Experts in the News

In an advisory meeting in late January, the FDA signaled its intention to start doling out COVID vaccines just like flu shots: once a year in autumn, for just about everyone, ad infinitum. Joshua Weitz is a professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences, and Blaise Pascal International Chair of Excellence at the Ecole Normale Superieure. Weitz said that recommendations on the proper timing and number of doses have changed so many times that many Americans have simply "checked out." After the bivalent recipe debuted, polls found that an alarming proportion of people didn’t even know the shot was available to them. That is what the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) for the week of January 20 found. Weitz and Stephen Beckett, a research scientist in the School of Biological Sciences, conducted research for the CDC report. 

In an advisory meeting in late January, the FDA signaled its intention to start doling out COVID vaccines just like flu shots: once a year in autumn, for just about everyone, ad infinitum. Joshua Weitz is a professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences, and Blaise Pascal International Chair of Excellence at the Ecole Normale Superieure. Weitz said that recommendations on the proper timing and number of doses have changed so many times that many Americans have simply "checked out." After the bivalent recipe debuted, polls found that an alarming proportion of people didn’t even know the shot was available to them. That is what the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) for the week of January 20 found. Weitz and Stephen Beckett, a research scientist in the School of Biological Sciences, conducted research for the CDC report. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2022 was an instrumental year for Zoo Atlanta’s research team, spearheading studies that change the way scientists and wildlife experts understand different species — ranging from mammals to reptiles — and inform best ways to care for and protect the animals. Last year, the team and partners published 16 peer-reviewed papers in total, according to Joseph Mendelson, adjunct professor in the School of Biological Sciences who is also Zoo Atlanta's Director of Research. For one paper, David Hu, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering was part of a study that focused on the mechanics of the skin wrinkles and folds in an elephant's trunk. Other School of Biological Sciences researchers assembled the genome of the critically endangered Guatemalan beaded lizard. Those researchers include former graduate student Carl J. Dyson, doctoral student Aaron Pfennig, Joseph Lachance, associate professor; Joseph Mendelson, and Michael Goodisman, professor.