Your ghost host with the most, Professor Morte', brings you a special SCIENCE version of the Silver Scream Spookshow for the Atlanta Science Festival! Morte' and his gang of ghouls will entertain you before the film and your favorite genetically-modified rock band, Leucine Zipper and the Zinc Fingers, will play before the show!
The band features College of Sciences' Michael Evans, Jennifer Leavey, and Joe Mendelson.
Tickets available at the door. Doors open at 1 p.m.
Note: This is the matinee show. A second show will take place at 10 p.m.
More information
Event Details
This interdisciplinary colloquium and networking event has two goals: (1) to forge connections across Georgia Tech straddling the boundaries between technology development and hypothesis testing in the search for life’s beginnings and (2) to explore collaborative ideas among participants.
The event has two sections: (1) space exploration technology and planetary science and (2) the chemistry and biology of the origins and the search for life. The event comprises presentations and talks by early-career scientists – graduate students, undergraduates, and postdoctoral fellows – working in the exciting fields of space and planetary science, engineering, and astrobiology across Georgia Tech and greater Atlanta.
Confirmed Plenary Speakers
Distinguished members of the global astrobiology community will deliver plenary lectures. Confirmed speakers include:
Kevin Hand is a deputy project scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He founded the nonprofit organization Cosmos Education and was its president until 2007.
As a planetary scientist and astrobiologist, his research focuses on numerical modeling, laboratory experiments, and instrument development to advance our understanding of the physics and chemistry of icy moons in the outer solar system. He is also interested in characterizing the connection between terrestrial cryosphere processes and the climate change record.
He is currently involved in projects connected to NASA’s Europa mission which will conduct detailed investigation on whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.
Sara Walker is an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University (ASU). She is deputy director of ASU’s Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, and associate director of the ASU-Santa Fe Institute Center for Biosocial Complex Systems.
She co-founded the astrobiology-themed social website SAGANet and is a member of the board of directors of Blue Marble Space Institute of Science.
Her work centers on in the origin of life and how to find life on other worlds. She is most interested in whether there are “laws of life” – related to how information structures the physical world – that could universally describe life here Earth and other planets.
She is active in public engagement in science, with appearances at the World Science Festival, the television series “Through the Wormhole,” and the public radio program “Science Friday.”
Paul Steffes is a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He performed his doctoral research at Stanford University, where he concentrated on microwave radio occultation experiments using the Voyager and Mariner spacecraft, with specific interest in microwave absorption in planetary atmospheres.
In 1982, he joined the faculty of Georgia. His research, focusing on microwave and millimeter-wave remote sensing and radio astronomy, has been sponsored by NASA, NSF, the SETI Institute, and industry.
He has been involved with numerous NASA missions, including Pioneer-Venus, Magellan, the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), the High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS), and Juno (Jupiter Polar Orbiter).
Registration and Abstract Submission
Registration for the 2019 Exploration and Origins Colloquium is open. Please note:
- Abstracts must be no more than 2000 characters including spaces.
- Abstracts will be accepted as written, so please check for spelling and grammar.
- No e-mails or PDF uploads are allowed.
To submit an abstract and register as a presenter, click here.
For general registration (for those who are not presenters), click here.
Locations:
Keynote and oral presentations will take place in room 1005, Krone Engineered Biosystems Building (EBB), 950 Atlantic Drive, NW, Atlanta. GA 30332.
The poster session and networking event will be in held in the first- and second-floor atriums of the Molecular Science and Engineering Building (MoSE), 901 Atlantic Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318.
For more information, visit the website here. For other questions, contact us
Organizing Committee
- Peter Colin, postdoctoral fellow, School of Biological Sciences
- Zijian Li, Ph.D. student, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
- Tyler Roche, Ph.D. student, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Micah Schaible, postdoctoral fellow, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
- Pengxiao Xu, Ph.D. student, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
- George Zaharescu, postdoctoral fellow, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty Advisor: Martha Grover, professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Event Details
Young Jang, Ph.D.
School of Biological Sciences
Goergia institute of Technology
Abstract
Mitochondrial biology has become an intense area of research owing to its unique physiological and pathophysiological roles in a variety of disease conditions. In this seminar, I will review the current literature on some of the non-conventional roles of mitochondria that are possibly stemmed from endosymbiosis (i.e., mitochondrial-derived peptides, mitochondrial proteostasis, intercellular mitochondrial transfer). I will also discuss some of the ways we can exploit these features of mitochondria as a therapeutic intervention.
Cookies and coffee will be served.
Event Details
Kevin Pitts is Professor of Physics and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, University of Illinois. He is one of three finalists for the College of Sciences Dean search. He will present his vision of the college in this public seminar.
More information about Pitts is here.
Event Details
Susan Lozier is Distinguished Professor of Ocean Sciences, Duke University, and
President-Elect of the American Geophysical Union. She is one of three finalists for the College of Sciences Dean search. She will present her vision of the college in this public seminar.
More information about Lozier is here.
Event Details
Rodolfo Torres is University Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, University of Kansas. He is one of three finalists for the College of Sciences Dean search. He will present his vision of the college in this public seminar.
More information about Torres is here.
Event Details
Department of Biology
University of Washington
Discoveries in modern biology are increasingly driven by quantitative understanding of complex data. The work in my lab lies at an emerging, fertile intersection of computation and biology. I develop data-driven analytic methods that are applied to, and are inspired by, neuroscience questions. Discovering principles of neural computation is of fundamental importance in biology: How does a collection of neurons and their interconnections give rise to such richness and flexibility of function? Projects in my lab explore neural computations in diverse organisms. We work with theoretical collaborators on developing methods, and with experimental collaborators studying insects, rodents, and primates. The common theme in our work is the development of methods that leverage the escalating scale and complexity of neural and behavioral data to find interpretable patterns. In this talk, I will highlight three research threads. The first focuses on a mathematical framework for spatiotemporal decomposition of large-scale data. The second tackles the challenge of understanding human neural activity "in the wild," outside traditional experimental conditions. The third seeks to uncover principles of hyper-efficient sensing supporting agile flight in winged insects.
Event Details
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
Dr. McCauley began his career as a fisherman in the Port of Los Angeles, but migrated to marine science and now serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology. McCauley has a degree in political science and a degree in biology from the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD from Stanford University. He did postdoctoral research at Stanford University and UC Berkeley. Dr. McCauley is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in the Ocean Sciences.
Host: Dr. Mark Hay
Event Details
The American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) has elected 109 new fellows in 2019. Among them are Joel Kostka and Joshua Weitz.
Kostka is a professor in the Schools of Biological Sciences and of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Weitz is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences. Both are members of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience.
AAM is an honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). Fellows of the AAM are elected annually through a selective, peer-review process, based on records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology.
The election of Kostka as AAM fellow comes shortly after another high recognition of his contributions to microbiology. In 2018, he was named Distinguished Lecturer by ASM. In this capacity, Kostka speaks at ASM branch meetings throughout the U.S. His visits provide opportunities for students and early-career research microbiologists to interact with prominent scientists.
Kostka is well-known for his research in environmental microbiology. His lab characterizes the role of microorganisms in the functioning of ecosystems, especially in the context of bioremediation and climate change. He is co-principal investigator of C-IMAGE-III. This consortium is funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative to study the environmental consequences of the release of petroleum hydrocarbons on living marine resources and ecosystem health.
Weitz holds courtesy appointments in the Schools of Physics and of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also the founding director of Georgia Tech’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences, a Simons Foundation Investigator in Ocean Processes and Ecology, and author of an award-winning book on quantitative viral ecology.
"I'm grateful for the recognition and excited to continue our ongoing, collaborative efforts to understand the role of ecology and evolution in shaping microbial and viral life," Weitz says.
Weitz’s research focuses on the interactions between viruses and their microbial hosts, that is, the viral infections of microbial life. Weitz is motivated by seemingly simple questions: What happens to a microbe when it is infected by a virus? How do infections of single cells translate into population- and system-wide consequences?
AAM fellows represent all subspecialties of the microbial sciences and are involved in basic and applied research, teaching, public health, industry, or government service. They hail from all around the globe. Kostka and Weitz join fellows from France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Israel, Korea, Taiwan, and China.
By Laura Mast, Contributing Writer
A unique treat awaits fans at the Yellow Jackets’ Jan. 22 men’s basketball home game. The Georgia Tech team will battle Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish for the hoops amid element cards, games, and prizes to celebrate 2019, the International Year of the Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements.
Born 150 years ago, the periodic table is one of the most important and recognizable tools of science. To celebrate the table’s staying power, the United Nations proclaimed 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements.
At Georgia Tech, the College of Sciences is leading an all-year-round celebration, #IYPT2019GT. It has partnered with other units to engage students, faculty, and staff in reconnecting with the periodic table, through athletics, art, and academics.
Kicking off the celebration is “The Periodic Table at Georgia Tech vs Notre Dame” men’s basketball match on Jan. 22. Partnering with Georgia Tech Athletics, the College of Sciences will bring #IYPT2019GT to McCamish Pavilion. Fans will have a chance to play games with the periodic table and element cards featuring the Yellow Jackets basketball team and Georgia Tech researchers. Prizes await lucky winners.
"This kick-off event for Georgia Tech's year-long celebration of the periodic table is a great opportunity to bring chemistry to the public's attention and to illustrate its relevance to all of us – scientists, sports fans, and athletes," says David Collard, the College of Sciences' interim dean.
“Georgia Tech Athletics is proud to partner with the College of Sciences to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the periodic table of elements,” Director Todd Stansbury says. “Such a collaboration is uniquely ‘Georgia Tech,’ as we offer our student-athletes the opportunity to compete at the highest level of collegiate athletics, while they receive an education at one of the nation’s leading research universities. We celebrate this combination, as it has proven to produce young people who change the world.”
Brief History of the Periodic Table
Using a set of notecards à la classic card game solitaire, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev sorted and resorted the cards, each representing one element, trying to find a pattern using the elements’ weights and properties. He cracked the code after several sleepless days.
For decades before Mendeleev, scientists had been searching for patterns in the elements. Many other arrangements had been proposed, including one cylindrical design. Mendeleev succeeded where others failed – his table correctly placed more elements than any other.
Critically, too, Mendeleev’s table left gaps for elements yet to be discovered. His table included just over 50 elements, and it wasn’t imminently clear: Were there more elements? How many?
As we now know, many more elements came to light. Thanks to those empty spaces, Mendeleev’s powerful theoretical tool predicted newcomers with startling success. His spot-on predictions of hypothetical elements’ basic properties – atomic mass, atomic number, and reactivity – guided researchers into discovering new elements.
Major changes to Mendeleev’s design occurred as more elements were discovered. For example, the discovery of the noble gases in the 1890s led to the addition of an entirely new column (also called a group). The lanthanides and actinides, those two rows (or periods) at the bottom, were placed below the existing table to retain its basic shape. The periodic table is still being updated to this day: elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 were added in November 2016.
#IYPT2019GT Activities and Events
Every week, the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry will highlight two elements in social media through videos and haikus. And every month, a student, faculty, or staff will expound on a favorite element in a short video.
The periodic table and chemical elements will be a topic in Georgia Tech’s GT 1000 and various Writing & Communication courses. Classes in the School of Music and the School of Industrial Design will use the periodic table as inspiration for projects. The 2019 Clough Art Crawl will have a special section and prizes for submissions inspired by the periodic table or chemical elements.
In February, the Frontiers in Science Lecture Series on the periodic table will commence. Lectures will explore topics from the origin of the chemical elements to the economic, societal, and geopolitical consequences of elements yet undiscovered or in scarce supply. Among the lecturers is bestselling author Sam Kean. His book “The Disappearing Spoon” reveals the periodic table as a treasure trove of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession.
Here is a partial list of events. Full information is available at periodictable.gatech.edu.
- January 22 The Periodic Table at Georgia Tech vs Notre Dame. Go Yellow Jackets!
- February
- Frontiers in Science: How the Universe Made the Elements
- Water, in Three Movements, Georgia Tech Laptop Orchestra, School of Music
- March
- Frontiers in Science: Celebrating Silicon: Its Success, Hidden History, and Next Act
- Periodic Table and the Chemical Elements in Clough Art Crawl
- Periodic Table and the Chemical Elements in Atlanta Science Festival Expo
- April
- Frontiers in Science: Mathematical Mysteries of the Periodic Table
- Frontiers in Science: The Periodic Table: A Treasure Trove of Passion, Adventure, Betrayal, and Obsession
- June
- Halloween in June: Periodic Table Costume Party and Variety Show
- August
- Chemical Element Scavenger Hunt
- September
- Frontiers in Science: The Elusive End of the Periodic Table: Why Chase It?
- October
- Frontiers in Science: Turning Sour, Bloated, and Out of Breath: Ocean Chemistry under Global Warming
- November
- Frontiers in Science, The Geopolitics of the Rare and Not-So-Rare Elements
- Periodic Table Celebration Exhibit
- December
- Periodic Table Celebration Exhibit
Keep up with #IYPT2019GT by checking periodictable.gatech.edu periodically. Follow the College of Sciences on Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to celebrating #IYPT2019GT with you!
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