This story, written by Bryant Wine, originally appeared on the College of Computing website.

Georgia Tech scientists, including a researcher from the School of Biological Sciences, have formed the core of an interdisciplinary, inter-organizational team which seeks to prevent disease outbreaks by integrating the study of human behavior with computational data-driven models. 

Calling themselves BEHIVE (BEHavioral Interaction and Viral Evolution), the group recently received a $1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant toward multidisciplinary team formation and novel outbreak prevention research.

“Our goal is to bring together all these terrific researchers from different disciplines to help bring a paradigm shift in the science of pandemic prediction and prevention,” said B. Aditya Prakash, associate professor with Georgia Tech’s School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE). 

“While epidemic forecasting is compared to weather forecasting, there is an important difference. Unlike weather, our actions and behavior can change the course of an epidemic.”

Prakash is the principal investigator of the $1 million NSF grant. Fellow BEHIVE members include:

• Pinar Keskinocak, William W. George Chair and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech
• Thomas Kingsley, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Informatics at Mayo Clinic
• Shinobu Kitayama, Robert B. Zajonc Collegiate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan
• Ramesh Raskar, Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab
• Liliana Salvador, Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia’s Department of Infectious Diseases
• Joshua Weitz, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences (QBioS) at Georgia Tech

Prakash emphasized BEHIVE’s primary goal to use its interdisciplinary organization to bridge research methodologies between hard and soft sciences. 

He explained that human behavior was underutilized in epidemic science before Covid-19, largely due to data scarcity and underdeveloped computational technologies. Behavioral dynamics encountered during the pandemic, such as social distancing, mask wearing, and vaccine hesitancy, has provided new research and data that now can be considered in models and simulations.

Here, BEHIVE will develop high fidelity computational models by designing new artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques that bridge human behavior knowledge and traditional epidemiological theory and models.

“It is still an open question of how we can best incorporate human behavior knowledge into the study of pandemics. That is the challenge,” Prakash said. “Our main idea is to better integrate knowledge from psychology and the humanities into pandemic science using novel computational methods.”

BEHIVE originated when team members met through various workshops held in 2020 and 2021. Prakash was an invited organizer of the National Symposium on Predicting Emergence of Virulent Entities by Novel Technologies (PREVENT). 

PREVENT reported that interdisciplinary collaboration was an obstacle in predicting and preventing pandemics. For example, some vocabularies often don’t mean the same thing across disciplines, so a consistent methodology to establish a common language must be developed.

BEHIVE is custom built to solve these challenges PREVENT revealed. Along with a wealth of knowledge learned through past epidemics, each BEHIVE researcher brings to the group experience working across interdisciplinary lines. 

Among the Georgia Tech researchers alone, Keskinocak interfaced with policymakers and the public on measures to slow Covid-19's spread. 

Prakash’s lab led several high-profile Covid-19 forecasting initiatives, including collaboration with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Weitz teamed with fellow Georgia Tech researchers in the College of Sciences, College of Computing, and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering to create a predoctoral training program that integrates computational modeling and data analytics into bioscience.

Keskinocak, Prakash, and Weitz together are also faculty in the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS), one of Georgia Tech’s ten interdisciplinary research institutes. IDEaS connects research centers and efforts in foundational areas such as machine learning, high-performance computing, and algorithms.

BEHIVE’s $1 million grant is funded through NSF’s Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) initiative. This program supports high-risk, high-payoff convergent research that aims to identify, model, predict, track, and mitigate the effects of future pandemics.

According to Prakash, the PREVENT symposium’s summary report also helped highlight the need for an initiative like PIPP.

PIPP is a two-phased initiative in which NSF selects to fund 25 to 30 project teams, including BEHIVE, for eighteen months through phase one. However, this does not necessarily limit PIPP’s influence to chosen project teams within academia.

BEHIVE intends to partner with industry, governmental, and non-profit organizations to expand its interdisciplinary, interorganizational network. 

BEHIVE’s nucleus of Georgia Tech researchers connects the group with the CDC, Georgia Department of Public Health, and numerous hospitals across the state. BEHIVE’s other researchers also serve in leading roles at non-profits, such as the Pathcheck Foundation, and top hospitals like the Mayo Clinic.

Along with developing interdisciplinary methodologies, new disease prevention models, and partnering with external organizations, BEHIVE hopes to develop educational training programs. This would ensure their effort last generations to bring about the necessary paradigm change to prevent future pandemics.

“Our initial projects and research the next eighteen months will help us get a sense of research gaps and enlarge our perspective” Prakash said. “We’re approaching PIPP as a science, and we want to lay the foundation of the science by bringing in many people from different fields for the future.”

When he was 14 years old, Brian Hammer learned the hard way about the dangers of bacteria, and the wonders of penicillin, thanks to a wrestling bout with a sibling.

“My older brother thought it would be fun to wrestle me holding my dad’s fishing knife,” said Hammer, an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences. What wasn’t fun: accidentally ending up with a stab wound in his leg.

The next day he couldn’t walk and had a high fever, thanks to a blood infection caused by Staphylococcus bacteria on his skin ending up in his wound. “Those bacteria can grow very quickly in your blood. And they should never be there,” Hammer said. Doctors gave him penicillin intravenously, and Hammer remained in a hospital for nearly a month before recovering.

Now, this November, Hammer — who performed in high school and college musicals and choruses — will get to sing the praises of Alexander Fleming, the Scottish scientist who indirectly healed him by discovering the antibacterial qualities of penicillin.

Hammer will be in the chorus at the Science Gallery at Pullman Yards Nov. 1-6, 2022 when the musical “The Mold That Changed The World” comes to Atlanta during its U.S. tour. It will be the second stop for the show, which has its stateside premiere in Washington, D.C.

Hammer, who is also a faculty member of Georgia Tech’s Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI), is getting a chance to dust off singing skills because the musical is giving local professionals in science and health-related industries a chance to join the chorus when the show comes to their city. Colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control, which is co-sponsoring the musical’s 2022 U.S. tour, have also successfully auditioned to sing in the Atlanta performances, as have other area scientists and researchers, along with an emergency medical technician and a veterinarian.

For Hammer, there are strong similarities in singing about science, and teaching it at Georgia Tech. “There's a lot of entertainment in teaching, a lot of showmanship. It’s the way I got interested in microbiology, when the teacher was pretty charismatic and dynamic. So I've always wanted to be that kind of teacher.”

Singing for science education

“The Mold That Changed The World” doesn’t just focus on Fleming’s discovery. It also shows how Fleming overcame social obstacles to finding life-saving qualities in a “nasty mold,” as Hammer put it, and conveys in singing and music the dangers of relying too much on antibacterial drugs — an ongoing worry that has Hammer and several other CMDI researchers looking for new treatments.

“Fleming won the Nobel Prize for discovering the first antibiotic, penicillin, and even in his Nobel Prize speech, he predicted the dangers of the emergence of resistant microbes,” Hammer said. “He said then that he can imagine a scenario in the future where if someone doesn't take their antibiotics correctly, you could end up with resistant ‘superbugs’ that get transferred to another person. And then you don't have a treatment. He said that in 1945.”

Warning children about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was the chief reason the Charades Theater Company in the United Kingdom staged “The Mold That Changed the World,” which was first performed for primary grades. The company thought it would be a fun and effective way to teach children ages 9-12 about the proper use of antibiotics. It was that educational aspect that attracted Hammer. 

“It's one way of communicating science,” he said. “We scientists, we have to do a better job of communicating science, in all ways. That may mean different media, different settings. It's just got to be part of what we do now. This is one unusual example of how to do that. But why not, right?”

The musical did prove effective. A 2020 UK study showed that students answered more questions about AMR correctly and retained more of the science information after seeing the musical.

Researching cholera, and challenging stereotypes

As a teenager, Hammer sang in high school musical productions like “Godspell.” He then went to Boston College, where he joined the university chorale and got to sing for Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

But Hammer was also busy earning his B.S. in biology. He went on to receive his M.S. in conservation biology and a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Michigan. He said his desire to sing was overcome by his desire to learn everything about microbes and how they impact ecosystems and biodiversity — and then what they can do to humans. 

In the Hammer Lab at Georgia Tech, he and his team study microbial interactions at scales that span genes and genomes, regulatory networks, cells, populations, and communities. His longtime focus has been on Vibrio cholerae, the waterborne pathogen that causes cholera. 

“It’s this combination of thinking about pathogens and their ecological environment,” Hammer explained. “It's still fascinating to me how microbes can do all they need to do to live out there somewhere else, and then they can adapt to life in our bodies and wreak havoc. That single cells can do this still blows my mind, and how they do it, and what the consequences are. And cholera was the first 'bug' that I worked on that had this kind of dual lifestyle.”

Hammer was preparing for the Fall 2022 semester when his wife, Tracy, a fifth-grade teacher, said she would be taking her students to a children’s version of “The Mold That Changed The World” when the musical’s cast came to Atlanta. “She found out about it because some of the parents in her school work at the CDC,” he said. “She knew that I had done this (sung in musicals).” A visit to the musical’s website led him to audition for the special chorus.

Hammer said that his chance to perform on stage again isn’t just about educating audiences. It’s also about showing humanity in science, he added. 

“I think part of this is also to remind people that we scientists are just normal people too. I think there's this misperception that scientists are elitists who don't know how to interact with other people, or choose not to, or can’t. We're not elitist, we just have an area that we think about a lot – just like everyone else has subjects that they think about, and have strong opinions about and expertise in. So we're no different.”

“The Mold That Changed the World” runs Nov. 1-6 at Science Gallery@Pullman Yards,  225 Rogers St. NE, Atlanta, GA 30317.  Tickets go on sale soon and can be purchased here. 

This story, written by Bryant Wine, originally appeared on the College of Computing website.

Georgia Tech scientists, including a researcher from the School of Biological Sciences, have formed the core of an interdisciplinary, inter-organizational team which seeks to prevent disease outbreaks by integrating the study of human behavior with computational data-driven models. 

Calling themselves BEHIVE (BEHavioral Interaction and Viral Evolution), the group recently received a $1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant toward multidisciplinary team formation and novel outbreak prevention research.

“Our goal is to bring together all these terrific researchers from different disciplines to help bring a paradigm shift in the science of pandemic prediction and prevention,” said B. Aditya Prakash, associate professor with Georgia Tech’s School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE). 

“While epidemic forecasting is compared to weather forecasting, there is an important difference. Unlike weather, our actions and behavior can change the course of an epidemic.”

Prakash is the principal investigator of the $1 million NSF grant. Fellow BEHIVE members include:

• Pinar Keskinocak, William W. George Chair and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech
• Thomas Kingsley, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Informatics at Mayo Clinic
• Shinobu Kitayama, Robert B. Zajonc Collegiate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan
• Ramesh Raskar, Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab
• Liliana Salvador, Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia’s Department of Infectious Diseases
• Joshua Weitz, Professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences (QBioS) at Georgia Tech

Prakash emphasized BEHIVE’s primary goal to use its interdisciplinary organization to bridge research methodologies between hard and soft sciences. 

He explained that human behavior was underutilized in epidemic science before Covid-19, largely due to data scarcity and underdeveloped computational technologies. Behavioral dynamics encountered during the pandemic, such as social distancing, mask wearing, and vaccine hesitancy, has provided new research and data that now can be considered in models and simulations.

Here, BEHIVE will develop high fidelity computational models by designing new artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques that bridge human behavior knowledge and traditional epidemiological theory and models.

“It is still an open question of how we can best incorporate human behavior knowledge into the study of pandemics. That is the challenge,” Prakash said. “Our main idea is to better integrate knowledge from psychology and the humanities into pandemic science using novel computational methods.”

BEHIVE originated when team members met through various workshops held in 2020 and 2021. Prakash was an invited organizer of the National Symposium on Predicting Emergence of Virulent Entities by Novel Technologies (PREVENT). 

PREVENT reported that interdisciplinary collaboration was an obstacle in predicting and preventing pandemics. For example, some vocabularies often don’t mean the same thing across disciplines, so a consistent methodology to establish a common language must be developed.

BEHIVE is custom built to solve these challenges PREVENT revealed. Along with a wealth of knowledge learned through past epidemics, each BEHIVE researcher brings to the group experience working across interdisciplinary lines. 

Among the Georgia Tech researchers alone, Keskinocak interfaced with policymakers and the public on measures to slow Covid-19's spread. 

Prakash’s lab led several high-profile Covid-19 forecasting initiatives, including collaboration with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Weitz teamed with fellow Georgia Tech researchers in the College of Sciences, College of Computing, and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering to create a predoctoral training program that integrates computational modeling and data analytics into bioscience.

Keskinocak, Prakash, and Weitz together are also faculty in the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS), one of Georgia Tech’s ten interdisciplinary research institutes. IDEaS connects research centers and efforts in foundational areas such as machine learning, high-performance computing, and algorithms.

BEHIVE’s $1 million grant is funded through NSF’s Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) initiative. This program supports high-risk, high-payoff convergent research that aims to identify, model, predict, track, and mitigate the effects of future pandemics.

According to Prakash, the PREVENT symposium’s summary report also helped highlight the need for an initiative like PIPP.

PIPP is a two-phased initiative in which NSF selects to fund 25 to 30 project teams, including BEHIVE, for eighteen months through phase one. However, this does not necessarily limit PIPP’s influence to chosen project teams within academia.

BEHIVE intends to partner with industry, governmental, and non-profit organizations to expand its interdisciplinary, interorganizational network. 

BEHIVE’s nucleus of Georgia Tech researchers connects the group with the CDC, Georgia Department of Public Health, and numerous hospitals across the state. BEHIVE’s other researchers also serve in leading roles at non-profits, such as the Pathcheck Foundation, and top hospitals like the Mayo Clinic.

Along with developing interdisciplinary methodologies, new disease prevention models, and partnering with external organizations, BEHIVE hopes to develop educational training programs. This would ensure their effort last generations to bring about the necessary paradigm change to prevent future pandemics.

“Our initial projects and research the next eighteen months will help us get a sense of research gaps and enlarge our perspective” Prakash said. “We’re approaching PIPP as a science, and we want to lay the foundation of the science by bringing in many people from different fields for the future.”

Six graduate students, one from each school in the College of Sciences, are among the latest recipients of the Herbert P. Haley Fellowship at Georgia Tech. The initiative recognizes significant accomplishments and outstanding academic achievements for graduate students at Georgia Tech.

College of Sciences’ 2022-2023 Haley Fellows are Karim Lakhani, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Cody Mashburn, School of Psychology; Andrew McAvoy, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Joshua Pughe-Sanford, School of Physics; Roberta Shapiro, School of Mathematics, and Cassandra Shriver, School of Biological Sciences.

Haley scholars receive a one-time merit award of up to $4,000 thanks to the generosity of the late Marion Peacock Haley. Haley’s estate established the creation of merit-based graduate fellowships at Georgia Tech in honor of her late husband, Herbert P. Haley, ME 1933. It is an award which may be held in conjunction with other funding, assistantships, or fellowships, if applicable. 

Meet the scholars

Karim Lakhani is a 5th-year Ph.D. student who is studying paleoceanography in ADVANCE Professor Jean Lynch-Stieglitz’s lab. The fellowship will allow Lakhani to spend more time on research, where he is currently “looking at the transition between the surface ocean and the deep ocean and how that was different, so the shells I look at are from organisms that floated at specific depths in the ocean in the past.”

Cody Mashburn’s research interest is the cognitive basis of individual differences in intelligence and reasoning. “Basically, why do we see variability in how well people are able to perform on intelligence tests, and how well they are able to problem solve,” he said. Mashburn will use the funds to add “more tools to my research arsenal” and to attend relevant workshops. 

Andrew McAvoy is a fifth-year Ph.D. student who plans to use the Haley funds for registration and travel-related expenses so he can present his research at scientific conferences.

“My graduate research involves studying small molecule production in Burkholderia cepacia complex bacteria, one of the most feared pathogens infecting cystic fibrosis patients,” McAvoy said.

Joshua Pughe-Sanford’s fascination with dynamics — how things move, breaking down complex behavior into simpler parts — drives his physics research. “Dynamics can describe how elementary particles collide, how neurons fire in our brain, how traffic accrues, how galaxies collide,” he said. “The list goes on and on and, in essence, the work I do can be applied to all these different fields.” 

Roberta Shapiro’s research centers on using topology — the study of geometric properties that stay the same, even when they are distorted — to answer questions in complex dynamics. Saying that “mathematics is all about collaboration,” the fourth-year graduate student plans on using the funds to attend conferences “and make connections with future collaborators. That means there's more math coming soon!”

Cassandra Shriver, who is starting her second year in the Quantitative Biosciences graduate program, studies comparative biomechanics and conservation science. “Specifically, I'm curious how various morphological differences and scaling constraints affect climbing kinematics, and how these strategies might change as you increase in size from something as small as a squirrel to as large as a bear.”

A new Georgia Tech program has launched to support the next generation of leaders who can take their scientific discoveries and translate them into public action to improve human and environmental health.

The Interdisciplinary Health and Environment Leadership Development (IHE-LeaD) Program at Georgia Tech recently welcomed its inaugural cohort of 11 graduate student fellows from the College of Sciences, the College of Engineering, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. The IHE-Lead program is supported by a grant from The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a non-profit medical research organization supporting biomedical science and STEM education.

The goal of the IHE-LeaD Program

Human and environmental health are intertwined. Early career researchers are acutely aware of ways in which their research has a chance to make a difference, but doing so requires collaboration across disciplinary boundaries and with community stakeholders.  

“The IHE-LeaD program is designed to decrease the barriers to the translation of science for the public good”, said Joshua Weitz, professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences and the IHE-LeaD Program’s co-principal investigator. “The leadership program is intended to be a critical first step towards building an integrative research and training environment at Georgia Tech that can address some of our most challenging problems, whether in the areas of health disparities, emerging infectious disease, air quality, climate change and beyond.”

Fellows were selected based on their interest for interdisciplinary exchange and their innovative ideas for collaborative, public facing actions that advance human and environmental health. Six faculty advisers will support the researchers with the goal of turning their scientific discoveries into applications that directly benefit communities. 

“For me, the responsibility of the scientific enterprise is first and foremost to be of public service for the greater good,” said Gabi Steinbach, scientific project coordinator and data communications specialist in the Weitz Group in the School of Biological Sciences, and the IHE-LeaD Program’s principal investigator. “The fellowship program captures two aspects that directly address this goal. One is the topical focus on interconnected human and environmental health, and the other is the impact-driven nature of the program.”

What to expect in the IHE-LeaD Program

Between August 2022 and May 2023, fellows will receive training in leadership and translational development. Workshops range from team dynamics to community engagement and system thinking, led by local, national, and Georgia Tech experts. The program also features a monthly seminar series with speakers from across the Institute’s colleges. That series will be open “to allow colleagues, partners, and the public to engage with our growing community,” Steinbach said.

During the program, IHE-LeaD fellows will jointly plan and implement activities based on their shared goals related to human and environmental health, which may include  collaborative research, outreach events, and the development of online platforms. 

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund support will also enable a two-day symposium, planned for early summer 2023. Fellows will invite and engage with regional and national academic experts, trainees, community leaders, and policy makers in their field of interest. That will give them a chance to establish professional networks, develop skills for implementing science-informed actions, and be directly involved in shaping a collaborative, interdisciplinary community.

The inspiration for IHE-LeaD

Steinbach said it is becoming increasingly obvious that human prosperity cannot be addressed effectively without considering environmental aspects such as climate change and air quality. “To reach those goals, it is crucial to focus on the interconnectedness of human health and environmental systems.” The IHE-LeaD program is built around that focus, bringing together experts at Georgia Tech who work at the forefront of advancing and protecting health from different human and environmental aspects. 

“While innovative scientific progress is a necessary condition for progress, it does not readily translate into societal impact,” she said. “Established academic training focuses on scientific practice, often separated by disciplines, but can too commonly feel isolated from real-world scenarios. This absence of connection can leave individual trainees and researchers feeling disempowered, and too often disappointed.”  

Steinbach and the other IHE-LeaD Fellows believe “the scientific voice” is a crucial component in tackling real-world problems. “With our program, we aim to bridge that gap and provide students with the training and opportunity to connect their passion for science with their desire to contribute to effective impact.”

Interdisciplinary connections 

Steinbach said with her background in physical and biological sciences, it has always been her goal to bridge disciplinary boundaries and connect with social scientists and experts from other fields. “This enables me to see my disciplinary blind spot and to jointly work towards truly effective and sustainable innovations,” she said. 

For Sonja Brankovic, Ph.D. candidate in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, it’s the translational aspects of the program that got her attention. “ I’m interested in going into industry. I think it’s just a natural fit to learn more about that — how what I study can be more impactful. So this is something I’m really interested in.”

Nidhi Desai, Ph.D. candidate in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences explained her interest. “As an air quality instrumentalist, I feel like we talk a lot about the science, but not about the human health effects as much. So I’m really interested in learning as much as I can from this program and thinking about that more.” 

Becoming an IHE-LeaD Fellow proved to be a case of perfect timing for Stephanie Bilodeau, Ph.D. candidate in the School of Biological Sciences. “I’ve just started doing local research on freshwater ecosystems in Georgia. So for the first time, I’m doing research that actually has applications for the community around Atlanta. This opportunity is ideal to help me build my skills and learn to connect my research better to the Georgia Tech community and Atlanta.”

Steinbach, IHE-LeaD’s principal investigator, hopes the initiative becomes an annual program. “We hope that the first cohort fellows will become mentors for following cohorts, and that we can grow a sustainable interdisciplinary network which facilitates public-facing impact and helps fellows develop interdisciplinary and dynamic careers.”

Learn more about the Interdisciplinary Health and Environment Leadership Program (IHE-LeaD) at Georgia Tech.

By: Renay San Miguel
Interviews: Audra Davidson

A new Georgia Tech program has launched to support the next generation of leaders who can take their scientific discoveries and translate them into public action to improve human and environmental health.

The Interdisciplinary Health and Environment Leadership Development (IHE-LeaD) Program at Georgia Tech recently welcomed its inaugural cohort of 11 graduate student fellows from the College of Sciences, the College of Engineering, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. The IHE-Lead program is supported by a grant from The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a non-profit medical research organization supporting biomedical science and STEM education.

The goal of the IHE-LeaD Program

Human and environmental health are intertwined. Early career researchers are acutely aware of ways in which their research has a chance to make a difference, but doing so requires collaboration across disciplinary boundaries and with community stakeholders.  

“The IHE-LeaD program is designed to decrease the barriers to the translation of science for the public good”, said Joshua Weitz, professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences and the IHE-LeaD Program’s co-principal investigator. “The leadership program is intended to be a critical first step towards building an integrative research and training environment at Georgia Tech that can address some of our most challenging problems, whether in the areas of health disparities, emerging infectious disease, air quality, climate change and beyond.”

Fellows were selected based on their interest for interdisciplinary exchange and their innovative ideas for collaborative, public facing actions that advance human and environmental health. Six faculty advisers will support the researchers with the goal of turning their scientific discoveries into applications that directly benefit communities. 

“For me, the responsibility of the scientific enterprise is first and foremost to be of public service for the greater good,” said Gabi Steinbach, scientific project coordinator and data communications specialist in the Weitz Group in the School of Biological Sciences, and the IHE-LeaD Program’s principal investigator. “The fellowship program captures two aspects that directly address this goal. One is the topical focus on interconnected human and environmental health, and the other is the impact-driven nature of the program.”

What to expect in the IHE-LeaD Program

Between August 2022 and May 2023, fellows will receive training in leadership and translational development. Workshops range from team dynamics to community engagement and system thinking, led by local, national, and Georgia Tech experts. The program also features a monthly seminar series with speakers from across the Institute’s colleges. That series will be open “to allow colleagues, partners, and the public to engage with our growing community,” Steinbach said.

During the program, IHE-LeaD fellows will jointly plan and implement activities based on their shared goals related to human and environmental health, which may include  collaborative research, outreach events, and the development of online platforms. 

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund support will also enable a two-day symposium, planned for early summer 2023. Fellows will invite and engage with regional and national academic experts, trainees, community leaders, and policy makers in their field of interest. That will give them a chance to establish professional networks, develop skills for implementing science-informed actions, and be directly involved in shaping a collaborative, interdisciplinary community.

The inspiration for IHE-LeaD

Steinbach said it is becoming increasingly obvious that human prosperity cannot be addressed effectively without considering environmental aspects such as climate change and air quality. “To reach those goals, it is crucial to focus on the interconnectedness of human health and environmental systems.” The IHE-LeaD program is built around that focus, bringing together experts at Georgia Tech who work at the forefront of advancing and protecting health from different human and environmental aspects. 

“While innovative scientific progress is a necessary condition for progress, it does not readily translate into societal impact,” she said. “Established academic training focuses on scientific practice, often separated by disciplines, but can too commonly feel isolated from real-world scenarios. This absence of connection can leave individual trainees and researchers feeling disempowered, and too often disappointed.”  

Steinbach and the other IHE-LeaD Fellows believe “the scientific voice” is a crucial component in tackling real-world problems. “With our program, we aim to bridge that gap and provide students with the training and opportunity to connect their passion for science with their desire to contribute to effective impact.”

Interdisciplinary connections 

Steinbach said with her background in physical and biological sciences, it has always been her goal to bridge disciplinary boundaries and connect with social scientists and experts from other fields. “This enables me to see my disciplinary blind spot and to jointly work towards truly effective and sustainable innovations,” she said. 

For Sonja Brankovic, Ph.D. candidate in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, it’s the translational aspects of the program that got her attention. “ I’m interested in going into industry. I think it’s just a natural fit to learn more about that — how what I study can be more impactful. So this is something I’m really interested in.”

Nidhi Desai, Ph.D. candidate in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences explained her interest. “As an air quality instrumentalist, I feel like we talk a lot about the science, but not about the human health effects as much. So I’m really interested in learning as much as I can from this program and thinking about that more.” 

Becoming an IHE-LeaD Fellow proved to be a case of perfect timing for Stephanie Bilodeau, Ph.D. candidate in the School of Biological Sciences. “I’ve just started doing local research on freshwater ecosystems in Georgia. So for the first time, I’m doing research that actually has applications for the community around Atlanta. This opportunity is ideal to help me build my skills and learn to connect my research better to the Georgia Tech community and Atlanta.”

Steinbach, IHE-LeaD’s principal investigator, hopes the initiative becomes an annual program. “We hope that the first cohort fellows will become mentors for following cohorts, and that we can grow a sustainable interdisciplinary network which facilitates public-facing impact and helps fellows develop interdisciplinary and dynamic careers.”

Learn more about the Interdisciplinary Health and Environment Leadership Program (IHE-LeaD) at Georgia Tech.

By: Renay San Miguel
Interviews: Audra Davidson

Six graduate students, one from each school in the College of Sciences, are among the latest recipients of the Herbert P. Haley Fellowship at Georgia Tech. The initiative recognizes significant accomplishments and outstanding academic achievements for graduate students at Georgia Tech.

College of Sciences’ 2022-2023 Haley Fellows are Karim Lakhani, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Cody Mashburn, School of Psychology; Andrew McAvoy, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Joshua Pughe-Sanford, School of Physics; Roberta Shapiro, School of Mathematics, and Cassandra Shriver, School of Biological Sciences.

Haley scholars receive a one-time merit award of up to $4,000 thanks to the generosity of the late Marion Peacock Haley. Haley’s estate established the creation of merit-based graduate fellowships at Georgia Tech in honor of her late husband, Herbert P. Haley, ME 1933. It is an award which may be held in conjunction with other funding, assistantships, or fellowships, if applicable. 

Meet the scholars

Karim Lakhani is a 5th-year Ph.D. student who is studying paleoceanography in ADVANCE Professor Jean Lynch-Stieglitz’s lab. The fellowship will allow Lakhani to spend more time on research, where he is currently “looking at the transition between the surface ocean and the deep ocean and how that was different, so the shells I look at are from organisms that floated at specific depths in the ocean in the past.”

Cody Mashburn’s research interest is the cognitive basis of individual differences in intelligence and reasoning. “Basically, why do we see variability in how well people are able to perform on intelligence tests, and how well they are able to problem solve,” he said. Mashburn will use the funds to add “more tools to my research arsenal” and to attend relevant workshops. 

Andrew McAvoy is a fifth-year Ph.D. student who plans to use the Haley funds for registration and travel-related expenses so he can present his research at scientific conferences.

“My graduate research involves studying small molecule production in Burkholderia cepacia complex bacteria, one of the most feared pathogens infecting cystic fibrosis patients,” McAvoy said.

Joshua Pughe-Sanford’s fascination with dynamics — how things move, breaking down complex behavior into simpler parts — drives his physics research. “Dynamics can describe how elementary particles collide, how neurons fire in our brain, how traffic accrues, how galaxies collide,” he said. “The list goes on and on and, in essence, the work I do can be applied to all these different fields.” 

Roberta Shapiro’s research centers on using topology — the study of geometric properties that stay the same, even when they are distorted — to answer questions in complex dynamics. Saying that “mathematics is all about collaboration,” the fourth-year graduate student plans on using the funds to attend conferences “and make connections with future collaborators. That means there's more math coming soon!”

Cassandra Shriver, who is starting her second year in the Quantitative Biosciences graduate program, studies comparative biomechanics and conservation science. “Specifically, I'm curious how various morphological differences and scaling constraints affect climbing kinematics, and how these strategies might change as you increase in size from something as small as a squirrel to as large as a bear.”

As students kick off fall semester, mental health and wellness-focused classes in Applied Physiology are helping them learn time and stress management skills, while also encouraging them to give back to their communities and foster conversations with their peers. 

“I was involved in the initial strategic planning efforts for Cultivate Well-being and I think it will have a significant impact on campus,” said Teresa Snow, senior academic professional in the School of Biological Sciences. “Implementation is being rolled out, particularly for students right now, with more information for faculty and staff coming soon. Currently, I co-chair the JED Academic Culture sub-committee and will continue to work with colleagues to improve the academic environment.”

Snow, who is also a 2022 Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) teaching fellow, credits three Applied Physiology classes, one of which is required for all students before they graduate, for teaching students important practical skills. APPH 1040, 1050, and 1060 teach students how to manage stress and work through anxiety in healthy ways, and come up with resilience strategies they can rely on — not just in higher education, but for the rest of their lives.

“(APPH 1040, Scientific Foundations of Health) is a course that is directly applicable to everyday life,” Snow said, “and we want them to take those concepts and apply them. We try to adapt the curriculum, so we have been focusing more on stress and coping skills, but we also talk about healthy lifestyle, cultural differences, diversity and sustainability.”

Snow is focused on the health and wellness of first-year students, in particular.

“It’s important to get the [first-years] coming in, and help them with the transition to college life. It’s an extreme change for them. That time of adjustment and making new friends is very important,” Snow said. “We’ve been in tune with our student needs and will continue to adapt to them. Certainly we’re having conversations about student stress. We have all of our classes addressing it. We have the newer APPH 1060 class (Flourishing: Strategies for Well-being and Resilience), which is really focused on mental health. As a team we are committed to meeting students' needs and helping them thrive at Georgia Tech. 

“On campus we need to do as much as we can to help them make connections, and know the resources that are available to them, and we also need to be flexible,” she said. “In our conversations with students struggling, the focus should be not only on connecting  them with resources, but also giving them the flexibility to recover and succeed academically.”

Over the past two school years, she added, “students have dealt with anxiety and social isolation — they’re still trying to adjust — some classes are still in hybrid mode, but I think this semester will be a little bit more of a return to normalcy. We have to watch the Covid rates and see if the guidelines change, but being present in the classroom is important.”

Volunteerism as effective wellness tool

Snow, who used to be the sole coordinator for the Georgia Tech wellness requirement, helped develop the APPH 1050 Science of Physical Activity and Health course. As it grew, she and others in the School of Biological Sciences realized they needed another director. Christie Stewart, senior academic professional, now fills that role. School of Biological Sciences senior lecturers Michele Rosbruck and Adam Decker, and adjunct Leslie Baradel also teach the APPH classes; both Baradel and Stewart are certified Thriving and Resilience Facilitators through the National Wellness Institute.

Snow saw the wellness advantages of having students get off campus and spend time in communities working with community partners. “We give them an opportunity to do basic volunteer work, have fun and socialize,” Snow said. “We also give them opportunities to choose higher-level projects. During Covid, student teams worked remotely designing infographics and other materials with the Fulton County Health Heart Coalition to get messages out about protecting yourself and wearing masks.”

The classes are also working with partners to help children in hospitals, as well as people in between living situations and those without permanent housing in Atlanta. “Some of those [organizations] have specific projects and want to get our students’ ideas and input. They need our help and our students can use these projects to make an impact in the community.” 

For several years, students in Snow’s courses have volunteered with local agencies. 

In 2019, a team from APPH 1040 volunteered their time to help clean and stock Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, a non-profit home improvement store offering donated appliances, furniture, and other household items. Volunteer and Georgia Tech student Kara Ann said in a YouTube video produced for ReStore that the topic of the health class project “was working with a community partner, creating something special to give back to the community partner.”

In other projects APPH 1040 students volunteer to work on educational and garden maintenance projects at the Friends School of Atlanta, Walter’s Woods (which recently received Audubon Certification in part due to student efforts) and East Decatur Greenway. Snow told the Friends School’s Friendly Light Magazine that Georgia Tech students can use the course “to help them focus outside of themselves and do something useful for their community.”

“These projects build leadership, communication, organizational skills and self-confidence while making social connections,” Snow said. “It's a great way to improve personal well-being and mental health while helping communities and getting real-world experience.”

Links to resources 

AAPH 1040 Facebook page shows other partner projects that Teresa Snow’s class have staffed with volunteers. 

Georgia Tech Student Engagement and Well-Being

Mental Well-Being for Students — This 45-minute online course helps learners practice self-care strategies, recognize when they or their peers are in distress, and take action to find additional support.

Student Life: Mental Health and Well-Being — A listing of campus resources 

Georgia Tech Counseling Center — Counselors available 24/7. Business hours: 404-894-2575. After business hours: 404-894-2575 or 404-894-3498

Georgia Tech Campus Police — on campus, 404-894-2500; off campus, 9-1-1.

College of Sciences satellite counselor Tara Holdampf’s office is in the Molecular Science and Engineering Building (MoSE), Room 1120B. Consulting hours are Mondays, Tuesdays, & Fridays — 10:00 AM-11:00 AM; Wednesdays, & Thursdays — 2:00 PM-3:00 PM. Click here for more info on her satellite counseling services, or call the Georgia Tech Counseling Center at 404-894-2575.