Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

We thank the late Howard Woodham (Georgia Tech alumnus, Engineering ’48) for the establishment of the Herman K. Fulmer Faculty Teaching Fund Endowment for the School of Mathematics (SoM), in memory of Professor Herman Fulmer, his former mathematics professor. Each year this award recognizes one of our faculty who exhibit genuine regard for undergraduate students during the first few years of their Engineering studies at Georgia Tech. 

2020 Fulmer Prize:  Co-awardees:  Michael Lacey and Greg Mayer

The prize recognizes their work over several years to support student success;  in particular, the distance learning students in Math 1554. Not only has the course  content and delivery improved and aligned with our other offerings, but the program has grown and advanced, with a new asynchronous version now being launched. This course has wide impact throughout the Institute, from recruitment to providing students with a head start at Georgia Tech as they join different programs that rely on a solid background in Linear Algebra.

What's it like to work on three bachelor’s degrees at once? For Daniel Gurevich, it's a balance of hard work, gratitude, connecting the dots across distant scientific fields, and setting aside time to connect with fellow students — and chessplayers.

Gurevich, who has already won a raft of academic achievement awards while at Georgia Tech, is one of 26 winners of the 2020 University System of Georgia (USG) Academic Recognition Day Award for his progress in completing bachelor degrees in the Schools of Physics, Mathematics, and Industrial & Systems Engineering. Gurevich is the only Georgia Tech student recognized for the award.

A candidate for May 2020 graduation, Gurevich has already published four papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and aspects of his research have been presented at conferences in Germany, Spain, France, Utah, and Colorado.

As if all that isn’t enough to keep an ambitious student busy, Gurevich is also an International Master in chess. He started pitting pawns and bishops against each other at age 5 and won his first national title at age 6. He’s twice conquered the SuperNationals, an all-star-style tournament of the top U.S. players in grades K-12 that’s held every four years. After he won the Georgia State Championship in 2015, he became an International Master.

A cherished memory for Gurevich? Meeting chess legend Garry Kasparov at age 11. “I had made it to the top board of the elementary school championship and Kasparov was making my ceremonial first move,” he remembers. “It was very inspiring to have the chance to talk to my chess idol so early in my chess career, and I ended up winning both of my games the next day and became the national champion.”

Gurevich, who was nominated by both the College of Sciences and the College of Engineering for the Academic Recognition Day Award, is also a National Merit Scholar and a National AP Scholar. He attended Georgia Tech as a President’s Gold Scholar. During his time at the Institute, he received the Presidential Undergraduate Research Award (PURA), the College of Sciences’ Roger M. Wartell and Stephen E. Brossette Award for Multidisciplinary Studies in Biology, the A. Joyce Nickelson and John C. Sutherland Undergraduate Research Award, the School of Physics’ Letson Undergraduate Research Scholarship, and the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience’s Petit Undergraduate Research Scholarship.

“Getting this award was wonderful and unexpected news," Gurevich says. “It really means a lot to me to have been selected out of so many outstanding students at Georgia Tech, and I am very honored to have the results of my hard work recognized. I'm grateful for all of the support I have received from the Georgia Tech community, particularly my professors and advisors.”

Gurevich has also tried to pass along his love of chess to younger students. He co-founded Chess Advantage, which provides after-school chess instruction and private coaching in the greater Atlanta area. He also wrote the Q&A column in Chess Life Kids, the publication of the United States Chess Federation (US Chess) for age 12 and under, which has more than 10,000 subscribers.

Gurevich, who is set to graduate in May 2020, will pursue a Ph.D. in applied mathematics in the fall. “My goal is to teach and perform research as a professor, looking for new ways to use mathematical tools to advance our understanding of fields like physics and biology. My education at Georgia Tech has given me the opportunity to acquire a very broad skill set that is extremely valuable for an academic career. I have always appreciated how math helps us find connections between seemingly distant scientific areas.”

From the USG website:

Academic Recognition Day began 32 years ago as a celebration of Georgia students’ academic achievement. Each of the system’s institutions selected a student with a 4.0 GPA who also reflects the system’s best qualities. They aim to strive for excellence and have the ability to share knowledge in various areas of expertise.The honorees receive a resolution from the Georgia House of Representatives along with a letter of commendation from USG Chancellor Steve Wrigley.

Georgia Tech undergraduates have a unique opportunity when they start studies on campus: They have a chance to engage in the kind of research that other schools might not offer until they are in graduate studies. In Georgia Tech’s College of Sciences, undergraduates can ask questions, use their skills, and test their knowledge to solve problems and explore issues no one has ever addressed before.

Every year, a select group of undergraduates distinguishes itself with meaningful research, guided by faculty members and other mentors who get to watch the development of some of the country’s best young scientific minds.

Please join us in congratulating this year's undergraduate research award recipients:

Shaun Eisner

A. Joyce Nickelson and John C. Sutherland Undergraduate Research Award
This endowment gift of Jen Nickelson and John Sutherland is presented to a student studying physics and mathematics.

Eisner, a physics major, conducts his research with Professor Flavio Fenton. A research study he co-authored, “Baseline Wandering Removal in Optical Mapping Measurements With PID Control in Phase Space,” was presented via poster session at the 2019 Computing in Cardiology conference in Singapore.

Steven Creech

Georgia Tech College of Sciences Undergraduate Research Award
Creech, a mathematics major, researches under the guidance of Professor Matthew Baker. He studies algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. Creech is also an undergraduate teaching assistant and the president of Club Math.

Amitej Venapally

Georgia Tech College of Sciences Undergraduate Research Award
A double major in biochemistry and computer science, Venapally researches under the guidance of Professor Loren Williams. An undergraduate teaching assistant, his research explores the origin of life, and how peptides stabilize RNA.

Sara Brockmeier

Georgia Tech College of Sciences Undergraduate Research Award
Brockmeier, a psychology major who researches with Professor Philip Ackerman, is conducting research that is helping to determine the reliability of aptitude tests used by the U.S. Navy. She is the social chair of the Psychology Club at Georgia Tech and was a GT 1000 first-year seminar leader for the Science and Math Research and Training (SMART) Living and Learning Community.
 

College of Sciences Undergraduate Research Awards are co-sponsored with the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.

Research opportunities that opened up to Georgia Tech students during their undergraduate years expand significantly when students continue their work as graduate or doctoral students.

Georgia Tech College of Sciences encourages that work with the annual presentation of Larry S. O’Hara Graduate Scholarships, given to outstanding doctoral students who are scheduled to graduate in the calendar year following their nominations.

This year four students were chosen as the winners of the O’Hara Graduate Scholarships. Please join us in congratulating our recipients:
 

Yuchen He

School of Mathematics
Advisor: Sung Ha Kang
Research Area: Lattice Indentification and Separation
 

Suttipong (Jay) Suttapitugsakul

School of Chemistry and BioChemistry
Advisor: Ronghu Wu
Research Area: Analysis of glycoproteins on the cell surface
 

Deborah Ferguson

School of Physics
Advisor: Deirdre Shoemaker
Research Area: Binary coalescences as probes of strong-field gravity
 

Hyeonsoo (Harris) Jeong

School of Biological Sciences
Advisor: Soojin Yi
Research Area: Genomic landscape of methylation islands in hymenopteran insects
 

A Renowned Mathematician 

The recent passing of Regents' Professor Robin Thomas has left a hole in the School of Mathematics, and in our hearts. Robin was known not just for his extaordinary mathematical renown, but also for his kindness and mentorship. The lives he touched are many, and we wished to share the thoughts and prayers of some of them, in tribute to a great man.

Pace Academy Announcement

I am writing to let you know that Pace parent Dr. Robin Thomas passed away on March 26 following a long and courageous battle with ALS. Robin was 57 years old. He leaves behind his beloved wife, Sigrun Andradottir, and three children: Misha Andra-Thomas '17, senior Klara Andra-Thomas and eighth-grader Martin Andra-Thomas. 

Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Robin earned his doctorate from Charles University in 1985. His passion for mathematics led him to the U.S., where Robin joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 1989. He was appointed a Regents' Professor in 2010, an honor given to outstanding tenured full professors. 

Robin twice received the Fulkerson Prize in discrete mathematics; he won the Neuron Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Mathematics; and he was an American Mathematical Society and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics fellow. In 2016, he was named the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor, the highest honor for a Georgia Tech professor.

"Follow your passion, value your education and work hard," Robin told graduates when he delivered Georgia Tech's Fall 2016 Ph.D. and Master's Commencement address, "Don't give up in the face of hardship, and have fun." 

Robin followed his own advice and lived with passion for his family and his profession. He will be missed. Please join me in keeping the Andra-Thomas family in your thoughts and prayers as they mourn this great loss. Remind them that, despite our distance, they are surrounded by a school family that loves and cares for them. 

May Robin rest in God's peace.

Tributes

Noga Alon

Robin and I first met in 1989 in Bellcore, and right from the beginning I admired his mathematical talent and remarkable personality. We have written three joint papers, the first one appeared in 1990. Robin has been an outstanding researcher and a superb speaker and mentor. Amazingly he maintained his activity until recently; I had email communication with him during the last few months. He will be deeply missed by all of us.     

R. Gary Parker

Robin Thomas was a "lifer" in the ACO Program. He was on the original Program Coordinating Committee, and he served as the dissertation advisor of the Program's first graduate, Dan Sanders (1993). When he stepped up and took over the leadership position after Richard Duke retired, he was no caretaker; rather, he shepherded the Program skillfully, preserving---even enhancing, I would submit---its position as one of Tech's elite interdisciplinary doctoral programs. In my mind, Robin Thomas was ACO.

George Nemhauser

Robin was a brilliant mathematician, a great leader of the ACO program and a wonderful colleague and mentor to students. His absence is a great loss.

Chun-Hung Liu

Robin is definitely one of the people who changed my life. I had received his enormous support since I entered Georgia Tech. It continuously benefits me even today. Robin offered me constant encouragement not only verbally but also through his action. I am very grateful that he attended my hooding ceremony even though he had become very difficult for moving. The conversation with Robin was always inspiring, and his suggestions were always comprehensive and considerate. He is a role model not only in academia but also in daily life. It is very amazing that he continuously expressed deep ideas, conducted research and provided professional service even when he was suffering serious illness. It was very shocking to hear the bad news. His persistence made me think that everything was under control and he could maintain the status for much longer. R.I.P.

Prasad Tetali

Robin was a remarkable human being, full of resolve and resilience. He was invaluable and inspiring as a colleague and this loss will be felt for a long time to come. He was greatly influential in shaping the ACO PhD program - upholding its rigor through his research, teaching, mentoring and service -- making it internationally renowned and successful, and we are forever indebted to him for that. 

Matt Baker, on his blog:

My previous post was about the mathematician John Conway, who died recently from COVID-19. This post is a tribute to my Georgia Tech School of Mathematics colleague Robin Thomas, who passed away on March 26th at the age of 57 following a long struggle with ALS. Robin was a good friend, an invaluable member of the Georgia Tech community, and a celebrated mathematician. After some brief personal remarks, I’ll discuss two of Robin’s most famous theorems (both joint with Robertson and Seymour) and describe the interplay between these results and two of the theorems I mentioned in my post about John Conway. Read more.

Lance Fortnow, on his blog:

Graph Theorist and Georgia Tech Math Professor Robin Thomas passed away Thursday after his long battle with ALS. He was one of the giants of the field and a rare double winner of the Fulkerson Prize, for the six-color case of the Hadwiger Conjecture and the proof of the strong perfect graph theorem.

If you start with a graph G and either delete some vertices or merge vertices connected by an edge, you get a minor of G. The Hadwiger conjecture asks whether every graph that is not (k+1)-colorable graph has a clique of size k as a minor. Neil Robertson, Paul Seymour and Thomas proved the k=6 case in 1993 and still the k>6 cases remain open.

A graph G is perfect if for G and all its induced subgraphs, the maximum clique size is equal to its chromatic number. In 2002 Maria Chudnovsky, Robertson, Seymour and Thomas showed that a graph G is not perfect if and only if either G or the complement of G has an induced odd cycle of length greater than 3.

Robin Thomas was already confined to a wheelchair when I arrived at Georgia Tech in 2012. He was incredibly inspiring as he continued to teach and lead the Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization PhD program until quite recently. Our department did the ALS challenge for him. In 2016 he received the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award, the highest honor for a professor at Georgia Tech. He'll be terribly missed.

The Grand Prize Winner of the 2020 AWM Student Essay Contest was announced: 

The winner is Lu Paris, and the essay is about Marissa Loving, our own NSF postdoc. The essay, a beautifully written story about Marissa which contains important messages about mathematics and community, is pasted below. 

A Lonely Road to Loving Math

by Lu Paris (Head-Royce School)

Interviewee: Marissa Kawehi Loving (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Dr. Marissa Kawehi Loving studies the topology of surfaces, and, in her own words, “the properties of naturally associated groups”, but, growing up, she never had to question whether she belonged to the groups around her. Homeschooled with her family and then studying as an undergraduate at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Dr. Loving had always felt like she was welcome among her peers. “Hawaii is often called the minority majority state,” she chuckles, “and so, growing up and in college, I never felt ‘othered’. There were always lots of brown women, always lots of brown people”.

She was quickly recruited and floated off to the PhD program in mathematics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on a bubble of optimism and success, buoyed by having earned a prestigious National Science Foundation fellowship. But as soon as she arrived at the largely white campus, people made it clear she was less than welcome. Her classmates were incredulous and derisive about her presence and grant, claiming her race and gender, not her talent, had gotten her where she was. And it wasn’t just classmates. When she told a trusted professor she wanted to pursue a career in research, he scoffed at her. “He said that he didn’t think I had it in me to write a thesis good enough to do research,” Dr. Loving admits. “I believed him,” she states somberly. In this new realm, faculty and fellow grad students alike questioned her, belittled her, and worst of all, ignored her.

Plagued by feelings of shame and illegitimacy and feeling like she did not belong there, she turned to her department’s chapter of the AWM for support, but discovered that the white women who dominated the club didn’t want to hear about issues exacerbated by racial prejudice. “There was no room to talk about the intersection of my identities,” Dr. Loving states, and she left the club feeling more isolated than ever.

But then, at a conference one day, a voice reached through the isolation that surrounded her. Dr. Piper H, a black, female mathematician, gave a talk about mathematics and racism, and for the first time, Dr. Loving felt heard. “I was just seeing all of these events as indicating how terrible I was, and how bad I was at math,” she confesses. “[The talk] gave the experiences I was having names and made visible to me the underlying structures that were manifesting all these things that I just assumed were isolated incidents happening to me. It just felt like a relief.”

Dr. Loving had realized she was not alone, but she still struggled. She tried to make progress on her thesis, but the critical voice of her professor echoed in her head, and she found herself unable to open up to her thesis advisor and get real work done. The self-doubt and stymied progress were overwhelming, and she left for winter break unsure if she was coming back. She might not have, if it weren’t for what her department’s graduate director sent out on Martin Luther King Day: a speech originally written and delivered by Francis Su, entitled “Mathematics for Human Flourishing”. As soon as she got back to campus,
Dr. Loving burst into her thesis advisor’s office. “I need to read you something,” she said, dizzy with hope and fear. She read him this excerpt from Su’s speech:

“Because we are not mathematical machines. We live, we breathe, we feel, we bleed. If your students are struggling, and you don’t acknowledge it, their education becomes disconnected and irrelevant. Why should anyone care about mathematics if it doesn’t connect deeply to some human desire: to play, seek truth, pursue beauty, fight for justice? You can be that connection.”

With those words, the barrier broke. She told him about all the prejudice she’d faced from other students and about the near-shattering blow to her confidence delivered by her professor’s dismissive comment. He believed her. He refuted the crushing comments, telling her, “No one can tell what kind of mathematician you can be until you become it.”

The prejudice and harm Dr. Loving and other women of color face did not end that day. But a new chapter opened for Dr. Loving. With a newfound feeling of belonging as a mathematician, she completed her thesis and was awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to work at Georgia Tech. Now, she doesn’t just limit group theory to her research. Instead, she works with Justin Lanier on SUBgroups, online support groups that connect first-year math graduate students in order to help them break through the same feelings of inadequacy and isolation Dr. Loving suffered. “Mathematics is based on the connections you have with other people,” Dr. Loving states. “Almost all math today is done collaboratively. I’m a Native Hawaiian woman. I’m the first Native Hawaiian woman to get a PhD in mathematics. A big value of mine, as a Hawaiian, is community, and so I see this very much as a coming together of my values as a person and as a mathematician.”

“The idea of rehumanizing mathematics in every way encompasses what I want to be… and what I want my community to look like.” Dr. Loving’s journey shows one way to do just that: embrace groups, but don’t let anyone define you by them. Wherever you can find connection, you can belong.

We are pleased to announce two recent promotions in the School of Mathematics.

Greg Blekherman, Promoted to Full Professor

Dr. Grigoriy Blekherman works in the interdisciplinary area of applied algebraic geometry and seeks to combine techniques from real and complex algebraic geometry and convex geometry to address fundamental questions in several areas of mathematics, with relevance to engineering, physics and theoretical computer science. 

Prof. Blekherman's research has been recognized by both a Sloan Research Fellowship as well as a NSF CAREER Award.

In addition to superior research, Prof. Blekherman's excellence in teaching has been recognized by the CETL-BP Junior Faculty Teaching award, and  by selection as Provost Teaching and Learning Fellow. Prof. Blekherman sits as an associate editor of SIAM Journal on Applied Algebra and Geometry, and among other prestigious speaker invitations has been an invited lecturer at several international graduate schools.

Before joining Georgia Tech in 2011, Dr. Blekherman held postdoctoral positions at Microsoft Research, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Institute for Pure and Applied Math at UCLA, and UC San Diego. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2005.

Prof. Blekherman's research Interests include Applied Algebraic Geometry, Convex Geometry and Optimization, and Mathematical Biology. (See his web page for more info)

My work focuses on the interplay between convex and algebraic geometry (both real and complex), especially in the area of sums of squares approximations to nonnegative polynomials, and tensor ranks and their generalizations.

Molei Tao, Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Dr.  Molei Tao joined Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in 2014. The main theme of Prof. Tao's research is to analyze, simulate and control systems characterized by multiple scales, geometric structure, and randomness. 

As an applied & computational mathematician who develops theoretical tools to solve practical problems, Dr. Tao has published in leading journals in both math and applied disciplines, as well as high profile conference papers. He has received funding from multiple sources, including an NSF CAREER Award in 2019. Prof. Tao has been actively mentoring Ph.D. students and postdocs, as well as student researchers at other levels. 

Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Dr. Tao was a Courant Instructor at NYU and a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech. He received his Ph.D. in Control & Dynamical Systems with a minor in Physics in 2011 from Caltech. 

Prof. Tao designs algorithms for faster and more accurate computations and develops mathematical tools to answer scientific questions to analyze/design engineering systems. Examples include: (see his web page for more info)

• Extrasolar and Solar planetary dynamics
• Rare events modeling and quantification
• The resonant control of mechanical systems, including the engineering problems of energy transfer and harvest
• The interplay between dynamics and machine learning

My main objective is to analyze, simulate, and control systems characterized by multiple scales, geometric structures (e.g., symplecticity), and randomness.

Enid Steinbart, Promoted to Principal Academic Professional

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.  

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.

Last week, a team from the Bridge Club at Georgia Tech won the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Collegiate Championship in Toronto, Canada.

After making it through a preliminary round of matches on Saturday, July 22, Tech players faced a team from the University of California, Berkeley, in the semifinals, defeating them 65-58. The final match on July 23 was against the University of Chicago, which Georgia Tech won 80-37 to claim the title. The Tech team also won a $12,000 prize in scholarship money to be divided among the team members.

Charles Wang, a member of the championship-winning team who graduated in May with degrees in chemistry and computer science, first learned bridge in high school but only recently began viewing it in competitive terms.

“After we qualified for the collegiate event, I started taking things more seriously,” he said. “While I think I’ve improved a lot, I also realize that I’ve only just begun to grasp the subtleties and complexities of bridge. I still have a long way to go.”

Wang described the Bridge Club as relaxed, where members meet to play and discuss the game. Giorgio Casinovi, senior research engineer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, serves as faculty sponsor and coach and prepares short lessons for the group, along with Patty Tucker, a local bridge expert.

“She often comes by to give us additional lessons that have helped us improve greatly,” Wang said. “She has also helped us practice against very good players, which I enjoyed a lot. They were helpful in improving our play.”

Casinovi has advised the club for several years and has watched interest grow among students. Some join to play competitively, while others enjoy the social aspect of the game. The club encourages both, and welcomes players of any skill level.

“Our more experienced players are glad to teach new members the rules and techniques of the game,” Casinovi said. “Everyone who plays in our weekly meetings has a good time, to the point that some of the games continue well into the late hours of the night. We invite all Tech students who enjoy playing cards to contact us or stop by one of our meetings and try their hand at a game that is intriguing and lots of fun to play.”

The ACBL is recognized as the premier bridge organization in North America and has been hosting the collegiate championship since 1940. For the Tech team, this year’s win was momentous for several reasons.

“We finally beat Berkeley, a team that had been giving us a lot of trouble, in the semifinals of a close game,” Wang said. “It was also good to see the results of our training over the past few months.”

Learn more about the group at its Facebook page and website.

Two Georgia Tech faculty members were recently selected among 126 early career researchers to receive 2020 Sloan Research Fellowships. The fellowships, awarded annually since 1955, honor scholars in the U.S. and Canada whose creativity, leadership, and independent research achievements make them some of the most promising researchers in their disciplines.

“To receive a Sloan Research Fellowship is to be told by your fellow scientists that you stand out among your peers,” Adam F. Falk, president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, said in a press release announcing the winners. “A Sloan Research Fellow is someone whose drive, creativity, and insight makes them a researcher to watch.”

Past Sloan Research Fellows include many towering figures in the history of science, including physicists Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann, and game theorist John Nash. Fifty fellows have received a Nobel Prize in their respective field, 17 have won the Fields Medal in mathematics, 69 have received the National Medal of Science, and 19 have won the John Bates Clark Medal in economics, including every winner since 2007. A database of former Sloan Research Fellows can be found at sloan.org/past-fellows.

Fellows from the 2020 cohort were selected from a diverse range of more than 60 institutions across the U.S. and Canada. The new Sloan Fellows from Georgia Tech are Marta Hatzell and Yao Yao:

Marta Hatzell is an assistant professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Hatzell’s research group focuses on sustainable low energy catalysis and separations, with applications ranging from clean ammonia production to water desalination.

Yao Yao is an assistant professor in the School of Mathematics. She holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California at Los Angeles. Yao’s research focuses on partial differential equations that arise in fluid dynamics and mathematical biology. Her research goals are to study equations from a theoretical aspect in order to prove whether a solution exists and what is its longtime behavior.

Open to scholars in eight scientific and technical fields — chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences, and physics — the Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded in close coordination with the scientific community. Candidates must be nominated by their fellow scientists, and winners are selected by independent panels of senior scholars on the basis of a candidate’s research accomplishments, creativity, and potential to become a leader in his or her field. Nearly 1,000 researchers are nominated each year for 126 fellowship slots. Winners receive a two-year, $75,000 fellowship, which can be spent to advance the fellow’s research.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a not-for-profit, mission-driven grantmaking institution dedicated to improving the welfare of all through the advancement of scientific knowledge. Founded in 1934 by industrialist Alfred P. Sloan Jr., the foundation makes grants each year in three broad areas: direct support of research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and economics; initiatives to increase the quality and diversity of scientific institutions; and efforts to enhance and deepen public engagement with science and scientists.

The 2020 Frontiers Lecture with Moon Duchin, originally scheduled for March 26, 2020, has been postponed. Please visit cos.gatech.edu for further updates.

The Science of Social Media Persuasion
The first stop in the College of Sciences' 2020 Frontiers in Science lecture series tackled two topics in the spotlight this election year: disinformation and social media. “Information Gerrymandering and Undemocratic Decisions” featured Joshua Plotkin, Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences and co-director of the Penn Center for Mathematical Biology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Plotkin told the audience that social media has indeed been a game-changer when it comes to the rapid spread of information. Yet it can also lead to what he calls “information gerrymandering,” where biases and opinion bubbles can make people more prone to making misinformed choices during collective decisions like voting. Plotkin also highlighted the importance of governmental regulation and corporate accountability for social media companies. Read a recap of the lecture, co-sponsored by the School of Biological Sciences, in Georgia Tech's student newspaper, the Technique.

Next Up: Manufacturing Memories
The issue of information and disinformation is also part of the second lecture in the Frontiers in Science spring series, slated for the evening of Thursday, February 27: “The Fiction of Memory” featuring Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and a Fellow of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. Learn more about her research through her 2013 TED Talk on the science and ethics of false memories, and find the complete spring slate of Frontiers in Science lectures below.

Frontiers in Science Lectures are intended to inform, engage, and inspire students, faculty, staff, and the public on developments, breakthroughs, and topics of general interest in the sciences and mathematics in an inspiring and accessible way. All lectures are free to attend, and everyone is welcome to come out and connect around the talks, which are held each spring and fall. Directly after each one-hour lecture, enjoy a free reception with the evening's speaker.
 

Spring Slate: 2020 Frontiers in Science

February 6: “Information Gerrymandering and Undemocratic Decisions”

Joshua Plotkin, Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences and co-director of the Penn Center for Mathematical Biology at the University of Pennsylvania

Held on February 6, 2020, this lecture was co-sponsored by the School of Biological Sciences. Many Americans receive their news and form political opinions through social media. But social media platforms are not shaping up to be the utopian spaces for human connection their founders once hoped. Instead, the Internet has introduced phenomena that can influence national elections and even threaten democracy. This talk will describe recent findings on "information gerrymandering” — how the structure of a social network can profoundly bias collective decisions. Evidence of these effects is found in large-scale human experiments, real-world social-media networks, and networks of legislative actions in the US Congress. These results motivate questions about policy.

February 27: "The Fiction of Memory" 

Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and a Fellow of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

For several decades, Elizabeth Loftus has been manufacturing memories in unsuspecting minds. Sometimes these techniques change details of events that someone actually experienced. Other times, the techniques create entire memories of events that never happened: they create “rich false memories.” Collectively, this work shows people can be led to believe they did things that would have been rather implausible. They can be led to falsely believe they had experiences that would have been emotional or traumatic had they actually happened.

False memories, like true ones, also have consequences for people—affecting their later thoughts, intentions, and behaviors. Can we tell true memories from false ones? In several studies, Loftus created false memories in the minds of people, compared them to true memories, and discovered that once planted, those false memories look very much like true memories: they have similar behavioral characteristics, emotionality, and neural signatures.

Considered as a whole, these findings raise important questions: If false memories can be so readily planted in the mind, do we need to think about “regulating” this mind technology? And what do these pseudomemories say about the nature of memory itself? This lecture is co-sponsored by the School of Psychology.

Thursday, February 27
6:00pm to 7:00pm
Marcus Nanotechnology Building (Rooms 1116-1118)
Learn more and attend
 

The 2020 Frontiers Lecture with Moon Duchin, originally scheduled for March 26, 2020, has been postponed. Please visit cos.gatech.edu for further updates.

March 26: "Graphs, Geometry, and Gerrymandering"

Moon Duchin, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Senior Fellow in the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University

The theory of random walks has found a fruitful application in electoral redistricting, by allowing us to sample from the partitions of a state into districts.  By comparing a plan to neutral alternatives, we can measure the extent of gerrymandering—when one party takes advantage of the authority to draw the lines. At this Frontiers in Science Lecture and 2020 Karlovitz Lecture, Moon Duchin will discuss some surprisingly simple questions about graphs and geometry that can help us make advances in policy and civil rights. This lecture is co-sponsored by the School of Mathematics.

Thursday, March 26
6:30pm to 7:30pm
Kendeda Building (Auditorium)
Learn more and attend

April 20: "Exploring The Origin of Multicellular Life by Evolving it, From Scratch, in a Test Tube"

William Croft Ratcliff, Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology

The evolution of multicellularity is one of the most significant innovations in the history of life, but it happened so long ago that early steps in this process remain poorly understood. We've taken an unorthodox approach to this problem: rather than study ancient multicellular life, we are evolving it from scratch, leveraging the combined strengths of synthetic biology and directed evolution. In this talk, I will describe our work examining how single cells evolve into simple clumps of cells, and how, over thousands of generations, these early multicellular organisms solve fundamental physical and developmental challenges in surprising and ingenious ways. Our work has helped change the way our field views evolutionary constraints on major transitions like multicellularity, lending direct experimental support to the Jurassic Park school of thought: "Life, uh, finds a way".

Monday, April 20
6:30pm to 7:30pm
Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons (Room 152)
Learn more and attend

Rescheduled for Fall 2020 Frontiers: "Time, Einstein, and the Coolest Stuff in the Universe"

The College of Sciences regrets to announce that William Daniel Phillips is unable to present this Frontiers in Science lecture originally scheduled for March 10. We look forward to welcoming Phillips to Georgia Tech for a rescheduled lecture this fall!

William Daniels Phillips, National Institute of Standards and Technology and a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics

At the beginning of the 20th century, Einstein changed how we think about time. Now, early in the 21st century, the measurement of time is being revolutionized by the ability to cool a gas of atoms to temperatures millions of times lower than any naturally occurring temperature in the universe.   

Atomic clocks, the best timekeepers ever made, are one of the scientific and technological wonders of modern life.  Such super-accurate clocks are essential to industry, commerce, and science; they are the heart of the global positioning system (GPS), which guides cars, airplanes, and hikers to their destinations. 

Today, the best primary atomic clocks use ultracold atoms, achieve accuracies of about one second in 300 million years, and are getting better all the time. At the same time, a new generation of atomic clocks is leading us to re-define what we mean by time.  

Super-cold atoms, with temperatures that can be below a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, use and allow tests of some of Einstein's strangest predictions. 

This public lecture will be a lively, multimedia presentation, including exciting experimental demonstrations and down-to-earth explanations about some of today's hottest (and coolest) science. This lecture is co-sponsored by the School of Physics.