School of Physics

Sciences Scholars Named University Center of Exemplary Mentoring Program Fellows

dgivens8 — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 17:04:41 +0000

Sciences Scholars Named University Center of Exemplary Mentoring Program Fellows dgivens8 Wed, 04/16/2025 - 13:04

Five Ph.D. scholars from the College of Sciences are the newest members of the Georgia Tech University Center of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) Ph.D. Fellowship program, which now includes the College’s Center for Promoting Inclusion and Equity in the Sciences (C-PIES).

“This is the first year the College of Sciences has been involved with UCEM, and it will be very impactful for the professional development for these students,” says Lewis Wheaton, C-PIES director and professor in the School of Biological Sciences. “The process for selection was highly competitive and these students really demonstrate strong scientific ability, have compelling research, and are having a powerful impact in the college community and beyond.”

The new UCEM/C-PIES Fellows:

The Georgia Tech UCEM Ph.D. Fellowship program has the goal of increasing the number of outstanding engineering, science, and computing Ph.D. students from underserved populations. The program seeks to support students from backgrounds that include African American/Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Pacific Islander. The Georgia Tech UCEM Ph.D. Fellowship provides three years of support for students who have recently completed the Ph.D. Qualifying/Preliminary exam.

C-PIES at the College of Sciences works in collaboration with the College of Engineering and the College of Computing — through the Georgia Tech Underrepresented Minority (URM) Graduate Leadership Initiative — to support the Expand Access focus area of the Institute’s strategic plan for graduate student enrollment and retention.

Meet the College of Sciences UCEM Fellows

Sarah E. Gonzalez

“I was excited and relieved to find out I was a UCEM Fellow. As everyone knows, being a grad student isn’t the most financially stable position, so anything extra is a big help,” Gonzales says.

Gonzalez researches in the lab of Associate Professor Elisabetta Matsumoto, studying knitted fabrics and their mechanical behavior. “She is my biggest supporter at Georgia Tech. We have a very tight-knit and supportive research group.”

Danielle Grau

“I was shocked and elated when I received the email with the news, and excited about the opportunity to be a part of such a prestigious fellowship,” Grau says. “I am excited to see what opportunities and relationships it will forge in the future.”

Assistant Professor Alexander Robel is Grau’s thesis adviser. “I am extremely grateful and appreciative for all the support, guidance, and encouragement he has given me throughout my time at Georgia Tech. He's a phenomenal mentor and advisor, and I wouldn’t have had any success without him.”

Sierra A. Knavel

“I was enthusiastic to hear about receiving the award,” Knavel says, “and eager to join a community that wants to help each other succeed while at Georgia Tech.”

Knavel, whose research interests include low-dimensional topology, has Professor John Etnyre as an adviser. “He is the reason I can say I'm in the math Ph.D. program, and that I know I belong here.”

Tony Lemos

“When I applied to the UCEM fellowship, I had doubts that I was accomplished enough to be chosen for this fellowship,” Lemos says. “When I received the email announcing that I had been selected for this award, it was a great surprise, and I was immediately filled with immense gratitude. I am very thankful to be one of the students to receive this gift that will help me become the first in my family to obtain a doctoral degree.”

Lemos is a research assistant in the biophysics lab of Professor Harold Kim, who is his adviser. “He has been a great mentor who helped me get this far at Georgia Tech. He is a great role model that showed me what it means to be an effective scientist. He also challenged me to grow in areas I was uncomfortable with in the lab. I am thankful for his mentorship and unending support.”

Autumn Peterson

“I was super excited to hear that I was named a UCEM Ph.D. Fellow,” Peterson says. “Mentorship has always been important to me. I would not be in the position I am in now without mentors who have supported me throughout my academic career. I am looking forward to strengthening my mentorship skills and serving as a role model for aspiring scientists coming from underrepresented backgrounds like I do.”

Peterson’s adviser is Associate Professor William Ratcliff, who is also Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences. ‘I want to thank him for his immense support throughout my academic journey. I would also like to thank Anthony Burnetti, a senior research scientist in the Ratcliff lab. Both Ratcliff and Burnetti are both extremely supportive, kind, and knowledgeable, and I am grateful to have them as mentors.”

Earlier this year, Peterson and Ratcliff were co-awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study.

“We are so proud of our UCEM/C-PIES Fellows," says Lea Marzo, C-PIES Program Operations Director. "The students selected for this fellowship are brilliant researchers and we are delighted that Georgia Tech’s Office of the President is making an investment in their success. We cannot wait to see what the future has in store for these fellows."

Subtitle

With goals to boost science, engineering, and computing Ph.D. researchers from underserved populations, UCEM grows in 2023 to include students from Schools of Biological Sciences, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics

Summary sentence

Summary

Dateline

Tue, 10/10/2023 - 12:00

renay.san@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

Writer: Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer II/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

Editor: Jess Hunt-Ralston

Keywords

College of Sciences

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

School of Biological Sciences

School of Mathematics

School of Physics

UCEM (University Center of Exemplary Mentoring) Ph.D. Fellowship

C-PIES

Center for Promoting Inclusion and Equity in the Sciences

Lewis Wheaton

Danielle Grau

Sierra Knavel

Tony Lemos

Autumn Peterson

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Institute and Campus

Student and Faculty

Student Honors and Achievements

Mercury ID

670327

Source updated

Tue, 10/17/2023 - 17:49

Physics Students’ Trip to Totality

admin — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 19:48:41 +0000

Physics Students’ Trip to Totality admin Thu, 04/04/2024 - 15:48

A total solar eclipse is a time of scientific discovery, confirming Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity in 1919, but the astronomical phenomenon can also be a time of personal discovery, just as it was for Dragomir Davidovic.

An associate professor in the School of Physics whose expertise lies outside of astronomy, Davidovic didn't initially understand the hype surrounding the 2017 eclipse. However, he was instantly captivated as the moon passed between the sun and the Earth to reveal the star's corona.

"When I saw my first eclipse, I was surprised by its power. Nature changed around us; the birds became quiet, and all of the animals near the farm were getting ready to go to sleep. It was eerie in a way, and it's a once-in-a-lifetime event that needs to be seen," he said.

Unlike 2017, Georgia will not be in the path of totality for the eclipse occurring on Monday, April 8, so Davidovic and Edwin Greco, associate chair for student success, are leading a trip for 55 School of Physics students, primarily graduate students, to experience totality at the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge in Southwest Illinois following an overnight stay in Nashville, Tennessee.

While the eclipse can be viewed in an urban environment, such as Atlanta, where coverage will reach 85%, Davidovic wanted to give students the opportunity to feel the eclipse's full effect on nature as he experienced it seven years ago.

"A rural setting allows you to have this true connection with nature, and it evokes this feeling of almost being a prehistoric human," he said.

In addition to the reaction of animals, Jim Sowell, director of the Georgia Tech Observatory, explains that as the eclipse reaches its peak, temperatures will drop, and planets may become visible in the darkened sky. To view the eclipse, the group will be bringing safety glasses and a telescope with the appropriate lens for direct sunlight viewing.

The idea for the trip came from a spontaneous conversation between Davidovic and School Chair Feryal Özel in August, and initially, Davidovic wondered if enough students would share his enthusiasm for such an adventure.

"My biggest worry was that we wouldn't get enough students to sign up, but as it turned out, I was totally wrong," he said. "It goes to show there is a broad interest in this natural phenomenon. You don't have to be an astronomer; we have people signed up across many different fields,” he said.

Among those immediately interested in joining the excursion was Nadia Qutob, a graduating physics major with an emphasis in astrophysics and a member of the Georgia Tech Astronomy Club.

"Everyone in the world at some point in their lives looks up at the sky and wonders what is up there. Space has an incredible ability to unite us in our shared curiosity. It is deeply inspirational to me that so many people, especially young people, are excited about the eclipse. I hope it will lead to more interest in space research in the future," she said.

Student interest in the eclipse is evident, with another trip being led by the Astronomy Club, which will be heading to the Ozarks to witness the event.

Following Monday’s total solar eclipse, the continental U.S. will not see another of its kind until 2044. In the meantime, Davidovic's hobby has also influenced his academic work. He is now conducting research into the effects of merging black holes on quantum computers and continues to study additional astrophysical theories.

Subtitle

Sparked by a professor’s interest, 55 students from the School of Physics will travel to Illinois to enter the path of totality for the April 8 total solar eclipse.

Summary sentence

Sparked by a professor’s interest, 55 students from the School of Physics will travel to Illinois to enter the path of totality for the April 8 total solar eclipse.

Summary

Sparked by a professor’s interest, 55 students from the School of Physics will travel to Illinois to enter the path of totality for the April 8 total solar eclipse.

Dateline

Thu, 04/04/2024 - 12:00

Steven.gagliano@gatech.edu

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Steven Gagliano - Institute Communications

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Georgia Tech Astronomy Club

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674009

Source updated

Thu, 04/04/2024 - 15:46

Physicist Rick Trebino Awarded Optica R.W. Wood Prize

admin — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 16:47:41 +0000

Physicist Rick Trebino Awarded Optica R.W. Wood Prize admin Mon, 03/18/2024 - 12:47

School of Physics Professor Rick Trebino has received the 2024 R.W. Wood Prize in recognition of his invention and development of techniques for the complete and rigorous measurement of ultrashort laser pulses. The R.W. Wood Prize is presented by Optica, (formerly OSA), Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, in recognition of an outstanding discovery, scientific, or technical achievement or invention in the field of optics.

”I’m ecstatic to receive this recognition from Optica,” said Trebino, who serves as the Eminent Scholar Chair of Ultrafast Optical Physics in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech. “The vast majority of science’s greatest discoveries have resulted directly from more powerful techniques for measuring light, so I decided to devote my career to this important field, and it’s very satisfying to receive this honor for my work."

Ultrashort pulses are brief bursts of light, millionths of billionths of a second long — the shortest technological events ever created. Trebino’s techniques for measuring them have made possible a host of new research and technology applications in many areas, including the fundamental studies of matter and micro-material processing.

Trebino has pioneered ultrashort-pulse measurement techniques for over three decades. In 1991, he invented the frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) technique, the first method for completely measuring arbitrary ultrashort light pulses in time. It took pulse measurement from blurry black-and-white artifact-ridden snapshots to high-resolution full-color images. The FROG technique remains the gold standard in ultrashort pulse measurement and is used worldwide in physics, chemistry, engineering, biomedical, and telecommunications applications.

More recently, Trebino has developed devices for measuring pulses with ever shorter and ever more complex temporal — and also spatial — variations. Thanks in large part to Trebino’s techniques, these exotic light pulses have become much better understood and hence much shorter, more stable, and much more useful. His devices have also played key roles in work resulting in several recent Nobel Prizes.

Rick Trebino received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University and joined Georgia Tech in 1998 after having worked at Sandia National Laboratories. He has received numerous other awards and is a Fellow of four international scientific societies, including Optica, the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and SPIE: the international society for optics and photonics.

Learn more about Trebino’s Ultrafast Optics Research Group here: frog.gatech.edu

About Optica

Optica (formerly OSA), Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is the society dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving, and dissemination of knowledge in the field. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students, and others interested in the science of light. Optica’s renowned publications, meetings, online resources, and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications, and accelerate scientific, technical, and educational achievement.

Summary sentence

Physics professor honored for pioneering ultrashort-laser-pulse measurement techniques

Summary

School of Physics Professor Rick Trebino was honored for his invention and development of techniques for the complete and rigorous measurement of ultrashort laser pulses.

Dateline

Mon, 03/18/2024 - 12:00

lvidal7@gatech.edu

Contact

Writer: Lindsay C. Vidal
Assistant Communications
Director College of Sciences

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673556

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Mon, 03/18/2024 - 12:46

The Dynamics of Deformable Systems: Study Unravels Mathematical Mystery of Cable-like Structures

admin — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 17:06:41 +0000

The Dynamics of Deformable Systems: Study Unravels Mathematical Mystery of Cable-like Structures admin Fri, 02/09/2024 - 12:06

Are our bodies solid or liquid? We all know the convention — that solids maintain their shapes, while liquids fill the containers they’re in. But often in the real world, those lines are blurred. Imagine walking on a beach. Sometimes the sand gives way under feet, deforming like a liquid, but when enough sand grains pack together, they can support weight like a solid surface.

Modeling these kinds of systems is notoriously difficult — but Zeb Rocklin, an assistant professor in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech, has written a new paper doing just that.

Rocklin’s study, “Rigidity percolation in a random tensegrity via analytic graph theory,” is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The results have the potential to impact fields spanning biology to engineering and nanotechnology, showing that these types of deformable solids offer a rare combination of durability and flexibility.

"I'm very proud of our team, especially Will and Vishal, the two Georgia Tech undergraduates who co-led the study,” Rocklin says.

The lead author, William Stephenson, and co-author Vishal Sudhakar both completed their undergraduate studies at the Institute during the time of this research. Stephenson is now a first-year grad student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Sudhakar has been admitted to Georgia Tech as a graduate student. Additionally, co-author Michael Czajkowski is a post-doctoral researcher in the School of Physics, and co-author James McInerney completed his graduate studies in the School of Physics under Rocklin. McInerney is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan.

Connecting the dots… with cables

Imagine building molecules in chemistry class — large wooden spheres connected with sticks or rods. While many models use rods, including mathematical models, biological systems in real life are constructed of polymers, which function more like stretchy strings.

Likewise, when creating mathematical or biological models, researchers frequently treat all the elements as rods as opposed to treating some of them as cables, or strings. But, “there are tradeoffs between how mathematically tractable a model is and how physically plausible it is,” Rocklin says. “Physicists can have some beautiful mathematical theories, but they aren’t always realistic.” For example, a model using connective rods might not capture the dynamics that connective strings provide. “With a string you can stretch it, and it'll fight you, but when you compress it, it collapses.”

“But, in this study, we’ve extended the current theories,” he says, adding cable-like elements. “And that actually turns out to be incredibly difficult, because these theories use mathematical equations. In contrast, the distance between the two ends of a cable is represented by an inequality, which is not an equation at all. So how do you create a mathematical theory when you aren't starting from equations?” While a rod has a certain length in a mathematical equation, the ends of the string have to be represented as less than or equal to a certain length.

In this situation “all the usual analytic theories completely break,” Rocklin says. “It becomes very difficult for physicists or for mathematicians.”

“The trick was to notice that these physical systems were logically equivalent to something called a directed graph,” Rocklin adds, “where different modes of deformation are linked to each other in specific ways. This allows us to take a relatively complicated system and massively compress it to a much smaller system. And when we did that, we were able to turn it into something that becomes extremely easy for the computer to do.”

From biology to engineering

Rocklin’s team found that when modeling with cables and springs, the target range changed — becoming softer, with a wider margin for error. “That could be really important for something like a biological system, because a biological system is trying to stay close to that critical point,” says Rocklin. “Our model shows that the region around the critical point is actually much broader than what models that only used rods previously showed.”

Rocklin also points out applications for engineers. For example, since Rocklin's new theory suggests that even disordered cable structures can be strong and flexible, it may help engineers leverage cables as building materials to create safer, more durable bridges. The theory also provides a way to easily model these cable-based structures, to ensure their safety before they are built, and provide a way for engineers to iterate on designs.

Rocklin also notes potential applications in nanotechnology. “In nanotechnology, you must accept an increasing amount of disorder, because you can't just have a skilled worker actually go in and put segments there, and you can't have a conventional factory machine put segments there,” Rocklin says.

But biology has known how to lay down effective, but disordered, rod and cable structures for hundreds of millions of years. “This is going to tell us what sorts of machines we can make with those disordered structures when we're getting to the point of being able to do what biology can do. And that's a possible future design principle for the engineers to explore, at very small scales, where we can't choose exactly where each cable goes,” Rocklin says.

“Our theory shows that with cables, we can maintain a combination of flexibility and strength with much less precision than you might otherwise need.”

Funding: This research was funded by the Army Research Office through the MURI program (#W911NF2210219).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2302536120

Figure caption: Systems of rigid rods acquire rigidity via the addition of random additional rods and cables, as captured via a graph theory. The research team's main object of study, shown here, is structures that consist of large numbers of pores — arranged in columns and rows with cables and rods added at random.

Summary sentence

A new theory allows researchers to create easy-to-solve mathematical models using cables, a previously challenging mathematical problem.

Summary

A new theory allows researchers to create easy-to-solve mathematical models using cables, a previously challenging mathematical problem — offering key insights into the behavior of deformable solids, with applications spanning from engineering and biology to nanotechnology.

Dateline

Fri, 02/09/2024 - 12:00

jess.hunt@cos.gatech.edu

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Written by Selena Langner

Editor and Contact: Jess Hunt-Ralston

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672839

Source updated

Fri, 02/09/2024 - 12:05

Physicists Focus on Neutrinos With New Telescope

admin — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 14:10:41 +0000

Physicists Focus on Neutrinos With New Telescope admin Fri, 11/17/2023 - 09:10

Georgia Tech scientists will soon have another way to search for neutrinos, those hard-to-detect, high-energy particles speeding through the cosmos that hold clues to massive particle accelerators in the universe — if researchers can find them.

“The detection of a neutrino source or even a single neutrino at the highest energies is like finding a holy grail,” says Professor Nepomuk Otte, the principal investigator for the Trinity Demonstrator telescope that was recently built by his group and collaborators, and was designed to detect neutrinos after they get stopped within the Earth.

The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded effort will eventually create “the world’s most sensitive ultra-high energy neutrino telescope.” The Trinity Demonstrator is the first step toward an array of 18 telescopes located at three sites, each on top of a high mountain.

Earlier in the year, Otte’s group flew a neutrino telescope tethered to a massive NASA-funded balloon — though a leak brought the telescope down earlier than planned. The effort was part of the EUSO-SPB2 collaboration, which wants to study cosmic-particle accelerators with detectors in space.

“This was the first time our group had built an instrument for a balloon mission,” Otte says. “And the big question was if it would work at the boundary to space at -40F and in a vacuum. Even though we only flew 37 hours (of a 50-hour mission), we could show that our instrument worked as expected. We even accomplished some key measurements, like making a measurement of the background light, which no one has done before.”

The search for neutrinos

Otte is the second Georgia Tech physicist to lead a search for neutrinos. Professor Ignacio Taboada is the spokesperson for IceCube, an NSF neutrino observatory located at the South Pole. IceCube uses thousands of sensors buried in the ice to detect neutrinos.

Meanwhile, Trinity telescopes will be especially sensitive to higher-energy neutrinos. “With Trinity, we can potentially open a new, entirely unexplored window in astronomy,” Otte says. “IceCube gives us a couple of good pointers on what to observe. That is also why we modified the building of the Trinity Demonstrator to point toward the only two high-energy neutrino sources” already identified by IceCube scientists.

‘Cherenkov lights’ illuminate ‘air showers’

The Trinity Demonstrator telescope is not your typical astronomy telescope. Instead of looking into the sky, it is looking at the horizon, waiting for a flash of light to happen that only lasts tens of billionths of a second.

That flash is at the end of a chain of events that happens when a high-energy neutrino enters the Earth under a shallow angle. Upon penetrating Earth and traveling along a straight line for a hundred miles, the neutrino eventually interacts inside the Earth, producing a tau particle, which is like a short-lived massive electron.

The tau continues to travel through the Earth, and when it bounces out of the ground, it decays into millions of electrons and positrons, which zip through the air. Because the electrons and positrons travel faster than the speed of light in the air, they emit Cherenkov light, the short flash of light the Trinity Demonstrator telescope detects. Using computer algorithms, the recorded Cherenkov flashes are analyzed to reconstruct the energy and arrival direction of the neutrino.

Otte and his team of Georgia Tech postdoctoral and graduate scholars developed and built the Trinity Demonstrator. Undergraduate students have also had significant responsibilities in designing its optics. “It is good for the students because they are involved in all aspects of the experiment. In big collaborations, you are an expert on one aspect only,” Otte says.

The largest collaboration Otte is currently involved with is the Cherenkov Telescope Array, which involves more than 2,000 researchers. That planned international project will involve 60 next-generation gamma-ray telescopes in Chile and on the Canary Island of La Palma.

Next year, Otte says he and his researchers will apply for funding to build a much bigger telescope, which will be the foundation for the NSF 18-telescope array. For now, the team is busy observing with the Trinity Demonstrator atop Frisco Peak in Utah.

“With a bit of luck, we will detect the first neutrino source at these energies,” Otte said.

Funding: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Subtitle

Physics Professor Nepomuk Otte and students have developed the Trinity Demonstrator to search for sources of high-energy neutrinos that contain clues to the early universe.

Summary sentence

Physics Professor Nepomuk Otte and students have developed the Trinity Demonstrator to search for sources of high-energy neutrinos that contain clues to the early universe.

Summary

Physics Professor Nepomuk Otte and students have developed the Trinity Demonstrator to search for sources of high-energy neutrinos that contain clues to the early universe.

Dateline

Thu, 11/16/2023 - 12:00

renay.san@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

Writer: Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer II/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

Editor: Jess Hunt-Ralston

Keywords

College of Sciences

School of Physics

Nepomuk Otte

neutrinos

Tau Neutrinos

Ignacio Taboada

IceCube Neutrino Observatory

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671105

Source updated

Fri, 11/17/2023 - 09:10

Physics Major Nadia Qutob Receives Goldwater Scholarship

dgivens8 — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 15:40:12 +0000

Physics Major Nadia Qutob Receives Goldwater Scholarship dgivens8 Mon, 10/23/2023 - 11:40

Physics major Nadia Qutob is among five Georgia Tech undergraduates awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for 2023.

Recipients are selected based on their exceptional achievements and potential for future success in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Qutob is joined by fellow Georgia Tech undergraduate students Jim James, Maeve Janecka, Velin "Venny" Kojouharov, and Dawei Liu in receiving the honor.

Meet Nadia Qutob

As a Leddy Family Dean's Scholar at Georgia Tech, Qutob’s physics research focuses on gravitational wave data analysis with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), specifically parameter estimation optimization for the high signal-to-noise ratio regime.

Qutob says that her mentors, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Sciences and Physics Professor Laura Cadonati and Postdoctoral Fellow Meg Millhouse, have been instrumental during her time at LIGO.

"Their guidance and patience have cultivated an environment where I can thrive and reach my full research potential. I wouldn't be where I am today without them," she said.

Qutob also took advantage of Georgia Tech’s Prestigious Fellowships Advising for support through the application process.

"Karen Mura and Shannon Dobranski were instrumental in the success of my Goldwater application," she added. "They were available to proofread my application materials, answer questions, and offer suggestions at every stage of the application process."

Qutob hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in astrophysics and conduct research on dark matter's influence on the formation of galaxies.

“I am so proud of the accomplishments and successes of these students," Mura said. "They worked diligently on their Goldwater applications, which required several short answer essays and a three-page research essay. In addition, this marks the first time that Georgia Tech has had five recipients – the largest number of recipients allowed by Goldwater. Each institution is allowed to nominate four applicants and a fifth applicant if they are a transfer student for the national competition per year."

Learn more about the latest Georgia Tech Goldwater Scholars.

About the Goldwater Scholarship

The Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation was established by Congress in 1986 to serve as a living memorial to honor the lifetime work of Senator Barry Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years in the U.S. Senate.

By providing scholarships to college sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering, the Goldwater Foundation is helping ensure that the U.S. is producing the number of highly-qualified professionals the Nation needs in these critical fields.

Over its 30-year history, Goldwater Scholarships have been awarded to thousands of undergraduates, many of whom have gone on to win other prestigious awards like the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Fellowship, Rhodes Scholarship, Churchill Scholarship and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship that support our Scholars’ graduate school work.

Today, Goldwater alumni can be found conducting research that is helping defend the United States, finding cures for catastrophic diseases and teaching future generations of scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

Apply for Fellowship Awards

Students interested in the Goldwater Scholarship, or any nationally or internationally competitive award, can follow up by scheduling an appointment with Karen Mura on AdvisorLink.

Pre-Graduate and Pre-Professional Advising is part of the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE). Learn more about OUE by following @gtoue on social media.

Subtitle

Qutob is among five Georgia Tech undergraduates awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for 2023.

Summary sentence

Qutob is among five Georgia Tech undergraduates awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for 2023.

Summary

Nadia Qutob is among five Georgia Tech undergraduates awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for 2023. By providing scholarships to students who intend to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering across the U.S. the Goldwater Foundation helps develop highly-qualified professionals in these critical fields.

Dateline

Mon, 06/26/2023 - 12:00

jess@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

Jess Hunt-Ralston
Director of Communications
College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

Cory Hopkins
Marketing Communications Manager
Office of Undergraduate Education at Georgia Tech

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Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation

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668228

Source updated

Tue, 10/17/2023 - 17:39

Six Sciences Graduate Scholars Join the Ranks of Haley Fellows

dgivens8 — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 15:40:12 +0000

Six Sciences Graduate Scholars Join the Ranks of Haley Fellows dgivens8 Mon, 10/23/2023 - 11:40

The College of Sciences congratulates six of its graduate scholars who have won Herbert P. Haley Fellowships for the 2023-24 school year.

The new Haley Fellows are:

Haley scholars receive a one-time merit award of up to $4,000 thanks to the generosity of the late Marion Peacock Haley. Haley’s estate established the creation of merit-based graduate fellowships at Georgia Tech in honor of her late husband, Herbert P. Haley (ME 1933). It is an award which may be held in conjunction with other funding, assistantships, or fellowships, if applicable.

Meet the Haley Fellows

Jessica Deutsch

Jessica Deutsch is a fifth-year Ph.D. student studying analytical chemistry. “One of the most intriguing aspects of analytical chemistry is that the field focuses on studying invisible things in order to make sense of the visible,” Deuthsch says. “I am researching a deadly coral disease that affects Florida and Caribbean reefs. I aim to provide insight into how this disease impacts the production of small molecules using a mass spectrometry-based approach, which can provide insight into how relationships between the coral animal, algae, and bacteria may be impacted by this disease.”

She wishes to thank Assistant Professor Neha Garg “for her mentorship and the opportunities she has provided that have enabled me to develop my research skills.”

Quynh Nguyen

Quynh Nguyen is a third-year Ph.D. student looking into phase- and shape-controlled synthesis of nanocrystals for catalysis and energy-related applications. “What fascinates me is the ability to manipulate matter at the nanoscale to drive sustainable advances,” Nguyen says. “This field places me at the exciting intersection of chemistry, materials science, and nanotechnology, aiming to address current challenges in sustainability and renewable energy.”

Nguyen’s Ph.D. advisor is Younan Xia, professor, Brock Family Chair and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Nanomedicine. “Xia's guidance and expertise have been instrumental in shaping my research focus and methodology. Beyond the lab, he has consistently encouraged me to pursue opportunities that contribute to both my academic and professional development, for which I am immensely grateful.”

Eliza Gazda

Eliza Gazda, a fifth-year graduate scholar, is working in the field of multi-messenger particle astrophysics.

Gazda designed, tested, and integrated a telescope camera which was the payload on a scientific balloon launched in May. “The telescope launched is the first optical balloon of this type that operated at high altitudes over 30 kilometers,” Gazda says. “Our telescope observed radiative air showers from high energy cosmic rays and particles which travel across the Earth from extreme astrophysical objects like neutron stars and black holes. Once analyzed, this work will give us insight into high energy events that occur in space, and allow us to design and launch future similar telescopes.”

Gazda’s mentor is Associate Professor Nepomuk Otte, “who guided me in the past through a summer internship at Georgia Tech and inspired me to come back to work on my Ph.D. here. Not only has he taught me lab skills, but he helps me with my career goals, and guides me in exploring our research field, networking, and learning about various disciplines within the field.”

Sydney Popsuj

A fifth-year Ph.D. student, Sydney Popsuj is researching the gene Dkk3 and how it might regulate neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration in tunicates, close siblings to vertebrates. “This gene is implicated in Alzheimer's disease and dementia, but because it is hard to study in disease models, we don't have a strong grasp on the general functionality of the gene. I am using tunicates as a model system to study because they are biphasic, meaning they have both a larval and adult stage. This work is very exciting to me because it incorporates large scale evolutionary questions, while also having an impact on better understanding a gene that seems quite important to diseases and disorders.”

Popsuj thanks Georgia Tech faculty members Shuyi Nie, Joe LaChance, Patrick McGrath, Tim Cope, and Billie Swalla at the University of Washington “for pushing me to find new and exciting avenues into how to relate and generalize my work. These mentors have also encouraged me to expand outside my comfort zone in academics and to embrace new technologies and approaches that will hopefully further expand methods and protocols available to tunicate researchers.”

Jose Luis Ramirez-Colón

A third-year graduate scholar, Jose Luis Ramirez-Colón “has always been fascinated by the question of where we come from, and my time at Georgia Tech has been dedicated to using science as a tool to further explore this question.” His research focuses on exploring the organic inventory present in carbonaceous chondrites, meteorites that are like time capsules from the early days of the Solar System.

“Many organic classes present in all life as we know it, such as amino acids, sugars, and nucleobases, have been detected in these meteorites; therefore, there’s this idea that these meteorites might've delivered these essential building blocks to early Earth to kick-start life as we know it,” Ramirez-Colón says. His mission at Georgia Tech is to develop methods to detect, extract, and characterize those building blocks.

Ramirez-Colón wants to acknowledge “the remarkable contributions of my advisor and mentor, Christopher Carr, who has played a pivotal role in propelling my journey as an advancing Puerto Rican scientist. Carr not only granted me the freedom to pursue the questions that have always ignited my passion for science, but also equipped me with the essential tools and resources needed to conduct meaningful research.”

Sidney Scott-Sharoni

Sidney Scott-Sharoni is entering her fourth year of Ph.D. studies. An engineering psychology major, Scott-Sharoni focuses on “understanding how humans interact and conceptualize artificial intelligence devices,” she explains.

“Specifically, I investigate creative methods to convey information to calibrate users’ trust, and understand their psychological well-being, most often in automated vehicles,” Scott-Sharoni says. “I love my area of research because it combines the study of people with the study of innovative technology. I feel like I am researching the people of the future!”

Scott-Sharoni’s advisor, Professor Bruce Walker, “has significantly helped my personal and professional development as a researcher. I am very grateful for his continued mentorship throughout my graduate education.”

Subtitle

The College of Sciences graduate students were chosen as 2023-24 Herbert P. Haley Fellowships for their research and academic achievements

Summary sentence

The College of Sciences graduate students were chosen as 2023-24 Herbert P. Haley Fellowships for their research and academic achievements

Summary

The College of Sciences graduate students were chosen as 2023-24 Herbert P. Haley Fellowships for their research and academic achievements.

Dateline

Wed, 09/20/2023 - 12:00

renay.san@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

Writer: Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer II/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

Editor: Jess Hunt-Ralston

Keywords

College of Sciences

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

School of Biological Sciences

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

School of Physics

School of Psychology

Jessica Deutsch

Quynh Nguyen

Eliza Gazda

Sydney Popsuj

Jose Luis Ramirez-Colón

Sidney Scott-Sharoni

Herbert P. Haley Fellowships

graduate students

Categories

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Life Sciences and Biology

Physics and Physical Sciences

Student and Faculty

Student Honors and Achievements

Mercury ID

669798

Source updated

Tue, 10/17/2023 - 17:49

Physicists Solve Mysteries of Microtubule Movers

admin — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 19:46:41 +0000

Physicists Solve Mysteries of Microtubule Movers admin Fri, 09/22/2023 - 15:46

Active matter is any collection of materials or systems composed of individual units that can move on their own, thanks to self-propulsion or autonomous motion. They can be of any size — think clouds of bacteria in a petri dish, or schools of fish.

Roman Grigoriev is mostly interested in the emergent behaviors in active matter systems made up of units on a molecular scale — tiny systems that convert stored energy into directed motion, consuming energy as they move and exert mechanical force.

“Active matter systems have garnered significant attention in physics, biology, and materials science due to their unique properties and potential applications,” Grigoriev, a professor in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech, explains.

“Researchers are exploring how active matter can be harnessed for tasks like designing new materials with tailored properties, understanding the behavior of biological organisms, and even developing new approaches to robotics and autonomous systems,” he says.

But that’s only possible if scientists learn how the microscopic units making up active matter interact, and whether they can affect these interactions and thereby the collective properties of active matter on the macroscopic scale.

Grigoriev and his research colleagues have found a potential first step by developing a new model of active matter that generated new insight into the physics of the problem. They detail their methods and results in a new study published in Science Advances, “Physically informed data-driven modeling of active nematics.”

School of Physics graduate researcher Matthew Golden is the study's lead author. Co-authors are graduate researcher Jyothishraj Nambisan and Alberto Fernandez-Nieves, professor in the Department of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Barcelona and a former associate professor of Physics at Georgia Tech.

A two-dimensional 'solution?'

The research team focused on one of the most common examples of active matter, a suspension of self-propelled particles, such as bacteria or synthetic microswimmers, in a liquid medium. These particles cluster, swarm, and otherwise form dynamic patterns due to their ability to move and interact with each other.

“In our paper, we use data from an experimental system involving suspensions of microtubules, which provide structural support, shape, and organization to eukaryotic cells (any cell with a clearly defined nucleus),” Grigoriev explains.

Microtubules, as well as actin filaments and some bacteria, are examples of nematics, rod-like objects whose "heads" are indistinguishable from their "tails.”

The motion of microtubules is driven by molecular motors powered by a protein, kinesin, which consumes adenosine triphosphate (ATP) dissolved in the liquid to slide a pair of neighboring microtubules past one another. The researcher’s system used microtubules suspended between layers of oil and water, which restricted their movement to two dimensions.

“That makes it easier to visualize the microtubules and track their motion. By changing the kinesin or ATP concentrations, we could control the motion of the microtubules, making this experimental setup by far one of the most popular in the study of active nematics and even more generally, active matter,” Grigoriev said.

‘This is where the story gets interesting’

Getting a clearer picture of microtubular movements was just one discovery in the study.

Another was learning more about the relationships between the characteristic patterns describing the orientation and motion of nematic molecules on a macroscopic scale. Those patterns, or topological defects, determine how the nematics orient themselves at the oil-water interface, that is in two spatial dimensions.

“Understanding the relationship between the flow — the global property of the system, or the fluid — and the topological defects, which describe the local orientation of microtubules, is one of the key intellectual questions facing researchers in the field,” Grigoriev said. “One needs to correctly identify the dominant physical effects which control the interaction between the microtubules and the surrounding fluid.”

“And this is where the story gets interesting,” Grigoriev adds. “For over a decade, it was believed that the key physics were well understood, with a large number of theoretical and computational studies relying on a generally accepted first principles model” — that is, one based on established science — “that was originally derived for active nematics in three spatial dimensions.”

In the Georgia Tech model, though, the dynamics of active nematics — more specifically, the length and time scales of the emerging patterns — are controlled by a pair of physical constants describing those assumed dominant physical effects: the stiffness of the microtubules (their flexibility), and the activity describing the stress, or force, generated by the kinesin motors.

“Using a data-driven approach, we inferred the correct form of the model demonstrating that, for two-dimensional active nematics, the dominant physical effects are different from what was previously assumed,” Grigoriev says. “In particular, the time scale is set by the rate at which bundles of microtubules are stretched by kinesin.” It is this rate, rather than the stress, that is constant.

The danger of confirmation bias

Grigoriev said the results of the study have important implications for understanding of active nematics and their emergent behaviors, explaining that they help rationalize a number of recent experimental results that were previously unexplained, such as how the density of topological defects scales with the concentration of kinesin and the viscosity of the fluid layers.

“More importantly, our results demonstrate the danger associated with traditional assumptions that established research communities often land on and have difficulty overcoming,” Grigoriev said. “While data-driven methods may have their own sources of bias, they offer a perspective which is different enough from more traditional approaches to become a valuable research tool in their own right.”

About Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is one of the top public research universities in the U.S., developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its more than 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students, representing 50 states and more than 148 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society.

Funding: This study was funded by the National Science Foundation, grant no. CMMI-2028454. “Physically informed data-driven modeling of active nematics,” DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq6120

Subtitle

Physicists have developed a new model and clearer picture of molecular movements within active matter — bringing science a step closer to designing specific functions into new materials, and understanding emergent behaviors.

Summary sentence

Summary

Dateline

Fri, 09/01/2023 - 12:00

renay.san@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

Writer: Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer II/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

Editor: Jess Hunt-Ralston

Keywords

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School of Physics

Roman Grigoriev

Alberto Fernandez-Nieves

active matter

microtubules

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Source updated

Fri, 09/22/2023 - 15:44

No Title

admin — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 21:56:31 +0000

No Title admin Tue, 09/19/2023 - 17:56

Subtitle

Physicist Claire Berger has been awarded the Chevalier dans L'ordre des Palmes Académiques for her groundbreaking graphene research — and her work on strengthening ties between U.S. and French scientists.

Summary sentence

Summary

Dateline

Tue, 09/19/2023 - 12:00

renay.san@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

Writer: Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer II/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

Editor: Jess Hunt-Ralston

Keywords

College of Sciences

School of Physics

Claire Berger

Walter de Heer

Chevalier dans L'Ordre des Palmes Académiques

graphene

French Embassy

French National Center for Scientific Research

cos-community

cos-quantum

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Source updated

Tue, 09/19/2023 - 17:48

New Quantum State Discovered in Trimer-Honeycomb Material

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 22:56:55 +0000

New Quantum State Discovered in Trimer-Honeycomb Material admin Thu, 02/23/2023 - 17:56

A group of physicists, including two Georgia Tech researchers, have discovered a new quantum state. The study, published in the journal Nature, uncovered novel looping currents flowing along the edges of octahedral cells in a crystal of Mn3Si2Te6, which allowed for a billion percent increase in the material’s electric conductivity. The findings could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices and superconductors.

The team consisted of Georgia Tech theoretical physicists Sami Hakani and Itamar Kimchi, along with experimental physicists Feng Ye (Oak Ridge National Lab), Lance DeLong (University of Kentucky), and, from the University of Colorado at Boulder: Gang Cao, Yifei Ni, Yu Zhang, and Hengdi Zhao. The group was drawn to the research after their previous study investigated the same material.

“Because this material did not fit any preexisting models, we had to develop new ideas to understand it,” said Georgia Tech graduate student Hakani, who played a key role in developing the theory. “These new ideas will help us study related materials that could be used for next-generation magnetic field devices.”

An Exception to the Rule

The physicists first became interested in the Mn3Si2Te6 material due to its unique electrical properties — in particular, a property called colossal magnetoresistance, an extreme enhancement in a material’s electrical conductivity when a magnetic field is applied.

In most materials, applying a magnetic field does not change that material’s conductivity. However, in another class of materials, applying a magnetic field does change conductivity; this is called magnetoresistance, and it can scale to “giant” and “colossal” changes in conductivity. In instances of colossal magnetoresistance, a material can change from behaving like an insulator (like Styrofoam) to being as conductive as a metal wire.

This change is not altogether unusual. Materials displaying giant magnetoresistance are not uncommon and are often used in computers; however, in all of these known materials, the material does not change its behavior in a way that significantly depends on the direction of the applied magnetic field. This new trimer-honeycomb material does.

“The phenomenon defies all existing theoretical models and experimental precedents,” said Kimchi, theoretical physicist and assistant professor in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech. And that’s where he and Hakani come in.

Uncovering Looping Currents

“As theoretical physicists, we develop new kinds of mathematical models,” said Kimchi. “When it’s qualitatively difficult to understand how anything can make sense in experimental data — when there’s something qualitatively shocking — we try to come up with that basic picture.”

Using the information uncovered by the experimental physicists, Hakani and Kimchi set out to understand why the extreme change in conductivity only happens when the magnetic field is applied perpendicularly to the honeycomb-like surface of the material.

“Our idea smelled promising, but, unfortunately, we quickly realized that currents between the magnetic manganese ions would be forbidden by symmetry, which was discouraging,” said Kimchi. “However, Sami then did the symmetry analysis for the octahedrally arranged tellurium ions, and, for them, currents were symmetry-allowed and could work out!”

Viewed from above, the material looks like a series of two-dimensional honeycombs. From the side, however, the material is composed of “sheets,” like a layer cake. Within each “sheet” of honeycomb, electrons can move in circular paths around each octahedral cell. These looping, circular-moving currents within the material are responsible for the material’s unique behavior.

On its own, without a magnetic field present, electrons move both counterclockwise and clockwise around the honeycomb “cells,” like cars going in both directions around a roundabout. Just like in uncontrolled traffic, “traffic jams” make it difficult for electrons to move quickly throughout the material. Without a way to streamline traffic, the material acts more like an insulator.

However, if a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the honeycomb-like surface, a “flow of traffic” is established, and electrons navigate the loops more quickly. The material then acts as a conductor, showing a seven-magnitude increase in conductivity — equivalent to an increase of a billion percent.

A New Paradigm

The transformation from insulator to conductor can also be driven by applying electrical currents in the material, but in that case, it doesn’t happen instantaneously. It can take seconds or even minutes for the material to switch from insulator to conductor.

The team believes that this tunability and slower type of switching, coupled with the material’s sensitivity to currents, could lead to new applications and discoveries in current-controlled quantum devices, a field of devices that range from sensors to computers to secure communication.

The next step? Working to better understand the newly discovered quantum state, and finding other materials where the quantum state might exist.

“Looking forward, we hope to understand not only what makes this material special, but also which microscopic ingredients are needed for related materials to become useful quantum technologies in our future,” said Hakani.

Subtitle

The transformation allows for a billion percent increase in the material’s conductivity and could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices.

Summary sentence

The transformation allows for a billion percent increase in the material’s conductivity and could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices.

Summary

A group of physicists, including two Georgia Tech researchers, have discovered a new quantum state in trimer-honeycomb material. The transformation allows for a billion percent increase in the material’s conductivity and could lead to a new paradigm for quantum devices. The discovery builds on a previous study that first investigated the material, also known as Mn3Si2Te6, for its unusual and unique qualities.

Dateline

Thu, 02/23/2023 - 12:00

jess@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

By: Selena Langner
Writer, College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

Media Contact: Jess Hunt-Ralston
Director of Communications, College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

Location

Atlanta, GA

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School of Physics

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Itamar Kimchi

Sami Hakani

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Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure

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Mercury ID

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Source updated

Thu, 02/23/2023 - 17:17

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Physicists Solve Mysteries of Microtubule Movers

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New Quantum State Discovered in Trimer-Honeycomb Material

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A New Paradigm

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