Four graduate students from the College of Sciences were recently selected for the new Community Engagement Graduate Fellowship, made possible through a gift from Google. This one-year research opportunity awards up to $5,000 for each fellow to develop a project with local partners that aims to build stronger communities. 

“It has been a pleasure for the Center for Programs to Increase Engagement in the Sciences (C-PIES) to collaborate with Google and the College of Sciences Advisory Board to bring this fellowship, which will positively impact our community and highlight how science can align with public good,” says Lewis A. Wheaton, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and director of C-PIES. 

In the year ahead, the fellows will work with C-PIES and community partners on campus and in the metro Atlanta area to develop projects in one of three priority areas: civic and policy engagement, community-engaged research, and K-12 research outreach. 

The fellowship was open to all graduate students in the College of Sciences, and four inaugural fellows — Aniruddh Bakshi, Katherine Slenker, Miriam Simma, and Nikolai Simonov — were named based on their exciting, yet feasible applications.

Fellow Aniruddh Bakshi: Strengthening trust in science 

Ph.D. student Aniruddh Bakshi studies the problem of drug delivery at the intersections of organic chemistry, biochemistry, and immunology. As mRNA vaccines are closely related to his area of research, he sees the need for a grassroots outreach movement from young academics to help bolster public confidence in rigorous scientific methodology. 

In collaboration with local hospitals and nonprofits, his proposed project is to start a social media content series, titled “A Day in the Life of a Ph.D. Student,” to show the realities of graduate school for those interested in this career path while connecting his research to broader public issues. 

“Science has the power to solve urgent problems, but only if people understand and trust it,” says Bakshi. “Through this fellowship, I will use my research and outreach efforts to help strengthen that trust — showing how discoveries in drug delivery and vaccine design can make a real difference in people’s lives.” 

Fellow Katherine Slenker: Creating a biodiversity data network 

Atlanta is often referred to as “the city in a forest,” but according to Ph.D. student Katherine Slenker, wildlife has a difficult time navigating across roads and housing developments, often resulting in human-wildlife conflict. 

“Conservation ecologists have long recommended that the movement of wildlife could be eased through the creation of ‘ecological corridors,’ which connect greenspaces and wildlife populations,” she explains. “Determining the movement patterns of wildlife, and where such corridors may be best situated, requires that we first understand what species reside in the metro Atlanta area as well as how they are expected to disperse.”

As a fellow, Slenker plans to build a biodiversity data network by comparing wildlife monitoring at Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve and Stone Mountain Park and increasing the coalition of metro Atlanta researchers. This data can be used in the development of ecological corridors to reduce clashing between humans and wildlife, notably animals struck by vehicles, and improve ecosystem health at these parks. 

Fellow Miriam Simma: Making structural biology research more accessible 

The study of crystallography is vital in academia, industry, and medicine because it enables researchers to decipher the atomic structures of proteins, but it is scarcely taught outside of graduate school. Ph.D. student Miriam Simma wants to change that. 

Her proposed project is to introduce protein crystallography to K-12 students and teachers through hands-on activities in local high school classrooms and to the public during the Atlanta Science Festival at Georgia Tech.

“My vision is to make structural biology research accessible, so everyone can engage with cutting-edge scientific research — fostering curiosity and interest in STEM careers,” says Simma. “Long term, I will synthesize these activities into a chemical education article that introduces K-12 students to protein structure and function.” 

Fellow Nikolai Simonov: Mentoring middle school scientists 

Last year, Ph.D. student Nikolai Simonov became involved in the GoSTEM Club at Lilburn Middle School — leading student activities and recruiting other graduate student volunteers. In partnership with Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing, the club is a weekly afterschool program for students, many of whom come from underserved backgrounds, to grow their scientific curiosity. 

“I assembled a team of 10 Tech graduate students who could explain complex scientific concepts in approachable ways for middle school students. Through this fellowship, we are excited to enrich the GoSTEM Club with an ongoing mentorship program and materials for more ambitious science fair projects,” shares Simonov. 

As part of the program, club members can meet one-on-one with Georgia Tech mentors to discuss their educational and career goals. “By sharing their stories and connecting scientific ideas to real-world applications, our mentors aim to show students that STEM is not only accessible but a path toward a fulfilling life,” he adds.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) has awarded an interdisciplinary team nearly $1 million in funding through the National Coastal Resilience Fund to restore coastal wetlands in Georgia. It was the only project in Georgia to be selected for funding from the program's 2025 call for proposals.

The award will support the design of nature-based solutions including living shorelines and marsh restoration in flood-prone areas of Camden County, Georgia, adjacent to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Cumberland Island National Seashore, and the city of St. Marys. 

“Restoring wetlands in Camden County is not just an environmental priority — it’s a resilience strategy for the entire region,” says principal investigator (PI) Joel Kostka, Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor, associate chair for Research in the School of Biological Sciences, and faculty director of Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow. “Each acre of restored marshland protects coastal communities from natural hazards like storms and flooding, provides essential marine habitat, and has the potential to aid the Navy and the Army Corps of Engineers in developing management alternatives for dredged materials. When our wetlands flourish, our whole coastline does.”

In addition to Kostka, co-PI’s include University of Georgia (UGA) Skidaway Institute of Oceanography Director Clark Alexander, UGA Associate Professor Matt Bilskie and Professor Brian Bledsoe, The Nature Conservancy Coastal Climate Adaptation Director Ashby Worley, and Georgia Tech alumnus Nolan Williams of Robinson Design Engineers, a firm dedicated to the engineering of natural infrastructure in the Southeast that is owned and operated by Georgia Tech alumnus Joshua Robinson.

A coastal collaboration

The new project, known as a “pipeline project” by NFWF,  builds on multiple resilience plans and years of previous research conducted by the established team. “This is a testament to the value of the long-term collaborations and partnerships that enable coastal resilience work,” Kostka says. “We’re working closely with local communities and a range of city, state, and federal stakeholders to ensure these solutions align with local priorities and protect what matters most.”

It’s not the first time that the team has brought this type of collaboration to the coastline. Since 2019, Kostka has worked alongside the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the South Carolina Aquarium, and Robinson Design Engineers in a $2.6 million effort to restore degraded salt marshes in historic Charleston, also funded by NFWF. Now in the implementation phase, much of the marsh restoration in Charleston involves planting salt-tolerant grasses, restoring oyster reefs, and excavating new tidal creeks — work that is being spearheaded by local volunteers.

“Coastal resilience isn’t something one group can tackle alone,” Kostka adds. “That shared, community-driven vision is what makes these projects possible.”

Armita Manafzadeh has been awarded the prestigious Carl Gans Young Investigator Award in recognition of her innovative research into joints and skeletons. She will join Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences in August 2026.

The award — named in recognition of Carl Gans’ contributions to animal morphology, biomechanics, and functional biology — is one of the highest honors from the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), and recognizes Manafzadeh’s “exceptional creativity and originality in comparative biomechanics research as well as her strong mentoring contributions.”

“I’m very fortunate to have done science with incredible mentors, collaborators, and students who’ve helped me develop this body of research,” she says. “I’m grateful to be recognized with the Carl Gans Award, and look forward to continuing to explore new ways to study biomechanics when I start my lab at Georgia Tech.”

The new Manafzadeh Lab at Georgia Tech will investigate how joints work and where they come from — both evolutionarily and developmentally. With powerful new technology, called X-Ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology (XROMM), Manafzadeh can look inside bodies with 4D “X-ray vision” — and can create animations of moving skeletons with sub-millimeter precision. 

“This research has the potential to transform our understanding of animal motion,” she says, “and that can ultimately open doors to everything from personalized surgical treatments for people to new designs for bio-inspired robots.”

As part of the award, Manafzadeh will deliver a plenary speech on “Joints: Form, Function, and the Future of Comparative Biomechanics” this January at the annual SICB meeting in Portland, Oregon.