With the sequencing of the human genome, scientists say personalized medicine is a more realistic goal. A future of customized medications, better understanding about disease factors and individualized risks, and a deeper knowledge of how cell mutations result in diseases like cancer could help pave the way for healthier populations around the globe.

But to realize this future, scientists need to build better risk assessments containing as much genetic information as possible regarding human populations — without compromising security and privacy, and without marginalizing or overrepresenting any groups. To date, existing datasets of this type of information have largely focused on individuals of European ancestry — which has meant that most people in the world have either been critically underrepresented, or at times not represented at all, among these important genomic studies and resources. 

Many groups are working together to improve those datasets, including School of Biological Sciences Patton Professor Greg Gibson, who recently teamed up with Emory University School of Medicine’s Subra Kugathasan, M.D. and other colleagues to publish a new study based on what Gibson shares as the largest whole genome-sequencing study of inflammatory bowel disease for African-Americans to date. 

“Whole-Genome Sequencing of African-Americans Implicates Differential Genetic Architecture in Inflammatory Bowel Disease,” published February 17 in the American Journal for Human Genetics, researches inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Crohn’s disease in more than 3,000 Americans of African descent. IBD patients made up 1,774 members of the group, while the control group numbered 1,644 individuals without IBD. 

“The huge concern in the field is that all minorities are dramatically underrepresented” in genetic studies, Gibson notes, underscoring the need for more diverse studies and highlighting his interest in pursuing the current study. “It’s comprehensive, it’s incredibly powerful and it way overperforms what came before, in terms of magnitude of accomplishment. We started three years ago, which I think is pretty amazing. There are still not many studies out there as large in terms of true genomic sequencing of population.”

The group’s work hopes to build a better understanding of potential population divergence and genetic risk of specific complex diseases like IBD — as well as identify any possible corresponding evolution of susceptibility and origins of health disparities.

To achieve this, the research group set out to further resolve the genetic architecture of inflammatory bowel disease — and also to better define the differential genetic structure of the disease across divergent ancestries. The team notes that their resulting analyses “include many alleles that were not previously examined, in a population that remains very significantly understudied.”

So, what exactly is an allele?

A brief tutorial on alleles and genomics

Alleles are alternative forms of a gene, and they’re born from mutations. “Every person’s genome has about a million out of a billion pairs that are different,” Gibson explains. These are polymorphisms, or alleles, which are “the flavor of a gene.” When a new mutation happens, its frequency is extremely rare, but some mutations do become more common over time, and contribute ever so subtly to disease.

Most of these alleles are shared by European and African-Americans, but small differences in frequency and effect can add up — especially over several thousand of them — to real differences in risk of disease progression.

Gibson also highlights the importance of understanding and taking into account the many environmental factors that can be related to IBD and Crohn’s, such as stress, diet, access to quality nutrition, access to healthcare and preventative medicine, and even differences in socioeconomic status and opportunities that also tally up to significant health and risk disparities across divergent populations.   

More diverse genomics assessments coming soon?

Gibson and Kugathasan’s research was a collaborative study involving self-identified African-American subjects recruited from five primary sites across the country: Emory University (recruited as part of the Emory African-American Inflammatory Bowel Disease Consortium), Johns Hopkins/Rutgers (recruited as part of the Multicenter African-American Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study), Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center, and Washington University (recruited as part of the Centers for Common Disease Genomics network). 

The study was approved by the institutional review boards at each of the participating sites and informed consent was obtained from all the participants. To protect privacy, de-identified datasets including genetic data were housed at Emory University with the approval of the local ethical board.

All DNA samples investigated in the study (a total of 3,610 before quality control) were processed and sequenced at the Broad Institute of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology following the same protocol.

More of this needs to happen, Gibson notes, so that the real work on narrowing the gaps and differences in healthcare among a diverse spectrum of populations can begin. He adds that the African genetic structure requires complete gene sequencing for all sorts of technical reasons, making it harder than more studies of Europeans — as well as essential and well worth the effort. 

“If you try to predict the onset of disease and you don’t account for ancestry differences, your assessments are just way off. In any sort of medicine, you want to be as accurate as you can. That’s why it’s so critical to include diversity in genetic studies as we progress to equitable access of all health care in all populations.”

Gibson says his next research study will deal with how genetics interacts with the other factors involved in health in underrepresented communities, such as nutrition and the impact of so-called “food deserts,” environmental issues, access to important health care, and other socio-economic indicators. 

“It’s probably the most important paper I’ll ever work on,” he says. 

The recently announced College of Sciences Strategic Plan: 2021-2030 has three ambitious goals at its foundation, each of which are focused on striving for excellence — in the workplace, in training and education, and in research. A trio of themes connect across the plan’s goals to guide this work and strategy: catalyze discovery and solutions, amplify the College’s impact, and build communities of excellence. Explicit in the strategic plan are expectations and goals to enhance inclusivity, equity, and diversity, especially of underrepresented groups in the College.

In January of this year, the College released a call for proposal submissions that reflect these themes and accomplish these goals. At that time, all students, staff, and faculty in the College’s community were encouraged to work in collaborative and interdisciplinary teams to submit proposals for projects.

Collective funding to achieve the proposals is provided through a generous $300,000 investment by the Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Dean's Chair. “I can think of no better use of the Sutherland Chair funds than to invest in ideas from our community. I expect this investment to pay dividends in the years ahead,” notes Susan Lozier, College of Sciences Dean and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair.

“We were gratified to receive a large number of proposals from across the College of Sciences community, including proposals led by students, staff, and faculty,” says Julia Kubanek, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Sciences, and a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “Each of the strategic plan goals are represented among the proposals we received. All proposals were group efforts, and many represented interests from members of different academic programs and schools within our college. Among the proposals received, members of all six of our schools participated.”

“These projects and programs will lay the groundwork for meeting the goals of our strategic plan,” Kubanek adds. The dozen new projects include team-building efforts for collaborative research, staff professional development, recruitment of underrepresented minorities into academic programs and postdoctoral training, and several other initiatives:

Astrobiology Program
PI (Principal Investigator): Jennifer Glass, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Research (Astrobiology); Communities of Excellence

Center for Microbial Dynamics & Infection Postdoctoral Recruitment Program
Co-PIs: Sam Brown, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and Marvin Whiteley, 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, Emory-Children’s CF Center (CF@LANTA)
Research (Microbial Dynamics and Infections); Communities of Excellence; Diversity/Inclusion (Historically Underrepresented Groups)

Deliberate Innovation in Undergraduate Biology
PI: Chrissy Spencer, senior academic professional in the School of Biological Sciences
Education/Training; Amplify Impact

Empowering Strengths-Based College of Sciences Team Members
PI: Christie Stewart, academic professional in the School of Biological Sciences
Communities of Excellence

ENTANGLED (Graduate Students in Quantum Sciences)
PI: Martin Mourigal, associate professor in the School of Physics
Research (Quantum systems); Education/Training; Communities of Excellence

Georgia Tech Summer Research Academy (SRA)
PI: Shania Khatri, undergraduate research assistant and Stamps President's Scholar in the School of Biological Sciences
Education/Training; Undergraduate Recruitment; Communities of Excellence; Diversity/Inclusion

Initiative for Living Dynamic Systems
Co-PIs: Simon Sponberg, Dunn Family Associate Professor of Physics and Biological Sciences and Daniel Goldman, Dunn Family Professor of Physics
Research (Physics of Movement); Growing Faculty Leadership; Communities of Excellence

Strategic Development at the Interface of Human and Environmental Health
Co-PIs: Joshua Weitz, Patton Distinguished Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences and Greg Gibson, Patton Distinguished Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Director of the Center for Integrative Genomics, and Genome Analysis core of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
Research; Growing Faculty Leadership; Communities of Excellence

Nucleating Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Collaborations in the College of Sciences
PI: Roman Grigoriev, professor in the School of Physics
Research (Data Science); Growing Faculty Leadership; Communities of Excellence

Project Potty Parity
PI: Mike Schatz, interim chair and professor in the School of Physics
Communities of Excellence; Diversity/Inclusion

Staff Advisory Council Strategic Plan Proposal
PI: Kathy Sims, development assistant in the College of Sciences, chair of the College of Sciences Staff Advisory Council, and member of the College of Sciences Task Force for Racial Equity
Communities of Excellence

Urban Heat Islands
PI: Kim Cobb, Georgia Power Chair, ADVANCE Professor, and Director of the Global Change Program at Georgia Tech
Research (Climate science); Education/training; Communities of Excellence; Diversity/Inclusion

Learn more about the College of Sciences Strategic Plan: 2021-2030 and coordinating Implementation Guide.

It may not be a process that most people are familiar with, but DNA methylation is very important to brain evolution. It’s viewed as a critical regulatory mechanism implicated in cognitive development, learning, memory, and disease. That regulation includes gene expression, which happens when DNA instructions are converted into a functional product, namely messenger RNA molecules, which provide templates for proteins.

A School of Biological Sciences professor who specializes in molecular and genomic evolution has uncovered some new information about how DNA methylation evolved in the human brain — and how that compares to brains of some of our primate relatives. She and a global team of researchers have published their findings, “Evolution of DNA methylation in the human brain” in Nature Communications. 

“The large and complex brain is a distinguishing trait of the human lineage,” explains Soojin Yi, who directs the Yi Lab of Comparative Genomics and Epigenomics at Georgia Tech. “Scientists have been very interested in finding genetic and gene expression changes that are associated with the evolution of human brains.”

DNA methylation is a biological process by which methyl groups — organic compounds made up of three hydrogen atoms and a carbon atom — are added to DNA, which in turn sets off molecular processes to help regulate gene expression and other genetic factors that are necessary in healthy brains and nervous systems. When something goes wrong with DNA methylation, it can lead to certain diseases, including cancer and neuropsychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia.

“To understand the contribution of DNA methylation to human brain-specific gene regulation and disease susceptibility, it is necessary to extend our knowledge of evolutionary changes in DNA methylation during human brain evolution,” Yi says. 

Science has long known about the DNA methylation connection to certain conditions, but the evolutionary aspect has so far been largely unexplored. “Previous studies used bulk tissues, while DNA methylation is known to vary substantially between cell types,” Yi shares, so her team, including the paper’s co-corresponding author Genevieve Konopka’s lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center, focused on the search for cell-type-specific epigenetic (gene-activity-changing) marks, including DNA methylation and histone (basic protein) modifications. Those are implicated in cell-type-specific gene expression and disease susceptibility in humans. 

“Data from bulk tissues can be biased toward specific cell types and consequently, underpowered to detect cell-type-specific evolutionary changes,” Yi explains. “Therefore, to fully understand the role of DNA methylation in human brain evolution, it is necessary to study cell-type-specific changes of DNA methylation.”

Yi and her team found suitable samples for chimpanzees and macaques in the specimen archives of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University. “We also separated neurons and oligodendrocytes (which forms the protective sheaths for neural transmission) from bulk brain samples, so that we can study cell-type specific patterns of DNA methylation,” Yi says.

“We found that the human brains are particularly heavily methylated compared to chimpanzee and rhesus macaque brains — both in neurons and oligodendrocytes.” 

Yi and her team found that some positions that have unique patterns of DNA methylation in human brains were previously implicated in neuropsychiatric diseases including schizophrenia.

“Our work extends the knowledge of the unique roles of . . . methylation in human brain evolution, and offers a new framework for investigating the role of the epigenome evolution in connecting the genome to brain development, function, and diseases.” 

 

Yi’s research team included colleagues from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and the Department of Pathology, at Emory University; the Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Bizkaia Technology Park, Spain; The Department of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern Medical Center;  the Center for Medical Research and Education, Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Japan; the Schizophrenia Research Project, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Japan; and the College of Nursing, The Research Institute of Nursing Science, Seoul National University, South Korea.

For human samples, UT Southwestern Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB) has determined that as this research was conducted using post-mortem specimens, the project does not meet the definition of human subjects research and does not require IRB approval and oversight. Non-human primate samples were obtained from archival, post-mortem brain tissue opportunistically collected from subjects that died from natural causes, and following procedures approved by the Emory Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and in accordance with federal and institutional guidelines for the humane care and use of experimental animals. No living great apes were used in this study. 

Getting an itch is one thing. Everybody has to scratch every now and then, and some of us have to watch out for dry skin during the winter, or allergic reactions to ingredients in certain makeup or lotions. Yet for most of us, those discomforts involve itches on parts of our skin that have hair, not on what is called ‘glabrous’ skin: the smoother, tougher skin that’s found on the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet.

And those glabrous skin conditions often cause chronic itching and pain. In the U.S., there are an estimated 200,000 cases of dyshidrosis, a skin condition causing itchy blisters to develop only on the palm and soles, each year. Another chronic skin condition, palmoplantar pustulosis (a type of psoriasis which causes inflamed, scaly skin and intense itch on the palms and soles) affects an estimated 330,0000 to 1,650,000 people in the U.S. each year.

“Those patients with chronic itch suffer a lot. They don’t have a significant treatment, and it affects their lives,” says Liang Han, an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences who also researches in the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. Now, new research from Han and students in her Han Lab at Georgia Tech may offer a balm of hope for these patients. 

"MrgprC11+ sensory neurons mediate glabrous skin itch,” published in the science journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), is co-authored by Han alongside current and former graduate students Haley R. Steele (first author), Yanyan Xing, Yuyan Zhu, Henry B. Hilley, Katy Lawson, Yeseul Nho, and Taylor Niehoff.

Han and her students uncovered new information about which sensory neurons are responsible for glabrous skin itch. “We here present evidence demonstrating that distinct neuronal populations are responsible for mediating hairy and glabrous skin itch,” the authors write. “This study advanced our understanding of itch and will have significant impact on the clinical treatment of itch.”

Steele adds more: “Our research is showing, for the first time, the actual neurons that send itch are different populations. Neurons that are in hairy skin that do not sense itch in glabrous skins are one population, and another senses itch in glabrous skins.”

Of transgenic mice and sensory neurons

Steele, a current graduate student in the School of Biological Sciences who dual-majored in Biology and Literature, Media, Communications, is in her fifth year at Georgia Tech. In the new study, she highlights another reason why glabrous skin itches are significant sources of pain for patients. “That’s actually one of the most debilitating places (to get an itch),” Steels says. “If your hands are itchy, it’s hard to grasp things, and if it’s your feet, it can be hard to walk. If there’s an itch on your arm, you can still type. You’ll be distracted, but you’ll be okay. But if it’s your hands and feet, it’s harder to do everyday things.”

Why has an explanation so far eluded science? “I think one reason is because most of the people in the field kind of assumed it was the same mechanism that’s controlling the sensation. It’s technically challenging. It’s more difficult than working on hairy skin,” Han says.

She and her team got around the technical challenge by relying on a new investigative procedure, or assay, that Steele had been working on to judge behavior in research mice. The previous method would have involved injecting itch-causing chemicals into mice skin, but the majority of a mouse’s skin is covered with hair. The team had to focus on the smooth glabrous skin on tiny mice hands and feet. 

Using transgenic (genetically modified) mice also helped track down the proper sensory neurons responsible for glabrous skin itches. “What we can do is specifically activate a particular set of neurons that causes itch, and we saw that biting behavior again modeled,” referring to how mice usually deal with itchy skin.

A particular set of mice in the study was given a chemical to specifically kill an entire line of neurons. “We can see what would happen if they didn’t have those neurons we’re targeting,” Steele adds. 

Han, Steele and their team focused on three previously known pruriceptive (related to itch sensation) neurons in glabrous skin.

The result, as highlighted in the research study: “Our results show that MrgprA3+ and MrgprD+ neurons, although key mediators for hairy skin itch, do not play important roles in glabrous skin itch, demonstrating a mechanistic difference in itch sensation between hairy and glabrous skin. We found that MrgprC11+ neurons are the major mediators for glabrous skin itch. Activation of MrgprC11+ neurons induced glabrous skin itch, while ablation (removal) of MrgprC11+ neurons reduced both acute and chronic glabrous skin itch.”

Applications could involve figuring out a way for patients to turn off those itch-inducing neurons. “Blocking the neuron is one approach, but that’s down the road. That is something that we always hope,” Han says. “It is very reasonable to propose — to find a way to block those neurons in human skin.”

 

The researcher team thanks the animal care and welfare team at Georgia Institute of Technology for their care and services. This work was supported by grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NS087088 and HL141269), and the Pfizer Aspire Dermatology Award to Liang Han.

One of the criteria for choosing the recipient of Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development Award is the winning team’s ability to address major challenges. 

The latest team of annual recipients took on the challenge of 2020 at Georgia Tech: addressing the coronavirus pandemic across campus to help keep our community safe and healthy. Anton Bryskin, Gregory Gibson, Pinar Keskinocak, Michael Shannon, Joshua Weitz, Loren Williams and JulieAnne Williamson answered that call with a Georgia Tech Covid-19 testing program that now serves as a model for other institutions of higher learning across the country.

The winner of the Outstanding Achievement in Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Research Award, Stefan France, also responded to a formidable task, one that existed before Covid-19: the critical need to boost the number of underrepresented minority students at Georgia Tech — as did Pamela Pollet, this year's recipient of the 1940 W. Roane Beard Outstanding Teacher Award for "excellence and extraordinary efforts in teaching" throughout an unprecedented school year.

Those who nominated the College of Sciences recipients of this year's Institute Research Awards note the outstanding impact these individuals have realized by addressing these issues in positive, measurable, meaningful ways:

Georgia Tech answers coronavirus call to action 

The winners of the Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development Award are the researchers and staff members who quickly came up with a successful in-house platform for conducting Covid-19 testing at Georgia Tech: 

From the nomination materials:

“This program is the outcome of remarkable vision and decisive action in experimental science on the part of this team, beginning in spring 2020 with the emergence of coronavirus infections in the U.S. It was immediately apparent that accurate tests for viral infection were greatly needed, and that the normal governmental and commercial channels for providing those tests would be overwhelmed.  

Rather than simply wait for national systems to sort themselves out, the molecular biologists in the team initiated a bold plan to prepare and validate all of the components needed to perform hundreds of thousands of tests using the accepted polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method approved for clinical use, and to do this entirely in-house on the Georgia Tech campus.

Very soon after the appearance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Professor Williams began the construction of the Georgia Tech version of the PCR test, and its necessary technical infrastructure, without a mandate. Professors Gibson, Keskinocak, and Weitz provided key scientific insight and leadership for a GT campus-wide testing system. Dr. Bryskin was, and remains, the program’s indispensable technical expert — creating and optimizing processes for the complex steps that need to be performed flawlessly on thousands of samples per day. He was also the first to see and act on the need for CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) certification, an essential component of GT’s ability to collect and use the resulting information. 

Dr. Farrell, Ms. Williamson, and Dr. Shannon solved many seemingly insurmountable bureaucratic and organizational barriers, including the rapid creation of staff positions and space in the EBB building. Many others have contributed mightily of course, including the companion symptomatic testing program at Stamps Health Services run by Dr. Ben Holton, but these were the true visionaries and indispensables.

With a screening capacity of 3,000 saliva samples per day and using CLIA-certified, FDA-approved methodology, this program is now a model for efforts at other universities and institutions in the state of Georgia and nationwide."

A chemistry professor’s formula for diversity, mentorship

Stefan France, an associate professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, receives the Outstanding Achievement in Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Research 2021 Award. In addition to $7,500, France wins a $2,500 research support grant.

This award honors multiple contributions by France. From the nomination materials:

“In Spring 2020, France became the Project Leader for GT-CREATER, an American Chemical Society-funded Bridge Site that offers two-year thesis M.S. degrees to support the transition from undergraduate to graduate school for underrepresented minority students.

France has trained approximately 60 undergraduates, about half from Georgia Tech. Since 2016, he has served as the principal investigator for the National Science Foundation-funded Chemistry Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site, providing summer research opportunities to more than 30 undergraduates from around the country.
In 2019, France established the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Bridges to the Professoriate (B2P), a pre-professional group for students and postdocs interested in obtaining academic positions. He also serves as co-advisor for the GT Chapter of National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE).”

Class of 1940 W. Roane Beard Outstanding Teacher Award

Furthermore, the Georgia Tech Faculty Honors Committee has also presented its Class of 1940 W. Roane Beard Outstanding Teacher Award to Pamela Pollet, Safety Program Coordinator, Senior Research Scientist, and Associate Director of the Specialty Separation Center for the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

The Outstanding Teacher Award is given to those who “display teaching excellence, including extraordinary efforts in teaching, inspiration transmitted to students, direct impact and involvement with students, intellectual integrity and scholarship, and impact on post graduate success of students,” according to the Faculty Honors Committee Awards website. 

All of the Institute Research Awards were presented at the virtual Faculty and Staff Honors celebration on Thursday, April 15, 2021.

One research paper details the evolution of a Georgia Tech-built website that calculates the estimated risks of gathering in groups for every county in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic. The other Georgia Tech research paper looks for mathematics-based structure and symmetry deep inside the folds of origami, the ancient Japanese art.

The two studies address very different scientific issues, but they are both authored by College of Sciences faculty — and are the two studies that share the 2021 Best Faculty Paper Award, presented by the Georgia Tech Chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, during its annual end-of-year honors. 

Joshua Weitz, Patton Distinguished Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and founding director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences program, is one of two corresponding authors of “Realtime, interactive website for US-county-level COVID-19 event risk assessment”, published in Nature Human Behavior in November 2020. The paper's co-author and project collaborator, who shares the award with Weitz, is Clio Andris, assistant professor in the School of City and Regional Planning in the College of Design, with a joint appointment at the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech.

Four other researchers and experts from the School of Biological Sciences — Aroon Chande, Quan Nguyen, Stephen J. Beckett, and Troy Hilley — also worked on the study.

The ability for the Covid-19 Risk Assessment Planning Tool website to drill down to the county level for the entire country was introduced in July 2020, during the height of the pandemic. “We have developed an interactive county-level map of the risk that one or more individuals may have Covid-19 in events of different sizes,” Weitz explained, at the time. 

“The issue of understanding risks associated with gatherings is even more relevant as many kinds of businesses, including sports and universities, are considering how to re-open safely.”

Since the website launched last summer, it has been featured in over 150 external stories and interviews by media outlets on the pandemic. The website was developed in collaboration with Andris’ lab and with researchers from the Applied Bioinformatics Laboratory, a public/private partnership between Georgia Tech, IHRC Inc., and ASRT Inc.

For David Zeb Rocklin, an assistant professor in the School of Physics, it was the intersection of art and science — or rather, using the math in origami principles to enhance science — that led to his paper and latest honor from Sigma Xi.

"Hidden symmetries generate rigid folding mechanisms in periodic origami", published in November 2020, appeared in PNAS (the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

The paper, which Rocklin co-authored with graduate student James McInerney, “gives us access to a lot of mathematical technology,” Rocklin says, by looking at origami sheets in a new way, which could lead to even more practical scientific and engineering applications for origami. 

“I’m a soft matter physics guy, so I study how the geometric structure of a system controls how it changes shape when you push on it,” Rocklin says. “On the one hand it’s something you can hold in your hand and feel it and see it moving in real space, but on the other hand, it embodies and obeys these really austere algebraic structures.” 

Since 1947, the Georgia Tech Chapter of Sigma Xi has annually honored faculty and students for their research at the annual Spring Awards Banquet. The Georgia Tech Sigma Xi Research Awards are made possible by the support of the Georgia Tech Research Corporation and the Ferst Foundation.  

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, founded in 1886 at Cornell University, is the honor society of scientists and engineers that recognizes scientific achievement. Its mission is to enhance the health of the research enterprise, foster integrity in science and engineering, and promote the public’s understanding of science for the purpose of improving the human condition.

Seven College of Sciences faculty members from five schools are winners of annual awards from Georgia Tech’s Center for Teaching and Learning.

The Center for Teaching and Learning, part of the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Faculty Development, enhances the learning and teaching environment at Georgia Tech by encouraging a fully engaged, sharing community with communication networks, resources, and innovative programs for faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students. It recognizes tenured and non-tenured faculty with end-of-school-year awards honoring the work and innovation Georgia Tech educators bring to their classrooms.

This year's list includes a pair of School of Mathematics educators: Stephanie Reikes, a lecturer in the School of Mathematics, is the winner of Georgia Tech’s 2021 Undergraduate Educator Award. Professor Dan Margalit is one of two winners of the 2021 Eichholz Faculty Teaching Award.

2021 Undergraduate Educator Award 

Stephanie Reikes, School of Mathematics

Reikes’ award was offered for the first time in 2009, recognizing the outstanding contributions that non-tenure track faculty make to student education. It reflects Reikes’ unique role at Georgia Tech, with responsibilities in the School of Mathematics and the Tutoring & Academic Support unit at Georgia Tech. She is responsible for teaching all of the Institute’s pre-calculus mathematics courses, including Support for College Algebra, College Algebra, and Pre-Calculus. She specializes in working with student of all backgrounds, including at-risk students, students with disabilities, and student-athletes. 

In addition to leading improvements in this challenging area, she has strengthened the cooperation and collaboration between Tutoring & Academic Support and the School of Mathematics, and introduced an innovative Learning Assistants program. She also directs the Math Lab.

2021 Eichholz Award Faculty Teaching Award

Dan Margalit, School of Mathematics 

The Eichholz Award, which includes a $3,000 prize, was established in 2005 through a gift from School of Mechanical Engineering's Regents’ Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Eichholz. It was created to reward senior faculty members who made a long-term contribution to introductory undergraduate education and were outstanding teachers for students taking freshman and sophomore core courses. It was recently broadened to recognize faculty at any point in their careers who excel in teaching core and general education courses, and who help students establish a solid foundation for their education at Georgia Tech.

Margalit’s math research lies at the intersection of low-dimensional topology and geometric group theory. He focuses on mapping class groups of surfaces, also called the the symmetries of surfaces. The author/editor of three books, Margalit hosts several workshops and discussion groups centering not just on topology and the advanced geometry he teaches, but mentorship and support for undergraduate and graduate students.

CTL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award ($3,000 each award)

Young Jang – School of Biological Sciences

This award, offered through the joint support of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and BP America, provides Georgia Tech with the opportunity to highlight the excellent teaching and educational innovation that junior faculty bring to campus. 

Jang, an assistant professor, researches stem cell biology and its impact on the aging process. Jang’s lab uses multi-disciplinary approaches to study muscle stem cell biology and develops bioactive stem cell delivery vehicles for use in regenerative medicine.

Faculty Award for Academic Outreach ($3,000)

Chandra Raman – School of Physics

This award rewards faculty members for productive academic outreach in which they go beyond their normal duties to enrich the larger educational community with their subject matter knowledge. Initiatives may involve furthering the learning of K-12 students, teachers, or other educational stakeholders in Georgia.

Raman, a professor, lists Bose-Einstein condensation and quantum atomic sensors as his research interests. His lab is an experimental atomic physics group that prepares atomic vapors from room temperature down to the microKelvin temperature regime, and seeks to exploit their unique capabilities for applications in quantum photonics, sensing, and many-body physics.

Innovation in Co-Curricular Education ($3,000 shared--$1,000 each)

Paul Verhaeghen—School of Psychology

This award is open to full-time faculty of any rank who increase student learning outside the traditional curriculum and help Georgia Tech achieve its strategic goal of graduating global citizens who can contribute to all sectors of society. Initiatives may involve formal or informal out-of-class learning experiences that engage undergraduate and/or graduate students in opportunities to develop respect for other cultures, explore the leadership qualities and ethical behaviors necessary to contribute to society, and/or build on their innovative and entrepreneurial talents in order to have a positive impact on local, state, national and/or international arenas. 

Verhaeghen, a professor, researches cognitive aging and working memory in the School of Psychology. He has also conducted scientific research into mindfulness meditation, and has published a book on his findings, “Presence: How Mindfulness Shapes Your Brain, Mind, and Life.” In late 2020 he was awarded a two-year, $200,000 grant from the Mind and Life Institute.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award ($3,000 shared--$1,500 each)

Michael Evans, Carrie Shepler, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry  

This award, offered in 2018-2019 for the first time, provides Georgia Tech with the opportunity to acknowledge the value of scholarship of teaching and learning articulated by Boyer’s Scholarship Reconsidered (1990), and exemplified by the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. This award is intended to encourage and support the work of faculty whose scholarship focuses on the instructional mission of the institution.

Evans is a senior academic professional who serves as the Freshmen Chemistry Laboratory Coordinator. As he writes in the Chemical Education section of his biographical profile, “Our advanced labs have focused on how to keep students engaged and allow them to see the relevance of lab work to their career paths.”

As Director of Instructional Activities and Student Experience in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Shepler’s responsibilities include co-chairing the Freshman Chemistry Committee, providing administrative supervision and support, planning of assessment and feedback, pedagogical development, and coordination and training of teaching assistants in the freshman program in addition to teaching freshman program courses. Shepler also serves as an academic advisor. 

At the end of every semester at Georgia Tech — after weeks of faculty grading the work of students — the tables are flipped, and students get to evaluate their teachers and their class experiences using the Course Instructor Opinion Survey (CIOS). 

Faculty members with exceptional scores and response rates are presented with the Center for Teaching and Learning’s (CTL) Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Class of 1934 CIOS Award. This year, 40 College of Sciences faculty and instructors are receiving awards and honors for their work from spring through fall 2020 semesters.

The challenges of teaching classes during Covid-19 necessitated a new recognition from the CTL: The Honor Roll, which includes 32 College of Sciences faculty on its inaugural list.

“Teaching during the pandemic has required everyone to pivot to new ways of teaching, and faculty appreciate hearing that students value their efforts,” says Joyce Weinsheimer, CTL director. The criteria for Honor Roll selection are the same as for the Class of 1934 Award.

The following are the College of Sciences faculty named to both the Class of 1934 and Honor Roll Awards (groups broken up into small and large classes): 

Class of 1934 Award

Small Classes

Mirjana Milosevec Brockett, senior academic professional, School of Biological Sciences

Lutz Warnke, assistant professor, School of Mathematics

Large Classes

Hector Daniel Cervantes Banos, postdoctoral researcher, School of Mathematics

Dan Margalit, professor, School of Mathematics

Dobromir Rahnev, assistant professor, School of Psychology

Amit Reddi, associate professor, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Carrie Shepler, professor, Director of Instructional Activities and Student Experience, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Alonzo Whyte, academic professional, School of Biological Sciences (Neuroscience)

Honor Roll

Small Classes 

School of Biological Sciences — Mirjana Brockett, senior academic professional; Colin Harrison, academic professional

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences — Heather Chilton, lecturer;  Zachary Handlos, academic professional

School of Mathematics — Lutz Warnke, assistant professor

School of Psychology — Richard Catrambone, professor; Michael Hunter, assistant professor; James Roberts, associate professor

Large Classes 

School of Biological Sciences:

Annalise Paaby, assistant professor; William Ratcliff, associate professor; Raphael Rosenzweig, professor; Emily Weigel, academic professional

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences:

Samantha Wilson, academic professional

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry:

Meghan Benda, graduate student; Amit Reddi, associate professor; Carrie Shepler, professor, Director of Instructional Activities and Student Experience

School of Mathematics:

Alex Blumenthal, assistant professor; Hector Daniel Cervantes Banos, postdoctoral researcher; Klara Grodzinsky, Director of Teaching Assistants; Miriam Kuzbary, assistant professor; Gary Lavigne, professor; Wenjing Liao, assistant professor; Marissa Loving, postdoctoral researcher; Dan Margalit, professor; Gregory Mayer, Director of Online Learning; Stephanie Reikes, lecturer, Tutoring and Academic Support; Victor Vilaca Da Rocha, assistant professor; Zhiyu Wang, postdoctoral researcher

Neuroscience:

Mary Holder, academic professional; Alonzo Whyte, academic professional

School of Psychology:

Dobromir Rahnev, assistant professor

Both the new One Giant Leap and One Small Step Awards (formerly known as Process Improvement Awards) are designed to honor individuals and/or teams who exhibit the following traits:

  • Consistently invents or improves tools, processes, or systems.
  • Regularly evaluates situations, gathers data, and uses the data to identify opportunities for change.
  • Constantly asks, “how can we do this better?” and “why do we do it that way?”
  • Frequently considers non-traditional approaches.
  • Regularly identifies problems but focuses on potential solutions.
  • Proactively seeks feedback and involvement from constituents.

The winners of these awards, presented by Georgia Tech Human Resources, easily meet those criteria. 

In addition, the Spirit of Georgia Tech Award aims to honor employees who “inspire others with their presence and professionalism, creating an environment where others flourish and thrive.” That, say those who work with her, exactly describes School of Biological Sciences Academic Program Coordinator II Chung Kim, this year’s award winner.

One Giant Leap to fight the pandemic 

For the One Giant Leap Award — which identifies those who exhibit those behaviors on an Institute level — the winning team includes College of Sciences' Greg Gibson, Patton Distinguished Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Director of the Center for Integrative Genomics, and member of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience; and Joshua Weitz, Patton Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences.

Both Gibson and Weitz have been heavily involved in the Institute’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Gibson helped to set up the process for testing Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff, and Weitz and an interdisciplinary team created the Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool, an interactive map estimating Covid-19 risk levels for gatherings of different group sizes for every county in the United States and in the UK. Both Weitz and Gibson are on an Institute task force helping to create a safe return to campus in the fall.

The Testing Site Operations team, which shares the 2020 award, includes: Dale Allgood, Alfred Blue, Tokiki Brown, Anton Bryksin, Jenny Cotton, Greg Gibson, Sheree Gibson, Benjamin Holton, Jamison Keller, Brian Liu, True Merrill, Alex Ortiz, Miles Paca, Mike Shannon, Nicholas Speller, Sara Warner, Joshua Weitz, and JulieAnne Williamson.

The Spirit of Georgia Tech = Chung Kim’s support for faculty 

Lisa Redding, academic program coordinator II for Bioinformatics and Quantitative Biosciences, School of Biological Sciences, says that in dozens of supporting comments from graduate students and faculty, “Chung was praised for her kindness, professionalism, and positive attitude. She is known for being knowledgeable, helpful, organized, and for following-up to make sure that problems are resolved.”

Redding says students echo those comments; Chung “cares about them as people, not just as students. She is said to exude positivity,” and goes out of her way to make students feel well-supported in their graduate education. They also praise her for taking time to greet them by name when they pass on campus. 

One Small Step for secure GT devices

For the One Small Step Award — for a team or individual who exhibits those behaviors on an individual or departmental level — the award goes to a team of College of Sciences Academic and Research Computing Services (ARCS) professionals who came up with a new way for enrolling and managing devices on campus networks. 

The following ARCS staffers, along with an Office of Information Technology (OIT) staff member, were honored for their work on the College of Sciences Asset and Endpoint Management Dashboard:

Steven Daniele, Academic & Research IT Senior Support Engineer, ARCS

Justin Filoseta, Director of IT, Research Scientist II, ARCS

Troy W. Hilley, Systems/IT Architect Principal, 

Jeffrey S. Lowe, Senior Web Developer, ARCS

Nguyen T. Nguyen, Support Engineer Lead, ARCS 

Arian Padron, Lead Support Engineer, ARCS

Michael Sheldon, Application Developer Manager, ARCS

Troy T. West, Information Security Engineer Lead, OIT

“The whole process of verifying inventory, enrolling devices with endpoint management, and signing the loan form, is now a simple and self-service workflow, available via the one-stop-shop of the College of Sciences Asset and Endpoint Management Dashboard,” says Lew Lefton, College of Sciences Assistant Dean for Information Technology and Associate Vice President for Research Computing. “This convenience increased the number of people who were in compliance with policy, and consequently reduced the likelihood of data disclosures and their associated risks.”

Julia Kubanek, professor of biological sciences and chemistry and biochemistry, and associate dean for Research in Georgia Tech’s College of Sciences, has been named vice president for Interdisciplinary Research (VPIR). Kubanek will assume the role on July 1.

“I am very pleased to announce Julia Kubanek as the next vice president for Interdisciplinary Research,” said Chaouki T. Abdallah, executive vice president for Research at Georgia Tech. “In her long and lauded career at Tech, she has proven herself an exemplary educator and leader who is committed to excellence in scholarship, and to building partnerships that grow collaborative research across the Institute.”

Kubanek joined Georgia Tech as an assistant professor in the School of Biology and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2001. She was named an associate professor in 2006, and professor in 2011. In that time, she also served as the associate chair of the School of Biology from 2009 to 2011. Kubanek has served as the associate dean for Research in the College of Sciences since 2014.

In her role as associate dean for Research, Kubanek was part of the leadership team that helped shepherd substantial research growth in the College of Sciences, including the enhancement of research opportunities and infrastructure for faculty and students. Kubanek supported the collaborative interests of faculty and students by organizing and hosting cross-disciplinary workshops, including with the Oak Ridge National Lab. Her work also included career development workshops for early career academic and research faculty; guidance to faculty looking to launch new collaborative projects; and one-on-one mentoring of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students.

“With 20 years at Tech, I know this institution is filled with faculty, staff, and students who want to drive life-changing research in ways they cannot achieve alone,” Kubanek said. “In a supportive, collaborative, and interdisciplinary environment, I believe the creative, promising research visions of our Georgia Tech researchers can grow to international prominence and improve people’s lives and the health of our planet.”

The VPIR is responsible for ensuring the effective and strategic administration of interdisciplinary research and activities, including the Interdisciplinary Research Institutes, the Interdisciplinary Research Centers, the Pediatric Technology Center, the Georgia Center for Medical Innovation, and the Novelis Innovation Hub. The role has been filled on an interim basis since February by Devesh Ranjan, associate chair for Research, Ring Family Chair, and professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

“I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Devesh Ranjan, who has expertly served in the role of interim VPIR and will continue to do so until June 30, providing critical continuity and leadership,” Abdallah said. “Thank you, too, to our search chair Rob Butera, professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering, and vice president for Research Development and Operations, and the search committee who reviewed an exceptional field of candidates.”

Kubanek’s publications and grants have been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, industry, and national labs, as well as state agencies and foundations. Her educational and scientific contributions have seen her recognized for teaching excellence and mentoring by her students and colleagues, as well as accolades from national boards and associations. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, as well as the National Science Foundation CAREER award, among many others.

Kubanek’s research focus has included aquatic chemical ecology, chemical signaling, chemical communication, chemoreception, chemical biology, marine natural products chemistry, secondary metabolism, drug discovery, and metabolomics. She has mentored and advised more than 90 students and postdocs and has published more than 100 papers in journals and conferences. Kubanek received a B.Sc. in chemistry from Queen's University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of British Columbia.

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