School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

From Poetry to Polymers: How the Pursuit of a Creative Path Led to Electrochromic Materials

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 14:54:59 +0000

From Poetry to Polymers: How the Pursuit of a Creative Path Led to Electrochromic Materials admin Fri, 06/06/2025 - 10:54

Eric Shen, a research engineer in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, loves art and science in equal measure — and believes it’s possible for creatives to build STEM careers that foster joy. In the latest installment of the “Unexpected Paths” series, Shen discusses his work with color-changing windows and why he continues to be at Georgia Tech after over a decade.

Read the article here »

Summary sentence

Eric Shen loves art and science in equal measure — and believes it’s possible for creatives to build STEM careers that foster joy.

Summary

Eric Shen loves art and science in equal measure — and believes it’s possible for creatives to build STEM careers that foster joy. Learn about his unexpected path to becoming a research engineer in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Dateline

Wed, 05/28/2025 - 12:00

Keywords

cos-community

College of Sciences

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

News room topics

Campus and Community

Categories

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Research

Student and Faculty

Mercury ID

682584

Source updated

Fri, 06/06/2025 - 10:54

Georgia Tech Celebrates Two Goldwater Scholarship Recipients

dgivens8 — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 15:17:41 +0000

Georgia Tech Celebrates Two Goldwater Scholarship Recipients dgivens8 Wed, 04/16/2025 - 11:17

Georgia Tech is proud to announce that two of its outstanding students have been awarded the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship for their exceptional academic achievements and dedication to STEM research. The recipients, Matthew Rohan and Anirudh Sriram, have demonstrated remarkable potential in their respective fields.

Matthew Rohan, a B.S. in Chemistry student graduating in 2026, has been recognized for his commitment to studying and applying physical chemistry towards future innovation. Matthew's journey at Georgia Tech has been marked by his passion for chemistry and his drive to contribute to scientific advancements. This summer, he will be returning to work at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Fuels & Energy Branch, where he will study deposition chemistry in jet fuel.

Matthew's advice to new students is to find something that is both interesting and fulfilling. Reflecting on his experience applying for the Goldwater Scholarship, Matthew shared, "The application process gave me the chance to reflect on my current progress and further develop my application for graduate school. I am both humbled and honored to be among the recipients."

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship has provided Matthew with the confidence and support to continue his academic pursuits in chemistry.

Anirudh Sriram, a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering student graduating in 2026, aims to advance precision medicine in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, focusing on the safety and scalability of immunotherapies through computational modeling. Anirudh's dedication to innovation via research has driven him to pursue skills within his field that he is passionate about.

Anirudh applied for the Goldwater Scholarship because it aligns with his passion for research and provides access to critical funding, mentorship, and a network of like-minded individuals. This summer, he will continue working on a project regarding gene expression analysis in various cancer tissue samples. Anirudh believes this experience will validate his research approach and open doors to collaborate with top-level researchers and scientists.

Anirudh's advice to new students is to find what they are passionate about within their field of study and pursue skills within that space.

Congratulations to Matthew Rohan and Anirudh Sriram on their well-deserved recognition. We look forward to their continued contributions to the scientific community.

If you are interested in applying for the Goldwater Scholarship, visit success.gatech.edu/prestigious-fellowships.

Summary sentence

Chemistry major Matthew Rohan and biomedical engineering major Anirudh Sriram were awarded the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship for exceptional academic achievements and dedication to STEM research.

Summary

Dateline

Wed, 04/16/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Georgia Brunner
Prestigious Fellowships Advisor
gbrunner6@gatech.edu

Associated importer

Keywords

College of Sciences

cos-students

Goldwater Scholarship

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Categories

Institute and Campus

Student Honors and Achievements

Mercury ID

681837

Source updated

Wed, 04/16/2025 - 11:17

Georgia Tech Chemistry Students Place Second in Competitive VIP Poster Contest

dgivens8 — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 14:38:41 +0000

Georgia Tech Chemistry Students Place Second in Competitive VIP Poster Contest dgivens8 Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:38

Students from the College of Sciences competed in the statewide Vertical Integrated Project (VIP) Innovation competition, hosted by the VIP Consortium this spring. The team, made up of two undergraduate students, Diya Godavarti and Waynell Simbafo, and one chemistry graduate student who served as a mentor, John Pederson, placed second overall in the poster category. Their poster on modeling chemical exposure in the workplace focused on socioeconomic disparities in potentially toxic environments.

“Placing second speaks volumes for Georgia Tech and the capabilities and abilities of these students,” says Pamela Pollet, faculty with the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Pollet served as the team’s faculty advisor along with Jenny Houlroyd, manager of Occupational Health Services at Georgia Tech.

Each year, the VIP poster competition challenges undergraduate students from throughout Georgia to use their different majors, mindsets, and abilities to solve a real, universal problem. The goal is to give students experience in a field of study and in working together to solve a seemingly complex problem. Georgia Tech’s team, which was pre-selected by faculty and jury members, was one of approximately 70 teams eligible to participate at the statewide competition held in March.

Pollet says the student’s poster, which combined chemistry, chemical safety, and social justice, was born from their interest in examining chemical exposure dangers for those who are not equipped to recognize such hazards.

“There is some social injustice in this context because the people who are most exposed to chemical dangers are often the people who don’t have the education to recognize the hazards and often are the most socioeconomically vulnerable,” Pollet explains.

Godavarti, a second-year student in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, says the team was proud of the bigger goal of the project — and its alignment with Georgia Tech’s mission. “We wanted to bring awareness about the impact of chemical exposure and what can be done to prevent dangerous levels of exposure. It was interesting to think about this from a business perspective in the idea of how we can apply these models to help people.”

The VIP chemical equity initiative received a Center for Teaching and Learning Undergraduate Sustainability Education Innovation Grant to continue the research this upcoming academic year, and will welcome both new and returning students.

Subtitle

Summary sentence

A Georgia Tech team placed second in the statewide Vertical Integrated Project Innovation competition for a poster modeling chemical exposure and socioeconomic disparities.

Summary

A Georgia Tech team placed second in the statewide Vertical Integrated Project Innovation competition for a poster modeling chemical exposure and socioeconomic disparities.

Dateline

Wed, 08/14/2024 - 12:00

acook304@gatech.edu

Contact

Writer: Amanda Cook
Communications Specialist II
College of Sciences

Keywords

College of Sciences

Georgia Tech Vertically Integrated Projects

3D chemical mapping

computer modeling

cos-community

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Categories

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Education

Institute and Campus

Research

Student and Faculty

Student Competition WInners (academic, innovation, and research)

Student Research

Mercury ID

675799

Source updated

Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:36

Isabel Berry Earns Prestigious Department of Energy Fellowship

dgivens8 — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 17:07:41 +0000

Isabel Berry Earns Prestigious Department of Energy Fellowship dgivens8 Thu, 07/18/2024 - 13:07

Chemistry Ph.D. student Isabel Berry has been named a U.S. Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellow (DOE CSGF).

The program trains emerging leaders in computational science, providing opportunities and funding to students pursuing doctoral degrees in fields that use high-performance computing to solve complex science and engineering problems.

“I am honored to receive this fellowship,” says Berry. “In addition to the support for my Georgia Tech studies, I’m especially excited to participate in the three-month practicum where I’ll collaborate with leading DOE scientists.”

According to the DOE, the practicum takes place at one of 21 DOE laboratories or sites across the country, offering the fellows insights into how their scientific interests can translate to research areas important to the nation.

At Georgia Tech, Berry is a graduate research assistant for the Sherrill Group, spearheading research on using quantum mechanics and high-performance computing to understand how drug molecules bind to proteins.

“Computational chemists are always trying to balance speed and accuracy. My current research focuses on accuracy–modeling proteins with thousands of atoms to understand why some drugs work better than others,” explains Berry. “One of the practicum benefits will be access to the DOE’s supercomputers. I’m looking forward to learning how these incredible computers can help us further implement data-driven approaches to screen potential drug candidates (small molecules) even more rapidly.”

The fellowship is renewable for up to four years. As of September 1, 2024, the DOE CSGF will have onboarded more than 675 students across 34 cohorts representing 84 Ph.D. institutions. There are a record 40 incoming fellows for 2024-2025, with Berry the sole recipient from Georgia Tech.

"Izzy is an amazing student. She came to Georgia Tech with a B.S. in Chemistry and minors in computer science, applied math, and physics—as well as research experience in computational biophysics,” says David Sherrill, Regents’ Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Computational Science and Engineering who oversees Berry’s work. “She is exactly the kind of interdisciplinary student the DOE wants to recognize with their Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. I'm thrilled she's received this prestigious recognition."

Summary sentence

Berry, a Chemistry Ph.D. student, is one of 40 students in the U.S. to receive the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship awarded to emerging leaders in computational science.

Summary

Berry, a Chemistry Ph.D. student, is one of 40 students in the U.S. to receive the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship awarded to emerging leaders in computational science. She is the sole student from Georgia Tech to earn the distinction this year.

Dateline

Wed, 07/17/2024 - 12:00

laura.smith@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

Laura S. Smith
Communications Officer II
College of Sciences

Associated importer

Keywords

computational science

computational chemistry

super computer

College of Sciences

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

cos-students

Categories

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Education

Research

Student Honors and Achievements

Student Research

Mercury ID

675499

Source updated

Thu, 07/18/2024 - 13:06

CMDI: Mighty Microbial Dynamics for a Healthier People and Planet

admin — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 20:27:56 +0000

CMDI: Mighty Microbial Dynamics for a Healthier People and Planet admin Thu, 02/15/2024 - 15:27

Shaping the shared future of microbes and human health is the mission for Georgia Tech’s Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI).

Yes, there are similar academic-based centers studying infectious diseases and the microbes that cause them, but to understand what makes Georgia Tech’s center different, Sam Brown, CMDI co-director and a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, says to concentrate on that third letter in the Center's name.

“Focus on dynamics,” says Brown. “That’s basically how microbes are changing over time and space as well as how they’re changing systems in time. This notion of dynamics operates on different scales. It operates, as I see it, on a behavioral scale — individual bugs making decisions and changing their behavior in time.”

Ecological dynamics are “how populations are changing with time, and how they’re interacting with other communities — for example in biofilms,” Brown adds, referring to the name for communities of microorganisms that stick to surfaces and create their own “neighborhoods.”

There are also evolutionary dynamics, which are worrying to Brown and other researchers, as they can mean bacteria increase resistance to antibiotics. And then there are epidemiological dynamics.

“We’re all glued to our screens watching the epidemiological dynamics of Covid-19 play out in real time,” he explains.

All of this involves the study of some of the natural world’s tiniest troublemakers — and helpers. Humans are pathetically outnumbered by microbes. They live in, on, and around all of us. They are at both ends of the human food chain, helping farmers grow food, and then assisting us in digesting our meals.

“You have trillions of bacteria in your gut,” points out Marvin Whiteley, CMDI’s founding co-director who serves as a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Tech Bennie H. and Nelson D. Abell Chair in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and co-director for Emory-Children’s CF Center. So, in the spectrum of these tiny communities, there are helpful and harmful microbes alike — and the latter can often make us very sick. That’s where CMDI experts step in.

“CMDI is working to transform how we study microbes in an environmental context, and ultimately find new microbial strategies to improve human and environmental health,” Brown says.

CMDI’s science is conducted in an interdisciplinary manner, like many other research centers at Georgia Tech, with research that reaches into a number of other disciplines — microbial ecology, microbiome dynamics, biogeochemistry, microbial biophysics, socio-microbiology, infection dynamics, host-pathogen interactions, marine and aquatic microbiology, microbial evolution, viral ecology, spatial imaging, and math/computational modeling.

The Center is fairly new, beginning operations in 2018. Yet it’s already closing in on 100 researchers — faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral students — and is aggressively recruiting early career scientists from around the world to research at CMDI.

“We are a unique interdisciplinary research center since our expertise spans such broad subjects from coral reef ecosystems, to antibiotic resistant bacteria, to new infectious diseases therapies,” explains Maria Avdonina, CMDI manager.

Building CMDI’s foundation, and using it to attack P. aeruginosa

“How does a pathogen do what it does at the molecular level?” Marvin Whiteley asks.

It is a question that he began asking at The University of Texas at Austin, where he founded another center to study infectious disease before coming to Georgia Tech in 2017. Back then, Whiteley was looking for the kind of interdisciplinary mix of researchers that can be found widely across the Institute, so he moved to Atlanta and built that into the CMDI’s mission as its founding co-director.

“It’s the idea of not just working with pure microbiologists, but working with those interested in how things change, and their dynamic aspects, even daily changes in the microbiome,” he says, referring to the term used to describe all the microorganisms that live in a particular environment, whether it’s a human body or a body of land or water. “It requires modelers — people used to looking at big data sets — and people who think about evolutionary biology. It’s a unique kind of expertise that I don’t have in my lab, but the folks who work for me in the lab can take advantage of it within CMDI.”

Whiteley’s research interests include the study of cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic disease that results in bacteria chronically attacking the lungs of its patients. To combat disease, Whiteley is focusing research on Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), a particularly dangerous bacteria that’s often found in CF patients’ lungs. He notes that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) lists it as one of the primary pathogens that is cause for clinical concern.

“It lives in nature, but we published a paper showing it’s not everywhere. It’s located near human activity, so wherever we are, it seems to grow and do really well. It’s in a lot of different diseases — and CF is one of them.”

P. aeruginosa is also “a really important cause of wound infections,” Whiteley adds, citing a CDC estimate that by 2050, about 20 percent of the entire U.S. healthcare budget could be spent treating chronic wound infections.

“The biggest problem in environments where it’s problematic is hospitals,” he says. “It’s very tolerant of antimicrobials, and it acquires resistance fairly quickly. That causes it to enrich in its environment.”

Taking on Covid-19

Joshua Weitz, who is a CMDI faculty member, professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in Biological Sciences, and founding director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences program, is a key scientist behind Georgia Tech’s Covid-19 surveillance testing efforts, along with Covid-19 event risk and population immunity modeling research around nation and beyond.

Weitz has led a series of concurrent efforts to estimate epidemiological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2, develop novel approaches to use large-scale testing as an intervention, and leverage mathematical models and real-time datasets to inform the public of ongoing transmission risk.

Weitz recently received a best paper award from the Georgia Tech Chapter of Sigma Xi for his work on the Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool, which calculates the odds of being exposed to an infected individual in groups of different sizes; it has received more than 8 million unique visitors who have generated more than 40 million risk estimates since the planning tool’s launch in July 2020.

Weitz also joined fellow faculty and staff in sharing an Institute Research Award and Institute Service Award in recognition of collective efforts to design, develop, implement, deploy an asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 saliva-based testing program to address the coronavirus pandemic across campus. “We’re very proud of what Joshua has done,” Sam Brown says, “both in the context of Covid-19 and also in exploring new therapeutic angles for bacterial infections, by harnessing the viral natural enemies of bacteria: phages.”

The search for new antibiotics — and how best to use them

While Covid-19 is a virus that has dominated headlines since early 2020, bacterial resistance to antibiotics has been a problem for decades. Penicillin was first available as an antibiotic in 1941. Staphylococcus aureus was found to be resistant to it as early as 1942.

CMDI faculty member Julia Kubanek, a professor of in the School of Biological Sciences and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, former associate dean for Research in the College of Sciences and newly appointed vice president for Interdisciplinary Research (VPIR) for all of Georgia Tech, has spent the past 17 years diving into the waters near Fiji and the Solomon Islands, looking for natural marine products that could fill that widening gap in resistance-free drugs.

“It’s been a long time since entirely new classes of antibiotics were brought to market,” Kubanek explains. “Pharmaceutical companies have reduced their investments in antibiotic drug discovery, despite the continuing rise of antimicrobial resistance among existing drugs. More resistant strains of infectious bacteria and fungi are evolving constantly and present severe threats to public health.”

The Covid-19 pandemic is a related example. It has revealed that science’s arsenal of antiviral drugs is inadequate, she notes.

Kubanek and CMDI faculty colleague Mark Hay, Regents Professor and Harry and Linda Teasley Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, are both part of Georgia Tech’s drug discovery program, which looks at small molecule natural products from marine organisms as sources for potential future medicines against infectious diseases.

A partnership with Emory University School of Medicine helps researchers screen Georgia Tech’s natural product library — what Kubanek and her research team found on those South Pacific trips — for potential drug candidates has resulted in encouraging news for viruses like SARS-CoV-2, the specific coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

“We’re currently following three promising classes of natural products from marine algae and sponges that show preliminary activity against this coronavirus,” Kubanek says. Those molecules are distinct from currently marketed antivirals and antibiotics, and that could mean more weapons in science’s arsenal for fighting infectious diseases.

CMDI researchers also approach the antibiotic resistance crisis through an epidemiological and evolutionary lens. For example, recent work from the Brown Lab has identified new strategies to slow or even reverse the increase in drug-resistant strains, by changing how doctors dose their drugs, and how they make use of diagnostic information.

Microbes, climate, and environmental health

Beyond human infections and pathogen control, CMDI also focuses on the significant impacts that microbes have on human and environmental health. CMDI faculty member Joel Kostka, professor and associate chair of Research in the School of Biological Sciences who also serves as a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is a leading researcher in environmental microbiology, bringing the power of “omics” technologies to discover the role of environmental microbes in shaping key aspects of our shared world, from bioremediation to climate change.

Kostka’s work led to the discovery of key marine microbes that played an important role in cleaning up the oil spilled during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Disaster — microbes that turned out to be abundant in oil-contaminated soils around the world.

Kostka’s work in this space “revealed a natural capacity for rare microbes in the Gulf of Mexico to catalyze the bioremediation, or natural cleanup, of petroleum hydrocarbons,” he explains. “These microbes show promise as biological indicators to direct emergency response efforts, as well as to elucidate the impacts of oil exposure on ecosystem health during oil spills and other environmental disasters,” he adds.

The Kostka Lab has also long characterized the role of the environment in shaping microbial communities that limit the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.

In a large scale climate change experiment that’s being conducted in northern Minnesota with funding by the U.S. Department of Energy, Kostka’s research recently showed that warming accelerates the production of greenhouse gases from soil microbial respiration — and that microbial activity “was fueled by the release of plant metabolites, suggesting that enhanced greenhouse gas production is likely to persist and result in amplified climate feedbacks.”

“Joel is our key player in this space,” Brown says. “He’s done incredible research on how the environment can dictate microbial species abundance and their behavioral contributions to the functioning of Earth’s ecosystems. He’s shown that different ‘taxa’, or groups of organisms, become metabolically active or ‘switched on’ depending on environmental factors like temperature. His research contributes to building better climate models as well as to develop new geoengineering strategies to adapt to climate change. He’s doing beautiful work.”

CMDI’s global call to early career microbiologists

CMDI’s research is funded by grants from agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health to individual labs run by faculty — and by money distributed directly to the Center from across Georgia Tech, including the College of Sciences and its Office of the Dean and Sutherland Dean's Chair.

These sources “are getting healthier by the minute, and that’s a testament to the scientists at the Center,” Brown points out — so much so that two new positions have recently been created: a senior research scientist who will assist postdoctoral and graduate students with grant and fellowship applications, and a CMDI Early Career Award Fellowship that seeks out “superstars, people who are going to go on to be faculty success stories.”

“We want to get them early,” Brown says. “We’re interviewing some great candidates just out of their Ph.D.s. We’ll give them maximum independence, their own space, their own office, their own pot of money. They’ll be sitting at the intersection of our research interests but can run their own lab and their own research program.”

This allows postdoctoral students to focus on research projects, Julia Kubanek says. “Because postdocs generally don’t enroll in formal courses, nor are they generally expected to teach in the classroom, they get to immerse themselves in research in collaboration with faculty, students, and other postdocs. The CMDI is rapidly growing as a collaborative environment, where postdocs can try out their best ideas and learn from others how to tackle the most pressing scientific questions in microbial dynamics, microbial communication, ecosystem health, and infectious disease.” Kubanek adds that a related fellowship program “will augment postdoctoral salaries to attract the very best candidates, enabling grant dollars to stretch further, leading to new discoveries.”

The Center is also ratcheting up outreach, including what it calls its "Research Envoys Program." The intitiative features graduate students giving seminars at local institutions throughout the Atlanta area, including at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Although it’s mostly on pause right now due to the pandemic, two Ph.D. students and a postdoctoral student working with CMDI faculty member Brian Hammer — a professor in the School of Biological Sciences who is also chair of the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, and co-director of the Aquatic Chemical Ecology Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program — recently gave remote seminars at Spelman College and Kennesaw State University.

“Our trainees get practice in speaking, and it opens doors to folks seeing Georgia Tech as an option,” Brown explains. The CMDI is also working with Georgia Tech’s Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Southern Regional Education Board to continue to increase the number of underrepresented minorities at all levels of recruitment.

“We’re really interested in educating the next generation of scientists in biology,” Whiteley adds. “Everybody says that — but we’re actually developing programs to recruit the best talent in the world.”

CMDI research areas and faculty:

Sam Brown

Virulence, microbiomes, biofilms, cystic fibrosis

Steve Diggle

Biofilms, virulence

Neha Garg

Cystic fibrosis, coral reef microbial disease

Brian Hammer

Vibrio cholerae (cholera), microbial interactions

Mark Hay

Marine ecology/coral reefs

Joel Kostka

Environmental microbiology, biogeochemistry, microbiomes, wetlands, bioremediation

Julia Kubanek

Natural product drug discovery, marine chemical ecology

William Ratcliff

Multicellular evolution, biofilm dynamics

Frank Rosenzweig

Cellular genomics and evolution

Peter Yunker

Soft matter physics, biofilms, multicellular evolution

Joshua Weitz

Viruses/viral modeling, bacteriophages, microbial ecology/evolution

Marvin Whiteley

Microbial ecology/virulence, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, cystic fibrosis

Learn more about each faculty member’s area of research on the CMDI website.

Writer: Renay San Miguel

Editors and Contributors: Jess Hunt-Ralston, Joel Kostka, Joshua Weitz, Julia Kubanek, Maria Avdonina, Marvin Whiteley, Sam Brown

Summary sentence

CMDI merges disciplines, aggressively recruiting microbiologist ‘superstars’ to take back the high ground from antibiotic-resistant pathogens and emerging diseases — and to harness microbes for new medicines, cleaner environments, and climate solutions.

Summary

Georgia Tech’s Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI) merges disciplines, aggressively recruiting microbiologist ‘superstars’ to take back the high ground from antibiotic-resistant pathogens and emerging diseases — and to harness microbes to provide new medicines, cleaner environments, and solutions to the challenges of climate change.

Dateline

Thu, 08/05/2021 - 12:00

renay.san@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

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

Keywords

College of Sciences

CMDI

School of Biological Sciences

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Samuel Brown

Marvin Whiteley

Julia Kubanek

Mark Hay

Joel Kostka

viruses

Microbiology

bacteria

covid-19

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

go-researchnews

go-bio

News room topics

Health and Medicine

Categories

Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Life Sciences and Biology

Research

Student Research

Mercury ID

647519

Source updated

Thu, 02/15/2024 - 15:27

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

The Nobel Whisperer: M.G. Finn on Click Chemistry and Collaboration

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 19:47:41 +0000

The Nobel Whisperer: M.G. Finn on Click Chemistry and Collaboration admin Wed, 01/25/2023 - 14:47

On Dec. 10, 2022, Georgia Tech chemist M.G. Finn found himself in the Stockholm Concert Hall wearing a tuxedo. It was a big night — the 126th anniversary of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel's death — but the mood was anything but somber.

Read the story here.

Summary sentence

A story of human connection at the heart of Nobel-winning science

Summary

Dateline

Wed, 01/25/2023 - 12:00

catherine.barzler@gatech.edu

Contact

Catherine Barzler, Senior Research Writer

Location

Atlanta, GA

Associated importer

Keywords

cos-microbial

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Nobel Prize

Nobel

M.G. Finn

News room topics

Campus and Community

Health and Medicine

Science and Technology

Core research areas

Bioengineering and Bioscience

Mercury ID

665119

Source updated

Wed, 01/25/2023 - 13:38

Faculty Honored as National Academy of Inventors Fellows

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 16:23:48 +0000

Faculty Honored as National Academy of Inventors Fellows admin Fri, 12/09/2022 - 11:23

Three faculty from Georgia Tech have been chosen as 2022 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows, the highest professional distinction for academic inventors.

The new class of fellows includes Adegboyega "Yomi" Oyelere of the College of Sciences, along with Madhavan Swaminathan and Zhong Lin Wang of the College of Engineering.

They are among approximately 150 honorees from research universities and governmental and non-profit institutions around the world. They were chosen by the NAI for demonstrating “a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society.”

Oyelere is a professor in the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry. His research spans bioorganic chemistry, biochemistry, and drug design with interrelated work across RNA-small molecule interaction, targeted histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition, and design and synthesis of novel bioconjugates for molecular delivery applications.

Oyelere's lab has worked to develop a therapeutic strategy for cancer treatment to inhibit enzymes called histone deacetylases, which play an important role in the regulation of gene expression. He has also worked on the design of histone deacetylase inhibitors that can be taken up by the hormones expressed on the surface of hormone-positive breast cancer cells to stop the cells from dividing. In 2018, he received Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Undergraduate Mentor Senior Faculty Award.

Swaminathan is the John Pippin Chair in Microsystems Packaging & Electromagnetics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and has a joint appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). He directs the 3D Systems Packaging Research Center at Georgia Tech. He is an internationally recognized researcher in electronics packaging, an area that is expected to fuel the semiconductor industry over the next decade.

Swaminathan holds 31 patents and is the founder and co-founder of two start-up companies (E-System Design and Jacket Micro Devices).

Wang is the Regents’ Professor and Hightower Chair Emeritus in MSE. His discovery and breakthroughs in developing nanogenerators established the principle and technological roadmap for harvesting mechanical energy from environment and biological systems for powering mobile sensors.

Wang’s work also pioneered the field of self-powered sensors, and he coined piezotronics and piezo-phototronics for the third-generation semiconductors. Wang holds 70 U.S. and foreign patents.

Georgia Tech now has 16 NAI Fellows. The new cohort will be inducted at the NAI Fellows Induction Ceremony in July.

Summary sentence

Three faculty from Georgia Tech have been chosen as 2022 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows, the highest professional distinction for academic inventors.

Summary

Three faculty from Georgia Tech have been chosen as 2022 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows, the highest professional distinction for academic inventors: Adegboyega "Yomi" Oyelere of the College of Sciences, along with Madhavan Swaminathan and Zhong Lin Wang of the College of Engineering.

Dateline

Thu, 12/08/2022 - 12:00

jess@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

Jason Maderer

Jess Hunt-Ralston

Keywords

cos-community

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

School of Materials Science and Engineering

go-imat

go-ien

News room topics

Campus and Community

Categories

Institute and Campus

Research

Core research areas

Bioengineering and Bioscience

Electronics and Nanotechnology

People and Technology

Systems

Mercury ID

663752

Source updated

Fri, 12/09/2022 - 11:03

Going Back to Basics Yields a Printable, Transparent Plastic That’s Highly Conductive

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 19:21:14 +0000

Going Back to Basics Yields a Printable, Transparent Plastic That’s Highly Conductive admin Thu, 12/01/2022 - 14:21

It was a simple idea — maybe even too simple to work.

Research scientist James Ponder and a team of Georgia Tech chemists and engineers thought they could design a transparent polymer film that would conduct electricity as effectively as other commonly used materials, while also being flexible and easy to use at an industrial scale.

They’d do it by simply removing the nonconductive material from their conductive element. Sounds logical, right?

The resulting process could yield new kinds of flexible, transparent electronic devices — things like wearable biosensors, organic photovoltaic cells, and virtual or augmented reality displays and glasses.

“We had this initial idea that we have a conductive element that we're covering with a nonconductive material, so what if we just get rid of that,” said Ponder, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at Georgia Tech and returned as a research scientist in mechanical engineering. “It's a simple idea, and there were so many points where it could have failed for different reasons. But it does work, and it works better than we expected.”

Summary sentence

Chemists and engineers collaborate on process that washes away nonconductive side chains from a robust polymer backbone to create a powerful conductive plastic.

Summary

Chemists and engineers collaborate on process that washes away nonconductive side chains from a robust polymer backbone to create a powerful conductive plastic.

Dateline

Thu, 12/01/2022 - 12:00

jstewart@gatech.edu

Contact

Joshua Stewart
College of Engineering

Location

Atlanta, GA

Associated importer

Keywords

cos-quantum

conducting polymer

conductive

transparent conductors

PEDOT

James Ponder

john reynolds

shannon yee

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

G.W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

School of Materials Science and Engineering

go-researchnews

go-imat

go-ien

News room topics

Science and Technology

Core research areas

Electronics and Nanotechnology

Materials

Mercury ID

663561

Source updated

Thu, 12/01/2022 - 11:35

To the Moon, Back, and Beyond

admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 16:16:49 +0000

To the Moon, Back, and Beyond admin Thu, 11/17/2022 - 11:16

The Artemis I rocket launch is a major step in NASA's return to Earth's moon. Hear from seven Georgia Tech experts — including Thom Orlando of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and School of Physics, Feryal Özel of the School of Physics, and Frances Rivera-Hernández of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences — on why we're going and what we might find, the science and politics of space, and predictions on the broader future of space exploration.

To the Moon, Back, and Beyond

Why go back to the Moon now? Thom Orlando examines exploration of the moon and the search for water as the first step to human exploration in our solar system.

How will being on the Moon help us learn about the universe? Feryal Özel explains how the moon can help us learn more about what makes a planet habitable and the search for life throughout the universe.

How will returning to the moon help us answer astrobiological questions and prepare us for human expeditions to Mars? Frances Rivera-Hernández reveals how exploration of the Moon will be a key step forward in our understanding of how life emerged on Earth — and about the search for past evidence of microbial life on Mars.

Check out the full feature in the Georgia Tech newsroom.

Summary sentence

The Artemis I rocket launch is a major step in NASA's return to Earth's moon. Hear from seven Georgia Tech experts on why we're going and what we might find, the science and politics of space, and predictions on the broader future of space exploration.

Summary

The Artemis I rocket launch is a major step in NASA's return to Earth's moon. Hear from seven Georgia Tech experts — including Thom Orlando, Feryal Özel, and Frances Rivera-Hernández — on why we're going and what we might find, the science and politics of space, and predictions on the broader future of space exploration.

Dateline

Wed, 11/16/2022 - 12:00

jess@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

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

Associated importer

Keywords

cos-planetary

CMDI

School of Physics

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Artemis I

NASA

ARTEMIS

Earth's moon

The Moon

Lunar Explorations

Mars

space exploration

rocket launch

News room topics

Campus and Community

Mercury ID

663255

Source updated

Thu, 11/17/2022 - 09:19

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

From Poetry to Polymers: How the Pursuit of a Creative Path Led to Electrochromic Materials

Related links

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Georgia Tech Celebrates Two Goldwater Scholarship Recipients

Keywords

Categories

Georgia Tech Chemistry Students Place Second in Competitive VIP Poster Contest

Related links

Keywords

Categories

Isabel Berry Earns Prestigious Department of Energy Fellowship

Keywords

Categories

CMDI: Mighty Microbial Dynamics for a Healthier People and Planet

Related links

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Six Sciences Graduate Scholars Join the Ranks of Haley Fellows

Jessica Deutsch

Quynh Nguyen

Eliza Gazda

Sydney Popsuj

Jose Luis Ramirez-Colón

Sidney Scott-Sharoni

Related links

Keywords

Categories

The Nobel Whisperer: M.G. Finn on Click Chemistry and Collaboration

Read the story here.

Keywords

News room topics

Core research areas

Faculty Honored as National Academy of Inventors Fellows

Related links

Keywords

News room topics

Categories

Core research areas

Going Back to Basics Yields a Printable, Transparent Plastic That’s Highly Conductive

Keywords

News room topics

Core research areas

To the Moon, Back, and Beyond

To the Moon, Back, and Beyond

Keywords

News room topics