during my gap semester. 

To learn more about our ninth College of Sciences major, Applied Physics, visit here or the website of the School of Physics.

To stay updated with our students and activities in the College of Sciences, follow our Instagram @gtsciences.

The Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology (SCMB), which is headquartered at Georgia Tech, sits squarely at the critical intersection of two disciplines — and it has been collaborating and conducting research across mathematics and biosystems for the past two years.

“Something we’ve all experienced over the past year is the importance of mathematical modeling,” says SCMB Director Christine Heitsch, a professor in the School of Mathematics with courtesy appointments in the Schools of Biological Sciences, and Computational Science and Engineering. “The better the interaction between mathematics and biology, the better the quality of the data modeling and analysis.”

Along with bringing mathematics and biosystems into sharp focus, the pandemic year of 2020 has also continuously evolved how we meet to share knowledge with one another.

SCMB hosted its 3^rd Annual Symposium December 7-10, 2020 — marking the group’s first virtual annual meeting. The previous two symposia featured plenary talks and poster sessions at the Marcus Nanotechnology Building. This time, online sessions ran from noon to 2 p.m. EST each day.  This year’s virtual environment featured junior researchers showcasing their work at the frontiers of the math-bio interface via screenshare.   There was also a lively virtual session for contributed posters, three engaging panels focusing on cross-disciplinary communication from different perspectives, and a closing plenary talk.

Created in 2018, SCMB is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Simons Foundation. It is headquartered at Georgia Tech, and has six partner institutions around the southeast --- ORNL, Clemson, Duke, Florida, South Florida, and Tulane.  SCMB is one of four NSF-Simons Research Centers for Mathematics of Complex Biological Systems. The other Centers are located at Harvard University, the University of California, Irvine, and Northwestern University. 

Like several other research centers at Georgia Tech, SCMB stands as a truly interdisciplinary effort, with Hang Lu, Love Family Professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, serving as SCMB Associate Director. 

Seed projects at SCMB take advantage of a unique structure of pairing scientists in non-traditional, cross-disciplinary teams of principal investigators and junior researchers. The results promise a wider range of perspectives on scientific problems and potential solutions.

There are seven studies underway at SCMB, with the teams evenly split between mathematics and biosystems researchers — not just at the senior personnel (SP) level, but also among the postdoctoral researchers and graduate students who are an integral part of the Center. 

Current research projects include using math models to learn more about DNA and RNA interaction — and where breaks in that connection could lead to genetic disorders — as well as how biological agents exploit disorder and randomness to survive their treks through hosts. One SCMB research team is investigating RNA structural ensembles in evolution, while another is investigating how stem cells pattern within colonies due to specific cell to cell communication.  

Q&A with the Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology

How would you explain the "math-biology interface" to the layperson? What's the connection between mathematical areas of study like geometry and topology to, say, molecular biology or genetics?

Christine Heitsch:

We usually refer to it as the “math-bio interface.” The reason is because the mathematical sciences are really broad, including optimization, statistics, parts of computer science, as well as the areas that we think of as more classic core mathematics.

“Bio” certainly includes biology and biomedical engineering but also physics, chemistry and chemical engineering, so we use the shortened form to indicate the breadth of studies here too.

Hang Lu:

Molecules, networks of genes, and images (of cells, tissues, organisms, and animal behavior) all have shapes, and interestingly shapes and changes in shapes can tell us a lot about function and dysfunction. Fields like geometry and topology are equipped with dealing with these things.  

Christine Heitsch:

A fundamental premise for our center is “theory plus data.” The idea is that the math side brings the theoretical expertise, and the bio side brings the experimental expertise. These two domains of expertise meet at the interface that is the modeling and analysis of the data.

In some sense, any researcher is fundamentally seeking to better understand the world.  We differ in the range and types of tools used, and in the aspects of the problems that we find interesting.

Geometry is fundamentally the study of shapes as, in some sense, is molecular biology.  But a molecular biologist traditionally has very different ways of thinking about shapes, experimenting with the shapes of interest, than a geometer does.  Classically, a molecular biologist will  use physical experiments, whereas a geometer will use thought experiments. Now, though, both of them are increasingly likely to use computational experiments, especially when collaborating with each other.

Is this a "big data" approach to math and biological sciences? Are you using computational models to search for patterns or connections in the biological sciences?

Heitsch:

We are always searching for patterns and connections. However, the phrase “big data” has a certain resonance in the common usage, which is not the best description of our approaches.

One of our senior personnel, Matthew Torres, an associate professor at the School of Biological Sciences, said at the very beginning of this initiative that his interest wasn't in having someone do a better analysis of his current data. Rather, he said, the greatest advantage to a biologist in participating in efforts like this is gaining a new way to ask questions that weren't known before.   Matt put a huge effort into the planning and execution of this year’s Symposium, so he’s clearly invested in the center’s success.  He also shared how excited he was about the recent results from his SCMB collaboration, so stay tuned for further developments on that front.

The structure for your research teams is designed to make sure there's a math principal investigator and a bio principal investigator, along with a bio graduate research assistant and a math postdoctoral scholar, on every project. I know this is designed to share knowledge and train practitioners of one discipline in the foundations of the other discipline. How has that been working out since SCMB opened? 

Heitsch:

Even better than we had hoped!  That’s one of the reasons our Symposium this week focused on exactly this critical skill of ``interactional expertise’’ in cross-disciplinary collaborations.  It really does seem to be the secret sauce for success.

The way that I keep track of it in my head is by picturing a square. You always have the vertical/disciplinary sides, which are the standard senior mentor and junior trainee relationships.  What SCMB is doing is bringing in those horizontal, cross-disciplinary connections — the bio grad students interacting with math postdocs, the senior personnel engaging with each other — as well as the diagonal connections being forged.

In that vein, one of the things that the center is always trying to communicate is that there’s great value to studying more complimentary discipline.  If you do, then you have some groundwork to interact with experts. You won’t necessarily develop research expertise, but you’ll have some fundamental vocabulary. A little bit of fluency in another discipline can go a very long way. 

As an SCMB trainee , how do you like the interdisciplinary diversity within the center’s research teams? 

Hector Banos, SCMB mathematics postdoctoral junior researcher:

I really enjoy it. I am trying to develop a micro-evolutionary model to describe allele variation in tRNA (transfer ribonucleic acid). Certainly, it’s something new to me, but being able to get constant feedback from both the math and the bio sides really helps and keeps it interesting and relevant. 

In our seed project, we have a nice collaborative system. I get to participate in the Bio PI lab's meetings, and I am treated as another [within the] cohort. They also are very welcoming and address any questions or ‘inquietudes’ I have regardless of the type of question. Sometimes it may be a little frustrating not being able to keep up with all the concepts and techniques, but I guess that is part of the learning curve for someone without formal bio training, and they help me with that. I also try to provide my perspective from the math side. All these interactions have led to great discussions. 

How has this arrangement helped you with your research? 

Massively. Being able to collaborate with biologists on a daily basis has changed my perspective on math and biology. I became more aware of the challenges, techniques, and topics in the area. I have been able to communicate better with other biologists and bio-mathematicians. Also, being part of a center enhances the whole experience. We get to see different projects and talk to experts on math and biology. The center organizes activities that promote interactions within the fields. I am getting more comfortable in terms of biology and I think that is something someone who does math-biology needs to work on, so I am getting there. 

Can you give a status report on progress within the research teams?

Hang Lu:

In all projects, the bio researchers are now exposed to a whole new set of tools and ways of thinking. The multitudes of center activities certainly lowered the barriers for bio researchers to interact with mathematicians, particularly their partners. Most pairs have moved to defining better questions to ask and address together, which is exciting.

Heitsch:

We had our 2^nd Annual Symposium in February 2020 which was coupled with the second  Advisory Board meeting.  All seven pairs of junior researchers got up in front of these senior experts and presented a unified picture of the progress made on each of their seed projects.  The Advisory Board was definitely pleased with the center’s progress overall.  Internally we think things are going quite well, and we’re delighted that that was validated by outside experts.

How hard has it been to get these seven research projects up and running since SCMB was founded? 

Heitsch:

Initially, the research aspect was about as seamless as it could be.

By design the organization of the Center was intended to be very nimble, because we knew we would need to quickly ramp up on a number of research projects. It was great to see it working out as planned.

Recently, though, we’ve had to make some adjustments.  A significant changes in plans was the postponement of our “postdocs in residence” program planned for May 2020. The four off-site postdocs (distributed around our partner institutions in the Southeast) were going to join the three GT ones in being embedded in the research labs of their seed project collaborators for almost a month.  We’re still hoping to reschedule so that the math PhDs really get an opportunity to experience the data side — this “theory plus data” balancing act. 

On a more positive note, the bio grad students did have an opportunity to experience the theory side through a new “Math for Bio” graduate student course that was offered in spring 2020. A current SCMB postdoc, Daniel Cruz, and I taught that class, and the students have told us what a positive experience it was. They felt like they gained an understanding of some mathematics they had not previously been exposed to in a way that was accessible to them, and could be useful in the future.

What kinds of applications could result from this research in the next five to ten years? Where could math and biological sciences go from here?

Hang Lu:

The Center addresses questions from molecular scale all the way to organism behavior. In five to ten years, the Center will be looking at these questions from unconventional angles; that is, making predictions about biological functions and figuring out mechanisms of actions in proteins, RNA/DNA, designing molecular transport and cellular differentiation patterns, detecting subtle changes in organism aging process, and making better biomimetic robots.

Heitsch:

I’m not a good prognosticator. I will say that one thing we’ve seen over the past year is how important the modeling and analysis of biosystems can be.  The level of interaction between math theory and bio data can have profound implications for our lives.  It’s really been a lesson in the importance of researchers who may not necessarily be experts in both sides but who can collaborate with experts from the other side. 

For SCMB, this all circles back to our “theory plus data” approach. There are a lot of people who have expertise in math and a lot with expertise in bio, and if SCMB can facilitate their interacting with each other, then really great things can come of this.  We’re already seeing how these new collaborations --- as well as all the intra-center interactions --- are challenging us to think about our projects in new ways and helping to train the next generation of cross-disciplinary researchers.

When we went to New York (in February 2018) to make the pitch for the center, somebody asked, “How will you know it’s been a success?”

It’s similar to the question you’re asking. By that point I was a little slap-happy, so I said, “when a biologist sitting in the audience thinks, ‘Oh expletive, I need to find a mathematician to collaborate with.’” 

We won’t necessarily see the full impact directly, but what we’re expecting to do is break new ground in our seed project areas. Throw down the gauntlet — this is the level of math-bio interaction needed to achieve these kinds of results.

Congratulations go to Dan Margalit who has been awarded the AMS Conant Prize.

This prize was established in 2000 in honor of Levi L. Conant to recognize the best expository paper published in either the Notices of the AMS or the Bulletin of the AMS in the preceding five years.

The 2021 Levi L. Conant prize is awarded to Dan Margalit for the article “The Mathematics of Joan Birman,”

More details at:

https://www.ams.org/news?news_id=6447

This story was originally published by Georgia Tech Machine Learning.

A mathematician by trade, Molei Tao typically uses mathematics to design algorithms and solve physical science problems like how planets move. Recently, he became attracted to machine learning, an area that according to him, contains numerous interesting problems that are mathematically exciting and can benefit from modern mathematical tools.

This year, Tao, an associate professor in the School of Mathematics, published his first machine learning conference paper, and this work was awarded the best paper award at the 23^rd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS).

His paper, Variational Optimization on Lie Groups with Examples of Leading (Generalized) Eigenvalue Problems, details a natural way for adding momentum to the gradient descent optimization in non-flat spaces. In flat spaces, the approach of adding momentum for accelerating the training of machine learning models has already been tremendously successful, and this new progress expands the applicability of the popular and powerful idea.

Tao felt fortunate to win this recognition. He and his co-author, Tomoki Ohsawa of the University of Texas at Dallas, had read many classical works from previous proceedings of AISTATS. Impressed with the quality of work, the authors chose to submit their first draft to it.

“We really did not think of winning the award at all. The completion of our work was around the AISTATS submission deadline, so we just submitted happily,” said Tao. “This submission confirmed to me how vibrant the machine learning community is. They are open to new ideas and many people made real efforts to understand this theoretical work and ask good questions.”

Tao was also encouraged by the collaborative and interdisciplinary environment provided by the Machine Learning Center at Georgia Tech (ML@GT) where Tao is also a faculty member.

“Georgia Tech is full of leaders in machine learning with different areas of expertise. We are proud of how Molei continues to innovate and further connect machine learning to real-world problems, both physically and computationally, and look forward to his future accomplishments” said Irfan Essa, ML@GT executive director.

Tao stated that winning this award encouraged him, and hopefully other mathematicians and scientists, to continue searching for fusion of ideas and creating new venues of applications.

Ten College of Sciences researchers, staffers, and students are among those named as 2020 Faces of Inclusive Excellence at Georgia Tech. The publication with the names of those honored was distributed during the Institute’s 12^th annual Diversity Symposium on September 9.

The ten are among 57 Georgia Tech faculty and staffers named in the annual Faces of Inclusive Excellence publication from Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The publication recognizes “a diverse group of faculty, staff, and students who are committed to advancing a culture of inclusive excellence at Georgia Tech, and who have distinguished themselves in their research, teaching, and service.” 

The theme of this year’s Diversity Symposium is “Understanding Accessibility as Inclusion: Georgia Tech’s Pathway to Accessibility,” which will highlight members of the Tech community who are paving the way for an accessible and inclusive campus. 

“When you dive deeper to explore the source of Georgia Tech’s greatness, you discover this diverse group of faculty, staff, and students reveals the true faces of inclusive excellence,” says Archie W. Ervin, Vice President of Georgia Tech Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera adds that scientific and entrepreneurial advances "only matter if they drive positive change that helps all of us live better lives. That’s why accessibility and developing the technologies that fuel it are so vital. Indeed, accessibility’s chief goal is to use technology to ensure no one is excluded from exercising their rights as humans and enjoying their freedoms as citizens — mobility, safety, communication, education, personal development, civic participation, and more."

Join us in congratulating the College of Sciences personnel named to the Faces of Inclusive Excellence. Following are their names, titles, and why they were selected:

Flavio H. Fenton 
Professor 
School of Physics 

Fenton was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, and serves as Provost Teaching and Learning Fellow 2018–20. He participated in “Rostros Fisicos,” a project to promote Hispanic/ Latinx physicists across the world. 

Jennifer B. Glass 
Associate Professor 
School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Glass serves on the College of Sciences Faculty Diversity Council, and has spearheaded efforts to remove the GRE requirement from the Institute’s graduate admissions due to the inherent bias of the test. Her 2018–19 Georgia Tech Diversity and Inclusion Fellow project, in collaboration with School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Ph.D. candidate Minda Monteagudo, “A Database of Databases of Diverse Speakers in STEM,” has become a widely used international resource. 

Neha Gupta 
Academic Professional and Director of Scheduling 
School of Mathematics 

Awarded the CIOS Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Class of 1934 Award. As the coordinator of the Math 1551 course and an advisor for math majors, Gupta interacts with some of the most diverse groups of students on campus. She also aims to build community among math majors and reaches out to underrepresented students about opportunities that they may be unaware of. 

Nasrin Hooshmand 
Senior Research Scientist 
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry 

Hooshmand contributed to important discoveries in the field of nanoplasmonics, and applied these insights to signal detection and amplification, biological sensing, drug delivery, and their use in the photothermal therapy of various medical conditions, including cancer. She published her research outcomes in prestigious journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Hooshmand strives to create an inclusive learning environment for students from different backgrounds. 

Joseph Lachance 
Assistant Professor 
School of Biological Sciences 

Lachance developed a new technology for detecting genetic associations with prostate cancer in men of African descent. He led a diverse team of researchers to study health disparities and the evolution of genetic disease risks. 

Marissa Kawehi Loving 
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor 
School of Mathematics 

Kawehi Loving co-authored an article published in the December 2019 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society entitled “Broadening the Horizons of Teaching and Diversity in Math Departments.” She co-founded SUBgroups, an online peer-support program for first year math graduate students that launched during the Fall 2019 semester. 

Judith Taylor 
Faculty Affairs Administrative Specialist 
School of Mathematics 

Taylor is a voting outreach organizer. She coordinated a math and English summer program in 2018–19 and has spent three years coordinating faculty affairs for the School of Mathematics. Taylor manages the visa application process, welcoming and onboarding newcomers, and supporting them throughout their experience. 

Prasad Tetali 
Regents Professor 
School of Mathematics and School of Computer Science 

Tetali was appointed director of Georgia Tech’s interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in algorithms, combinatorics, and optimization, and is currently co-chair of the recently formed Equity, Diversity, and InclusionTask Force in the School of Mathematics. He is also co-lead on a virtual research center at Georgia Tech on polynomials as an algorithmic paradigm. 

Samuel Weiss-Cowie 
Undergraduate Student 
College of Sciences and School of Modern Languages 

Weiss-Cowie presented in Korean at the American Association of Teachers of Korean annual conference. His presentation was on new methods in Korean pedagogy.    

Yao Yao 
Assistant Professor 
School of Mathematics 

Yao is a recipient of the Sloan Research Fellowshipand the National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for her research in nonlinear partial differential equations.