In the News

The Faces of Resiliency video series highlights how communities are increasing their resilience to sea level rise, storm surge and flooding. The series, developed by Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant at the University of Georgia, features interviews with coastal residents and researchers who share stories of adapting to coastal hazards through community engagement and collaboration with scientists, nonprofits, or government agencies. The video "Conserving Georgia's Salt Water Marshes" features Joel Kostka, professor and associate chair of Research in the School of Biological Sciences, highlighting his studies on helping salt water marshes stabilize shorelines while providing space for marshes to migrate in the future.

One name was heard repeatedly during Georgia Tech’s commencement ceremony Saturday. It’s Kashlan — as in Adam, Rommi and Zane Kashlan. The fraternal triplets, who will turn 19 later in May, graduated from the College of Sciences. Three years ago, they shared valedictorian honors from West Forsyth High School. Now, they’re graduating from college a year early, each with a B.S. in Neuroscience. “They’ve earned every bit of it,” their father, Dean Kashlan, said of their success. He graduated from Georgia Tech in 1985. (This story was also covered on 11Alive News.)

RNA has long been thought to be a key molecule in the primordial soup that was Earth a few billion years ago, because it can not only store genetic information but also act as an enzyme — two key functions needed for the development of life. But whether RNA-based life really existed, what it looked like, and how it evolved into the DNA-, RNA-, and protein-based organisms of today have remained open questions. Now, a study published in Nature points to the possibility that RNAs may have played a role in building early proteins by simply linking amino acids together. Loren Williams, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, did not participate in the study but says if the origins of RNA "and the origins of protein are linked, and their emergence is not independent, then the math shifts radically in favor of an RNA–protein world and away from an RNA world.”

Hidden deep below the ice sheet that covers Antarctica, scientists have discovered a massive amount of water. The groundwater system, found in deep sediments in West Antarctica likely to be the consistency of a wet sponge, reveals an unexplored part of the region and may have implications for how the frozen continent reacts to the climate crisis, according to new research. "This finding highlights groundwater hydrology as a potentially critical piece in understanding the effect of water flow on Antarctic ice sheet dynamics," Winnie Chu, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, wrote in a commentary on the research that was published in Science. Chu, who conducts her own research on how climate change impacts Greenland glaciers, was not involved in the Antarctica study.

Svetlana Jitomirskaya, a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine who in Fall 2022 will be the inaugural Hubbard Chair Professor in the School of Mathematics, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s most respected scientific organizations. Jitomirskaya joins Mark Hay, Regents Professor and Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology in the School of Biological Sciences, as a Georgia Tech researcher elected to the NAS during the current cohort. Jitomirskaya is the recipient of the 2020 Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics and the 2005 Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize from the American Mathematical Society. After her retirement from a 28-year career at Kennesaw State University, Elaine M. Hubbard, Ph.D. MATH 1972, established the Elaine M. Hubbard Endowed Chair in the School of Mathematics, the School’s first endowed faculty chair. This fund serves to support robust, leading-edge mathematics education and research at Georgia Tech.

Georgia Tech President Angel Cabrera (MS Psy 93, PhD Psy 95), and alumna Valerie Montgomery Rice (Chem 83), Morehouse School of Medicine president and CEO, are named to Georgia Trend Magazine's 2022 “Top 100 Most Influential Georgians” list. From Georgia Trend: "Last year, Cabrera and Georgia Tech celebrated historic growth on many levels, including recruitment of its most diverse class, graduation of the largest class ever, record-breaking endowment totals and a University of Georgia study that concluded Georgia Tech is the largest contributor to the state economy among all public universities."

College of Sciences alumnus Manav Sevak (Biochemistry 17), one of three co-founders of the artificial intelligence startup company Memora Health, is profiled in the 2022 edition of Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 List. Memora Health has developed a patient engagement and workflow tool for healthcare providers. 

From Georgia Tech researchers to departments within Chatham County, the city of Savannah, and even a local high school — all of these groups are working to develop the SMART Sea Level Sensors Program to deal with the effects of flooding in the low-lying Savannah area. About 50 sensors have already been deployed through the program. Kim Cobb, Georgia Power Chair, ADVANCE Professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and director of Georgia Tech's Global Change Program is a co-leader of the Sea Level Sensors project. 

Just before the Hong Kong–sized Conger ice shelf in East Antarctica fell apart abruptly in late March, a storm called an atmospheric river swept over the continent. Although it's too early to tell exactly what happened with the Conger shelf, a new study shows 13 of 21 ice shelf calving events in Antarctica between August and March during the years 2000 through 2020 happened within five days after an atmospheric river, which can hold vast amounts of moisture and heat, and deliver extreme rain, snow, winds, and unusually warm temperatures. The possible environmental consequences? "When ice shelves collapse, the glaciers which feed into them speed up and contribute more to sea level rise,” says Alexander Robel, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences who was not involved in the study.

Climate change, which has long been framed as a "future" problem, is really a "here and now" problem, says Kim Cobb, Georgia Power Chair and ADVANCE Professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Cobb is also on the leadership team of the Georgia Climate Project. For Earth Day 2022, Cobb listed how Georgia's economy is impacted by climate change, and what individuals and families can do to ease their carbon footprint and help the environment. "The science tells us that every little bit of warming that we can reduce in this decade or next decade is going to reap dividends in future generations and also protect our economy and keep us safe today and going forward," Cobb says. "So it's not too late."