Robert C. McMath Jr., professor of history and vice provost for undergraduate studies and academic affairs, will address the Georgia Institute of Technology's 216th commencement ceremony on Friday, August 1, at 9 a.m., in Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Tech expects approximately 900 students to participate in the ceremony.

McMath received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1972, joining the faculty of Tech shortly thereafter. In 1996, McMath became Fulbright lecturer at the University of Genoa, teaching American Political History at universities in Italy, France and England. That same year, he was promoted to vice provost after serving as chair of Georgia Tech's School of History, Technology, and Society.

McMath oversees student academic services and coordinates campus-wide initiatives to improve the teaching and learning environment for undergraduates, including the design of a new undergraduate learning center for the Tech campus. As professor of history, he continues to supervise graduate students and teach undergraduate courses in American Social History, the History of the American South, and the History of Industry and Labor. He has received the Institute's George C. Griffin Award for Outstanding Teaching and the ANAK faculty service award. In 1989, he received the Governor's Award in the Humanities from the Georgia Humanities Council. He is past president of the Agricultural History Society and is the author or co-author of seven books and numerous articles on American history and the history of the South. McMath is listed in Contemporary Authors, the Dictionary of American Scholars, and Who's Who in America (46th edition). He continues to lecture on American political history at leading universities in the United States and Europe.

First Cyber Corps Students Graduate from Tech: Information Security Expertise in Demand

The first two Georgia Tech students in the National Science Foundation's Cyber Corps scholarship program graduate this semester with highly sought after information security expertise. Cyber Corps, a scholarship opportunity for students in either the Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program or the NSF Scholarship for Service Program, is designed to increase and strengthen the cadre of federal information assurance professionals who protect the government's critical information infrastructure. The program provides full scholarships for qualified students attending an approved institution of higher learning. In addition, students in the program work in paid internships with a federal agency and may be offered permanent employment upon graduation.

Christopher Messer, Master of Science in International Affairs, and Charles "Chad" Sellers, Master of Science in Computer Science with a concentration in Information Security, were selected for the NSF's Scholarship for Service program for students studying information security. Georgia Tech, as a Center of Academic Excellence for Information Assurance Education (CAE/IAE), coordinates these efforts through the Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC). At Georgia Tech, the College of Computing and the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts both offer graduate-level information security concentration or degrees.

"Cyber Corps is intended to cover the broad spectrum of information security from policy to technology," said Mustaque Ahamed, professor of computing and co-director of GTISC. "That the first two Cyber Corps graduates from Georgia Tech are graduating with degrees in international affairs and computer science really fits the mission of the program."

"The best part of my studies here at Georgia Tech has been exploring the cutting edge of security," says Sellers. "At Georgia Tech, I have been able to explore the technologies of tomorrow as well as analyze the technologies of today in order to improve upon them."

Messer has accepted an offer to work in the Information Assurance Directorate of the National Security Agency (NSA) and will focus on information security policies and procedures. Sellers, a self-described "technical guy," plans to work in network security with the NSA Information Assurance Directorate as well.

"The Cyber Corps program has given me the opportunity to get in on the ground level of a field of huge importance to national security," says Messer. "It has helped me to make professional and career contacts with leading scholars and practitioners across the country, and it has provided the finances necessary to do this."