The College of Sciences; the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and the Georgia Tech Library invite all to the grand opening of the exhibit ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS: Celebrating the Periodic Table.
Since January, the College of Sciences has been hosting lectures, events, and activities to acknowledge the 150-year-long contribution of the periodic table to science. In collaboration with campus partners, the College of Sciences has brought the periodic table and chemical elements to the attention of the Georgia Tech community and the public through arts, athletics, academics, and fun. ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS brings many of these pieces together, including:
- Elements in science fiction, in collaboration with the School of Literature, Media, and Communication
- Periodic table makeover: design and prototypes, in collaboration with the School of Industrial Design, College of Design
- Art inspired by the periodic table and chemical elements, in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts
- Scavenger Hunt: buildings and element partners, in collaboration with various building managers on campus
- Favorite elements of Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff
The exhibit will formally open with remarks from Ameet Doshi, Library Director of Service Experience and Program Design; Karen Head, associate chair of the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and Susan Lozier, Dean of the College of Sciences.
Immediately following the opening remarks is a panel discussion: From Myth to Marvel: The Role of Elements in Science, Fiction, and Culture
The International Year of the Periodic Table has brought well-deserved attention to the periodic table and the chemical elements. As the world celebrates 2019 the 150th anniversary of the periodic table, chemical elements have never been so central to the global imagination. Just look at recent blockbuster films revolving around vibranium and infinity stones.
But did chemical elements really ever go out of style?
Moderated by Georgia Tech librarian and North Avenue Lounge radio host Charlie Bennett, this panel discussion brings two scientists and two science fiction authors together to explore how science and art have long influenced one other while shaping public understanding of the periodic table and chemical elements and their role in our everyday lives.
Georgia Tech physicist Deirdre Shoemaker and chemist M.G. Finn will have a conversation with Milton Davis, chemist and award-winning author of nineteen novels and editor of nine anthologies, and Amanda Weiss, an up-and-coming science fiction and fantasy author who teaches Japanese at Georgia Tech. Through their conversation, we hope to get a closer look at how new — and sometimes very old! — ideas about how the world works circulate through science, fiction, and culture at large.
About the Discussants
Charlie Bennett is the public engagement librarian and economics specialist at Georgia Tech. He holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Valdosta State University, and a B.S. in Economics and in Science, Technology, and Culture from Georgia Tech. His research interests include the role of the library in civic life and scholarly communication to the general public. Bennett produces and co-hosts the rock’n’roll library show "Lost in the Stacks" and the talk show "The North Avenue Lounge," both on WREK Atlanta, as well as the media podcast "Supercontext." The first science fiction he can remember reading is the Tripods trilogy by John Christopher, and he’s been fascinated by the genre ever since.
Milton J. Davis is a black speculative fiction writer. He is the author of 17 novels and editor or co-editor of seven anthologies. He owns MVmedia, LLC , a small publishing company specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and "Sword and Soul." Davies is also the technical director of Hill Manufacturing, a company specializing in maintenance chemicals and products. As a research chemist, he has developed polymers for the textile, janitorial, and computer industries. In 2004, he received a U.S. patent for a cleaning solvent and dispenser pen designed to remove conformal coatings and adhesives from circuit boards and other electrical equipment.
M.G. Finn is a professor and chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, a faculty member in the School of Biological Sciences, and the James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology. In his research, his laboratory develops new vaccines, ways to find and kill cancer cells, new materials for drug delivery and membrane-based separations, and ways to evolve molecules with desired functions. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal ACS Combinatorial Science. His science fiction inspirations are decidedly old-school, ranging from Ray Bradbury to Ursula K. Le Guin to Dan Simmons.
Deirdre Shoemaker is the Dunn Family Professor of Physics in Georgia Tech’s School of Physics. She is the director of the Georgia Tech Center for Relativistic Astrophysics and associate director of the Institute for Data Engineering and Sciences. Black holes, spacetime wrinkles and gravitational waves — understanding these and other aspects of gravity drives Shoemaker’s research. She is a member of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Council and the NASA LISA Study Team. She is also a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which detected gravitational waves for the first time on September 14 2015, ushering in the era of gravitational wave astronomy. The strange and wondrous predictions of Einstein’s theory are playing out in the universe, and Shoemaker is watching.
Amanda Weiss is an assistant professor of Japanese in the Georgia Tech School of Modern Languages. Prior to her work at Georgia Tech, she taught courses on East Asian media and society at Earlham College, Emory University, and Rikkyo University in Tokyo. She is completing her first book, "Han Heroes and Yamato Warriors: Competing Masculinities in East Asian War Cinema," based on her doctoral research in the University of Tokyo. She has started a second project, on the contemporary Japanese remembrance of Manchukuo, the puppet state of the Empire of Japan from 1932 until 1945.
Event Details
DUE TO ANTICIPATED BAD WEATHER, THIS EVENT IS RESCHEDULED FOR NOV. 1.
The Society of Physics Students and the Society of Women in Physics invite all to the 2019 Pumpkin Drop. The event aims to raise funds to support student travel to conferences.
Pumpkins can be carved or dropped from the top of the Howey Building. For the drop, pumpkins are first frozen in liquid nitrogen.
It's fun and messy, all for a good cause.
Event Details
The College of Sciences; the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and the Georgia Tech Library invite all to preview the exhibit ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS: Celebrating the Periodic Table.
Since January, the College of Sciences has been hosting lectures, events, and activities to acknowledge the 150-year-long contribution of the periodic table to science. In collaboration with campus partners, the College of Sciences has brought the periodic table and chemical elements to the attention of the Georgia Tech community and the public through arts, athletics, academics, and fun. ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS brings many of these pieces together, including:
- Elements in science fiction, in collaboration with the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and the Georgia Tech Library
- Periodic table makeover: design and prototypes, in collaboration with the School of Industrial Design, College of Design
- Art inspired by the periodic table and chemical elements, in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts
- Scavenger Hunt: buildings and element partners, in collaboration with various building managers on campus
- Favorite elements of Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff
Please join the formal opening on Nov. 7, 2019, 11 AM.
Event Details
The College of Sciences; the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and the Georgia Tech Library invite all to the exhibit ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS: Celebrating the Periodic Table.
Since January, the College of Sciences has been hosting lectures, events, and activities to acknowledge the 150-year-long contribution of the periodic table to science. In collaboration with campus partners, the College of Sciences has brought the periodic table and chemical elements to the attention of the Georgia Tech community and the public through arts, athletics, academics, and fun. ASTOUNDING ELEMENTS brings many of these pieces together, including:
- Elements in science fiction, in collaboration with the School of Literature, Media, and Communication
- Periodic table makeover: design and prototypes, in collaboration with the School of Industrial Design, College of Design
- Art inspired by the periodic table and chemical elements, in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts
- Scavenger Hunt: buildings and element partners, in collaboration with various building managers on campus
- Favorite elements of Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff
Event Details
The College of Sciences; the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and the Georgia Tech Library invite all to a conversation among science fiction authors and scientists, as part of Georgia Tech's celebration of the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT).
IYPT has brought well-deserved attention to the periodic table and the chemical elements. As the world celebrates the 150th anniversary of the periodic table, chemical elements have never been so central to the global imagination. Just look at recent blockbuster films revolving around vibranium and infinity stones.
But did chemical elements really ever go out of style?
Moderated by Charlie Bennett, this panel discussion brings two scientists and two science fiction writers together to explore how science and art have long influenced each other while shaping public understanding of the periodic table and chemical elements and their role in our everyday lives.
Georgia Tech scientists Deirdre Shoemaker and M.G. Finn will have a conversation with Milton J. Davis, science fiction writer and chemist, and Amanda Weiss, an up-and-coming science fiction author who teaches Japanese at Georgia Tech. Through their conversation, we hope to get a closer look at how new — and sometimes very old! — ideas about how the world works circulate through science, fiction, and culture at large.
About the Discussants
Charlie Bennett is the public engagement librarian and economics specialist at Georgia Tech. He holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Valdosta State University, and a B.S. in Economics and in Science, Technology, and Culture from Georgia Tech. His research interests include the role of the library in civic life and scholarly communication to the general public. Bennett produces and co-hosts the rock’n’roll library show "Lost in the Stacks" and the talk show "The North Avenue Lounge," both on WREK Atlanta, as well as the media podcast "Supercontext." The first science fiction he can remember reading is the Tripods trilogy by John Christopher, and he’s been fascinated by the genre ever since.
Milton J. Davis is a black speculative fiction writer. He is the author of 17 novels and editor or co-editor of seven anthologies. He owns MVmedia, LLC , a small publishing company specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and "Sword and Soul." Davies is also the technical director of Hill Manufacturing, a company specializing in maintenance chemicals and products. As a research chemist, he has developed polymers for the textile, janitorial, and computer industries. In 2004, he received a U.S. patent for a cleaning solvent and dispenser pen designed to remove conformal coatings and adhesives from circuit boards and other electrical equipment.
M.G. Finn is a professor and chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, a faculty member in the School of Biological Sciences, and the James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology. In his research, his laboratory develops new vaccines, ways to find and kill cancer cells, new materials for drug delivery and membrane-based separations, and ways to evolve molecules with desired functions. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal ACS Combinatorial Science. His science fiction inspirations are decidedly old-school, ranging from Ray Bradbury to Ursula K. Le Guin to Dan Simmons.
Deirdre Shoemaker is the Dunn Family Professor of Physics in Georgia Tech’s School of Physics. She is the director of the Georgia Tech Center for Relativistic Astrophysics and associate director of the Institute for Data Engineering and Sciences. Black holes, spacetime wrinkles and gravitational waves — understanding these and other aspects of gravity drives Shoemaker’s research. She is a member of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Council and the NASA LISA Study Team. She is also a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which detected gravitational waves for the first time on September 14 2015, ushering in the era of gravitational wave astronomy. The strange and wondrous predictions of Einstein’s theory are playing out in the universe, and Shoemaker is watching.
Amanda Weiss is an assistant professor of Japanese in the Georgia Tech School of Modern Languages. Prior to her work at Georgia Tech, she taught courses on East Asian media and society at Earlham College, Emory University, and Rikkyo University in Tokyo. She is completing her first book, "Han Heroes and Yamato Warriors: Competing Masculinities in East Asian War Cinema," based on her doctoral research in the University of Tokyo. She has started a second project, on the contemporary Japanese remembrance of Manchukuo, the puppet state of the Empire of Japan from 1932 until 1945.
Event Details
A Frontiers in Science Lecture to celebrate 2019, the International Year of the Periodic Table
In 1997, the Japanese oceanographer Yoshiyuki Nozaki compiled a periodic table of ocean chemistry, encapsulating the distribution of elements as a function of depth. In this periodic table, many elements share similar patterns, classified into just a few categories. The similarities indicate a common set of mechanisms behind the ocean cycling of elements.
The interaction of ocean circulation, chemistry, and biology sets the distribution of elements in the ocean. For example, nonreactive elements are nearly uniformly distributed in the water column, homogenized by ocean circulation and mixing.
Nutrient elements are depleted near the surface because of biological consumption and enriched in mid-depth due to decomposition of organic matter. Some trace metals – such as Fe, Zn, Ni, and Cd – follow this pattern. In contrast, some heavy metals – like Al, Mn, Co, and Pb – are subsumed into particles and removed from seawater.
Building on the insights from Nozaki’s periodic table, this talk will interpret recent measurements of changing seawater chemistry, highlighting the importance of rising carbon dioxide concentration in the air, climate change, and pollution of rivers and atmosphere.
About the Speaker
Takamitsu “Taka” Ito is an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, where he teaches physical and chemical oceanography. He received a Ph.D. in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in 2005 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research has focused on the cycling of carbon, oxygen, and iron in the global oceans, using observations, theory, and computational modeling.
About Frontiers in Science Lectures
Lectures in this series are intended to inform, engage, and inspire students, faculty, staff, and the public on developments, breakthroughs, and topics of general interest in the sciences and mathematics. Lecturers tailor their talks for nonexpert audiences.
About the Periodic Table Frontiers in Science Lecture Series
Throughout 2019, the College of Sciences will bring prominent researchers from Georgia Tech and beyond to expound on little-discussed aspects of chemical elements:
- Feb. 6, James Sowell, How the Universe Made the Elements in the Periodic Table
- March 5, Michael Filler, Celebrating Silicon: Its Success, Hidden History, and Next Act
- April 2, John Baez, University of California, Riverside, Mathematical Mysteries of the Periodic Table
- April 18, Sam Kean, Author, The Periodic Table: A Treasure Trove of Passion, Adventure, Betrayal, and Obsession
- Sept. 12, Monica Halka, The Elusive End of the Periodic Table: Why Chase It?
- October 15, David Clark, Plutonium Chemistry and the Battlefields of the Cold War
- October 31, Taka Ito, Turning Sour, Bloated, and Out of Breath: Ocean Chemistry under Global Warming
- Nov. 12, Margaret Kosal, The Geopolitics of Rare and Not-So-Rare Elements
Closest public parking for the Oct. 31 lecture is Area 6 (Fifth Street and Spring) or Area 8 (Tech Square) on the parking map, https://pts.gatech.edu/visitors#l3.
Refreshments are served, and periodic table t-shirts are raffled, at each lecture.
Event Details
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, and Gregg L. Semenza “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.” Kaelin is a professor at Harvard Medical School. Ratcliffe is the director of clinical research at Francis Crick Institute in London. Semenza is a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Much of the life on Earth that we humans experience uses oxygen to convert food – carbohydrates, fats, and proteins – into energy to drive life’s processes. In complex, multicellular organisms, including humans, cells in various tissues and organs experience different levels of oxygen, says Amit Reddi, an assistant professor in the School of Chemistry. “As a consequence, every cell must have the ability to sense oxygen and adapt metabolism to changes in oxygen levels.”
Kaelin, Ratcliffe, and Semenza contributed to figuring out exactly how cells sense and respond to oxygen. “Their work has had profound implications for modern medicine, including understanding and treating various cancers, where cells may no longer synchronize energy metabolism to oxygen levels, as well as a number of vascular diseases, where oxygen transport is no longer efficient,” Reddi says. “I’m thrilled for the new Nobel laureates.”
Reddi was an NIH Ruth L. Kirchstein postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University where Semenza is a faculty member. He says he often found inspiration from Semenza's studies on oxygen sensing, which guided his thinking on new conceptual paradigms for how life copes with oxygen.
Part of Reddi’s research is related to how reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are all derived from oxygen, can themselves signal metabolic changes in cells. “Our work is focused on how certain ROS are made and how they can be used to signal changes in metabolism and physiology,” Reddi says. “Because all ROS originate from oxygen, we believe that another layer of oxygen sensing is through the production and sensing of certain ROS.”
The Nobel Prize winners discovered how cells adapt to changes in oxygen level, particularly in low-oxygen conditions, says Young Jang, an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences. “Their discoveries laid the foundation for our understanding of how cells generate energy, make new blood cells, and how cancer cells grow.”
Jang’s research on stem cell metabolism and aging is directly related to oxygen sensing. Normally, mitochondria – the powerhouse of the cell – uses oxygen to generate ATP, the cell’s fuel. But in aged cells, regulation of oxygen is altered and mitochondria generate ROS. Excess ROS production and oxidative damage to proteins, lipids, and DNA/RNA are key culprits that cause cellular aging, Jang says.
Briefly, Jang overlapped with Kaelin in Harvard. He recalls that Kaelin’s lab “was interested in knowing whether oxygen sensing and metabolic changes can be communicated from one organ to another. He wanted to use parabiosis to test his idea.” Parabiosis is the physical joining of two individuals enabling cells, tissues, and organs to communicate through blood. It is another research area for Jang.
“I am very happy for Dr. Kaelin and his cowinners,” Jang says.
The National Institutes of Health know a good investment when they see one, and they definitely see one in Joe Lachance, researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at the Georgia Institute of Technology. And to prove it, the NIH recently granted Lachance an R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA).
The grant, valued at $1.88 million over five years, will support Lachance’s research strategy, which includes the analysis of ancient and modern genomes, mathematical modeling, and the development of new bioinformatics tools.
Lachance, whose research bridges the gap between evolutionary genetics and genetic epidemiology, is motivated by several questions: How have hereditary disease risks evolved in the recent past? What sorts of genetic architectures are more likely to result in health inequities? How can genomic medicine be extended to people with different ancestries?
“We’ve taken an evolutionary perspective toward genetic medicine and global health,” says Lachance, assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, whose research is directly related to the NIH’s All of Us initiative.
The R35 MIRA program was designed to increase the stability of funding for NIGMS-supported investigators like Lachance, improving their ability to take on ambitious projects and take more creative approaches to biomedical problems.
“This grant, I think, demonstrates great confidence in our approach to the research,” Lachance said. “It enables us to devote more our time and energy on doing the actual science and developing the next generation of researchers.”
Corals create potions that fight bacterial attackers, but warming appears to tip the scales against the potions as they battle a bacterium common in coral bleaching, according to a new study. Reef conservation may offer hope: A particular potion, gathered from reefs protected against seaweed overgrowth, proved more robust.
The protected Pacific reefs were populated by diverse corals and shimmered with colorful fish, said researchers who snorkeled off of Fiji to collect samples for the study. Oceanic ecologists from the Georgia Institute of Technology compared coral potions from these reefs, where fishing was prohibited, with those from heavily fished reefs, where seaweed inundated corals because few fish were left to eat it.
The medicated solutions, or potions, may contain a multitude of chemicals, and the researchers did not analyze their makeup. This is a possible next step, but here the researchers simply wanted to establish if the potions offered any real defense against pathogens and how warming and overfishing might weaken it.
Conservation matters
“I thought I probably wouldn’t see antibiotic effects from these washes. I was surprised to see such strong effects, and I was surprised to see that reef protections made a difference,” said the study’s first author, Deanna Beatty.
“There is a lot of argument now about whether local management can help in the face of global stresses – whether what a Fijian village does matters when people in London and Los Angeles burn fossil fuels to drive to work,” said Mark Hay, the study’s principal investigator, Regents Professor and Harry and Linda Teasley Chair in Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences.
“Our work indicates that local management provides a degree of insurance against global stresses, but there are likely higher temperatures that render the insurance ineffective.”
[Ready for graduate school? Here's how to apply to Georgia Tech.]
Adding heat
The researchers collected three coral species along with seawater surrounding each species at protected reefs and at overfished reefs. In their Georgia Tech lab, they tested their solutions against the pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus at 24 degrees Celsius (75.2 Fahrenheit), an everyday Fijian water temperature, and at 28 degrees (82.4 F), common during ocean heating events.
“We chose Vibrio because it commonly infects corals, and it’s associated with coral bleaching in these warming events. It’s related to other bleaching pathogens and could serve as a model for them as well,” Hay said.
“We chose 24 C and 28 C because they’re representative of the variations you see on Fijian reefs these days. Those are temperatures where the bacteria are more benign or more virulent,” Beatty said.
The data showed that warming disadvantaged all potions against Vibrio and conservation aided a potion from a key coral species. The team, which included coauthor Kim Ritchie from the University of South Carolina Beaufort, published its study in the journal Science Advances on Oct. 2. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center, the National Science Foundation, and the Simons Foundation.
Deeper dive into the experiment
Seaweed hedges
The unprotected reefs’ shabby appearance portended their effects on the one potion associated with a key coral species.
“When you swim out of the no-fishing area and into the overfished area, you hit a hedge of seaweed. You have about 4 to 16% corals and 50 to 90% seaweed there. On the protected reef, you have less than 3% seaweed and about 60% corals,” Hay said.
Hay has researched marine ecology for over four decades and has seen this before, when coral reefs died off closer to home.
“Thirty years ago, when Caribbean reefs were vanishing, I saw overfishing as a big deal there, when seaweed took over,” he said, adding that global warming has become an overriding factor. “In the Pacific, many reefs that were not overfished have been wiped out in warming events. It just got too hot for too long.”
Distilling potion
The potions are products of the corals and associated microbes, which comprise a biological team called a holobiont.
To arrive at potions focused on chemical effects, the researchers agitated the coral holobionts and ocean water then freeze-dried and irradiated the resulting liquid to destroy remnants of life that could have augmented chemical action. Some viruses may have withstood sterilization, but it would have weakened any effect they may have had, if there were any.
Then the researchers tested the potions on Vibrio.
“All of the solutions’ defenses were compromised to varying extents at elevated temperatures where we see corals getting sick in the ocean,” Hay said.
But reef protection benefited the potion taken from the species Acropora millepora.
“The beneficial effect in the solution tested in the lab was better when Acropora came from protected areas, and this difference became more pronounced at 28 degrees Celsius,” said Beatty, who finished her Ph.D. with Hay and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis.
Acropora architecture
Of the three species with potions that were tested, Acropora millepora may be a special one.
It is part of a genus – larger taxonomic category – containing about 150 of the roughly 600 species in Pacific reefs, and Acropora are core builders of reef structures. They grow higher as sea level rises, helping maintain healthy positions for whole reefs.
“Acropora are big and branching and make lots of crevices where fish live. The evolution of lots of reef fish parallels the evolution of Acropora in particular,” Hay said.
If fish can hang on, they may buy Acropora more time, and coral reefs perhaps, too.
Also READ: When Coral Species Vanish, Their Absence Can Imperil Surviving Corals
These researchers coauthored the study: Deanna Beatty, Jinu Valayil, Cody Clements, and Frank Stewart of Georgia Tech. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grant 2 U19 TW007401-10), the National Science Foundation (grant OCE 717 0929119), the Simons Foundation (grant 346253), and the Teasley Endowment. Any findings, conclusions, or recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily of the sponsors. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay1048
Writer & Media Representative: Ben Brumfield (404-272-2780), email: ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu
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The College of Sciences held its annual summer dinner on Sept. 18, hosted by Susan Lozier, the new dean and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair of the College of Sciences. The gathering has become a tradition for welcoming new members; recognizing excellence in research, instruction, and service; and affirming the College’s special community of scholars.
Tim Cope, Christine Heitsch, and Marvin Whiteley received the 2019 Faculty Mentor Awards. Cope and Whiteley are professors in the School of Biological Sciences; Heitsch is a professor in the School of Mathematics.
Nominations for these awards come from early-career faculty. Nominators cite mentors’ willingness to make introductions, review proposals, and develop professional training programs as extremely helpful as they get familiar with and navigate their environment and roles.
"[Y]our recognition also shines a bright light on your school and the College of Sciences, for which we are grateful.”
Also celebrated at the 2019 Summer Dinner were recipients of distinguished faculty awards, funded through the generosity of alumni and friends.
Greg Blekherman, Martin Mourigal, and Ronghu Wu received the Cullen-Peck Fellowship Awards. These are made possible by a gift from alumni couple Frank Cullen and Libby Peck. The goal is to encourage the development of especially promising mid-career faculty. Bleckherman is an associate professor of mathematics, Mourigal is an assistant professor of physics, and Wu is an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
Kim Cobb, professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences, received the 2019 Gretzinger Moving Forward Award. This is made possible by a gift from alumnus Ralph Gretzinger and his late wife, Jewel. The award recognizes leadership of a school chair or senior faculty member who has played a pivotal role in diversifying the composition of faculty, creating a family-friendly environment, and providing a supportive environment for early-career faculty.
Jennifer Glass, associate professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences, received the 2019 Eric R. Immel Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching. This award is supported by an endowment fund given by alumnus Charles Crawford to recognize exemplary instruction of foundational courses.
“I am pleased that your distinction in research, teaching, and mentoring brings recognition your way,” Lozier said. “But your recognition also shines a bright light on your school and the College of Sciences, for which we are grateful.”
Lozier also welcomed faculty who joined in the 2019-20 academic year, herself included as professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences. Also present were Meghan Babcock and Keaton Fletcher, School of Psychology; Marcus Cicerone and Joshua Kretchmer, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry; and Glen Evenbly, School of Physics. Unable to attend were Alex Blumenthal, School of Mathematics, and Alonzo Whyte, School of Biological Sciences.
“As you set out on your academic journey, please know that we are here to support, mentor, and advise you along the way,” Lozier said. “Your good fortune will be ours as well.”
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