This school year, dozens of College of Sciences undergraduate students have been recognized across Georgia Tech and beyond for significant academic achievements and excellence, including several honored during Tech’s Student Honors Celebration, held on April 21 at the Academy of Medicine.

College of Sciences graduate students and researchers have also been recognized with Georgia Tech Teaching Assistant Awards and special certificates during the Institute’s Teaching Assistant (TA) and Future Faculty Award ceremonies, held on April 20 at the Bill Moore Student Success Center.

Please join us in congratulating these special recipients across our community:

Love Family Foundation Award

Yashvardhan Tomar, a double major in the School of Physics and the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, is the recipient of one of the highest academic honors given to a Georgia Tech graduating senior, the Love Family Foundation Award. 

The accolade is made possible by a generous grant from the Gay and Erskine Love Foundation, and recognizes the undergraduate student with the most outstanding scholastic record of all members of the class. 

Each of Georgia Tech’s six colleges nominates its top graduating student, and the winner is ultimately selected by the academic associate deans in coordination with the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE). 

“I find myself at a loss for words to truly convey how grateful I feel to the institute for selecting me for this really high honor,” Tomar says.

“I still remember my first day as a freshman at Tech—a young boy beyond-eager to learn so many new things and get involved in so much exciting research—an excitement that has stayed with me since," he shares.

"The news of this award comes as a strong boost of encouragement and appreciation to propel with me strengthened promise towards the fulfillment of my aspirations. I express my most heartfelt thanks to everyone who invested their belief in my candidature for this highly prestigious award.”

Roger M. Wartell and Stephen E. Brossette Award for Multidisciplinary Studies in Biology, Physics, and Mathematics

This award is presented to an undergraduate student with demonstrated accomplishments at the interface of biology with either physics or mathematics. The award was established by a generous donation from alumnus Stephen E. Brossette in recognition of the many contributions of Roger M. Wartell to the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The 2022 winner, Lila Nassar, is a physics major with a concentration in the physics of living systems. Nassar has a broad set of research experiences with faculty Martin Mourigal and Jennifer Curtis in the School of Physics. Nassar has also served as the secretary and president of the Georgia Tech Society of Women in Physics.

“Lila has broad interests and lots of ambition,” says Curtis. “She brings both an intensity that is useful for driving forward progress and dealing with setbacks. She brings that same fire and energy to her role as president of the Society of Women in Physics.”

In summer 2021, Nassar also participated in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Vanderbilt University.

A. Joyce Nickelson and John C. Sutherland Undergraduate Research Award 

This award was created by the endowment gift of Joyce E. Nickelson and John C. Sutherland to honor Joyce’s late mother, alumna A. Joyce Nickelson, and Sutherland. The scholarship, which recognizes excellence at the interface of mathematics and physics, is awarded to an undergraduate student who has jointly studied mathematics and physics, and who has engaged in scientific research.

Nickelson-Sutherland award winner Sarah Eisenstadt is completing majors in physics and mathematics, and also studies applied languages and intercultural studies.

Eisenstadt has completed research with Michael Loss in the School of Mathematics on mathematical physics and the development of an energy functional to describe superconductivity, and with Stephanie Boulard on the artist Marc Chagall. She has also served as a teaching assistant for linear algebra and multivariable calculus. 

Cynthia L. Bossart and James Efron Scholarship 

This honor was created by alumna Cindy Bossart to recognize high academic achievement by a student in the College of Sciences who is a non-Georgia resident. 

The 2022-3 recipient of this award, Sena Ghobadi, is a resident of Florida who graduated from American Heritage School in Broward County. Ghobadi has made a strong start as a first-year as a physics major at Georgia Tech: she has already begun work as a teaching assistant for Physics 2211. 

Metha Phingbodhipakkiya Memorial Scholarship 

This honor was established by Maranee Phingbodhipakkiya to honor her father, his love for physics, and the sacrifices he made to assure that she would have the finest education. This award is made to a junior or senior in the College of Sciences based on academic merit.

The recipient of this award, Nabojeet Das, is a graduate of Tucker High School and is a candidate for the Bachelor of Science in Biology with the Research Option designation and Biologically Inspired Design certificate.

Das has served as a teaching assistant for the introductory Organismal Biology course, and as a resident assistant for Georgia Tech Housing. His research with Aniruddh Sarkar, an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, focuses on the creation of small and portable biosensors for Covid-19 and other diseases.

He has presented his research at a meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society. Das is a member of DramaTech, the Minority Association of Premed Students, and Buzz Mobile Health. 

Virginia C. and Herschel V. Clanton Jr. Scholarship 

This scholarship was established by alumnus Herschel V. Clanton Jr. to honor his wife, Virginia. The scholarship is awarded annually to a student in the College of Sciences who has demonstrated outstanding academic achievement.

The 2022 recipient of the Clanton Scholarship, Griffin Wagner, is a graduate of Vero Beach High School in Florida and is currently a biology major.

Wagner’s research with Jennette Yen in the School of Biological Sciences, with collaborators at the Carter Center, the University of Georgia, Texas A&M, and the African country of Chad, focuses on inhibiting the transmission of African guinea worm disease.

He has completed an internship at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, and a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at Georgia Tech. Wagner presented his research at the 2022 Ocean Sciences meeting. 

Robert A. Pierotti Memorial Scholarship

The College of Sciences presents this scholarship in honor of Robert “Bob” Pierotti, past dean of the College and founder of the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC). The award is made to top graduating seniors in the College who have excelled both academically and in research.

The two recipients of the 2022 Pierotti Award are Holly McCann and Soham Kulkarni.

McCann is a biology major who is completing the Biomolecular Technology certificate. She is a researcher with Loren Williams in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, working on the prediction and visualization of the structure of RNA. McCann’s work led to the publication of a paper in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. She has also participated in the BeeSnap Vertically Integrated Project with Jennifer Leavey. McCann has also completed internships with Syngenta and Fidelity Investments.

“Holly is remarkable,” says Williams. “She is highly intelligent, creative, motivated, functional and productive. She is destined to be an extremely successful scientist.”

Kulkarni, a graduate of Chattahoochee High School, is a biochemistry major who will also complete the Health and Medical Sciences and Computational Data Analysis minors.

He has conducted research with Cassie S. Mitchell in the Chronic Myeloid Leukemia laboratory. He is a coauthor of a paper in the journal Pharmaceutics and has presented his research at the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) conference. He also serves as an Undergraduate Research Ambassador.

Larry O’Hara Graduate Scholarship

This honor is provided by an endowment bequeathed by alumnus Larry O’Hara. It is presented to outstanding graduate students in the College of Sciences. 

All of the 2022 winners have established a strong record of research with multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals, as well as multiple conference presentations:

• Youngho Yoo, Ph.D. candidate, Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization in Mathematics

• Pedro Márquez-Zacarias, Ph.D. candidate, Quantitative Biology program, Biological Sciences

• Jason Tsukahara, Ph.D. candidate, Psychology

Yoo is currently studying graph theory with Xingxing Xu and holds a prestigious NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship to support her doctoral studies.

Márquez-Zacarias’ doctoral research with William Ratcliff focuses on developing theories to understand how multicellular organisms became more complex, and how microbial populations are structured in space.

Tsukahara, who is studying cognition and brain science with Randall Engle, focuses on investigating the nature of attention control with the use of pupillometry and mind-wandering reports. 

Herbert P. Haley Fellowship

This graduate fellowship recognizes significant accomplishments and outstanding academic achievements for students at Georgia Tech.

The 2022 winners are:

• Keun (Kara) Lee, Bioinformatics

• Marisa Cepeda, Chemistry

• Estefania Garcia, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences 

• Christopher DuPre, Mathematics 

• Francisco Martinez, Physics

Teaching Assistant Awards

The College of Science had four winners among the 2022 Georgia Tech Teaching Assistant Awardees, with three hailing from the School of Mathematics. The awards are presented annually by the Center for Teaching and Learning to celebrate the contributions to teaching excellence at Georgia Tech made by graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants:

• Undergraduate Teaching Assistant of the Year:
  Bryan Clark, Mathematics 

• Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year:
  Tao Yu, Mathematics

• Graduate Student Instructor of the Year:
  Elizabeth (Liz) Jones, Chemistry and Biochemistry

• Online Head Teaching Assistant of the Year:
  Jaewoo Jung, Mathematics

Tech to Teaching Certificates

Tech to Teaching Certificates are designed to prepare Georgia Tech graduate and postdoctoral associates for college teaching positions.

Through this certificate program, participants will develop a thorough understanding of the scholarship of teaching and learning, and will demonstrate their ability to apply these skills in the classroom.

The following College of Sciences students were awarded Tech to Teaching Certificates:

• Thomas Day, Physics

• Alex Draper, Biological Sciences

• Caria Evans, Chemistry and Biochemistry

• Annika Jersild, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

• Maugan Lloyd, Psychology

• Pedro Márquez-Zacarias, Biological Sciences

• Daniyar Omarov, Mathematics

• Alperen Ozdemir, Mathematics

• Tyler Roche, Chemistry and Biochemistry

• Tyler Vollmer, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) Certificates

As a member institution in the CIRTL national network, Georgia Tech joins with 37 other universities on a mission to improve undergraduate education through the preparation of future faculty.

Participants in these certificate programs learn about how students learn, how differences among students affect their learning, evidence-based teaching and assessment practices, and teaching with technology.

Participants who complete these foundation-level learning outcomes through a combination of coursework, workshops, or online learning, receive the CIRTL Associate certificate.   

The following College of Sciences students were awarded CIRTL Certificates:

• Mary Bernhardt, Psychology

• Thomas Day, Physics

• Annika Jersild, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

• Sierra Knavel, Mathematics

• Maugan Lloyd, Psychology

• Pedro Márquez Zacarias, Biological Sciences

• Alexandra Newton, Mathematics

• Jennifer Rattray, Biological Sciences

• Tyler Roche, Chemistry and Biochemistry

• Micah Schaible, Chemistry and Biochemistry

• Danielle Skinner, Physics

How to Pre-Health at Tech is a new series of stories and experiences with our faculty, current students, and alumni working in healthcare and medical fields. Check back throughout the spring for interviews with:

• Alonzo Whyte, faculty member, academic advisor for the Health and Medical Sciences (HMED) Minor, director of academic advising for the Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience, and development leader in the School of Biological Sciences
• Ritika Chanda, fourth-year neuroscience undergraduate with dual-minors in health and medical sciences and leadership studies
• Jeffrey Kramer, first-year biology undergraduate
• Jenna Nash (NEUR '21), physician assistant graduate student

From the moment Charles Winter stepped onto campus freshman year, he was ready to use his time at Georgia Tech to prepare for a pre-health career. Over the next four years, engaging classes, global study, extracurricular activities, and research with a number of supportive professors paved the way for his current career as an anesthesiologist assistant. 

At Georgia Tech, Winter shares that while success was a struggle, through studying in the Library and leaning on the support of professors and peers, he successfully entered graduate school and kick-started his career. He shares with the College of Sciences how he did it all – and what he’s up to today.

Here are Winter’s recommendations for “How to Pre-Health” at Georgia Tech:

Q: What degree did you receive from Georgia Tech and when did you graduate? Where did you go to graduate school after graduation?

A: I received my Bachelor of Science in Biology from Georgia Tech in 2012. I attended South University in Savannah, Georgia and graduated with my Master of Medical Science in Anesthesia in 2016.

Q: What were your extracurricular activities at Georgia Tech?

A: I did Crew my first year, and I spent a good amount of time at the Campus Recreation Center. I really enjoyed it, but I eventually decided to do intramural sports instead. I studied abroad in London for a full year after that (doing undergraduate research and taking classes) at the University College of London. I received the STAR award, a scholarship found via the Office of Internal Education, in 2010 for a project called "Keeping a Tab on Hope," where I would locally source tabs from cans to upcycle while raising awareness on lowering one's carbon footprint. My third and fourth year I did undergraduate research for various labs: professor Francesca Storici in 2011, professor Philip Santangelo in 2011, and professor J. Todd Streelman in 2012.

Q: Why did you decide to pursue a pre-health career at Georgia Tech?

A: I was pre-health from the moment I stepped onto campus. I planned out all the prerequisites I'd need to take over the next four years as well as relevant extracurriculars and service projects. I had a plan, but I didn't have a mission. “What's the primary reason why you're doing all this work? Will this career path make you happy? Are you doing this because all your peers are as well?” These were hard questions I had to answer during my time at Georgia Tech. 

My early medical shadowing motivated me to continue the pre-health career. It showed me that I could make a positive impact in someone's life in real time. I would urge anyone in the pre-health career track to do medical shadowing as soon as possible.

Q: What resources did you use at Georgia Tech to support your career aspirations, such as clubs, advisors, or professors?

A: I want to thank Paul Fincannon, assistant dean Jennifer Leavey, and associate professor Matthew Torres. Without these individuals, I wouldn't be where I am today. Paul Fincannon was my undergraduate advisor for biomedical engineering. He had a candid conversation with me, telling me if I wanted to pursue my pre-health goals, I needed to adjust my trajectory to hit that target. I took his advice, and I changed my major to biology. My undergraduate advisor for biology was assistant dean Jennifer Leavey. She was a wealth of knowledge throughout my remaining years at Georgia Tech. She opened the doors to medical shadowing at Piedmont Hospital, where I learned about the various programs for anesthesiologist assistants. Finally, associate Professor Torres offered me advice and a position in his lab during the time between graduation from Georgia Tech and entrance into the South University anesthesia program.

Q: What role do you hold today, and what does your typical routine look like?

A: I am an anesthesiologist assistant, and I work at a hospital in the metro Atlanta area. I work as part of a “4-1 care team model,” where an anesthesiologist supervises four anesthetists in the clinical care setting. My shift can vary, depending on the department I'm assigned to that day. I'll do anesthesia for neurovascular, orthopedic, abdominal, and other various cases. In the morning we prepare for our first case with our anesthesiologist, discussing the various aspects of our anesthesia care plan, which is tailored to each patient. We're in the operating room or procedural area during the whole time anesthesia is administered, and we finally hand off to the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) or relevant post-procedure care area when the case is complete. You get to see your positive impact on patients every day, and it's such a good feeling.

Q: How did Georgia Tech prepare you for your career?

A: Georgia Tech is tough. I had classmates that could breeze through undergrad with straight A's. That definitely wasn't me. I had to work hard for my grades. I spent a majority of my evenings and weekends in the Library or Student Commons studying. Georgia Tech increased my mental fortitude by making me comfortable under stressful situations. I realized early on that if I wanted to have a career in medicine, and finally, anesthesia. then I had to work as hard as I possibly could now to do that.

You realize when you get into college the terrifying truth that you're responsible for your future. You have to schedule your activities and parties around your studies, and you have to plan both short-term and long-term. Georgia Tech helped me become a self-motivated individual. Talk to the teachers. Talk to the teaching assistants. Ask for help from your classmates. I want to thank senior academic professional Edwin Greco for getting me through physics. He and his teaching assistants were amazing, and they took the time to explain everything to me during office hours. All of the College's resources are there, but you have to want to use them.  

Q: What advice do you have for current Georgia Tech pre-health students?

A: If you're doing pre-health, then you don't have to choose the “hardest” major. I made it into anesthesia as a biology student. You just have to perform really well in your prerequisites. Most (not all) parties and events can wait. Allocate your time wisely. You may think you have all the time in the world in undergrad, but it has a way of disappearing rather quickly. Finally, take advantage of every single opportunity you can at Georgia Tech, whether it's an undergraduate advisor or research position. 

Q: What are some of your favorite Tech memories?

A: I did write President Emeritus G. Wayne Clough when I was in undergrad, asking him for advice and what he liked the most about his time there. He had recently left Georgia Tech to start his position as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. I was more than surprised to find he not only read my letter, but he also wrote back! He said that it's the people there that have made it the amazing institution it is today, and he encouraged me to work hard. That letter motivated me along with the individuals previously mentioned. 

I also was an extra for “The Internship” when they were filming on campus, and I got into the final cut of the film! I'm in one of the Quidditch scenes, cheering on some of the players. That was pretty fun. 

Overall, Georgia Tech played a major role in who I am today, and I am grateful for that.

Winter spoke about his experience as a frontline healthcare worker to the Alumni Magazine in their On The Front Lines of A Pandemic feature.

From the muscle fibers that move us to the enzymes that replicate our DNA, proteins are the molecular machinery that makes life possible.

Protein function heavily depends on their three-dimensional structure, and researchers around the world have long endeavored to answer a seemingly simple inquiry to bridge function and form: if you know the building blocks of these molecular machines, can you predict how they are assembled into their functional shape?

This question is not so easy to answer. With complex structures dependent on intricate physical interactions, researchers have turned to artificial neural network models – mathematical frameworks that convert complex patterns into numerical representations – to predict and “see” the shape of proteins in 3D.

In a new paper published in Nature Communications, researchers at Georgia Tech and Oak Ridge National Laboratory build upon one such model, AlphaFold 2, to not only predict the biologically active conformation of individual proteins, but also of functional protein pairings known as complexes.

The work could help researchers bypass lengthy experiments to study the structure and interactions of protein complexes on a large scale, said Jeffrey Skolnick, Regents’ Professor and Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair in the School of Biological Sciences and one of the corresponding authors of the study, adding that computational models such as these could mean big things for the field. 

If these new computational models are successful, Skolnick said, “it could fundamentally change the way biological molecular systems are studied.”

Primed for Protein Prediction

Created by London-based artificial intelligence lab DeepMind, AlphaFold 2 is a deep learning neural network model designed to predict the three-dimensional structure of a single protein given its amino acid sequence. Skolnick and fellow corresponding author, Mu Gao, senior research scientist in the School of Biological Sciences, shared that the Alphafold 2 program was highly successful in blind tests occurring at the 14^th iteration of the Community Wide Experiment on the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction, or CASP14, a bi-annual competition where researchers around the globe gather to put their computational models to the test. 

“To us, what is striking about AlphaFold 2 is that it not only makes excellent predictions on individual protein domains (the basic structural or functional modules of a protein sequence), but it also performs very well on protein sequences composed of multiple domains,” Skolnick shared. And so with the ability to predict the structure of these complicated, multi-domain proteins, the research team set out to determine if the program could go a little further. 

“The physical interactions between different [protein] domains of the same sequence are essentially the same as the interactions gluing different proteins together,” Gao explained. “It quickly became clear that relatively simple modifications to AlphaFold 2 could allow it predict the structural models of a protein complex.” To explore different strategies, Davi Nakajima An, a fourth-year undergraduate in the School of Computer Science, was recruited to join the team’s effort.

Instead of plugging in the features of just one protein sequence into AlphaFold 2 per its original design, the researchers joined the input features of multiple protein sequences together. Combined with new metrics to evaluate the strength of interactions among probed proteins, their new program AF2Complex was created.

Charting New Territory

To put AF2Complex to the test, the researchers partnered with the high-performance computing center, Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment (PACE), at Georgia Tech, and charged the model with predicting the structures of protein complexes it had never seen before. The modified program was able to correctly predict the structure of over twice as many protein complexes as a more traditional method called docking. While AF2Complex only needs protein sequences as input, docking relies on knowing individual protein structures beforehand to predict their combined structure based on complementary shapes.

“Encouraged by these promising results, we extended this idea to an even bigger problem, which is to predict interactions among multiple arbitrarily chosen proteins, e.g., in a simple case, two arbitrary proteins,” shared Skolnick.

In addition to predicting the structure of protein complexes, AF2Complex was charged with identifying which of over 500 pairs of proteins were able to form a complex at all. Using newly designed metrics, AF2Complex outperformed conventional docking methods and AlphaFold 2 in identifying which of the arbitrary pairs were known to experimentally interact.

To test AF2Complex on the proteome scale, which encompasses an organism’s entire library of the proteins that can be expressed, the researchers turned to the Summit Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, the world’s second largest supercomputing center. “Thanks to this resource, we were able to apply AF2Complex to about 7,000 pairs of proteins from the bacteria E. coli,” Gao shared. 

In that test, the team’s new model not only identified many pairs of proteins known to form complexes, but it was able to provide insights into interactions “suspected but never observed experimentally,” Gao said. 

Digging deeper into these interactions revealed a potential molecular mechanism for protein complexes that are particularly important for energy transport. These protein complexes are known to carry hemes, essential metabolites giving blood dark red color. Using AF2Complex’s predicted structural models, Jerry M. Parks, a senior research and development staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a collaborator in the study, was able to place hemes at their suspected reaction sites within the structure. “These computational models now provide insights into the molecular mechanisms for how this biomolecular system works,” Gao said. 

“Deep learning is changing the way one studies a biological system,” Skolnick added. “We envision methods like AF2Complex will become powerful tools for any biologist who would like to understand molecular mechanisms of a biosystem involving protein interactions.”

AF2Complex is an open-source tool available to the public and can be downloaded here.

This work was supported in part by the DOE Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (DOE DE-SC0021303) and the Division of General Medical Sciences of the National Institute Health (NIH R35GM118039). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29394-2

Georgia Tech will celebrate its 25th annual Earth Day with a 4-day schedule of events. The celebration kicks off Monday, April 18, with a keynote event featuring Vice President for Infrastructure and Sustainability Maria Cimilluca. She will share her inspiring vision for the future of sustainability at Georgia Tech. 

"The Institute's strategic plan asks us to envision an institution that leverages its unmatched scale and resources to address the most crucial challenges of our time,” Cimilluca said. “I see the Institute's sustainability plan as one of the many pathways for collaboration, innovation, and action that will lead us toward transformations in research, applied technologies, culture, and ultimately a more sustainable future."

Georgia Tech first celebrated Earth Day in 1997. For many years the celebration was a one-day, afternoon event. In 2020, it was expanded but held virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Held in person last year, the event featured The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design’s Living Building Certification by the International Living Futures Organization, and President Cabrera cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the EcoCommons. These two areas on campus represent Georgia Tech’s commitment to sustainability and serve as living, learning laboratories for students, faculty, and staff.

Event co-chairs Anne Rogers, associate director of the Office of Campus Sustainability, and Emma Brodzik, campus sustainability project manager, have planned a strong lineup of events for this 25th anniversary. From a bike ride with President Cabrera, to a waste audit of the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, to a bird walk and tree planting, this year’s “Down to Earth” event offers many opportunities to celebrate nature and learn about new and innovative ways to protect and preserve our planet.

As is the tradition, this year’s theme and logo were chosen from a student design contest. The winner, Abhinav Thukral, is a graduate student in human and computer interaction. “I think it’s incredibly important to be aware of how our activities affect the planet and to learn sustainable ways to progress as a community,” Thukral said. “Earth Day is essential to reflect on some of the environmental issues we face today and how we might work together to address them.”

Students have often requested to work with campus operations to manifest positive environmental change by engaging with the staff of Infrastructure and Sustainability. This unit is responsible for providing sustainable, safe, and well-maintained campus facilities. For example, recent Carbon Reduction Challenge winners aided in implementing the replacement of existing fluorescent lighting with LED in a wing of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience building. By working with the Building Engineering and Energy Strategies department, this improvement will yield more than 250,000 pounds of carbon dioxide reduction per year. Another area where students are proactive is recycling. When the need for acrylic shields lessened as the intensity of the pandemic waned, student volunteers from the Office of Minority Education assisted campus staff in collecting 800 pounds of acrylic and PVC for recycling.

These types of student-led collaborative efforts are encouraged. If your organization or class would like to collaborate with Infrastructure and Sustainability, use this form to get started.