In the News

Susan Lozier, Dean of the College of Sciences, Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair, and a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, will appear on a panel examining climate change and the Earth's oceans at the 2023 South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference in Austin, Texas, March 10. Lozier, who also serves as president of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), will join leading ocean experts to discuss the ocean’s role in climate, the potential for ocean-based carbon dioxide removal, and a code of conduct for CO2 removal that could maximize collective societal and environmental benefit for our ocean planet. 

Comet Lulin, a rare green comet discovered in 2007, is set to make its closest approach to the Earth around Feb. 24. The comet's green color comes from the gases that make up its atmosphere. Its closest approach to Earth will be 38 million miles. James Sowell, principal academic professional in the School of Physics and director of the Georgia Tech Observatory, joins Atlanta News First to talk about the best times to view the comet, where it may have originated, and how rare green comets are in the universe.  

Georgia Tech has announced its commitment to addressing climate change by launching a Climate Action Plan. Its development began in 2022 and the plan will be put into place this year.  According to a press release from the Institute, the plan “will include developing a greenhouse gas inventory, modeling potential mitigation strategies and engaging with faculty, students and staff from across campus.” Some of those students, including Rachel Chin, a fifth-year student in the School of Biological Sciences, are anxious to know more about carbon neutrality goals and other aspects of the plan.

Elisabetta Matsumoto, an associate professor in the School of Physics, will present “Knotty Knits: A Chat about Math and Crafts” beginning at 3 p.m. March 3, at Southern Illinois University's Guyon Auditorium. Matsumoto, whose research interests include soft condensed matter physics and the geometry of materials, uses knitting to illustrate the math and mechanics within the craft, and how studying the physics of knitting could lead to applications such as wearable electronics. 

Two College of Sciences alumni are included in Atlanta Magazine's 2023 list of the Atlanta 500, highlighting the city's leaders in a variety of fields. Georgia Tech President Angel Cabrera, MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95, is the Institute's 12th president. During his first year as president, he steered the institution through the Covid-19 pandemic and produced a new strategic plan focused on impact, access, and inclusive innovation. Also, Valerie Montgomery Rice, BS CHEM 83, is the President and Dean of Morehouse School of Medicine, and was the first woman to serve in that role. Montgomery Rice was founding director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, one of the nation’s first research centers devoted to studying diseases that disproportionately affect women of color.

The White House has announced that former College of Sciences professor Kim Cobb, currently a professor in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Brown University, has been named to the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. Prior to joining Brown in 2022, she served as director of the Global Change Program at Georgia Tech, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and ADVANCE Professor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Cobb is also director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES). 

Beginning Summer 2023, prospective and current Georgia Tech students will have three new Bachelor of Science degrees to choose from in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, including one that involves the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City as an integral partner in providing practical instruction for students in the B.S. Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences (AOS) Degree. The AOS degree program uses the current Meteorology track as its foundation and will include aspects of Atmospheric Sciences, Oceanography and Climate Sciences. The AOS degree is designed to take advantage of Atlanta as a “hotspot” for major meteorological organizations including The Weather Channel, CNN, local stations in a top 10 TV market, and the National Weather Service (NWS) Peachtree City, Georgia office.

The legendary ability of cats to fall back on their paws could one day help humans walk better after a spinal cord injury, according to research done at the Université de Sherbrooke. The knowledge could also help seniors whose sense of balance is more precarious. In collaboration with researchers from Georgia Tech and Drexel, the Sherbrooke researchers wanted to better understand how what science calls a somatosensory return allows a cat to coordinate the movement of its four legs. Boris Prilutsky, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, collaborated on the research.

An unprecedented wave of minor earthquakes focused near Elgin, a small town in Kershaw County in South Carolina, have local residents struggling to describe what they’re experiencing. For a big chunk of 2022, “Did you feel that?” became almost as common a greeting as “How are you?” across the Midlands. The U.S. Geological Survey refers to the Elgin phenomenon as a “swarm.” It began Dec. 27, 2021, with a magnitude 3.3 earthquake. Since then, upward of 80 earthquakes have been recorded. Zhigang Peng, a professor of geophysics in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, says magma or fluid movement can cause quakes, but scientists haven't found evidence of those with the Elgin swarm.

A recent study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health has indicated that regular COVID-19 boosters may be key in reducing infection. The study found that receiving a booster shot once or twice a year significantly reduces the probability of COVID-19 infection. Despite hopes that the initial COVID-19 vaccination series would be effective at preventing long term infection, short-term studies involving SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies have indicated that antibody protection against infection wanes significantly post-vaccination and even post-booster. Researchers involved in the study include Hayley Hassler, a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences (QBioS) at Georgia Tech.