Georgia Tech has named Kimberly Schurmeier as the recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advising Award – Faculty. Schurmeier is Director of Assessment and Undergraduate Advisement in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

As an advisor, Schurmeier guides students from the day they arrive for orientation to the day they graduate. According to a colleague, her “intense dedication to the undergraduates in her charge” goes above and beyond her primary responsibilities. The same colleague says Schurmeier is instrumental in undergraduate retention and progression in the school.

Schurmeier’s success in this role could be attributed to her personal mission. In a culture where students often feel that success is perfection and any failure is a devastation, Schurmeier believes students should be guided to realize that success lies not in GPA, but in perseverance and resilience. “It is important for me to advise every student as a person, not as a number, and help them find their true success,” she says.

Students describe Schurmeier’s advising as empowering and inspirational. “I became a stronger and more confident student because of her guidance,” one student says.

Another student recalls coming to the first year of advising with a self- developed comprehensive plan for classes until graduation. “Another advisor might have cut our appointments short,” this student says. Not Schurmeier.

“She spent close to half an hour sitting and talking with me,” this student says, “not about course scheduling, but about my passions – what classes fascinated me, the fields of chemistry I wanted to know more about.”

Furthermore, Schurmeier encouraged this student to pursue interests outside of chemistry while still in college. “She recognized in me a desire to learn and took the time to empower me to follow that desire,” this student says. “I have never felt as enthusiastic and driven to learn as I did after that appointment.”

In her role, Schurmeier helps students design their first semester work, organizes and coordinates all undergraduate advising in the school, performs degree audits, works with each graduating student to ensure they have met all the requirements, promotes and develops educational enrichment opportunities for undergraduates, acts as a first point of contact for students looking for independent research opportunities, and manages an online resource of available project opportunities in the labs.

Faculty and students highly praise the online resource Schurmeier created. Students say the resource helped them realize successful experiences in undergraduate research.

Georgia Tech has selected Teresa Snow as a recipient of the 2018 Geoffrey G. Eichholz Faculty Teaching Award, administered by the Center for Teaching and Learning. A senior academic professional in the School of Biological Sciences, Snow oversees the required wellness courses APPH 1040, “Scientific Foundations of Health,” and APPH 1050, “Science of Physical Activity and Health”; teaches graduate-level applied statistics; and serves on curriculum-related committees.

The award recognizes faculty who provide outstanding teaching to students in core and general undergraduate courses and help students establish a solid foundation for their education at Georgia Tech. Colleagues say Snow empowers students to prioritize self-care and become critical health consumers.

Undeterred by the obstacles associated with teaching undergraduates in large lecture classes, Snow challenges students to think beyond the classroom and apply the knowledge in ways that will lead to healthier lifestyles and a healthier campus community. Innovation is the basis of her achievements.

For example, Snow transformed the required wellness course APPH 1040.

The course is unique because it directly touches students’ lives. It covers topics such as sleep, nutrition, and exercise, as well as sensitive issues facing students, such as mental health, sexual violence, and self-esteem.

To help students navigate these complicated matters, Snow provides a “safe and caring learning environment,” a colleague says. “She spends a great deal of time with students listening and recommending campus resources.”

“Teresa is highly respectful and honoring of all individuals… a rare and unique characteristic,” another colleague says. She goes out of her way to follow up and see how students are doing. In turn, students continue to contact Snow long after they have graduated to inform her of their accomplishments. A few of them are pursuing careers in health, crediting Snow for inspiring them.

Snow wanted the wellness requirement to provide students with additional opportunities to use practical knowledge to maintain a balanced, healthy lifestyle. So she partnered with members of the Student Government Association and the Campus Recreation Complex to create APPH 1050, which provides physical activity instruction. This course has been wildly successful, reaching maximum capacity ever since its inception. It is now also offered in the Pacific Study Abroad program.

Snow’s advocacy for health and well-being reaches beyond the classroom. She served on the executive committee for Georgia Tech’s first health and well-being coalition, Go T.E.C.H. (Teams Encouraging Campus Health). She currently is faculty advisor to Relay for Life at Georgia Tech, a year-long fundraising effort for the American Cancer Society.  

“The most rewarding part of my job is working with Georgia Tech students,” Snow says. “They have a remarkable level of motivation, resourcefulness, and desire to make a difference. My role as a teacher is incredibly satisfying when I find ways to engage their enthusiasm and passion to learn.” 

Georgia Tech has selected Adegboyega “Yomi” Oyelere for the 2018 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor – Senior Faculty Award  The award recognizes senior faculty who have had sustained outstanding achievement in mentoring undergraduates in research.

An associate professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Oyelere is an outstanding mentor. Students and colleagues paint a picture of a compassionate, approachable mentor who does everything possible to help students soar – encouraging questions, offering constructive criticism, and most important, noticing individuals’ potential and urging them to be their best.

Committed to providing opportunities for those who are historically underrepresented in the sciences, Oyelere takes many minority students under his wings. Half of his former mentees are women.

The roster of undergraduate students Oyelere has mentored is impressive. Thirteen have been co-authors on peer-reviewed journal articles, three are master’s students, nine are Ph.D. students, and two are postdoctoral associates. Among them are a Fulbright Scholar, an SREB dissertation fellow, and recipients of GAANN fellowships. Many more are working in the industry, for companies such as Walgreen’s, Pinova Holdings, and Kaiser Permanente.

It can be intimidating for an undergraduate to work in a research laboratory. But Oyelere strives to make his undergraduate students feel at home. “There was not a time that I did not feel supported and included,” a former undergraduate researcher remarks. “He helped me realize I could accomplish much more than I anticipated.”

“From our first meeting, Dr. Oyelere was invested in my success,” another student says. When applying to work in a research lab, this student had a low GPA and no research experience. Among the faculty who received the application, only Oyelere accepted this student. Oyelere has since mentored this student, who has now earned a master’s degree, won multiple prestigious research grants, and is in a Ph.D. program.  

“I would not be where I am today without his guidance,” the student says. Others share the sentiment.

A former mentee who now also mentors undergraduate research students says, “I aspire to provide a welcoming research environment for them, just like the environment Dr. Oyelere created for me.” When a former student one day calls for career guidance, this former mentee says, “I hope I would be able to provide objective and informative advice, just as Dr. Oyelere had once given me.”

“Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate that Georgia Tech undergraduates have two key attributes for success as a researcher – passion and enthusiasm,” Oyelere says. “Through creating a welcoming and nurturing lab environment, I’ve always strived to guide my students to align their passion and enthusiasm in order to reach their potential and set them on a path toward success in their chosen careers. Once they have found their fit, I enjoy watching my students blossom and I take pride in their success.”

Georgia Tech has named Shana Kerr to receive the 2018 Class of 1940 W. Roane Beard Outstanding Teacher Award. An academic professional in the School of Biological Sciences, Kerr adds this award to two undergraduate advising honors she received in 2017 from Georgia Tech and from NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising.  

Students are foremost for Kerr. From implementing student-centered teaching initiatives to mentoring students outside of class, Kerr demonstrates remarkable compassion for her students and passion for teaching.

Kerr aims to make every class she teaches to be as student-centered as possible, favoring interactive teaching over a lecture-only approach. She modifies class activities so that students engage with the course materials themselves instead of just passively listening.

Now in her sixth year of teaching at Georgia Tech, Kerr continues to adapt and use active learning strategies so that students don’t slip through the cracks, especially for big classes held in a lecture hall.

The main engagement strategy she uses for large classes is the “flipped” class. Students complete short readings, watch online videos, and take practice quizzes before class, and then during class, they work through activities and question sets in small teams to test and integrate their knowledge. For small classes, like Bioethics, she uses real-life case studies as the context and hook for discussing and applying course concepts.

Kerr’s education initiatives – for example, a project-based research experience for a laboratory course – have had career-changing impacts on students. Many students have switched their career focus from aspiring to be medical doctors to conducting scientific research because of Kerr’s influence.

Colleagues say that Kerr’s compassion when working tirelessly with students is what truly makes her stand out. When students aren’t performing to their potential, Kerr notices, and she takes action. She invites students to office hours, checks in with their academic advisors, and makes referrals to the Dean of Students when necessary.  “She shows endless patience until students learn concepts to her satisfaction,” a colleague says.

“One of the most inspiring aspects of working with Georgia Tech students is their continual motivation to acquire new knowledge and make new mental connections,” Kerr says. “I aim to challenge my students and to provide the resources and scaffolding they need to meet and exceed these and future challenges. I’m humbled to be recognized for my teaching efforts by the Class of 1940 W. Roane Beard Outstanding Teacher Award.”

Aerospace engineering student Joshua Cherian has been looking forward to April 11 for weeks. It’s not a milestone birthday for Cherian, but the day the inventor of the Rubik’s Cube – Ernő Rubik – will make a rare public appearance at Georgia Tech.

Rubik, an architect and designer who lives in Budapest, will give a public lecture on a range of topics including design and architecture, the role of curiosity in the human condition, and his perspective on more than four decades of the Rubik’s Cube.

This talk is sponsored by the College of Science, the School of Mathematics, and the Gathering 4 Gardner Foundation.

The event is a Frontiers in Science Lecture, held Wednesday, April 11, from 7 to 8 p.m. in room 152 of the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons. More information is available on the campus calendar.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was adapted from the story of Victor Rogers posted originally in the Georgia Tech News Center on April 10, 2018. 

Seth Marder is on faculty development leave at various institutes across Europe, taking a break from his daily routine and attempting to allow himself time to think deeply about research.  

“In most of the places that I’m visiting, I have collaborations,” he said. “This faculty development leave allows me to have quality time with the people with whom I’m collaborating or developing new collaborations with around the world, which is very intellectually stimulating.”

He’ll return to campus for the Faculty Staff Honors Luncheon on April 11, where he will receive Georgia Tech’s highest award given to a faculty member: the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award.

The award recognizes outstanding achievement in teaching, research, and service. Instituted in 1984 by the Class of 1934 in observance of its 50th reunion, the award is presented to a professor who has made significant long-term contributions — contributions that have brought widespread recognition to the professor, to his or her school, and to the Institute.

“The award means a lot to me because Georgia Tech is near and dear to my heart,” said Marder, Regents Professor and Georgia Power Chair of Energy Efficiency in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Materials Science and Engineering (courtesy). “I care a lot about the various aspects of my job that transcend the standard research and teaching aspects. I think this award is a reflection of the fact that the Institute values a faculty member’s contributions beyond teaching and research. It’s very special to have that kind of recognition.”

Marder is the third chemistry professor to receive the Distinguished Professor Award in recent years; Gary Schuster was the recipient last year, and Charles Liotta was honored a few years ago.

“The School of Chemistry and Biochemistry is a special place,” Marder said. “There are a lot of people in the school who are really dedicated to working to make Georgia Tech a better place. They’re willing to invest the time to do so.”

"Seth Marder's depth and breadth of accomplishment not only in his research endeavors, but also in all facets of his role as a faculty member epitomize the values and quality to which Georgia Tech aspires."

Charles Liotta, Regents Professor Emeritus, School of Chemisty and Biochemistry

The Right Environment for Research

Marder grew up in Brooklyn, New York. His mother was a piano teacher, and his father was an educator in the New York City School system. His parents valued education and encouraged him to question authority and conventional wisdom.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from MIT, a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, and completing postdoctoral studies at Oxford University and Caltech, he worked at Caltech and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for several years. He was a professor at the University of Arizona for five years before joining the Georgia Tech faculty in 2003. He came to Tech as part of a team, with three other faculty members.

“One of the things that was so attractive about Georgia Tech was that the place was on the move,” Marder said. “And, I felt that people who have the desire to work to build a better place really could have the opportunity to do so in the environment that Georgia Tech fosters. Fifteen years later that still proves to be true.”

Marder’s research pertains to organic materials — essentially plastic-like materials — for photonics and electronics. Organic materials for photonics have applications in areas such as 3-D microfabrication (where Marder’s contributions with Professor Joseph Perry led to a successful spinoff company) and very high-speed data processing and communication. Materials for organic electronics have found application most significantly in organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, which are now ubiquitous in cellphones, but also as photovoltaic materials and as components of detectors, sensors, and electrodes. 

Marder is part of an interdisciplinary team that tries to understand from first principles how to design and synthesize materials that enable these applications. He attributes his success to working closely with many researchers throughout the globe — most notably a team at Georgia Tech with whom he has worked on average over 25 years. The team includes Joseph Perry, Jean-Luc Bredas, Bernard Kippelen, and John Reynolds. Marder’s work has resulted in over 475 papers that have been cited more than 38,000 times, and he is an inventor on 39 issued patents, many of which were licensed.

“I think within our team there is a sense that there is something bigger than what we each individually do in our research group that’s important,” Marder said. “We’re also very grateful to be at an institution where the desire that we have to contribute to the institution can be realized. That’s one of the things that I find extraordinarily attractive about being at Georgia Tech.”

"Seth Marder is a world-renowned educator and researcher whose work focuses on the interactions of light with matter, most notably in the setting of organic electronic and photonic materials. Seth serves the local and global communities in innumerable ways, such as through his focus on education, his simultaneous leadership of multidisciplinary research centers, his commitment to faculty mentoring and career development, and his tireless advocacy for inclusive excellence at all levels. We in the College of Sciences are fortunate to have in Seth a colleague who thoughtfully inspires us to reach not just for the moon but for the stars."

Paul Goldbart, Dean and Sutherland Chair, College of Sciences

The Importance of Giving Back

In addition to his stellar record in teaching and research, Marder is known across campus for his tireless service work. He is often called upon to serve on committees and task forces, because of his reputation for offering a fresh approach, the ability to cut to the heart of a problem, and a communication style that is considered honest — or even blunt. He is dyslexic, and he believes that it influences how he approaches problem-solving.

“The mind thinks differently [if you are dyslexic],” he said. “We see the world differently, and we see patterns that other people often don’t. Dyslexia makes it more difficult to do certain things that other people can do easily. But it enables us to make contributions that other people likely wouldn’t. When you add someone like myself to a team, there’s going to be a bit of an oddball way of thinking that sometimes really helps. Consequently, I very much enjoy having the chance to work with people who have diverse ways of thinking about things. They learn from me, and I learn from them.”

Marder said being a professor is a tremendous opportunity to learn and contribute to many facets of the Institute’s activities; therefore, he views his service work as a way to learn and get to know many extremely talented people on campus who work on areas pertaining to diversity, international affairs, staff development, industrial relations, and other topics. 

He has mentored more than 150 graduate students, postdocs, and research scientists in his group over the years, many of whom are now leaders in industry and academia around the globe. He also mentors staff and faculty members.

“My job in my capacity as a professor, particularly at this point in my career, is largely to enable other people to achieve what they hope to achieve, and help them aspire to achieve more than they thought was possible,” he said. “In that regard, I ask myself if there are people around me who are now doing things that they would not otherwise do because I helped facilitate that by either encouraging them to do that, creating the opportunity for them to do that, or teaching them how to do that.”
Marder said the Distinguished Professor Award is, at some level, a testament to what one can do at a place like Georgia Tech.

“We get to have an impact, and people pay us to do it. That’s a pretty good gig.”

PHOTO CAPTION
In 2008, Marder (left) and Yanrong Shi, a graduate student, examine the separation of compounds for photonics applications being done by community chromatography.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was adapted from the story by Victor Rogers published on April 2, 2018. 

After an hour of performance demonstration followed by a 25-minute video interview, Harper Doherty is asked if there is anything she’d like to add.

She thinks for a moment.

“Running away with the circus is always a viable option.”

She laughs and begins to break down the equipment from her on-campus training session.

Doherty is in her first year at Georgia Tech, but she’s no stranger to a university setting. At age 14, after being homeschooled in Canton, Ga., Harper dual-enrolled at Kennesaw State University to begin taking college courses. Now 17 years old, she is a junior by credit hours and on track to earn a degree in May of 2019.

“I’ll be 18 when I graduate next spring,” she says. “I’m a biology major. Currently, I want to specialize in sports medicine.”

The interest in a sports medicine career path stems from Doherty’s experience as a performer. She is an artist on the aerial silks.

A relatively new apparatus to circus entertainment, aerial silks are sheets of fabric suspended as high as 25 feet in the air. Aerialists perform climbs, wraps and drops. The silks are prominent in the circus and can often be seen during Cirque du Soleil shows.

Harper, a gymnast at the time, was drawn to the silks after a chance discovery on social media.

“I was really bored one day,” she recalls. “I was going through Instagram finding fun things. I was training [on] aerials, which is a flip in acrobatics.”

"I was really bored one day. I was going through Instagram finding fun things....I found [aerial silks] and was like, 'Oh my goodness, that looks amazing. I have to try that.'"

Doherty stumbled across the aerial silks and was mesmerized.

“I found it and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, that looks amazing. I have to try that.’”

She searched locally to find a place to learn and joined a two-person class in a warehouse in Alpharetta. As the tiny circus school began to grow, Harper became one of the senior company members. Now, she represents Akme Instant Circus, a division of Akrosphere Performing and Circus Arts in shows across northern Georgia… and Las Vegas.

With the company, Harper has traveled to Nevada each of the last two years to compete in Viva Fest, an international variety act festival. She got a taste of the big time.

“We experienced a circus community that is built up,” says Harper with an excited smile. “Vegas has such a big circus community and Atlanta is tiny.”

Despite going to college classes at the same age as a high school freshman and hanging 25 feet in the air in front of a live audience of hundreds, Doherty still had jitters when moving to Georgia Tech’s campus. She leaned on the experience of a familiar alumna, her mother.

“I was inspired by the fact that she came to Georgia Tech,” Harper remembers. “I may or may not have had my mom walk me around.”

Georgia Tech was the only school to which Doherty submitted an application. She wanted to stay in-state because of her age, but also notes the opportunities Tech will afford her on a pre-med track and a burgeoning community of on-campus creatives who have taken notice of her training sessions.

“I’ve begun to find people that are dancers, gymnasts,” she says. “People come out of the woodwork when they find out you are an artist because it is nice to have that little community.”

“The artistic side of Tech is huge; it just hides a little bit.”

"The artistic side of Tech is huge; it just hides a little bit."

For Harper, the aerial silks offer an opportunity for relief from academic rigors. She uses training sessions to clear the mind and hit refresh.

“If I’m swamped and I don’t know what to do, I come and break out my silks,” she says. “The adrenaline is great for stress.”

Rejuvenated, Harper packs up her gear and heads off as the early evening sun dips behind the brick buildings on west campus. She has a test tomorrow. In the circus or at Georgia Tech, the show must go on.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is by Brice Zimmerman and was originally posted on the Georgia Tech News Center on March 27, 2018.

College of Sciences Dean and Sutherland Chair Paul Goldbarthas been named dean of the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. He will begin at UT Austin on August 1.

“Georgia Tech’s reputation as a global leader in the sciences has been fostered and enhanced by the leadership of Paul Goldbart,” said Rafael L. Bras, Georgia Tech provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs and K. Harrison Brown Family Chair. “He is the rare blend of gifted administrator and skilled academic that will no doubt make an impact at The University of Texas at Austin. He will be greatly missed by his colleagues and students alike at Georgia Tech.”

Goldbart joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 2011. He has served as the dean since 2013 and as the inaugural Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair since 2016. As dean, he oversaw the launch of doctoral programs in Quantitative Biosciences and in Ocean Science and Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience, as well as the growth of living-learning communities devoted to science and mathematics. He also served in critical leadership roles including co-chairing the Taskforce on the Learning Environment, a group charged to assess Georgia Tech’s academic culture.

As a faculty member in the School of Physics, Goldbart’s research interests include statistical and soft matter physics, nanoscience, quantum fluids and solids, quantum information, and law and economics. He has authored more than 150 publications and co-authored a textbook, “Mathematics for Physics – A Guided Tour for Graduate Students.”

Before joining Georgia Tech, Goldbart spent 25 years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Physics, Goldbart earned a B.A. in Physics and Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University in 1981. He received an M.S. in Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1982, and a Diploma in Mathematical Physics and Ph.D. from Imperial College, University of London in 1985.

Goldbart’s selection as dean also means the departure of his wife, Jenny Singleton, professor and associate chair in the School of Psychology. During her tenure at Georgia Tech, Singleton has also served as a co-chair of the Student Mental Health Action Team and as the assistant provost for Advocacy and Conflict Resolution since January. Singleton will become a member of the UT Austin faculty. Goldbart and Singleton have been married since 1988 and have two children, Oliver (B.S. Computer Science, 2015) and Greta.

“To say I have mixed emotions would be an understatement,” Goldbart said. “My time at Georgia Tech has been immensely rewarding, and I will miss this close-knit family. I am grateful for the opportunity presented to me by UT Austin and look forward to tackling this new challenge.”

Details on an interim dean appointment as well as the national search for a new leader for the College of Sciences will be made available in the coming weeks.

Ebola virus infections that occurred in the U.S. in late 2014 alarmed the public. In the two cases, nurses got the infection from a patient who caught the dreaded virus overseas. Both nurses received treatment and survived. In the aftermath, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded Emory University and Georgia Tech a grant to discover ways to protect health care workers from self-contamination when treating patients during outbreaks of deadly infections.

Now, Georgia Tech researchers and others at Emory and Georgia State University have observed health care workers in a facility that has treated Ebola-infected patients and identified risky behaviors that may lead to self-contamination. Reported in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the findings suggest that health care workers can be well-protected from self-contamination under the current guidelines and protocols for health care facilities certified to treat Ebola-infected patients.

In the study, School of Psychology Professor and Interim Chair Frank T. Durso and Ph.D. student Joel M. Mumma and coworkers observed how health care workers trained to treat Ebola-infected patients followed procedures for removing protective equipment after contact with a patient.

PROTECTING HEALTH CARE WORKERS
According to CDC guidelines, protective equipment should provide coverage from head to toe. Coveralls protect the neck to the toe. Underneath are disposable paper scrubs. Neck-to-head protection includes a hood that has three parts: a face shield, a shroud, and a respirator underneath. Hands are covered by two pairs of gloves. Shoes are protected by shoe covers.

In addition, a trained observer must be present when donning or doffing protective equipment. The trained observer reminds workers of the proper procedure and signals when a step is not done right.

The health care workers participated in simulations in which their protective equipment was contaminated with harmless viruses that served as surrogates for Ebola and for hardier viruses, similar to Norovirus. The workers were video recorded while removing their protective equipment.

The Georgia State team sampled critical areas, such as hands and scrubs, for microbial analyses.

Data analyses and modeling – led by Mumma – revealed human behavioral pathways along which pathogens can travel from contaminated outer layers to the clean inner layers of the protective equipment.

BEHAVIORAL PATHWAYS TO SELF-CONTAMINATION
“We were interested in the kinds of behaviors that may spread contamination,” Mumma says. “An example is touching the hood’s face shield with the inner pair of gloves when trying to remove the hood. The inner pair of gloves should always remain clean.”

Another common failure point is hand hygiene, Mumma says. After each doffing step, workers sanitize their hands with an alcohol-based rub. Sometimes, this step is not carried out as thoroughly as the World Health Organization recommends. 

Often workers don’t allow the sanitizer to dry completely. In that case the effectiveness of hand hygiene becomes limited, Mumma says.

In addition, “when they take the gloves off, they don’t get a good grip because the surface is slippery from the alcohol, and they snap their glove,” Durso says. “Every time that happens, you increase the chance of shooting the virus into the room or to the health care worker.”

The trained observers can also be a failure point, Mumma says. “Sometimes trained observers cut hand hygiene short by moving health care workers on to the next doffing step.”

The bottom line is self-contamination in Ebola facilities may be reduced if trained observers pace themselves to ensure that workers are doffing methodically and if the workers handle protective equipment properly, sanitize and their hands thoroughly and dry them completely, and use the proper technique in removing the hood.

Although the behavioral pathways to contamination revealed by the study may be applicable to Ebola, details may change depending on the virus causing the disease outbreak. For example, hand sanitation with an alcohol-based rub keeps Ebola contained. A virus more robust than Ebola, such as the hardier viruses used in the simulations, may require use of a more potent agent, such as bleach.

“If we can intervene and improve the process in facilities, we shouldn’t get self-contamination,” Durso says. “What’s really exciting is that hospitals are already implementing changes based on our findings.”

TheBestSchools.org has named Judith A. Curry one of the top 50 women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The list comprises “the best women in their respective fields...with a lot of innate talent, certainly, but who have also put in a great deal of extremely hard work,” according to the list’s compiler.

Curry is professor emerita in the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS). She is named for the fields of geophysical sciences and climatology, the only person listed in these categories.

Her scientific accomplishments are reflected in 186 peer-reviewed papers. She is also co-author or co-editor of three textbooks:  

• with Vitaly I. Khvorostyanov, “Thermodynamics, Kinetics, and Microphysics of Clouds” (Cambridge University Press, 2014)
• with James R. Holton and John Pyle, “Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences” (Academic Press, 2003)
• with Peter J. Webster, “Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans” (Academic Press, 1998)

In addition, she cofounded Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN) with colleague and EAS Professor Peter J. Webster. The company aims to find new and better ways to apply weather and climate data, weather forecast information, and future regional climate scenarios to real-world decision-making to manage risks associated with the variability of climate and weather.

Curry was chair of EAS from 2002 to 2014. She retired from Georgia Tech at the end of 2016. She was named professor emerita in January 2017.

Her tenure as chair of EAS was marked by the high quality of faculty recruited under her leadership. The fruits of those efforts continue to be realized. For example, in the latest graduate school rankings by the U.S. News & World Report for Earth Sciences, Georgia Tech’s Earth program advanced four steps to rank 38, putting it in the top 30% of U.S. institutions surveyed.

Curry received a bachelor’s degree in geography from Northern Illinois University in 1974 and a Ph.D. in geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago in 1982.

Before joining Georgia Tech, she taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1982-86), Purdue University (1986-89), Pennsylvania State University (1989-92), and the University of Colorado, Boulder (1992-02).

Curry has served on NASA’s Advisory Council Earth Science Subcommittee, on the Climate Working Group of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and on the National Academies’ Space Studies Board and Climate Research Group.

She was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2004 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007.