The College of Sciences at Georgia Tech continues to make progress in the graduate school rankings published by U.S. News and World Report.

Released on March 29, the 2023 U.S. News Best Graduate School Rankings highlights all six College of Sciences schools as best overall science programs for graduate studies:

  • Biology – No. 37    

  • Chemistry – No. 21

  • Earth Sciences – No. 28

  • Mathematics – No. 21

  • Physics – No. 28

  • Psychology – No. 39

Biological Sciences rose 17 places (from No. 54) in a nine-way tie with Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Dartmouth College, Indiana University-Bloomington, Ohio State University, University of Utah, and UT Health MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Chemistry and Biochemistry shifted from No. 20 in a four-way tie with Johns Hopkins University, University of California (UC)-San Diego, and Texas A&M University-College Station.

Earth and Atmospheric Sciences rose by 10 (from No. 38) in a tie with Ohio State University, University of Southern California, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Mathematics advanced by five, up from No. 26 in a tie with Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, UC-San Diego, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Physics maintains its No. 28 ranking in a tie with Brown University, Duke University, and Rice University.

Psychology rose six spots to No. 39 in a tie with Arizona State University, Michigan State University, Stony Brook University, University of Florida, University of Iowa, and University of Pittsburgh.

U.S. News previously ranked graduate science programs in their 2019 Best Graduate Schools Edition (published in March 2018) with the exception of Psychology, which is categorized under U.S. News “Social Sciences and Humanities” programs and was last ranked in the 2017 Edition.

Among speciality graduate programs, Analytical Chemistry and Condensed Matter (Physics) both rank in the top 20, while previously unranked Applied Math climbed into the top 16 to No. 11.

Mathematical Analysis and Topology tied for No. 18 and No. 15, respectively, and Tech remains top five in the nation for Discrete Math and Combinatorics. Uniquely organized across the Colleges of Sciences, Computing, and Engineering, the Institute’s Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization program previously held a rank of No. 2.

  • Analytical Chemistry – No. 17

  • Applied Math – No. 11

  • Condensed Matter – No. 18

  • Discrete Math and Combinatorics – No. 5

  • Mathematical Analysis – No. 18

  • Topology – No. 15

“I was very happy to see that several of our schools in the College of Sciences moved up in the rankings, in some cases quite significantly,” shares Matthew Baker, professor in the School of Mathematics and associate dean for Faculty Development in the College.

Fellow colleges on campus are also on the rise in the latest U.S. News “Best Graduate Schools” set, with Engineering remaining in the top ten in its overall disciplines, and Business, Computing, and Public Affairs also ranking among top programs in the nation. The full roster of current Georgia Institute of Technology rankings can be found here, along with U.S. News’ methodology for graduate rankings here.

Rachel Kuske on the SoM:

"This clear upward trajectory in the rankings, with even sharper growth in recent years, reflects the School’s consistent recruitment of outstanding faculty at all ranks and across all areas. Whether recent additions or long-time School members, the faculty have shown exceptional dedication to growth in quality, quantity, and diversity in its graduate training, able to leverage support from Georgia Tech as well as external resources to expand graduate and postdoctoral programs in both core and cross-disciplinary fields."

-Rachel Kuske, Professor and former SoM Chair

Haomin Zhou on Applied Math:

"Being at a leading technological university, the Applied Math program benefits tremendously in a supportive environment. Its growth is reflected in many aspects of research, education, and community building. The recruitment of exceptional faculty, postdoc, and students has been vital. Our junior faculty members have received national recognition including NSF Career Awards in the past few years. The ever-growing number of joint projects within math and across campus helps create a collaborative atmosphere which further enhances the interdisciplinary nature of the program. The richness in class selection and diverse career prospective play key roles for the success of students. Postdocs and PhD students in Applied Math have been hired in excellent positions both in academic and industrial settings.  In addition, and perhaps more importantly, collegiality such as teaching-coordination, Friday lunch with everyone, working seminar, and year-end-gathering makes the program more personal, inclusive, and attractive."

-Haomin Zhou

John Entire on Topology:

"It is exciting to see Georgia Tech’s Topology program being recognized as one of the top programs in the country. It is a testament to the hard work and creativity of our faculty, postdocs, and students. For some time we have been able to increase our visibility due to the high quality of research being done and the many conferences and workshops we run, but thanks to the support of the National Science Foundation Research Training Grant we recently received, we have been able to increase these activities and bring in many more excellent postdoctoral fellows and graduate and undergraduate students."

-John Etnyre

Xingxing Yu on Discrete Math and Combinatorics:

"I was very pleased to learn that our discrete math and combinatorics program was again ranked in the top 5 in the US. This reflects the strength and breadth of our program. We have many faculty members affiliated with the ACO program, whose expertise covers broad areas of discrete mathematics.  With support from the School's leadership and new hires in the core areas of ACO program, I am optimistic that our discrete mathematic and combinatorics program will remain a top ranked program in the future."

-Xingxing Yu

Congratulations to Kimberly Stanley who has won the CoS Leadership in Action Award for her innovative and strategic leadership in the school. 

Leadership in Action and Excellence in Leadership Staff Awards:

One $1,500 cash award and one or more $500 cash awards for exceptional contributions in one or more of the following areas:

  • Innovative and Strategic Leadership
  • Change Management
  • Business Process / Continuous Improvement
  • Special Project Leadership
  • Similar Accomplishment to above

An Interview with Kimberly Stanley on Winning the Leadership in Action Staff Award

Edited by Cheng Mao and April McCruel

In 2013, I accepted the position as Administrative Manager in the School of Mathematics and within a year, I was promoted to Assistant Director of Business Operations.  My decision to accept this position has proven to be very meaningful to me both personally and professionally.  Throughout my time in the School of Math, I have had the opportunity to work with wonderful and dedicated faculty and staff.  It is truly the people in the School of Mathematics that have enabled us to grow and thrive in spite of the many challenges we faced (and continue to face) during a global pandemic and its after effects.

As the Assistant Director of Business Operations, I am responsible for the day to day business and administrative functions in the School of Mathematics.  I oversee the financial, payroll, hiring and HR components within the School of Mathematics.  I supervise a staff of 11 motivated professionals whose commitment to the school inspires me daily.  During the global pandemic, it was very apparent that business operations within the School of Mathematics would undergo major changes.  Starting in 2020, the staff transitioned to a mostly remote working platform: however, the demands and obligations of the department were mostly unchanged.  Financial reconciliation and tracking were still required, payroll was still being processed bi-weekly and monthly and HR transactions were still occurring daily.  I needed an innovative plan in order to meet the needs of our faculty, keep up with the demands of the department and ensure that the staff could thrive in a remote and virtual environment.  I decided to enact a three-pronged approach: communication, accessibility and flexibility.

Communication was definitely the foundation of my three-pronged approach.  One of the challenges of moving to a mostly remote working environment is that it increases the chances that people will feel cut off and isolated.  Communication was key to connectivity.  For the past two years, I have met with each staff member weekly to check in with them, listen to their concerns, and make sure that weekly goals were realistic and manageable.

Accessibility was also a key component to my approach during the pandemic.  I have always believed in an open door policy and being accessible during the pandemic was more important than ever.  For the past two years, I have been accessible to faculty and staff via Microsoft Teams, Bluejeans, Zoom and cell phone.  Even though I did not have many face to face meetings during the pandemic, I made sure that faculty and staff knew that I was (and continue to be) ready and available to address any business related issue.

Flexibility has also been essential to the success of our team during this challenging time.  During the past two years, my staff and I have been very flexiable and open to new ideas, suggestions and ways of conducting business.  Change can be difficult but it’s oftentimes flexibility that can change one’s perspective and enable us to embrace change.

The Leadership in Action Staff Award is a College of Sciences recognition awarded to individuals who have shown innovation and strategic leadership.  Receiving this award and the recognition at the annual College of Sciences Spring Sciences Celebration was an honor and one of the highlights of my career at Georgia Tech.  I would like to thank Dr. Rachel Kuske and Dr. Michael Lacey for their unwavering support over the years and especially during the pandemic.  I would also like to thank my staff for their dedication and willingness to work with me to ensure that the School of Mathematics thrived during challenging conditions.  Without teamwork and dedication, our successes would not have been possible.  

For the conference website including schedule, abstracts, and recordings, please visit the conference website.

A Topology and Geometry conference run completely by graduate students took place in April at Georgia Tech. The organizers of the conference were Katherine Booth, Sally Collins, Sierra Knavel, Daniel Minahan, Anubhav Mukherjee, Agniva Roy, Thomas Rodewald, Roberta Shapiro, Weizhe Shen, Hugo Zhou, and Xingyu Zhu. Prof. Jen Hom was the faculty advisor and PI for the NSF grant, and help was also provided by SoM staff Melissa Raine and April McCruel. 

The Topology and Geometry Conference is one of the only conferences that are organized by, attended by, and feature primarily graduate students in geometry and topology. There were more than 130 participants, and over twenty students were given the opportunity to speak, while several others either presented posters or gave virtual talks that were be featured on the conference website. There were also nine invited speakers, faculty or early career researchers that are well established in their fields who presented their work. These faculty were also available via virtual office hours or in-person interactions with participants. Graduate students were given a great opportunity to form connections with peers and personally interact with pioneering researchers in their fields. There were also many subfields  that were represented, opening opportunities for conversations and collaboration between participants.

We had an opportunity to speak with two of the organizers, Agniva Roy and Roberta Shapiro, and ask a few questions about the importance of the event.

Roberta Shapiro

What will it mean for the students who participate in the conference?

There haven't been any in-person conferences for the last couple years, which is nearly half of what students spend in grad school. That means that people had fewer chances to connect with others, get to know the community, and network. In the past, students have made connections at GSTGC that led to collaborations. I'm hoping that this year, students have the chance to do this but also meet other grad students in their area -- the same grad students who will soon be postdocs, professors, lecturers, and generally coworkers at potentially the same institutions. 

What does it mean for your career to be able to organize a conference at this level?

Any future career -- academic or otherwise -- will involve a massive amount of organization and paperwork. I feel lucky to have had the chance to, for example, learn to write a grant before my livelihood depends on it. Moreover, I feel like we, as a group, have a chance to improve on past years' conferences and make potentially make the GSTGC more useful and enjoyable for participants.

 

Agniva Roy

What does it mean for your career to be able to organize a conference at this level?

For me it has been a fulfilling experience thus far, forming connections both inside the department and outside with faculty we are inviting. My short career thus far has been really helped by conferences I have been able to attend, and it is good to learn what goes into putting one together. Organising conferences and events is a big part of being a professional mathematician, and the opportunity to do this now is an avenue to learn how to balance research and this aspect of our work.

What support have you received from SoM faculty or staff to help with the organization?

Faculty and staff have been immensely helpful. Prof Jen Hom, who is the PI for the NSF grant we have applied for, has been readily available with answers and advice. The staff have been unbelievably helpful, enthusiastic, and patient, notably Melissa Raine, April McCruel, and Kimberly Stanley, who have been helping with space booking, grant writing, and general organisational issues.

What will it mean for the students who participate in the conference?

This is one of the only conferences that are organised by, attended by, and feature, primarily graduate students in geometry and topology. 24 students will get the opportunity to speak, while several others will either present posters or give virtual talks that will be featured on the website. Further, 9 invited speakers, who are faculty or early career researchers, who are well established in their fields. will present their work. They will also be available via virtual office hours or in-person for students to interact with them. Thus this presents graduate students a great opportunity to form connections with peers and personally interact with pioneering researchers in their fields. We expect many subfields to be represented, opening opportunities for conversations and collaboration.

 

Noah Caplinger is a graduating senior who is intent on pursuing a career in mathematics. Having been accepted into the University of Chicago graduate program, one of the top programs in the world, we wanted to take one last opportunity to speak with Noah before he continues on his inspiring path. 

Interview by Dan Margalit

 
What made you interested in majoring in mathematics?

Initially I wanted to be a chemist, but my 11th grade chemistry class put a stop to that pretty quick. That semester, I was taking calculus at my local university with a great professor, Dr. Hu. He was always happy to entertain my questions and I spent a lot of time in his office hours talking to him about math. Because of him, I took as much math as my dual enrollment program would allow, and here I am. I'm not sure I knew what I was getting into at the time, but I'm quite happy where I ended up.


Favorite class?

I'll give you two answers. The most rewarding was MATH 1564, "Linear algebra with abstract vector spaces" with Shahaf Nitzan---it was my first "real" math class and I learned tons of linear algebra. It set the tone for the rest of my math degree. The most fun was Dan Margalit's special topics class in geometric group theory, which I think is the topic I'll end up specializing in.


Favorite math-related activity?

The mapping class group lunch with Dan Margalit's research group. Once a week, everyone who studies mapping class groups in the department gets together to eat lunch. It's a great little social group, and I've learned quite a bit when the conversations inevitably turn to math.


What are you most proud of?

Two things come to mind. First, there is my research paper with Nick Salter, a professor at Notre Dame.  In the paper (called "Totally Symmetric sets in the General Linear Group"),  we classified totally symmetric sets in the general linear group (totally symmetric sets are a relatively new concept used for understanding group homomorphisms). I have hope that some of the ideas we developed will be used and built upon in the future, which is very exciting.

My other big project was my book, "Chess Algorithms". Chess programming (programming computers to play chess) was one of my hobbies in high school. I was very frustrated by the quality of chess exposition available on the internet, so I decided to write some notes. I initially planned for only 40 pages, but I ended up with a book, which is available on Amazon. It was a massive project that I'm quite proud of.


Favorite non-math activity?

Badminton Club for sure. I've played three times a week for almost all of the past four years. Friday nights usually involved playing until they kick us out of the CRC, then (sweaty and smelly) going out for Chinese food and Boba.


I heard you like writing. Is that right?

Yup. I always hated my English classes, but eventually I figured out that writing is lots of fun when you actually care about the topic. Chess Algorithms was just the start---my summer project is to write some notes on group theory solely from the perspective of group actions. Hopefully one day it'll turn into a book!


Future plans?

The dream is to go pro---into academia as a research mathematician. I want to do and write and talk about math for the rest of my life.

A sad day is approaching when SoM will say farewell to Enid Steinbart after an impressive 22 years as an academic professional in the School.

Dr. Steinbart joined Georgia Tech in 1999, and has been SoM’s Director of Undergraduate Advising and Assessment  since 2000. Before joining Georgia Tech, she received her Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, after which she progressed to Full Professor at the  University of New Orleans. Twice recognized with GT’s  Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advising Award, Dr. Steinbart has also received the Outstanding Academic Advisor -Certificate of Merit from the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA), and the Class of 1940 Course Survey Teaching Effectiveness  Award. She has taken leadership roles in many activities that advance undergrad success at GT, including leadership of Club Math, implementation of SoM’s new Math Major, developing the Math Undergraduate Seminar in 2008, and twice chairing GT Advising Network’s  Academic Advisor Best Practices Conference.

Dr. Steinbart was promoted to Principal Academic Professional, the highest possible rank of AP, in 2020. The rank of Principal AP is the highest in the GT academic professional career ladder, awarded to those demonstrating superior performance and recognized by peers, with successful and measurable related experience, including but not limited to supervision of others’ work, significant responsibility and authority within program area, and demonstrated impact.  

We in the SoM wish Enid all the best of luck in her future. We will miss you, Enid!

Klara Grodzinsky

Dr. Enid Steinbart has been a wonderful colleague for the past 23 years. The undergraduate math program has grown, improved, and expanded thanks to Enid's hard work. In addition to recruiting a larger number of majors, Enid has worked to create a community for our students through activities such as Club Math, the AWM, and a math-specific section of GT 1000. In her teaching role, Enid has traveled to Barcelona to support the study abroad program, earning a course survey award from her students, and has served many times as the course coordinator for Math 2551. In her administrative role, Enid has been instrumental in creating a bond among all the academic professionals: providing us with meaningful advice, creating a positive support network, and inspiring each of us in our own professional journeys. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Enid, and I wish her all the best in her retirement!

Three postdoctoral scientists have received National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships to support their research across the College of Sciences in celestial mechanics, microbial dynamics and infection, and host-microbe symbiosis.

Celestial mechanics

Bhanu Kumar, a Ph.D. candidate and NASA Space Technology Research Fellow (NSTRF) in the School of Mathematics, has won a fellowship for work in dynamical systems applied to celestial mechanics and applied astrodynamics for space mission design. His Ph.D. is set to be conferred in August. Kumar received his M.S. from the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech last December, and is also an NSTRF visiting technologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he works with his mentor and research collaborator Rodney Anderson. Kumar’s adviser at Tech is Rafael de la Llave, professor in the School of Mathematics. 

Microbial dynamics and infection

Elijah (Eli) Mehlferber is slated to receive his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley this summer, before beginning research in the lab of Sam Brown, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and co-director of the Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI) at Georgia Tech. Mehlferber received his baccalaureate degree from the University of Georgia. Mehlferber’s research seeks to understand how community dynamics in the microbiome can impact susceptibility to pathogen invasion.

“I was aware of CMDI through talking to Sam before deciding to apply for the fellowship in his lab, and it was definitely one of the factors that influenced my decision to join the program,” Mehlferber says. “I liked the idea of having a cross-disciplinary group of like-minded researchers to work and collaborate with — and a program that encourages that kind of work. I think a lot of my best research has taken place through these sorts of collaborations so I’m very excited to continue that with the folks across CMDI.”

Host-microbe symbiosis

Kayla Stoy is set to receive her Ph.D. this summer at Emory University before joining Mehlferber in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech this fall. Stoy will complete her NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship with research in the lab of William Ratcliff, associate professor and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences program at Tech. Ratcliff’s lab focuses on experimental evolution of multicellular complexity. While at Emory, Stoy researched population biology, ecology, and evolution with a focus on mutualism. 

For the full article, please click here. Below are a few excerpts from the article.

Legacy of Robin Thomas

by Chun-Hung Liu
Communicated by Notices Associate Editor Emilie Purvine

Robin Thomas, a renowned mathematician, passed away on March 26, 2020, following a long struggle against Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He was born in Czechoslovakia in 1962 and earned his doctoral degree in 1985 from Charles University. Following the invitation of Neil Robertson and Paul Seymour, Robin arrived in the United States in 1988 and had positions at Ohio State University and Bellcore. He joined Georgia Tech in 1989 as a faculty member and was appointed a Regent’s Professor in 2010. In 2016, he received the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award, the highest honor for a professor at Georgia Tech.

Robin’s research was in combinatorics, especially in structural graph theory, with applications to different branches of mathematics and computer science. He was awarded the Fulkerson Prize twice: in 1994 for the proof of the 5-color case of Hadwiger’s conjecture and in 2009 for the proof of the Strong Perfect Graph Theorem. In 2011, he was awarded the Karel Janeček Foundation Neuron Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Mathematics. He became an inaugural fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2012 and a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2018.

In addition to his prominent achievements in research, Robin’s remarkable leadership had a profound influence in education. Robin served as the director of the Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization (ACO) program at Georgia Tech from 2006 to 2019. The ACO program at Georgia Tech, founded around 1991, is an elite interdisciplinary doctoral program that combines three rapidly growing research areas in computer science, mathematics, and industrial engineering. Robin was involved in the founding of the ACO program and was the second director of the program. His long-term service preserved and enhanced the prestigious reputation of the program.

Sadly, in 2008, Robin was diagnosed with ALS which gradually decreased his muscle strength, resulting in difficulty moving, speaking, and breathing. But he never gave up working. He delivered a very encouraging commencement address at Georgia Tech in 2016. He kept doing research, teaching, advising students, and leading the ACO program until a few months prior to his tragic passing in 2020. Indeed, he accomplished this all with truly remarkable diligence and passion.

Graph Coloring

Arguably one of the most famous problems in graph theory is the Four Color Problem, which asks whether every planar graph is 4-colorable (i.e., the vertices can be colored with 4 colors so that any two adjacent vertices receive different colors), raised by Guthrie in 1852. Even though this question looks elementary, it is equivalent to numerous statements in different branches of mathematics and is surprisingly difficult to prove. Robin made significant contributions on graph coloring, mainly related to the Four Color Problem and its variants.

A proof of the Four Color Problem was published by Appel and Haken in the 1970s. Even though this proof represents a major breakthrough, it was not fully accepted for two reasons: one is that part of the proof uses a computer and cannot be checked by hand, and the other is that the part of the proof that is supposed to be checked by hand is extremely complicated and tedious. Robertson, Sanders, Seymour, and Robin tried to read this proof, but very soon gave up. They decided to make their own proof, and they did it in the 1990s. Though their proof still relies on a computer, it is significantly simpler and has been independently verified (including the computer part) by different groups of people. Due to this work, now it is safe to call it the Four Color Theorem.

Leadership and Mentorship

Besides Robin’s remarkable mentorship witnessed by prolific work joint with his students and postdocs mentioned in previous sections, we briefly remark on Robin’s long-term leadership for the ACO program.

The Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization (ACO) program at Georgia Tech is the oldest interdisciplinary PhD program at Georgia Tech founded around 1991. It is one of only two programs of their named genre in the United States. (The other ACO program is at Carnegie Mellon University created one or two years earlier than the one at Georgia Tech.) The ACO program highlights three rapidly growing areas of research: analysis of algorithms, combinatorics, and discrete and combinatorial optimization. As we have seen in previous sections, Robin’s work spans all three areas and shows that the boundary line between those areas is vague. Many faculties in different departments of Georgia Tech had worked on related areas since the 1970s, motivating the creation of the ACO program with a unique curriculum design that spans three academic units in Georgia Tech.

In 1993, Robin’s student, Daniel Sanders, became the first graduate of the ACO program. Robin was the second director of the ACO program, serving from 2006 to 2019. When Robin took over the position from the first director, Richard Duke, the ACO program was already well-established in the sense that the concerns about its viability and appeal to applicants with the highest quality had essentially resolved. Robin not only maintained the prestige of the ACO program but also elevated it. By 2011, the ACO program was considered an elite academic program by any of the usual metrics. Today, 30 years after its establishment, the ACO program remains strong and thriving. Robin’s long-term service and extraordinary contributions from other affiliated faculties definitely played important roles. ACO alumni gathered at Georgia Tech in 2017 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ACO program and gave public talks. Many of them recalled their days at Georgia Tech and the graph theory course taught by Robin. Indeed, Robin was part of the daily life of an ACO person. 

We close this article by including contributions from some of Robin’s former students and postdocs that highlight his excellent mentoring.

Luke Postle

As his PhD student, Robin taught me how to think about research. An excellent researcher, Robin had a wonderful taste in problems. While we both shared a love of graph coloring, particularly the Four Color Theorem and all its extensions and generalizations, Robin was always open to a new problem if it was natural and well-motivated. Robin taught me to never shy away from the hard problems of mathematics but instead to embrace them, to believe that problems worth working on are their own reward.

Robin also taught me the importance of communicating mathematical ideas. Through Robin’s guidance during our many collaborations, I learned how to write mathematics professionally, to understand that technical writing was not about persuasion but precision. I learned that a colleague reading my paper had to be able to reconstruct exactly what I was doing without having me there to walk them through it. For presentations, Robin instilled in me that each slide should carry its own weight. Since I graduated in 2012, I have taken to heart all the lessons I learned from Robin. Robin shaped how I think about mathematics and how I approach research, writing, and presentations. To this day, I still find myself asking what would Robin say?

Robin was the best mentor I ever had. I can honestly say I would not be where I am today as a tenured professor if it were not for Robin; indeed, I wonder sometimes if I would even be in math. Robin literally changed my life but he also changed me. He taught me many things but most of all he taught me by example with his constant courage, perseverance, and enthusiasm in the face of adversity. 

Luke Postle is an associate professor at University of Waterloo. His email address is lpostle@uwaterloo.ca.

Dan Král’

I first met Robin in 1999, during the symposium on Graph Drawing in Prague where he gave an invited plenary talk on graph planarity and related topics. I still remember his talk today, which was given with crystal clarity whilst covering so many deep results from the theory of graph minors, a rapidly emerging area at that time. In 2001, Robin gave an invited talk at the first workshop of the GROW series and during this workshop, I became engrossed in a detailed discussion with Robin concerning the extension of Erdős-Posa type results on planar graphs (that I had obtained earlier) to surfaces of higher genus. It was extremely impressive how broad and deep Robin’s knowledge was, not only of graph theory, but across the entire field of mathematics. This made me realize the importance of seeing mathematics in its unity and led me to devote a significant amount of time while working on my PhD to learning topics from other areas of mathematics and computer science, even if I did not intend to do any research in those areas. In 2005, I was honored to become Robin’s postdoc and the year that I spent at Georgia Tech really changed the direction of my research career. Of course, I learnt a lot from graph theory while working with Robin but it was his open-minded approach to mathematics, graph theory in particular, and the routine involvement of computers in his work which have served as a huge source of inspiration during my academic career. However, Robin was not only an outstanding researcher but also an excellent teacher as I witnessed during my postdoc stay and frequent subsequent visits to Georgia Tech. He paid extreme attention to the delivery of material in his classes and I am sure he would not mind me sharing a brief story related to this. Once whilst having lunch with Robin, a student that Robin had taught a couple of years earlier came to thank him for conducting the class in such a way that he could build so much upon it in his forthcoming years at Georgia Tech. Certainly in my view, this is one of the greatest accolades a teacher can receive! Robin was, and still is, a source of inspiration for my academic work and, until his untimely passing, I continued to consult him for scientific advice on various matters. I stay very much indebted to Robin for the amount I learnt from him, his overall support and a great deal of inspiration, all of which are impossible to comprehend in words.

Dan Král’ is a Donald Ervin Knuth Professor at Masaryk University and a honorary professor at University of Warwick. His email address is dkral@fi.muni.cz.

Acknowledgment

The author thanks Sigrun Andradottir, Luke Postle, and Petr Hliněný for some suggestions when preparing this article.

Five SoM faculty will receive promotions, with successful promotions at all levels. 

Michael Damron, Promoted to Full Professor

Dr. Michael Damron came to Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in 2015 and became an Associate Professor in 2017. Prof. Damron's research is in probability theory, with interests in percolation and particle systems and with research supported by an NSF grant and an NSF CAREER award. Some examples of the random growth models studied by Prof. Damron include bacterial or tumor spread, and fluid flow through porous media. 

Prof. Damron is a Kavli fellow (National Academy of Sciences) since 2019, and the organizer of several conferences including Mathematics Research Communities (2019) and Recent Trends in Continuous and Discrete Probability (2018). Prof. Damron is also a mentor to many past and current postdocs and graduate students including two current Ph.D. students and one postdoc.

 

Josephine Yu, Promoted to Full Professor 

Dr. Josephine Yu first joined SoM in 2010 as an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow and became an Assistant Professor the following year. Prof. Yu's research lies in the area of Tropical Algebraic Geometry and its applications to combinatorics, matroid theory, and analytic and computational geometry, and since arriving at Tech her work has been continually supported by the NSF. Prof. Yu has organized many conferences since 2011 including the Meeting on Applied Algebraic Geometry in 2019, and the Computational Tropical Geometry Minisymposium at the SIAM Algebraic Geometry meeting in 2017. Prof. Yu was also the Program co-chair of SIAM AG21 and has served on the Advisory Board of MEGA (Effective Methods in Algebraic Geometry) since 2019.

Prof. Yu is also currently an Editor for two journals, Combinatorial Theory and Algebraic Statistics (AStat), is the Associate Editor for the Journal of Software for Algebra and Geometry (JSAG), and was the Editor in Chief for the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A (JCTA) from 2018 until 2020.

In addition to her impressive research and organizational work, Prof. Yu has mentored three graduate students and two masters students including award winning graduate students Cvetelina Hill and Marcel Celaya. 

 

Mayya Zhilova, Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Dr. Mayya Zhilova began work at the School of Mathematics at Georgia Tech in 2016, and is an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Machine Learning at Georgia Tech and the Transdisciplinary Research Institute for Advancing Data Science (TRIAD). Prof. Zhilova's research interests lie in the areas of mathematical statistics, statistical learning theory, and uncertainty quantification, particularly in statistical inference for complex high-dimensional data, performance of resampling procedures for various classes of problems, functional estimation, and inference for misspecified models. Prof. Zhilova was awarded an NSF CAREER award in 2021 with a project which seeks to address challenging open questions in high-dimensional and nonparametric statistics motivated by practical applications in finance, engineering, and life sciences. 

 

Sal Barone, Promoted to Senior Academic Professional

Dr. Sal Barone first arrived at Georgia Tech in 2013 as a Hale Postdoctoral Fellow doing research in Real Algebraic Geometry, and became the school's first Director of Communications (DoCSoM) as an Academic Professional in 2017. With a clear passion for teaching, Dr. Barone has contributed to the service mission of SoM by coordinating Math 1554 Linear Algebra since Spring 2020, and has been the course coordinator for Math 1552 Calculus II as well as the lead instructor for nearly all the first year courses offered in SoM.

As part of his role as DoCSoM, Dr. Barone designs and publishes the yearly ProofReader magazine which features the goings-on of the renowned faculty and phenomenal students here in SoM. Dr. Barone also manages the SoM website and intranet content, and is the chair of the CDO committee which helps to organize the periodic Stelson Lecture Series.  

 

Neha Gupta, Promoted to Senior Academic Professional

Dr. Neha Gupta came to SoM in 2018 as Director of Scheduling and an Academic Professional. Dr. Gupta has taught several service level courses such as Math 1712 Survey of Calculus and GT1000, and has been the course coordinator for Math 1551 since Fall 2018. 

Dr. Gupta has received several teaching awards including the CoS Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Honor Roll in 2022 and the CIOS Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Class of 1934 Award in 2020. Dr. Gupta also serves as an academic advisor for math majors, and so interacts with some of the most diverse groups of students on campus. Dr. Gupta was also the first Academic Professional to fill the recently appointed AP position on the Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) for the School of Mathematics.

This school year, dozens of College of Sciences undergraduate students have been recognized across Georgia Tech and beyond for significant academic achievements and excellence, including several honored during Tech’s Student Honors Celebration, held on April 21 at the Academy of Medicine.

College of Sciences graduate students and researchers have also been recognized with Georgia Tech Teaching Assistant Awards and special certificates during the Institute’s Teaching Assistant (TA) and Future Faculty Award ceremonies, held on April 20 at the Bill Moore Student Success Center.

Please join us in congratulating these special recipients across our community:

 

Love Family Foundation Award

Yashvardhan Tomar, a double major in the School of Physics and the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, is the recipient of one of the highest academic honors given to a Georgia Tech graduating senior, the Love Family Foundation Award. 

The accolade is made possible by a generous grant from the Gay and Erskine Love Foundation, and recognizes the undergraduate student with the most outstanding scholastic record of all members of the class. 

Each of Georgia Tech’s six colleges nominates its top graduating student, and the winner is ultimately selected by the academic associate deans in coordination with the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE). 

“I find myself at a loss for words to truly convey how grateful I feel to the institute for selecting me for this really high honor,” Tomar says.

“I still remember my first day as a freshman at Tech—a young boy beyond-eager to learn so many new things and get involved in so much exciting research—an excitement that has stayed with me since," he shares.

"The news of this award comes as a strong boost of encouragement and appreciation to propel with me strengthened promise towards the fulfillment of my aspirations. I express my most heartfelt thanks to everyone who invested their belief in my candidature for this highly prestigious award.”

 

Roger M. Wartell and Stephen E. Brossette Award for Multidisciplinary Studies in Biology, Physics, and Mathematics

This award is presented to an undergraduate student with demonstrated accomplishments at the interface of biology with either physics or mathematics. The award was established by a generous donation from alumnus Stephen E. Brossette in recognition of the many contributions of Roger M. Wartell to the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The 2022 winner, Lila Nassar, is a physics major with a concentration in the physics of living systems. Nassar has a broad set of research experiences with faculty Martin Mourigal and Jennifer Curtis in the School of Physics. Nassar has also served as the secretary and president of the Georgia Tech Society of Women in Physics.

“Lila has broad interests and lots of ambition,” says Curtis. “She brings both an intensity that is useful for driving forward progress and dealing with setbacks. She brings that same fire and energy to her role as president of the Society of Women in Physics.”

In summer 2021, Nassar also participated in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Vanderbilt University.

 

A. Joyce Nickelson and John C. Sutherland Undergraduate Research Award 

This award was created by the endowment gift of Joyce E. Nickelson and John C. Sutherland to honor Joyce’s late mother, alumna A. Joyce Nickelson, and Sutherland. The scholarship, which recognizes excellence at the interface of mathematics and physics, is awarded to an undergraduate student who has jointly studied mathematics and physics, and who has engaged in scientific research.

Nickelson-Sutherland award winner Sarah Eisenstadt is completing majors in physics and mathematics, and also studies applied languages and intercultural studies.

Eisenstadt has completed research with Michael Loss in the School of Mathematics on mathematical physics and the development of an energy functional to describe superconductivity, and with Stephanie Boulard on the artist Marc Chagall. She has also served as a teaching assistant for linear algebra and multivariable calculus. 

 

Cynthia L. Bossart and James Efron Scholarship 

This honor was created by alumna Cindy Bossart to recognize high academic achievement by a student in the College of Sciences who is a non-Georgia resident. 

The 2022-3 recipient of this award, Sena Ghobadi, is a resident of Florida who graduated from American Heritage School in Broward County. Ghobadi has made a strong start as a first-year as a physics major at Georgia Tech: she has already begun work as a teaching assistant for Physics 2211. 

 

Metha Phingbodhipakkiya Memorial Scholarship 

This honor was established by Maranee Phingbodhipakkiya to honor her father, his love for physics, and the sacrifices he made to assure that she would have the finest education. This award is made to a junior or senior in the College of Sciences based on academic merit.

The recipient of this award, Nabojeet Das, is a graduate of Tucker High School and is a candidate for the Bachelor of Science in Biology with the Research Option designation and Biologically Inspired Design certificate.

Das has served as a teaching assistant for the introductory Organismal Biology course, and as a resident assistant for Georgia Tech Housing. His research with Aniruddh Sarkar, an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, focuses on the creation of small and portable biosensors for Covid-19 and other diseases.

He has presented his research at a meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society. Das is a member of DramaTech, the Minority Association of Premed Students, and Buzz Mobile Health. 

 

Virginia C. and Herschel V. Clanton Jr. Scholarship 

This scholarship was established by alumnus Herschel V. Clanton Jr. to honor his wife, Virginia. The scholarship is awarded annually to a student in the College of Sciences who has demonstrated outstanding academic achievement.

The 2022 recipient of the Clanton Scholarship, Griffin Wagner, is a graduate of Vero Beach High School in Florida and is currently a biology major.

Wagner’s research with Jennette Yen in the School of Biological Sciences, with collaborators at the Carter Center, the University of Georgia, Texas A&M, and the African country of Chad, focuses on inhibiting the transmission of African guinea worm disease.

He has completed an internship at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, and a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at Georgia Tech. Wagner presented his research at the 2022 Ocean Sciences meeting. 

 

Robert A. Pierotti Memorial Scholarship

The College of Sciences presents this scholarship in honor of Robert “Bob” Pierotti, past dean of the College and founder of the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC). The award is made to top graduating seniors in the College who have excelled both academically and in research.

The two recipients of the 2022 Pierotti Award are Holly McCann and Soham Kulkarni.

McCann is a biology major who is completing the Biomolecular Technology certificate. She is a researcher with Loren Williams in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, working on the prediction and visualization of the structure of RNA. McCann’s work led to the publication of a paper in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. She has also participated in the BeeSnap Vertically Integrated Project with Jennifer Leavey. McCann has also completed internships with Syngenta and Fidelity Investments.

“Holly is remarkable,” says Williams. “She is highly intelligent, creative, motivated, functional and productive. She is destined to be an extremely successful scientist.”

Kulkarni, a graduate of Chattahoochee High School, is a biochemistry major who will also complete the Health and Medical Sciences and Computational Data Analysis minors.

He has conducted research with Cassie S. Mitchell in the Chronic Myeloid Leukemia laboratory. He is a coauthor of a paper in the journal Pharmaceutics and has presented his research at the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) conference. He also serves as an Undergraduate Research Ambassador.

 

Larry O’Hara Graduate Scholarship

This honor is provided by an endowment bequeathed by alumnus Larry O’Hara. It is presented to outstanding graduate students in the College of Sciences. 

All of the 2022 winners have established a strong record of research with multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals, as well as multiple conference presentations:

Yoo is currently studying graph theory with Xingxing Xu and holds a prestigious NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship to support her doctoral studies.

Márquez-Zacarias’ doctoral research with William Ratcliff focuses on developing theories to understand how multicellular organisms became more complex, and how microbial populations are structured in space.

Tsukahara, who is studying cognition and brain science with Randall Engle, focuses on investigating the nature of attention control with the use of pupillometry and mind-wandering reports. 

 

Herbert P. Haley Fellowship

This graduate fellowship recognizes significant accomplishments and outstanding academic achievements for students at Georgia Tech.

The 2022 winners are:

 

Teaching Assistant Awards

The College of Science had four winners among the 2022 Georgia Tech Teaching Assistant Awardees, with three hailing from the School of Mathematics. The awards are presented annually by the Center for Teaching and Learning to celebrate the contributions to teaching excellence at Georgia Tech made by graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants:

  • Undergraduate Teaching Assistant of the Year:
    Bryan Clark, Mathematics 

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year:
    Tao Yu, Mathematics

  • Graduate Student Instructor of the Year:
    Elizabeth (Liz) Jones, Chemistry and Biochemistry

  • Online Head Teaching Assistant of the Year:
    Jaewoo Jung, Mathematics

 

Tech to Teaching Certificates

Tech to Teaching Certificates are designed to prepare Georgia Tech graduate and postdoctoral associates for college teaching positions.

Through this certificate program, participants will develop a thorough understanding of the scholarship of teaching and learning, and will demonstrate their ability to apply these skills in the classroom.

The following College of Sciences students were awarded Tech to Teaching Certificates:

 

Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) Certificates

As a member institution in the CIRTL national network, Georgia Tech joins with 37 other universities on a mission to improve undergraduate education through the preparation of future faculty.

Participants in these certificate programs learn about how students learn, how differences among students affect their learning, evidence-based teaching and assessment practices, and teaching with technology.

Participants who complete these foundation-level learning outcomes through a combination of coursework, workshops, or online learning, receive the CIRTL Associate certificate.   

The following College of Sciences students were awarded CIRTL Certificates:

 

Georgia Tech has received two Department of Defense (DoD) 2022 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) awards totaling almost $14 million. The highly competitive government program supports interdisciplinary teams of investigators developing innovative solutions in DoD interest areas. This year, the DoD awarded $195 million to 28 research teams across the country.

Georgia Tech’s MURIs are both primarily within the School of Physics. First, Simon Sponberg, a Dunn Family Associate Professor of Physics and Biological Sciences, leads a team discovering how animals strategically use sensing and cognition to make decisions in complex environments. The project, Fast, Lexicographic Agile Perception Integrates Decision and Control in a Spike-Resolved, Sensorimotor Program (FLAP), specifically addresses the  core DoD topic area of understanding neural systems integration for competent autonomy in decision and control.

“We have all these great, sophisticated algorithms for processing big data, but an animal doesn't have time to process a million samples of its environment and then figure out what’s a predator,” said Sponberg.

Studying moths for their agile, sophisticated flying and complex sensing abilities, the team will record electrical activity in the brain to determine how the moths make decisions and use natural language processing techniques to see how a moth derives meaning from sensory cues and movements. The goal is to develop an information processing framework that enables quick, flexible decision-making that could facilitate the next generation of autonomous bio-inspired systems and better integrate living systems with engineered technologies

The interdisciplinary nature of the team makes complex research possible. Half the team is made of experimentalists: Sponberg specializes in sensors connected to motor systems with precisely timed signals; Jeff Riffell, a professor at the University of Washington, studies how the nervous system processes sensory signals to control behavior; and as a vision neuroscientist at Florida International University, Jamie Theobald, determines how animals parse complex environments. The other half of the team will build the framework: Duke Professor Vahid Tarokh models complex datasets, Georgia Tech School of Mathematics Assistant Professor Hannah Choi focuses on neural networks, and Cornell Professor Silvia Ferrari ties it all together as a control theorist embedding control in neural structures.

“MURIs were originally training grants for the DoD to develop the next generation of scientists who would make progress,” said Sponberg. “This funding will allow us to have postdocs and graduate students across all six labs and disciplines working together tightly and creating a community.”

For the second MURI, Programming Multistable Origami and Kirigami Structures via Topological Design, Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Zeb Rocklin is part of a team exploring a new class of origami- and kirigami-inspired flexible, lightweight structures capable of transitioning between many stable shapes to perform different tasks or adapt to changing environmental conditions. These structures could be used in a range of applications, from multifunctional robots and collapsible antennae to rapidly assembled bridges and temporary structures, and force protection elements like origami-inspired bulletproof shields.

The team combines experts in mathematics, physics, material science, mechanics, robotics, numerical modeling, and computation, including Harvard University Professors Katie Betoldi, Jennifer Lewis, L. Mahadevan, and Robert Wood, as well as University of Pennsylvania Associate Professor Eleni Katifori

The researchers will develop mathematical models to characterize and design the complex mechanical behavior of multi-stable origami and kirigami structures; new scale-spanning manufacturing processes that efficiently integrate actuation and sensing; and experimental test beds to serve as a platform for evaluation and optimization of design concepts.

"This project benefits from Georgia Tech's ability to develop tight, powerful connections between engineering advanced technologies and developing universal, mathematically rigorous physical theories,” Rocklin said. “We'll be starting from concepts that anyone can get a sense of by looking at or feeling a piece of origami and using robotics and multifunctional 3D printing to create complex, flexible and robust dynamical structures that can do things nobody has ever seen before."

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