Though this scholarship is typically given to 50 exceptional incoming first-year students, a select few second- and third-year students are chosen to receive the honor for exemplifying the program’s pillars of scholarship, leadership, progress, and service.

“Annie and Madeline are exemplary campus leaders and will be able to build on their progress and service with the support of the Stamps Program. We are thrilled for the contributions they bring to the environmental science community,” says Linda Green, principal academic professional and interim director of the Environmental Sciences (ENVS) program.

About Annie Lin

Lin is a second-year ENVS major conducting undergraduate research on methane and natural gas in the Glass Research Group. Previous research highlights include quantifying microplastics in Georgia’s coastal water and working with a student group to publish the first publicly available data on microplastics pollution in the Chattahoochee River.

“I hope to build a career in environmental policy and justice — developing and implementing scientific, holistic, and equitable solutions to environmental issues and bridging the gaps between research, policy, and communities,” says Lin.

She is a student coordinator for Georgia Tech’s Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education and the Georgia Tech student engagement and network coordinator for the United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise Greater Atlanta.

Why environmental science? 

“I was born and raised in Atlanta and grew up close to the Chattahoochee River,” explains Lin. “In high school, I was very involved with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, including an 11-mile, eight-hour paddling cleanup; field and lab work to track bacterial contamination caused by sewage spills; and speaking to state legislators about environmental bills. These experiences taught me the importance of helping make the necessary systemic changes to address environmental issues.”

About Madeline Weller 

Weller is a second-year ENVS major working in the Tang Research Group, characterizing rare earth elements from Georgia kaolinite clay minerals for renewable energy applications. She also works on the Georgia Tech Methane Vertically Integrated Project to pioneer local methane measurements and in Georgia Tech’s Office of Sustainability to further sustainability efforts and outreach with Solar Stewards.

“Through experiences with Solar Stewards, I saw firsthand how community and rooftop solar can impact people, reducing their energy burden…,” says Weller. "Being at Georgia Tech has provided me with the resources and courage to act on my passion for achieving sustainability through energy equity, ensuring everybody has access to reliable and affordable electricity."

Outside of research, she is a member of Energy Club @ GT; Sigma Gamma Epsilon, the national honor society for the Earth Sciences;  Association of Environmental Engineers and Scientists; Photography @ GT; and Runnin’ Wreck.

Why environmental science?

“I chose environmental science because I was inspired to use my science skills to help find a solution to environmental issues, including climate change,” she explains. “Improving environmental conditions is not just important for biodiversity and ecosystems, but essential for human health and the longevity of future generations.”

Amino acids also play a critical role commercially where they are manufactured and added to pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements, cosmetics, animal feeds, and industrial chemicals — an energy-intensive process leading to greenhouse gas emissions, resource consumption, and pollution.

A landmark new system developed at Georgia Tech could lead to an alternative: a commercially scalable, environmentally sustainable method for amino acid production that is carbon negative, using more carbon than it emits.

The breakthrough builds on a method that the team pioneered in 2024 and solves a key issue – increasing efficiency to an unprecedented 97% and reducing the bioprocess cost by over 40%. It’s the highest reported conversion of CO2 equivalents into amino acids using any synthetic biology system to date.

Published in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology, the study, “Cell-Free-Based Thermophilic Biocatalyst for the Synthesis of Amino Acids From One-Carbon Feedstocks,” was led by Bioengineering Ph.D. student Ray Westenberg and Professor Pamela Peralta-Yahya, who holds joint appointments in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The team also included Shaafique Chowdhury (Ph.D. ChBE 25) and Kimberly Wennerholm (ChBE 23); alongside University of Washington collaborators Ryan Cardiff, then a Ph.D. student and now a Chain Reaction Innovations Fellow at Argonne National Laboratory, and Charles W. H. Matthaei Endowed Professor in Chemical Engineering James M. Carothers; in addition to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Synthetic Biology Team Leader Alexander S. Beliaev.

"This work shifts the narrative from simply reducing carbon emissions to actually consuming them to create value,” says Peralta-Yahya. “We are taking low-cost carbon sources and building essential ingredients in a truly carbon-negative process that is efficient, effective, and scalable.”

Heat-Loving Organisms

The work builds on the cell-free technology the team used in their earlier study. “Previously, we discovered that a system that uses the machinery of cells, without using actual living cells, could be used to create amino acids from carbon dioxide,” Peralta-Yahya explains. “But to create a commercially viable system, we needed to increase the system’s efficiency and reduce the cost.”

The team discovered that bits of leftover cells were consuming starting materials, and — like a machine with unnecessary gears or parts — this limited the system’s efficiency. To optimize their “machine,” the team would need to remove the extra background machinery.

"Leftover cell parts were using key resources without helping produce the amino acids we were looking for,” says Peralta-Yahya. “We knew that heating the system could be one way to purify it because heat can denature these components.”

The challenge was in how to protect the essential system components from the high temperatures, she adds. “We wondered if introducing enzymes produced by a heat-loving bacterium, Moorella thermoacetica, might protect our system, while still allowing us to denature and remove that inefficient background machinery.”

The results were astounding: after introducing the enzymes, heating and “cleaning” the system, and letting it cool to room temperature, synthesis of the amino acids serine and glycine leaped to 97% yield — nearly three times that of the team’s previous system.

Scaling for Sustainability

To make the system viable for large-scale use, the team also needed to reduce costs. “One of the most costly components in this system is the cofactor tetrahydrofolate (THF),” Peralta-Yahya shares. “Reducing the amount of THF needed to start the process was one way to make the system more inexpensive and ultimately more commercially viable.”

By linking reaction steps so waste from one step fueled the next, the team devised a method to recycle THF within the system that reduces the amount of THF needed by five-fold — lowering bioprocessing costs by 42%.

“This decrease in cost and increase in yield is a critical step forward in creating a method with real potential for use in industry and manufacturing,” Peralta-Yahya says. “This system could pave the way for moving this carbon-negative technology out of the lab and onto the continuous, industrial scale."

Funding: The Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E); U.S. Department of Energy; and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.5c00352

Reliable energy is required to keep safe in cold winters and hot summers, making it a matter of national security. There are also vying economic policies to consider, political and financial incentives to navigate, and questions of social and economic inequality.

Experts in Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts examine the challenges we face with the U.S. energy transition, and work to help make it safe, fair, and effective for all.

• Challenge No. 1: Managing National Security — with Adam N. Stulberg, professor and chair of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs.
• Challenge No. 2: Confronting Inequality — with Bijesh Mishra, a postdoctoral scholar in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy.
• Challenge No. 3: Choosing the Right Economic Policies — with Bobby Harris, an assistant professor in the School of Economics.
• Challenge No. 4: Navigating Financial and Political Incentives — with Kate Pride Brown, a sociologist in the School of History and Sociology.

Read the article on the Ivan Allen College website.

In the International Disaster Reconnaissance (IDR) course, students now use Filio, a platform built by School of Computing Instruction Senior Lecturer Max Mahdi Roozbahani, to capture immersive 360° media, photos, and video that transform real disaster sites in India and Nepal into living digital classrooms. 

Offered by the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and taught by IDR director and Regents’ Professor David Frost, the course pairs traditional fieldwork with Roozbahani’s expertise in immersive technology and data-driven learning, transforming on-the-ground observations into reusable, interactive educational resources. 

How Computing Can Capture Data 

Disasters are not only physical events; they are also information events, Roozbahani says. Effective response and long-term resilience depend on the ability to observe, record, and communicate critical data under pressure. Georgia Tech’s IDR course pairs structured on-campus preparation with international field experiences, enabling students to study the cascading effects of major disasters, including how local building practices, governance, and culture shape damage and recovery. 

“When students step into a disaster zone, they learn quickly that resilience is a systems problem: physical, social, and informational. Our job in computing is to help them capture and reason about that system responsibly,” Roozbahani said. 

Learning from the 2025 Himalayas Expedition 

During spring break last year, the cohort traveled along the Teesta River corridor in Sikkim, India. The region is shaped by steep terrain, fast-moving water, and critical infrastructure in narrow valleys. 

The visit followed the October 2023 glacial lake outburst flood from South Lhonak Lake, which destroyed the Teesta III hydropower dam and impacted downstream towns, including Dikchu and Rangpo. Field stops across India included Lachung, Chungthang, Dikchu, Rangpo, Gangtok, and New Delhi. 

Students explored both upstream and downstream consequences. 

Upstream, the team examined how steep terrain and river confinement amplify flood forces, creating cascading risks for infrastructure. Using Filio’s interactive 360° media, students captured conditions in Lachung and Chungthang, allowing viewers to explore the landscape through a 360° photo and 360° video that reveal how topography and river dynamics intensify disaster impacts. 

They studied community-scale effects downstream, including damaged buildings, disrupted access, and prolonged recovery timelines. 

Rangpo offered a glimpse of recovery in motion, with materials staged for rebuilding bridges and roads essential to commerce and emergency response.

The Surge That Shattered New Orleans

On Aug. 29, 2005, early reports claimed New Orleans had “dodged the bullet.” But offshore winds funneled water into the city’s canals, triggering multiple catastrophic levee failures. The Lower Ninth Ward, where most fatalities occurred, was devastated as many residents, misled by comparisons to Hurricane Camille, chose not to evacuate. 

“Katrina’s storm surge was exceptional,” says Hermann Fritz, a civil engineering professor at Georgia Tech. “In some areas, we saw water levels over 27 feet — that’s like a three-story building.”

While much attention focused on New Orleans’ levee failures, Fritz points out that the surge’s sheer height and energy would have overwhelmed even more robust defenses in some areas. “Katrina showed us that nature can produce forces beyond our engineering designs,” he says.

A Disaster of Inequality

The storm didn’t strike evenly; it exposed and deepened existing social and economic inequalities. “The disaster hit lower-income Black neighborhoods hardest,” says Allen Hyde, associate professor of history and sociology. He notes how years of segregation, disinvestment, and discriminatory housing policies left these communities uniquely vulnerable. Hyde continues, “Many homes were in low-lying, flood-prone areas, and residents often lacked access to reliable transportation, making evacuation difficult or impossible.”

Georgia’s Changing Landscape: Migration and Impact

Katrina displaced hundreds of thousands and claimed a staggering toll of more than 1,800 lives. Georgia quickly absorbed many evacuees, reshaping its demographics and infrastructure. “Hurricane Katrina led to one of the largest displacements of people due to a natural disaster,” says Shatakshee Dhongde, a professor of economics. “It changed the demographics of Georgia in measurable ways, from school enrollment to the labor market.”

The U.S. Census Bureau tracked this migration, noting spikes in Louisiana-born residents in metro Atlanta. Local school districts enrolled hundreds of new students almost overnight, while housing markets saw increased demand from families looking for permanent homes. The arrival of so many displaced residents didn’t just strain schools and housing — it reshaped the state’s economy. Dhongde notes that evacuees often brought new skills, business ideas, and networks. At the same time, the state and local governments faced the financial burden of expanding social services, healthcare, and housing assistance. 

Dhongde adds, “The impact of a disaster doesn’t stop at the water’s edge. It travels with people, and those effects can last for years.” While the influx strained services, it also enriched Georgia’s cultural and economic fabric.

Hyde notes, “Gentrification made many neighborhoods unaffordable for former residents,” and adds that many Black evacuees didn’t return to New Orleans due to economic barriers and post-Katrina gentrification. Cultural communities scattered across cities like Atlanta, Houston, and Baton Rouge.

Lessons the Levees Still Teach

For Fritz, Katrina remains a wake-up call for coastal preparedness.  “We can’t stop hurricanes,” he says, “but we can improve how we design and maintain our defenses, and how we evacuate people before it’s too late.” He warns that climate change, with its potential to intensify storms, makes those improvements even more urgent.

Dhongde sees a parallel need for social and economic planning. “Disaster preparedness isn’t just about sandbags and levees,” she says. “It’s also about ensuring the communities receiving evacuees have the resources and support systems to integrate them successfully.”

Finally, Hyde stresses the importance of engaging youth and communities in preparedness efforts. “Youth advocacy programs, like those we’re piloting in Georgia, empower young people in marginalized neighborhoods with knowledge and agency to build long-term resilience. Disaster planning must be a community effort, inclusive and forward-looking.”

The Department of Energy Office of Science recently released two reports through its Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program. The reports were produced by workshops that brought together researchers from universities, national labs, government, and industry to set priorities for scientific computing.

Professor Felix Herrmann served on the organizing committee for the Workshop on Inverse Methods for Complex Systems under Uncertainty. Assistant Professor Peng Chen joined Herrmann as a workshop participant, contributing expertise in data science and machine learning.

Inverse methods work backward from outcomes to find their causes. Scientists use these tools to study complex systems, like designing new materials with targeted properties and using past wildfires to map vulnerable areas and behavior of future fires.

The ASCR report highlighted Herrmann’s work on seismic exploration and monitoring through digital twins. Founded on inverse methods, digital twins upgrade from static models to virtual systems that accurately mirror their physical counterparts. 

Digital twins integrate real-time data sources, including fluid flows, monitoring and control systems, risk assessments, and human decisions. These models also account for uncertainty and address data gaps or limitations. 

The DOE organized the workshop to support the growing role of inverse modeling. The group identified four priority research directions (PRDs) to guide future work. The PRDs are:

• PRD 1: Discovering, exploiting, and preserving structure
• PRD 2: Identifying and overcoming model limitations
• PRD 3: Integrating disparate multimodal and/or dynamic data
• PRD 4: Solving goal-oriented inverse problems for downstream tasks

“A digital twin is a system you can control, like to optimize operations or to minimize risk,” said Herrmann, who holds joint appointments in the Schools of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Computational Science and Engineering.

“Digital twins give you a principled way to consider uncertainties, which there are a lot in subsurface monitoring. If you inject carbon dioxide too fast, you will will increase the pressure and may fracture the rock. If you inject too slow, then the process may become too costly. Digital twins help us make balanced decisions under uncertainty.”

Supercomputers, algorithms, and artificial intelligence now power modern science. However, these tools consume enormous amounts of energy. This raises concerns about how to sustain computing and scientific research as we know them in the decades ahead.

Professors Rich Vuduc and Hyesoon Kim co-authored the report from the Workshop on Energy-Efficient Computing for Science. At the three-day ASCR workshop, participants identified five key research directions:

• PRD 1: Co-design energy-efficient hardware devices and architectures for important workloads
• PRD 2: Define the algorithmic foundations of energy-efficient scientific computing
• PRD 3: Reconceptualize software ecosystems for energy efficiency
• PRD 4: Enable energy-efficient data management for data centers, instruments, and users
• PRD 5: Develop integrated, scalable energy measurement and modeling capabilities for next-generation computing systems

“I’m cautiously optimistic about the future of energy-efficient computing. The ASCR report says, from a technological point of view, there are things we can do,” said Vuduc.

“The report lays out paths for how we might design better apps, hardware systems, and algorithms that will use less energy. This is recognition that we should think about how architectures and software work together to drive down energy usage for systems.”

As artificial intelligence (AI) drives explosive growth in data centers, communities across the U.S. are facing rising electricity costs, new industrial development, and mounting strain on an aging power grid.

At Georgia Tech, several faculty members are approaching these sustainability challenges from different but complementary angles: examining how data center policy affects local communities, modeling how AI-driven demand reshapes regional energy systems, and building tools that help the public understand the tradeoffs embedded in grid planning. Together, their work highlights how better data, thoughtful policy, and public engagement can guide more resilient and equitable decisions in an AI-powered future.

AI’s Hidden Footprint: How Data Centers Reshape Communities

Ahmed Saeed studies the infrastructure most people never see. An assistant professor in the School of Computer Science and a Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) Faculty Fellow, Saeed focuses on how data centers — the backbone of modern AI — are built, operated, and regulated, and what their growth means for host communities.

“Data centers are the infrastructure for our digital life, so more of them are necessary to keep doing what we’re doing,” he said.

Data center energy consumption could double or triple by 2028, accounting for up to 12% of U.S. electricity use, according to a report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. U.S. spending on data center construction jumped nearly 70% between May 2023 and May 2024, according to the American Edge Project.

Georgia is an AI data center hub, ranked fourth globally, with $4.6 billion in AI-related venture capital invested across 368 deals, the American Edge Project reported. At a recent town hall in DeKalb County, Georgia, Saeed helped residents connect AI’s promise to its local consequences. Training large AI models can require tens of thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) running for days or weeks, driving an unprecedented wave of data center construction. AI-focused chips, he noted, can consume 10 to 14 times more power than traditional processors.

That demand often shows up as pressure on local infrastructure. Communities are increasingly concerned about electricity and water use, grid upgrades, and who ultimately pays. In Virginia, Saeed pointed to a legal dispute in which consumer advocates warned that data centers could raise electricity bills by 5% in the short term and up to 50% over time, while utilities argued those investments were inevitable and could benefit customers in the long run.

Environmental concerns add another layer. Saeed cited controversies over water use and backup diesel generators in states, including Georgia and Tennessee, alongside a recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling that tightened generator regulations. While diesel generators are clearly harmful, he cautioned that long-term, rigorous evidence linking data centers to regional health impacts remains limited.

Saeed’s research aims to reduce those impacts directly. By optimizing how workloads are scheduled across large server fleets, his team has demonstrated power savings of 4 – 12%, a meaningful gain if U.S. data centers approach projected levels of up to 12% of national electricity use by 2028.

For Saeed, data centers are akin to highways: essential to modern life, disruptive to nearby communities, and shaped by policy choices. The question, he argues, is not whether AI infrastructure should exist, but how transparently and fairly it is built.

Economist Probes the Energy Costs of the AI Boom

While headlines often frame AI as an energy crisis, Georgia Tech environmental and energy economist and BBISS Faculty Fellow Tony Harding is focused on measuring its real — and uneven — impacts. Harding, an assistant professor in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy, uses economic modeling to examine how AI adoption affects energy use, emissions, and local communities.

In recent work published in Environmental Research Letters, Harding and his co-author analyzed how productivity gains from AI could influence national energy demand. Their findings suggest that, at a macro level, AI-related activity may increase annual U.S. energy use by about 0.03% and CO₂ emissions by roughly 0.02%.

“Those numbers are small in the context of the overall economy,” Harding said. “But the impacts are highly uneven.”

That unevenness is evident in where data centers are built. While Northern Virginia remains the country’s top data center hub, with 343 operational data centers, states like Georgia, which currently has 94 operational data centers, are rapidly attracting facilities due to reliable power and favorable tax policies. 

Harding’s latest research focuses on local effects, asking why data centers cluster in urban areas, how they influence housing markets, what happens to electricity prices, and whether they exacerbate water stress. Early evidence suggests large facilities can increase local electricity rates, contributing to public backlash and regulatory response. In Georgia, the Public Service Commission has begun requiring new, high power draw customers (like data centers) to cover more of the costs associated with grid expansion.

Harding’s goal is to give policymakers better evidence to design incentives and guardrails. “To manage these technologies responsibly,” he said, “we need a clear picture of their intended and unintended consequences.”

Gamifying a Strained and Aging Power Grid

Daniel Molzahn is tackling another side of the problem: how to modernize an aging power grid under growing demand. Electricity demand is expected to rise about 25% by 2030, driven by data centers, electric vehicles, and broadscale electrification. At the same time, much of the U.S. electricity grid is nearing the end of its lifespan, with many transformers being decades old.

To make these challenges tangible, Molzahn, an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, developed a browser-based game with a group of students through Georgia Tech’s Vertically Integrated Projects program called Current Crisis. Players take on the role of a utility decision-maker, balancing reliability, wildfire risk, renewable integration, and affordability.

The game grew out of Molzahn’s National Science Foundation CAREER award and reflects his belief that complex systems are best understood experientially. Its initial focus is wildfire resilience, modeling how grid infrastructure can both spark and suffer damage from fires.

But resilience comes at a cost. Burying power lines, for example, reduces wildfire risk but dramatically increases expenses. Players must confront the same tradeoffs utilities face: improve reliability or keep rates low.

Molzahn hopes the game will help students and the public grapple with the realities of planning future power systems. “These choices aren’t abstract,” he said. “They shape affordability, resilience, and our path toward a cleaner grid.”

The project now involves nearly 40 students from across campus, supported by Sustainability NEXT funding and a collaboration with Jessica Roberts, former BBISS Faculty Fellow and director of the Technology-Integrated Learning Environments (TILES) Lab in the School of Interactive Computing.

“As a learning scientist, I look at how to engage people with science and scientific data and get people having conversations they might not otherwise have,” says Roberts, who hopes the seed grant helps the team determine first that they are going in the right direction and, second, how to broaden the impact.

One student, Stella Quinto Lima, a graduate research assistant in Human-Centered Computing, has made the game the focus of her doctoral thesis. Through the game, she wants players to notice their misconceptions about the power grid, energy use, and AI, and to use critical thinking to identify, question, and possibly undo those misconceptions.

 “I hope that we can really engage adults and help them see it’s not black and white. The game is not only about power grids, but how AI affects the grid, how it affects our lives, and how it will impact our future.”

The team plans to expand the game’s features, use it in outreach programs, and analyze player decisions as a source of data to study energy-system decision-making.

“We want to change the conversation about power and power grid stability, reliability, and sustainability, Roberts said, “and find a way to get this message to a larger public.”

“The Sloan Research Fellows are among the most promising early-career researchers in the U.S. and Canada, already driving meaningful progress in their respective disciplines,” says Stacie Bloom, president and chief executive officer of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “We look forward to seeing how these exceptional scholars continue to unlock new scientific advancements, redefine their fields, and foster the wellbeing and knowledge of all.”

"This is a wonderful and welcome surprise that will support my ongoing research on mountains across the globe,” says Freeman. “It's a vote of confidence and will let me get out there and get to work."

Freeman is one of 126 scientists selected this year for the honor and will receive a two-year $75,000 grant of flexible funding to support his research.

He joins the ranks of nearly 50 faculty from Georgia Tech who have received Sloan Research Fellowships, including School of Mathematics’ Alex Blumenthal in 2024, Hannah Choi in 2022, Yao Yao in 2020, Konstantin Tikhomirov in 2019, Lutz Warnke in 2018, Zaher Hani in 2016, Jen Hom in 2015, and Greg Blekherman in 2012; School of Chemistry and Biochemistry's Vinayak Agarwal in 2018; School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences' Christopher Reinhard in 2015; and School of Physics’ Chunhui (Rita) Du in 2024 and Tamara Bogdanović in 2013. 

Freeman joined the Institute in 2023 and was also recently named a 2024 Packard Fellow by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and 2025 Early Career Fellow by the Ecological Society of America.

Understanding the ‘escalator to extinction’

Known for his groundbreaking research in climate change and bird ecology, Freeman studies birds worldwide from Appalachia to Ecuador. He specializes in tropical populations where his work is centered on understanding how mountain species respond to a changing climate — and how to facilitate their survival. 

“Tropical mountains are some of Earth’s largest biodiversity hotspots; they harbor an extraordinary number of species,” shares Freeman. “Additionally, tropical mountain birds are particularly sensitive to environmental change, so they can serve as an early warning system for global conservation efforts.”

Previously, his research has shown that some species are on an ‘escalator to extinction’ with vulnerable groups moving to higher elevations to escape warming temperatures. At the top of the escalator, some summit-dwelling species are disappearing. 

“We know that many species are on this escalator,” Freeman says. “The next step is to figure out which species are most vulnerable and why. In order to direct conservation efforts, we need to know who is vulnerable, why small increases in temperature have dramatic effects, and what can be done to help.”

A worldwide early warning system

To uncover those answers, Freeman is taking two approaches: mapping global patterns with big picture data and conducting on-the-ground research in the tropics.

To target the former, he created the Mountain Bird Network, which supports community scientists in conducting bird surveys on their local mountains. The goal is to create a system that allows researchers to diagnose vulnerable species before they are too sparse to save.

“When a species is in trouble, we need to know as soon as possible,” Freeman says. “Once a population is small enough to be at risk of extinction, it’s very hard to reverse that process. The Mountain Bird Network collects data on mountain bird abundances and distributions across the globe, which, when used with data from a global citizen science program called eBird, can be leveraged to build models to identify which species might be vulnerable before those populations become critically small.”

A living lab on Tech Mountain

Freeman’s other avenue of research involves building an ambitious living laboratory in Pinchincha, Ecuador. The research site will span thousands of meters along the flanks of a local mountain, spanning lowland rainforest, foothill rainforest, and cloud forest ecosystems.

“The mountain is home to thousands of birds from hundreds of species,” Freeman says. “My goal is to track and understand their daily lives — and how climate changes impact them.”

Using cutting-edge tracking technology, he will tag and monitor their daily movements, mapping those against microclimate sensors placed at different elevations along the mountain’s slopes. The challenge of placing and maintaining thousands of tiny sensors in rugged conditions means that it has never been done before.

“We’ll track these birds for at least five years –- but hopefully for decades,” Freeman says. “The data we gather at Tech Mountain will be the first of its kind, and my hope is that it makes a real difference in conservation efforts worldwide.”

What does it mean to design systems that endure even after major disruptions? This question framed the 2026 Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) Sustainability Showcase, where conversations over two days spanned the Georgia coast, wildfire modeling, AI data centers, infrastructure, community engagement, and the joy of working for a more sustainable and resilient world. Across disciplines and scales, a unifying theme emerged: resilience is not a single solution. It is a systems-level challenge requiring integration across science and technology, policy, communities, and human experience.

From Coastlines to Communities

The showcase opened with a keynote from President Emeritus G. Wayne Clough on wildlife management and resiliency along Georgia’s coast. The conversation that followed between Clough and BBISS Executive Director Beril Toktay highlighted the interconnection between public policy, wilderness conservation, community leadership, and scientific research. The session highlighted not only the urgency of protecting fragile ecosystems, but also that resilience works best when it is community-focused and community-driven.

Subsequent panels continued this systemic perspective. Sessions on community engagement, biotechnology-derived, climate-resilient plants, the flood resilience of Georgia coastal communities, wildfire prediction and prevention, and infrastructure resilience analytics all emphasized that resilience depends on the synthesis of many disciplines.

Across sessions, researchers emphasized that infrastructure resilience must include governance frameworks informed by good science, community engagement based on trust, and sustained collaboration that seeks to constantly improve the science, policy, and stakeholder relationships. The researchers demonstrated that they understand their role to be greater than merely modeling risk, but as collaborators who translate research into practical solutions that communities can adopt, maintain, and trust.

AI Data Centers: A New Resilience Frontier

Day two shifted attention to data centers, which are emerging as a critical resilience frontier. As artificial intelligence systems scale rapidly, so does the infrastructure that powers them, as well as the growing realization that digital systems are physical systems. Conversations examined the feedback loops that play a significant role in determining environmental impacts, such as chip architecture, AI workloads, data center sustainability, appropriate AI usage, and who makes the decisions on data center infrastructure development. 

One of the most fascinating sessions came from Alexandria Smith, assistant professor in the School of Music at Georgia Tech. She presented an artistic yet algorithmic composition that sonified data from AI data centers. Through translating kilowatt-hour usage and interconnection data into immersive soundscapes, she reframed data centers not as static input-output machines, but as adaptive, living systems. Drawing inspiration from Physarum polycephalum, a slime mold without a brain or nervous system known for its innate problem-solving abilities, she invites the listener to imagine infrastructure that senses, adapts, and self-optimizes.

Campus as a Living Laboratory

In her session, Professor Jennifer Chirico, associate vice president of Sustainability, highlighted Georgia Tech’s 2024 Climate Action Plan, focusing on building energy efficiency, renewable integration, materials management, and mobility transitions. The plan frames the Georgia Tech campus as a test bed for resilience strategies — an ecosystem where research, operations, and policy intersect. Chirico highlighted several examples where the alignment between research and implementation was essential in moving projects from modeling to pilot projects to sustained institutional change.

Finding Joy in Climate Action

Rebecca Watts Hull, Matthew Realff, and Christie Stewart led an interactive discussion inspired by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s framework for accelerating long-term climate action. Participants were asked three simple questions: What are you good at? What work needs doing? What brings you joy? Sustainability and climate research are fields often defined by serious urgency, crisis narratives, and burnout. This session offered a personal framework for resilience where emotional sustainability, professional fulfillment, and joy matter just as much as the motivation to drive a mission ever forward.

Building a Shared Vision

The Sustainability Showcase concluded with a facilitated visioning session led by Kristin Janacek, associate director for Interdisciplinary Research Impact, and Beril Toktay. In small groups, leaders, researchers, and community members worked to define what resilience looks like for them.

After the conversations, several themes emerged:

• Resilience must move from research to practical and community-based solutions to sustained action.
• Networks create opportunity but require long-term stewardship to endure.
• Choosing the right metrics to measure resilience will galvanize efforts to strengthen it.
• Community capacity is at least as important as built infrastructure.

Over two days, it became clear that Georgia Tech is not approaching resilience as a narrow technical problem. It is approaching it as a systems challenge — one that spans coastlines, campuses, disciplines, data centers, the Appalachian Mountains, data models, the arts, and human relationships. Designing systems that endure requires more than innovation. It requires collaboration, stewardship, and a shared commitment to long-term impact. The conversations launched at this year’s BBISS Sustainability Showcase laid the foundation for continued coordination and ambitious action in the months ahead.

The Eshelby Mechanics Award was established in 2012 in memory of Professor John Douglas Eshelby to promote the field of mechanics, among young researchers. The award will be formally presented at the 2026 Applied Mechanics Division Awards Banquet during the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in November.

Athanasiou and his team advance the fundamental mechanics and physics of materials and translates these insights into systems-level design strategies that address global challenges in resource efficiency and sustainable development. His research integrates advanced experimental methods capable of capturing material behavior under realistic operational conditions, mechanics-based design principles, and tailored AI- and physics-informed modeling frameworks.

Together, these efforts enable the development of life-cycle-efficient, cost-effective materials and structures for applications ranging from sustainable packaging to aerospace systems and space construction. His recent work published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) introduced a bioinspired framework to improve plastic recycling while addressing a foundational mechanics question: how can we build reliable structures from inherently variable materials?

Athanasiou is also the recipient of the 2024 NSF CAREER Award and the ASME Orr Early Career Award, and is a Climate Tech Fellow at the New York Climate Exchange.

“It has been a pleasure for the Center for Programs to Increase Engagement in the Sciences (C-PIES) to collaborate with Google and the College of Sciences Advisory Board to bring this fellowship, which will positively impact our community and highlight how science can align with public good,” says Lewis A. Wheaton, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and director of C-PIES. 

In the year ahead, the fellows will work with C-PIES and community partners on campus and in the metro Atlanta area to develop projects in one of three priority areas: civic and policy engagement, community-engaged research, and K-12 research outreach. 

The fellowship was open to all graduate students in the College of Sciences, and four inaugural fellows — Aniruddh Bakshi, Katherine Slenker, Miriam Simma, and Nikolai Simonov — were named based on their exciting, yet feasible applications.

Fellow Aniruddh Bakshi: Strengthening trust in science 

Ph.D. student Aniruddh Bakshi studies the problem of drug delivery at the intersections of organic chemistry, biochemistry, and immunology. As mRNA vaccines are closely related to his area of research, he sees the need for a grassroots outreach movement from young academics to help bolster public confidence in rigorous scientific methodology. 

In collaboration with local hospitals and nonprofits, his proposed project is to start a social media content series, titled “A Day in the Life of a Ph.D. Student,” to show the realities of graduate school for those interested in this career path while connecting his research to broader public issues. 

“Science has the power to solve urgent problems, but only if people understand and trust it,” says Bakshi. “Through this fellowship, I will use my research and outreach efforts to help strengthen that trust — showing how discoveries in drug delivery and vaccine design can make a real difference in people’s lives.” 

Fellow Katherine Slenker: Creating a biodiversity data network 

Atlanta is often referred to as “the city in a forest,” but according to Ph.D. student Katherine Slenker, wildlife has a difficult time navigating across roads and housing developments, often resulting in human-wildlife conflict. 

“Conservation ecologists have long recommended that the movement of wildlife could be eased through the creation of ‘ecological corridors,’ which connect greenspaces and wildlife populations,” she explains. “Determining the movement patterns of wildlife, and where such corridors may be best situated, requires that we first understand what species reside in the metro Atlanta area as well as how they are expected to disperse.”

As a fellow, Slenker plans to build a biodiversity data network by comparing wildlife monitoring at Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve and Stone Mountain Park and increasing the coalition of metro Atlanta researchers. This data can be used in the development of ecological corridors to reduce clashing between humans and wildlife, notably animals struck by vehicles, and improve ecosystem health at these parks. 

Fellow Miriam Simma: Making structural biology research more accessible 

The study of crystallography is vital in academia, industry, and medicine because it enables researchers to decipher the atomic structures of proteins, but it is scarcely taught outside of graduate school. Ph.D. student Miriam Simma wants to change that. 

Her proposed project is to introduce protein crystallography to K-12 students and teachers through hands-on activities in local high school classrooms and to the public during the Atlanta Science Festival at Georgia Tech.

“My vision is to make structural biology research accessible, so everyone can engage with cutting-edge scientific research — fostering curiosity and interest in STEM careers,” says Simma. “Long term, I will synthesize these activities into a chemical education article that introduces K-12 students to protein structure and function.” 

Fellow Nikolai Simonov: Mentoring middle school scientists 

Last year, Ph.D. student Nikolai Simonov became involved in the GoSTEM Club at Lilburn Middle School — leading student activities and recruiting other graduate student volunteers. In partnership with Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing, the club is a weekly afterschool program for students, many of whom come from underserved backgrounds, to grow their scientific curiosity. 

“I assembled a team of 10 Tech graduate students who could explain complex scientific concepts in approachable ways for middle school students. Through this fellowship, we are excited to enrich the GoSTEM Club with an ongoing mentorship program and materials for more ambitious science fair projects,” shares Simonov. 

As part of the program, club members can meet one-on-one with Georgia Tech mentors to discuss their educational and career goals. “By sharing their stories and connecting scientific ideas to real-world applications, our mentors aim to show students that STEM is not only accessible but a path toward a fulfilling life,” he adds.

The interactive dashboard compiles and visualizes data gathered by Matisoff, along with Program and Operations Manager Michael Morley, offering a comprehensive view of SAF production, feedstock availability, and policy trends.

EPIcenter Research Associate Yang You has designed the dashboard to translate complex datasets into policy-relevant insights for decision-makers. By organizing key metrics into interactive visuals, the dashboard helps stakeholders assess market readiness and identify regulatory actions that could accelerate SAF adoption.

Emphasizing the importance of data-driven insights, Matisoff said, “The Department of Energy has a Grand Challenge to produce 3 billion gallons a year of Sustainable Aviation Fuel by 2030, and 35 billion gallons a year by 2050. By compiling and visualizing SAF data, we can help policymakers and researchers understand progress towards these goals, where the key opportunities and bottlenecks are – and how to move forward effectively”. 

Why SAF Matters
While aviation only accounts for about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is a rapidly growing share, and decarbonizing this sector is considered one of the most challenging aspects of the energy transition. Produced from renewable feedstocks, sustainable aviation fuel offers a pathway to reduce lifecycle emissions from air travel without requiring major changes to aircraft or infrastructure. However, SAF production and deployment face hurdles related to cost, supply chain development, and policy support.

EPIcenter’s Director Laura Taylor highlighted the dashboard’s role in addressing these challenges:
“Sustainable aviation fuel is a cornerstone of decarbonizing air travel, but the market is complex and rapidly evolving. The dashboard provides clarity by organizing the relevant data in a way that’s accessible and actionable for decision-makers.”

“This tool is meant to bridge analysis and action,” said You. “By visualizing SAF production, capacity, and offtake dynamics, the dashboard allows policymakers and stakeholders to see where the market is moving, where gaps remain, and how targeted infrastructure investments or supportive policies could unlock scale.”

The EPIcenter SAF Dashboard is intended as a resource for industry leaders, policymakers, and researchers working to accelerate SAF adoption. By providing transparent, data-driven insights, Georgia Tech aims to support informed decisions that advance innovation and sustainability in aviation.

To explore the dashboard and learn more about Georgia Tech’s work on sustainable aviation fuel, visit EPIcenter’s SAF page. 

The award will support the design of nature-based solutions including living shorelines and marsh restoration in flood-prone areas of Camden County, Georgia, adjacent to Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Cumberland Island National Seashore, and the city of St. Marys. 

“Restoring wetlands in Camden County is not just an environmental priority — it’s a resilience strategy for the entire region,” says principal investigator (PI) Joel Kostka, Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor, associate chair for Research in the School of Biological Sciences, and faculty director of Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow. “Each acre of restored marshland protects coastal communities from natural hazards like storms and flooding, provides essential marine habitat, and has the potential to aid the Navy and the Army Corps of Engineers in developing management alternatives for dredged materials. When our wetlands flourish, our whole coastline does.”

In addition to Kostka, co-PI’s include University of Georgia (UGA) Skidaway Institute of Oceanography Director Clark Alexander, UGA Associate Professor Matt Bilskie and Professor Brian Bledsoe, The Nature Conservancy Coastal Climate Adaptation Director Ashby Worley, and Georgia Tech alumnus Nolan Williams of Robinson Design Engineers, a firm dedicated to the engineering of natural infrastructure in the Southeast that is owned and operated by Georgia Tech alumnus Joshua Robinson.

A coastal collaboration

The new project, known as a “pipeline project” by NFWF,  builds on multiple resilience plans and years of previous research conducted by the established team. “This is a testament to the value of the long-term collaborations and partnerships that enable coastal resilience work,” Kostka says. “We’re working closely with local communities and a range of city, state, and federal stakeholders to ensure these solutions align with local priorities and protect what matters most.”

It’s not the first time that the team has brought this type of collaboration to the coastline. Since 2019, Kostka has worked alongside the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the South Carolina Aquarium, and Robinson Design Engineers in a $2.6 million effort to restore degraded salt marshes in historic Charleston, also funded by NFWF. Now in the implementation phase, much of the marsh restoration in Charleston involves planting salt-tolerant grasses, restoring oyster reefs, and excavating new tidal creeks — work that is being spearheaded by local volunteers.

“Coastal resilience isn’t something one group can tackle alone,” Kostka adds. “That shared, community-driven vision is what makes these projects possible.”

 “What is happening within the field is revolutionary,” says School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Associate Chair and Professor Annalisa Bracco, adding that because many climate-related processes — from ocean currents to melting glaciers and weather patterns — can be described with physical equations, these advancements have the potential to help us understand and predict climate in critically important ways. 

Bracco is the lead author of a new review paper providing a comprehensive look at the intersection of AI and climate physics.

The result of an international collaboration between Georgia Tech’s Bracco, Julien Brajard (Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center), Henk A. Dijkstra (Utrecht University), Pedram Hassanzadeh (University of Chicago), Christian Lessig (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), and Claire Monteleoni (University of Colorado Boulder), the paper, ‘Machine learning for the physics of climate,’ was recently published in Nature Reviews Physics. 

“One of our team’s goals was to help people think deeply on how climate science and AI intersect,” Bracco shares. “Machine learning is allowing us to study the physics of climate in a way that was previously impossible. Coupled with increasing amounts of data and observations, we can now investigate climate at scales and resolutions we’ve never been able to before.”

Connecting hidden dots

The team showed that ML is driving change in three key areas: accounting for missing observational data, creating more robust climate models, and enhancing predictions, especially in weather forecasting. However, the research also underscores the limits of AI — and how researchers can work to fill those gaps.

“Machine learning has been fantastic in allowing us to expand the time and the spatial scales for which we have measurements,” says Bracco, explaining that ML could help fill in missing data points — creating a more robust record for researchers to reference. However, like patching a hole in a shirt, this works best when the rest of the material is intact.

“Machine learning can extrapolate from past conditions when observations are abundant, but it can’t yet predict future trends or collect the data we need,” Bracco adds. “To keep advancing, we need scientists who can determine what data we need, collect that data, and solve problems.”

Modeling climate, predicting weather

Machine learning is often used when improving climate models that can simulate changing systems like our atmosphere, oceans, land, biochemistry, and ice. “These models are limited because of our computing power, and are run on a three-dimensional grid,” Bracco explains: below the grid resolution, researchers need to approximate complex physics with simpler equations that computers can solve quickly, a process called ‘parameterization’.

Machine learning is changing that, offering new ways to improve parameterizations, she says. “We can run a model at extremely high resolutions for a short time, so that we don’t need to parameterize as many physical processes — using machine learning to derive the equations that best approximate what is happening at small scales,” she explains. “Then we can use those equations in a coarser model that we can run for hundreds of years.”

While a full climate model based solely on machine learning may remain out of reach, the team found that ML is advancing our ability to accurately predict weather systems and some climate phenomena like El Niño. 

Previously, weather prediction was based on knowing the starting conditions — like temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure — and running a model based on physics equations to predict what might happen next. Now, machine learning is giving researchers the opportunity to learn from the past. “We can use information on what has happened when there were similar starting conditions in previous situations to predict the future without solving the underlying governing equations,” Bracco says. “And all while using orders-of-magnitude less computing resources.”

The human connection

Bracco emphasizes that while AI and ML play a critical role in accelerating research, humans are at the core of progress. “I think the in-person collaboration that led to this paper is, in itself, a testament to the importance of human interaction,” she says, recalling that the research was the result of a workshop organized at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics — one of the team’s first in-person discussions after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Machine learning is a fantastic tool — but it's not the solution to everything,” she adds. “There is also a real need for human researchers collecting high-quality data, and for interdisciplinary collaboration across fields. I see this as a big challenge, but a great opportunity for computer scientists and physicists, mathematicians, biologists, and chemists to work together.”

Funding: National Science Foundation, European Research Council, Office of Naval Research, US Department of Energy, European Space Agency, Choose France Chair in AI.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-024-00776-3

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The assessment, funded by the city’s Tree Recompense Fund, uses advanced remote sensing tools such as WorldView-2 satellite data and a random forest classification model to categorize land into three land cover types. These include tree canopy, non-tree vegetation (grass, shrubs, and low lying vegetation) and non-vegetation (water, pervious surface). The methodology delivers a detailed spatial picture of land cover across the city.

“This is simply a tool in their planning arsenal,” said Anthony Giarrusso, who has led every canopy study since 2008. “Before they did any of this work in 2008, everything was anecdotal. It was reactionary.”

The new study is not advocacy — it’s information. Giarrusso emphasized that while researchers stay neutral in the politics of urban growth and conservation, their work equips city leaders with science-based knowledge to make more effective zoning and planning decisions.

In addition to mapping existing conditions, the Georgia Tech team developed the Potential Planting Index (PPI), a scalable tool that identifies where tree planting is physically possible based on current land cover. The tool quantifies the difference between tree canopy and non-tree vegetation, indicating zones with restoration potential.

Another key insight is the challenge of interpreting canopy change without understanding land use patterns. “It gives you a false sense of stability if you don’t understand the underlying land use,” said Giarrusso. “You might see canopy regrowth on paper, but that land could be cleared again tomorrow.” He explained that this false signal is particularly common in stalled development sites: “We saw a lot of properties where trees had regrown after initial clearing, but it was temporary and monoculture, low quality canopy. Several of those areas were cleared again for construction later.”

Giarrusso pointed to these “loss-gain-loss” cycles as one of the more misleading aspects of tree canopy analysis without strong land use context. “Some of them were pipe farms — land cleared for development with infrastructure like water and sewer lines installed, but then construction never happened. So trees grow back, and you get a canopy gain that doesn’t last and is nowhere near the quality of the trees originally cleared.”

He stressed that policymakers need to consider the permanence of canopy when using the data. “If it’s just going to be cleared again in two years, it’s not really a gain. That’s why long-term tracking and land use analysis together are so important.”

The city has incorporated these tools into broader planning efforts, including zoning reform and tree ordinance revisions. The research supports recommendations such as restricting full lot clearing in certain zoning categories and adjusting setback or lot coverage limits to better preserve existing canopy.

Giarrusso underscored the urgency of protecting larger, intact forested tracts. “If you can see it from space and it’s still forest — save it,” he said. “Once it’s cleared, you don’t get it back.”

Busy with her career and family, DeWitt tucked the idea away — until she stepped back from the professional world and knew it was time to pursue keeping bees. She enrolled in a one-day beekeeping class that was offered by the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association. From there, DeWitt learned the fundamentals, purchased her first honey bees, and began the fascinating — and sometimes mystifying — work of caring for them in her backyard. 

Like many new beekeepers, she faced steep challenges: sick bees, failing colonies, secondary pests, and ensuring her hives had enough resources to survive winter. But DeWitt says that she also discovered how remarkably generous and supportive the beekeeping community is. She connected with mentors and attended local bee club meetings and state conferences where researchers shared their latest findings. Beekeeping became meaningful in ways she had never anticipated.

“I fell in love with honey bees and all things related. There is an innate spirituality in keeping bees,” she says. “Once I put the veil on, life slows to a standstill and becomes a walking meditation into a delicately complex and endlessly fascinating world.”

Her marketing background came full circle too. “Like any creative endeavor, beekeepers must be keenly observant,” DeWitt explains. “We have to think outside the box, pivot quickly, anticipate problems, and plan ahead.”

As her colony numbers grew, so did her reach. DeWitt established apiaries at several metro Atlanta schools and at sites in Chattahoochee Hills, Grant Park, Brookhaven, Arabia Mountain, and Brevard, North Carolina. Along the way, she earned her Master Beekeeper certification from Cornell University, served as the central regional director for the Georgia Beekeepers Association, taught beekeeping to incarcerated individuals through the Georgia Department of Corrections, and partnered with tree companies to rescue wild honey bee colonies living in trees slated for removal.

Serving as the Beekeeper in Residence

This breadth of experience prepared her for a unique opportunity: becoming Georgia Tech’s 2025 Beekeeper in Residence with the Urban Honey Bee Project. The one-year residency, DeWitt says, offered “a rare opportunity to be part of the Georgia Tech community,” allowing her to explore new ideas in beekeeping while tending to and expanding the rooftop hives at The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design.

The Urban Honey Bee Project, an interdisciplinary initiative of Georgia Tech’s College of Sciences and Office of Sustainability, established the Beekeeper in Residence program to maintain colonies at The Kendeda Building and in the EcoCommons, mentor student beekeepers, and enrich the program with diverse expertise.

“Deb did so much this year — working closely with the Beekeeping Club, keeping our hives healthy, and even rehoming a wild hive from a dead tree on campus,” says Jennifer Leavey, assistant dean for faculty mentoring in the College of Sciences and director of the Urban Honey Bee Project. “Most importantly, Deb showed our students how an expert beekeeper approaches hive care. She took every opportunity to include them, and it made a real impact.”

Georgia Tech undergraduate Alyssa Zhang agrees. “The Beekeeping Club loved working with Deb. She was always happy to teach us — whether it was managing Varroa mites last summer, when she helped reduce counts from 17% to below 1%, or preparing the hives for winter.”

Protecting intelligent pollinators

The Varroa mite is one of many pressures beekeepers face. “The biggest challenges affecting honey bees — as well as native bees and other pollinators — are climate change, habitat loss, pesticide use, pests, and pathogens,” DeWitt explains. “These factors contributed to U.S. commercial beekeepers losing a devastating average of 62% of their colonies last year.”

Honey bees play a critical role in pollinating food crops and producing honey and beeswax. These threats fuel DeWitt’s passion for education, mentorship, and advocacy at the local, state, and national levels. Yet, the most meaningful rewards are personal.

“Honey bee colonies are superorganisms — tens of thousands of individuals working together for the good of the hive,” she adds. “Bees are intelligent, endlessly fascinating creatures, and I never stop learning from them. Beekeeping has made me a better gardener, horticulturist, ecologist, conservationist, carpenter, biologist, scientist, student, teacher, problem solver… you name it.”

Recognized across Georgia

Her passion for the craft is unmistakable. In 2025, DeWitt received one of the state’s highest honors: Georgia Beekeepers Association’s Beekeeper of the Year Award.

“I am profoundly grateful to the state’s beekeeping community for recognizing my efforts over the past eight years,” says DeWitt. “This award reflects the mentorship I’ve received from some truly exceptional beekeepers.”

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Assistant Professor Karl Lang recently earned a Scialog grant to explore one of the most fundamental questions in mineral science: why some minerals withstand radiation damage without breaking down.

“Critical minerals is a buzzword right now, but what’s interesting is that many of these so-called minerals are actually rare earth elements (REEs),” explains Lang. “What we will study is how radiation can help liberate these REEs from ore minerals.”

Funding the future

Lang is one of 50 Scialog Fellows selected for the second generation of Scialog: Sustainable Minerals, Metals, and Materials, a three-year initiative designed to spark bold ideas for addressing how society acquires, uses, and recycles critical materials.

Scialog, which stands for “Science + Dialogue,” is supported by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and The Kavli Foundation. The program funds high-risk, high-reward projects to address scientific challenges of global significance, while supporting dialogue and community-building across fields.

“What makes Scialog exciting is that it intentionally brings together scientists from very different fields to tackle a giant, multifaceted problem,” says Lang. “It’s a fun and creative way to spark ideas that wouldn’t happen in isolation.”

Lang and the other Scialog Fellows recently met for a series of focused conversations about the challenges and gaps in current critical minerals knowledge, and by the end of the conference, they were sorted into teams to develop and propose ideas for cross-disciplinary research projects. Eighteen $60,000 grants were ultimately awarded, including one from the Kavli Foundation to Lang and his research partner, Claudia E. Avalos, from New York University. Their project, An Atomic-Level Perspective on Radiation Damage Annealing with Advanced SSNMR Spectroscopy, will investigate how minerals respond to radiation over time and how they can be stabilized or recycled — knowledge vital for sustainable resource management.

Atomic-level resilience

At Georgia Tech, Lang leads the TECHtonics Research Group, which uses radiometric dating of critical minerals to measure changes in geological Earth’s surface and lithosphere. He will team up with Avalos, a recognized expert in magnetic resonance spectroscopy, combining their talents to study the mineral monazite, an important ore for REEs commonly found in beach sands. In addition to REEs, monazite also contains high levels of uranium and thorium, radioactive elements. Despite this natural radioactivity, monazite can retain a crystal structure for millions of years. This mineral’s unique ability to resist radiation damage may help explain why it is also a valuable ore for REEs.  

“You can think of mineral lattice structures like a cage, and the uranium and thorium are like exploding bombs inside,” says Lang. “Despite the explosions, the cage either doesn’t break at all or, quite possibly, heals itself. We want to understand that process at the atomic level.”

Lang hopes that understanding why certain minerals maintain their crystal structure (despite radiation damage) could inform strategies for recycling REEs, improving extraction processes, and designing materials that last longer — advancing science that could shape the future of resource management.

“We’re using a high-tech tool to study why these minerals don’t break down under radiation damage,” adds Lang. “It’s not applied research; it’s about answering a fundamental question.”

They could burn low-sulfur fossil fuels, like marine gas oil, or install cleaning systems to remove sulfur from the exhaust gas produced by burning heavy fuel oil. Biofuels with lower sulfur content offer another alternative, though their limited availability makes them a less feasible option.

While installing exhaust gas cleaning systems, known as scrubbers, is the most feasible and cost-effective option, there has been a great deal of uncertainty among firms, policymakers, and scientists as to how “green” these scrubbers are.

Through a novel lifecycle assessment, researchers from MIT, Georgia Tech, and elsewhere have now found that burning heavy fuel oil with scrubbers in the open ocean can match or surpass using low-sulfur fuels, when a wide variety of environmental factors is considered.

The scientists combined data on the production and operation of scrubbers and fuels with emissions measurements taken onboard an oceangoing cargo ship.

They found that, when the entire supply chain is considered, burning heavy fuel oil with scrubbers was the least harmful option in terms of nearly all 10 environmental impact factors they studied, such as greenhouse gas emissions, terrestrial acidification, and ozone formation.

“In our collaboration with Oldendorff Carriers to broadly explore reducing the environmental impact of shipping, this study of scrubbers turned out to be an unexpectedly deep and important transitional issue,” says Neil Gershenfeld, an MIT professor, director of the Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), and senior author of the study.

“Claims about environmental hazards and policies to mitigate them should be backed by science. You need to see the data, be objective, and design studies that take into account the full picture to be able to compare different options from an apples-to-apples perspective,” adds lead author Patricia Stathatou, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, who began this study as a postdoc in the CBA.

Stathatou is joined on the paper by Michael Triantafyllou and others at the National Technical University of Athens in Greece and the maritime shipping firm Oldendorff Carriers. The research appears today in Environmental Science and Technology.

Slashing sulfur emissions

Heavy fuel oil, traditionally burned by bulk carriers that make up about 30 percent of the global maritime fleet, usually has a sulfur content around 2 to 3 percent. This is far higher than the International Maritime Organization’s 2020 cap of 0.5 percent in most areas of the ocean and 0.1 percent in areas near population centers or environmentally sensitive regions.

Sulfur oxide emissions contribute to air pollution and acid rain, and can damage the human respiratory system.

In 2018, fewer than 1,000 vessels employed scrubbers. After the cap went into place, higher prices of low-sulfur fossil fuels and limited availability of alternative fuels led many firms to install scrubbers so they could keep burning heavy fuel oil.

Today, more than 5,800 vessels utilize scrubbers, the majority of which are wet, open-loop scrubbers.

“Scrubbers are a very mature technology. They have traditionally been used for decades in land-based applications like power plants to remove pollutants,” Stathatou says.

A wet, open-loop marine scrubber is a huge, metal, vertical tank installed in a ship’s exhaust stack, above the engines. Inside, seawater drawn from the ocean is sprayed through a series of nozzles downward to wash the hot exhaust gases as they exit the engines.

The seawater interacts with sulfur dioxide in the exhaust, converting it to sulfates — water-soluble, environmentally benign compounds that naturally occur in seawater. The washwater is released back into the ocean, while the cleaned exhaust escapes to the atmosphere with little to no sulfur dioxide emissions.

But the acidic washwater can contain other combustion byproducts like heavy metals, so scientists wondered if scrubbers were comparable, from a holistic environmental point of view, to burning low-sulfur fuels.

Several studies explored toxicity of washwater and fuel system pollution, but none painted a full picture.

The researchers set out to fill that scientific gap.

A “well-to-wake” analysis

The team conducted a lifecycle assessment using a global environmental database on production and transport of fossil fuels, such as heavy fuel oil, marine gas oil, and very-low sulfur fuel oil. Considering the entire lifecycle of each fuel is key, since producing low-sulfur fuel requires extra processing steps in the refinery, causing additional emissions of greenhouse gases and particulate matter.

“If we just look at everything that happens before the fuel is bunkered onboard the vessel, heavy fuel oil is significantly more low-impact, environmentally, than low-sulfur fuels,” she says.

The researchers also collaborated with a scrubber manufacturer to obtain detailed information on all materials, production processes, and transportation steps involved in marine scrubber fabrication and installation.

“If you consider that the scrubber has a lifetime of about 20 years, the environmental impacts of producing the scrubber over its lifetime are negligible compared to producing heavy fuel oil,” she adds.

For the final piece, Stathatou spent a week onboard a bulk carrier vessel in China to measure emissions and gather seawater and washwater samples. The ship burned heavy fuel oil with a scrubber and low-sulfur fuels under similar ocean conditions and engine settings.

Collecting these onboard data was the most challenging part of the study.

“All the safety gear, combined with the heat and the noise from the engines on a moving ship, was very overwhelming,” she says.

Their results showed that scrubbers reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 97 percent, putting heavy fuel oil on par with low-sulfur fuels according to that measure. The researchers saw similar trends for emissions of other pollutants like carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide.

In addition, they tested washwater samples for more than 60 chemical parameters, including nitrogen, phosphorus, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and 23 metals.

The concentrations of chemicals regulated by the IMO were far below the organization’s requirements. For unregulated chemicals, the researchers compared the concentrations to the strictest limits for industrial effluents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and European Union.

Most chemical concentrations were at least an order of magnitude below these requirements.

In addition, since washwater is diluted thousands of times as it is dispersed by a moving vessel, the concentrations of such chemicals would be even lower in the open ocean.

These findings suggest that the use of scrubbers with heavy fuel oil can be considered as equal to or more environmentally friendly than low-sulfur fuels across many of the impact categories the researchers studied.

“This study demonstrates the scientific complexity of the waste stream of scrubbers. Having finally conducted a multiyear, comprehensive, and peer-reviewed study, commonly held fears and assumptions are now put to rest,” says Scott Bergeron, managing director at Oldendorff Carriers and co-author of the study.

“This first-of-its-kind study on a well-to-wake basis provides very valuable input to ongoing discussion at the IMO,” adds Thomas Klenum, executive vice president of innovation and regulatory affairs at the Liberian Registry, emphasizing the need “for regulatory decisions to be made based on scientific studies providing factual data and conclusions.”

Ultimately, this study shows the importance of incorporating lifecycle assessments into future environmental impact reduction policies, Stathatou says.

“There is all this discussion about switching to alternative fuels in the future, but how green are these fuels? We must do our due diligence to compare them equally with existing solutions to see the costs and benefits,” she adds.

This study was supported, in part, by Oldendorff Carriers.

- Written by Adam Zewe, MIT News Office

Freeman, who grew up in Seattle, mainly studies the ecology of tropical birds — but the discovery of Waterhouse’s paper made him curious about research closer to home. The results were surprising: over the last three decades, most of the bird populations in the region were stable and had been increasing in abundance at higher elevations.

The study, “Pacific Northwest birds have shifted their abundances upslope in response to 30 years of warming temperatures” was published in the journal Ecology this fall. In addition to lead author Freeman, the team also included Harold Eyster (The Nature Conservancy), Julian Heavyside (University of British Columbia), Daniel Yip (Canadian Wildlife Service), Monica Mather (British Columbia Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship), and Waterhouse (British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Coast Area Research).

“It is great news that most birds in the region are resilient, and by doing this work, we can focus on the species that do need help, like the Canada Jay, which is struggling in this region,” Freeman says. “Studies like this help us focus resources and effort.”

Songbirds and snow

Conducting the fieldwork was a detective game, Freeman says. Each day, he would wake up at four in the morning to locate and visit the research areas — often navigating trails, open forest, and rough terrain on foot.

This area of the Pacific Northwest is punctuated with old-growth stands of trees — sections of forest that have never been logged or altered. “These areas feel like islands,” Freeman shares. “They feel ancient and untouched, but even in pristine habitats, birds are still responding to climate change.”

Most of the work was conducted during the birds’ breeding season, from late May into June. This is when the birds are most vocal, which is ideal for surveys, Freeman says. The downside? Even in June, there is often snow in the mountains. “I was out at dawn, hiking through snow in the freezing cold, wondering why I didn’t stay in bed,” he recalls. “But then I’d hear birds singing all around me and realize it was all worth it.”

Upward expansion — and resilience

By comparing the two “snapshots,” the team showed that while temperatures have increased over the last 30 years, most bird populations in the region haven’t declined — but they have become more abundant at higher elevations. “It’s encouraging,” Freeman says. “Thirty years of warming has led to changes, but for the most part, these bird populations are mostly stable or improving.”

One reason for this resilience could be the stability that old growth forests provide, and Freeman suggests that conserving wide swaths of mountain habitat might help birds thrive as they continue to adapt, while still supporting populations at lower elevations. The study also helps identify which bird species need additional support, like the Canada Jay — a gray and white bird known for following hikers in pursuit of dropped snacks.

It’s just one piece of Freeman’s larger research goal — he aims to do this type of snapshot research in many different places to identify general patterns, especially differences in temperate versus tropical environments.

“In the tropics, most bird species are vulnerable, with only a few resilient species. In the Pacific Northwest, we saw the opposite,” he says. “A pattern is emerging: temperate zones show more resilience, tropics more vulnerability.” 

Freeman is also conducting research with a group of students in Northern Georgia. “We predict that these Appalachian birds will be resilient as well,” he says, “but we need to study and understand what’s happening in nature — not just make predictions.”

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.70193

Funding: Packard Foundation

While the future frequency of hurricanes remains uncertain, scientists agree on key trends: A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, fueling heavier rainfall. Rising sea levels are amplifying storm surge. Warmer ocean temperatures fuel rapid storm growth. When these factors combine, researchers call this phenomenon hurricane-induced compound flooding.

Sarhadi studies this phenomenon. “In a warming climate, this type of flooding is becoming more frequent and more severe,” he explains. “With U.S. hurricane damages exceeding $28 billion annually, most loss of life and destruction comes from water, not wind,” says Sarhadi, who joined Georgia Tech in 2024 after postdoctoral work in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. 

Learning From Hurricane Sandy

Building on insights from his postdoctoral work, Sarhadi has developed advanced physics-based and machine learning frameworks to model hurricane hazards such as storm surge and compound flooding and assess their potential economic impacts on coastal infrastructure. His models predict both hazard magnitude and how risk may evolve.

He applied this framework to analyze Hurricane Sandy, which struck New York City in 2012, causing $70 billion in damage. “Our analysis shows that flooding events like Sandy may occur once every 150 years in the current climate,” Sarhadi explains. “But with warming oceans and shifting storm dynamics, that timeline could shrink to once every 60 years by midcentury and once every 30 years by century’s end.”

Leveraging Georgia Tech’s Multidisciplinary Strengths 

Sarhadi says that joining Georgia Tech has opened the door to new interdisciplinary collaborations aimed at advancing hurricane forecasting and strengthening the resilience of coastal regions. From seawalls to AI-enhanced power grids and smarter warning systems, he sees real potential to reduce the vulnerability of communities facing increasingly severe storm impacts. 

“I’m excited to be here. It’s a vibrant and supportive community,” Sarhadi says. “The students are incredibly bright and deeply passionate about science.”

His research draws on the intersection of engineering, physics-based modeling, and AI, reflecting Georgia Tech’s broad strengths in climate resilience and computational science.

In 2024, Sarhadi received a seed grant to advance his research from the Georgia Tech College of Sciences (COS) Climate Frontiers Symposium, co-funded by COS, the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, and the Strategic Energy Institute. “Georgia Tech is strong in every direction,” he adds. “It’s a highly collaborative environment where everyone is committed to advancing meaningful solutions.”

An Avid Soccer Player and Foodie

Outside the lab, Sarhadi enjoys traveling and hiking. A longtime soccer enthusiast who once played semi-professionally, he still joins local pickup games. He also enjoys exploring Atlanta’s diverse food scene. “I really like Persian and Mexican cuisine — there are so many great restaurants here,” he says.

— writen by Anne Wainscott-Sargent

As climate change continues to reshape the intensity and behavior of hurricanes, meteorologists and researchers are examining whether the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, a decades-old classification system, still adequately communicates the full scope of hurricane hazards. While the scale remains a widely recognized tool, experts like Zachary Handlos, director of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Georgia Tech, suggest that a complementary system could enhance public understanding of the broader risks hurricanes pose. 

Study co-author Joel E. Kostka is the Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor and associate chair for Research in the School of Biological Sciences with a joint appointment in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. He also serves as faculty director of Georgia Tech for Georgia's Tomorrow. 

The Kostka Lab works in peatland ecosystems to quantify changes in microbial communities brought on by climate change drivers. In particular, next generation gene sequencing and omics approaches are employed to investigate the microbial groups that mediate organic matter degradation and the release of greenhouse gases.

Peatlands make up just 3% of the earth’s land surface but store more than 30% of the world’s soil carbon, preserving organic matter and sequestering its carbon for tens of thousands of years. A new study sounds the alarm that an extreme drought event could quadruple peatland carbon loss in a warming climate. 

In the study, published October 23 in Science, researchers find that, under conditions that mimic a future climate (with warmer temperatures and elevated carbon dioxide), extreme drought dramatically increases the release of carbon in peatlands by nearly three times. This means that droughts in future climate conditions could turn a valuable carbon sink into a carbon source, erasing between 90 and 250 years of carbon stores in a matter of months.

“As temperatures increase, drought events become more frequent and severe,  making peatlands more vulnerable than before,” said Yiqi Luo, senior author and the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science’s Soil and Crop Sciences Section, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell University. “We add new evidence to show that with peatlands, the stakes are high. We observed that these extreme drought events can wipe out hundreds of years of accumulated carbon, so this has a huge implication.”

“To me, this study is striking in that it shows that around 10 to 100 years of carbon uptake by one of the most important global soil carbon stores can be erased by just two months of extreme drought,” adds Joel Kostka, Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor in Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech.

It was already well-established that drought reduces ecosystem productivity and increases carbon release in peatlands, but this study is the first to examine how that carbon loss is exacerbated as the planet warms and more carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates extreme drought will become 1.7 to 7.2 times more likely in the near future. 

Read the full story in the Cornell newsroom. 

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Other co-authors include Cornell postdoctoral researchers Jian Zhou and Ning Wei; senior research associate Lifen Jiang; and researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology, Florida State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), ETH Zurich, Northern Arizona University, the Australian National University, the University of Western Ontario and Duke University.

Funding for the study came in part from the National Science Foundation, USDA, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Awarded annually to just 20 individuals by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering support researchers pursuing cutting-edge research and ambitious goals. “These visionary Packard Fellows are pushing the boundaries of knowledge, and their bold ideas will become tomorrow’s real-world solutions,” says Nancy Lindborg, president and CEO of the Packard Foundation in a recent press release.

The flexible funding allows researchers to maximize their creativity and ingenuity. Stroud will spend the next five years transforming Lizard Island into the world’s premier evolutionary observatory, merging groundbreaking technology with long-term field research.

On Lizard Island, that means equipping every lizard with an ultra-lightweight sensor “backpack.” Although the sensors weigh just six-hundredths of a gram each — the same as two grains of rice — when combined with innovations in mapping technology, they will help Stroud investigate the role that behavior plays in driving evolution in the wild.

“I’m incredibly honored to be named a 2025 Packard Fellow,” says Stroud. “This support allows me to pursue a question that has fascinated evolutionary biologists for centuries: how does behavior shape evolution? It’s a transformative opportunity, and I’m deeply grateful to the Packard Foundation for believing in the potential of this work.”

Tiny sensors, big questions

Begun in 2015, Stroud’s work on Lizard Island is one of the longest-running evolutionary studies of its kind: for the last 10 years, he has carefully caught and released every lizard on the island, measuring evolution through documenting their body characteristics, habitat use, and survival.

Through his studies, he has captured evolution in action, but monitoring and measuring behavior in evolutionary studies has historically been an extremely difficult and elusive task. The problem? While smaller animals tend to have higher population densities and reproduce more quickly (making them ideal candidates for evolutionary field studies), it has been difficult to find durable and long-lasting sensors small enough for these animals to carry.

“This has been a missing link because behavior is a critical component of evolution,” Stroud says. “Behavior can both expose individuals to — or shield them from — natural selection. For example, an animal with a less favorable trait, like bad eyesight, could change its behavior to avoid situations where it is disadvantaged. 

“These decisions can ultimately determine whether they survive and reproduce in the wild, directly influencing the outcome of natural selection. However, until now, we just haven’t had the technology to measure these types of extremely intricate behaviors across many individuals before.”

Mapping the future

Stroud won’t just know exactly where each lizard is — he’ll also create a detailed three-dimensional map of the entire island using remote sensing technology called LiDAR, updating it each year. “By shooting millions of laser beams, we can create a highly detailed three-dimensional map of Lizard Island, capturing the shape of every branch, rock, and blade of grass on the island,” he explains. “When connected to our lizard backpacks, we’ll know the exact microhabitats and resources available to each lizard as they move through this environment.”

Stroud will also deploy hundreds of microclimate sensors to understand how species are reacting to changes in temperature and climate. The result will be the world’s first comprehensive database: a record of minute lizard movements, the resources each individual uses, daily interactions, and changes in the environment spanning seasons and years. 

“For evolutionary scientists, it has been seemingly impossible to track the moment-by-moment decisions of individual organisms… until now,” he says.

“Today, it’s possible to study what Darwin could only dream of — evolution occurring in real time,” Stroud adds. “Behavior is a critical component of evolution, understanding evolution is critical to understanding life on Earth, and understanding life on Earth is more important than ever.”

“These endowments are allowing stellar early and mid-career faculty to amplify their educational and research activities,” says EAS Chair Jean Lynch-Stieglitz. “We are grateful to reward their achievements and ensure they can continue to contribute at a high level to the ongoing growth of Georgia Tech’s new Environmental Science B.S. program and the School’s research profile in climate and sustainability.”

Jean “Chris” Purvis Early Career Award: Isaiah Bolden

EAS Assistant Professor Isaiah Bolden’s research focuses on providing foundational data needed for climate and sustainability science in vulnerable coastal environments. He and his team in the Chemical Oceanography – Observations and Outreach Lab study chemical fingerprints preserved in coastal waters, corals, and shells to provide early warning indicators and mitigation strategies to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services.

“I am most excited by the award’s ability to provide the flexible, sustained support necessary to bridge the gap between academic discovery and community impact,” he says. “With this endowment, I can pursue high-risk, high-reward research questions and dedicate resources to long-term, community-based projects. It directly empowers my drive to put science to work as a tool for environmental policymaking and cultural preservation.”

Bolden plans to direct the funds to support marine science curricula for coastal Georgia middle and high school students, paid undergraduate internships, specialized sample analyses, and travel logistics.

New research: Bolden’s group is actively pioneering the use of coastal Georgia oyster shells as novel natural archives of environmental change. Similar to tropical corals, the oyster shells provide high-resolution data on local water quality, pollution, and climate shifts. This work is intended to dovetail with Bolden’s coastal community-based partnerships, including the Ladies and Lads in Lab Coats program, which provides students with STEM exposure and enables them to collect and analyze data that documents their region’s environmental history.

Jean “Chris” Purvis Professorship: Jennifer Glass

EAS Professor Jennifer Glass drives new research at the intersection of environmental microbiology and climate science. The Glass Lab investigates microorganisms that produce and consume greenhouse gases — focusing on the chemical-level mechanisms behind how these gases are created and destroyed — with the ultimate aim of harnessing biological processes to address some of the urgent environmental challenges facing humanity. One major focus of her research is the vast reserves of methane hydrate found beneath the continental margin seafloor, representing the largest natural gas resource on Earth.

“I’m incredibly thankful to the donor and the Institute,” says Glass, who is also the EAS associate chair for Undergraduate Affairs. “This support arrives at a critical time for environmental science and allows me to pursue new opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach.”

She plans to use the funds to attend key conferences, build new collaborations, and support student engagement in upcoming initiatives.

New research: The Glass Lab is exploring environmentally friendly ways to extract and recycle rare earth elements — critical minerals used in batteries and electric vehicles. By studying marine microbes, which are less understood than their soil counterparts, the team aims to develop green biotechnology alternatives to current mining practices.

Jean “Chris” Purvis Early Career Award: Alex Robel

EAS Associate Professor and Rising Tide Director Alex Robel combines physics, applied mathematics, and ocean sciences to understand how climate changes are impacting Earth’s largest ice sheets and glaciers. His research lab, the GT Ice and Climate Group, focuses on developing computational models of ice sheet melt to predict future sea level rise. In partnership with coastal communities, they leverage those predictions to help make city streets more resilient to flooding.

“This award helps me pursue more opportunities to engage closely with community partners, using climate information to make concrete improvements in their infrastructure,” explains Robel.

Specific plans for the funds include enhancing pilot projects in coastal resilience, including the Community Hubs for Optimizing Resilience (CHORUS) initiative. Using building-scale flood models, CHORUS will help communities select potential infrastructure interventions to mitigate future flooding that threatens valued community assets.

New research: Robel is launching a project to use machine learning methods to improve the representation of small-scale processes in ice sheet computational models. These methods will help his group blend an understanding of how ice flows and fractures, based on basic physical principles, with real-world measurements of crevasse formation on ice sheets.

Georgia Power Professorship: Yuanzhi Tang

EAS Professor Yuanzhi Tang is the founding director of the Center for Critical Mineral Solutions and associate director, Strategic Partnerships and Engagement for the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems. Her research integrates geochemistry, environmental engineering, and sustainability science to advance a circular economy for critical minerals, from resource discovery and recovery to recycling and reuse.

The Tang Research Group investigates the fundamental chemical, geological, and biological processes that control the transformation and mobility of critical elements across natural and engineered environments. Her work directly informs the development of low-impact extraction technologies and sustainable supply chains essential for clean energy transition.

“The Georgia Power Professorship provides support for building partnerships across academia and industry partners to accelerate innovation in critical minerals,” says Tang. “It enables us to link fundamental geochemical and geological science with real-world applications that strengthen both energy security and environmental stewardship.”

Tang plans to use the funds to expand student participation and interdisciplinary collaborations with academic and industry partners — positioning Georgia and the broader Southeast as a leader in sustainable mineral innovation.

New research: Tang’s research team is developing sustainable methods for the extraction and separation of critical minerals from alternative and waste resources. By coupling molecular-scale characterization with rational engineering design, her team aims to transform waste byproducts into valuable sources of critical elements while minimizing environmental impacts.

About the Purvis Endowment

The Jean “Chris” Purvis Endowed Awards are supported by the generosity of the late J. Chris Purvis, M.D. (Applied Biology 1969), a psychiatrist and neurologist who specialized in juvenile and adolescent behavioral psychiatry.

About the Georgia Power Professorship

The Georgia Power Professorship was established through the generosity of Georgia Power, which funds several endowed professorships at Georgia Tech to support faculty in fields like energy, science, sustainability, and engineering. 

A new study from Georgia Tech’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy finds that incorporating convergence into empirical (data and observation-based) climate models drastically reduces estimated global income loss and inequality from climate change by 2100.

“Very few, if any, explicitly include this convergence effect,” said Anthony Harding, an assistant professor in the Carter School and author on the paper. “But it makes a huge difference.”
 

Main Findings

The study was published in Energy Economics by Harding and co-authors Juan Moreno-Cruz, Martin Quaas, Wilfried Rickels, and Sjak Smulders.

The researchers find that empirical models ignoring convergence can calculate average global income losses of up to 19% by the end of the century in one study, while allowing for convergence reduces these losses to around 8.5%.

Additionally, including convergence spreads the damage more evenly across all countries, resulting in more moderate estimated increases in global income inequality — around 8% by 2100 rather than the up to 118% increase that another empirical model suggested.  

Finally, accounting for convergence also predicts economic impacts from climate change that are more in line with what we expect: the more temperatures increase, the more economic damage is done. Without convergence, empirical models can predict exponential benefits for “winning” countries (such as large northern nations like Canada and Russia) that eventually outpace the losses to losing countries (which can only go to zero), causing it to look like climate change has a net economic benefit in the long run (it doesn’t).  

“This model consistently pushes countries back together in a way, so you don’t get that counterintuitive result,” Harding said. “Including convergence moderates the effects of climate change relative to models without convergence, but they are still large and require immediate action to address.”
 

Why Isn’t Convergence Always Accounted For?

Convergence is an economic theory, while empirical models are based on observable past data. This data is the only way we can forecast future trends, such as the economic impacts of climate change, but using the data alone is not enough.  

“When we use data to estimate a historical relationship between temperature and economic growth, we find evidence of convergence, but it doesn’t directly affect that estimated climate-economy relationship” Harding explained. “So, if you’re building a model about what predicts the relationship between temperature and economic growth, you wouldn’t think to include convergence because it doesn’t show up as meaningful in that backward-looking model.”  

However, it matters when projecting the effects of climate change in the future because convergence changes the persistence of climate change impacts. When temperatures increase, economic growth slows. But when growth slows, convergence offsets that, increasing growth and recovering some of those economic losses. Without convergence, those economic losses are never recovered.

When Harding and his colleagues incorporate convergence into the empirical model, they obtain results that are much closer to those from the more widely used theory-based integrated assessment models, thus calibrating the empirical model and pinpointing the discrepancy between the two.
 

Policy Impacts

Harding and his team are working on a second paper using this model to calculate the value of carbon sequestration. Right now, there are many different ways to predict the economic costs and benefits of capturing and storing carbon out of the air. The results range from a negative economic benefit up to a thousand dollars per ton of carbon, Harding said, which is a “massive, massive spread.”  

But having an accurate number is critical for policymakers determining the economic value of conservation efforts like forest protection and reforestation efforts, which naturally sequester carbon. As organizations and governments choose and build these models, Harding’s work shows how important considering convergence is.

“Distribution of climate damages in convergence-consistent growth projections” was published in Energy Economics. It is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108705.

Flooding can be an existential threat, affecting everything from infrastructure to health. Georgia Tech researchers are developing solutions to monitor and forecast flooding, as well as restore ecosystems to prevent future flooding. These efforts support communities’ resilience in the face of climate change and keep the U.S. secure.

Read more »

Chu, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences has been awarded a $770,000 CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create the first-ever comprehensive map of temperatures at the bottom of the ice sheet — a map that will span the entire Antarctic continent.

The NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program is a five-year grant designed to help promising researchers establish a foundation for a lifetime of leadership in their field. Known as CAREER awards, the grants are NSF’s most prestigious funding for early-career faculty.

In total, the Antarctic ice sheet holds enough water to raise global sea levels by over 200 feet — more than 50 feet higher than the top of Tech Tower. Climate models help predict how much of this ice may melt in the coming years, providing critical safety and planning information for coastal communities. However, researchers have limited knowledge of temperatures at the base of the ice sheet — miles beneath the surface — and these temperatures play a critical role in melting.

“Our research addresses this critical gap in Antarctic ice sheet modeling,” Chu explains. “If temperatures at the base are warm enough, the ice can melt and lubricate the interface.” The result? The surface acts like a slip-and-slide, carrying ice toward the ocean and accelerating melt. 

“It is crucial that we can accurately predict this behavior,” Chu says. “This map will be an essential step forward in refining our climate models for the safety of coastal communities, for infrastructure planning, and for climate adaptation worldwide.”

Mapping miles-thick ice

The process isn’t as simple as measuring the temperature with a thermometer though. The Antarctic ice sheet is, on average, over a mile thick and can range up to three miles thick.

Chu, who leads the Polar Geophysical Simulation Lab at Georgia Tech, will combine 20 years of radar data — the result of multiple international polar programs — and leverage a technique called “radar sounding,” which analyzes the echoes of airborne radar measurements. The brightness and shape of the echoes can reveal clues about subglacial meltwater and temperatures. To complete the picture, Chu will use cutting-edge generative artificial intelligence (AI) models.

“Innovations in generative AI are part of what makes this research possible,” says Chu, “but the driving force is the data collected by these long-term research studies. AI can help complete the picture — but only because that data exists.”

Preparing for the future

Chu aims for the temperature map to improve the parameterization of climate models and ice sheet projections. This will enable better predictions of future melt and help scientists assess areas that may be particularly vulnerable.

She hopes that the map will drive further advances in polar science. “Our datasets and radar observations will be open access, meaning they’ll be available for all researchers to use,” Chu shares. “We’ll also be sharing the AI processing codes that we develop and the enhanced ice sheet model outputs.”

Additionally, the research will train the next generation of climate scientists through developing educational programs for high schoolers, empowering and engaging students nationwide with hands-on polar science and AI applications.

“This research is about more than just mapping Antarctica — it’s about building tools that help us prepare for the future,” Chu says. “By making our data and models openly available, and by engaging students in the science behind climate change, we’re not only advancing polar research — we’re empowering the next generation to carry it forward.”

In this episode, Beril Toktay, Regents' Professor and faculty director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, defines net zero and discusses some ways to alleviate climate change by reducing carbon emissions to the point of net zero emissions.

Globally, most major polluters, such as China, the U.S., India, and the EU, are among over 140 nations with net-zero goals, which encompasses roughly 88 percent of global emissions. Meeting the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C climate threshold requires 45 percent emissions cut by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050 (United Nations Climate Action).

Toktay describes ways this can be accomplished in different business sectors. For example, in the energy sectors, this means moving from fossil fuels to renewable technologies, and in the transportation sector, moving to electrification and innovative battery technologies as well as developing the infrastructure to support these initiatives. These efforts help move businesses towards achieving net zero as well as providing cleaner air and water, and better health outcomes to the global population.

Listen as Toktay discusses what net zero means, the importance of getting to net zero, and how businesses can help reduce carbon emissions. 

They have a lot in common—starting with the fact that they are brothers. Farhan Khan came to Georgia Tech from Bangladesh to begin his Ph.D. studies in 2021. Farshid Khan followed in 2024, beginning his first semester assisting a doctoral student in the very same lab as his older brother.

“Georgia Tech undoubtedly has one of the best programs in this field,” Farshid Khan said. “Also because of the fact that my brother is here, when I got the admission offer, it was the perfect place to come.”

Their journey to Georgia Tech is deeply rooted in their experience growing up in Bangladesh.

“One of the major problems in Bangladesh is textile effluent pollution,” Farshid Khan said. “It is one of the largest textile exporters in the world. But the problem with the textile industry is they do not treat the water well. All of their effluents come into our rivers and they are highly polluted.

“I always wanted to work on that, and it is still my plan after going back to Bangladesh to work on that.”

Read more about their story on the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering website.

Few animals captivate people’s imagination like sharks. From the enduring cultural legacy of Jaws, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, to the continued popularity of the Discovery Channel's Shark Week, now in its 37th year, media portrayals of the apex predator can shape public perception, illuminate their role within Earth's ecosystems, and influence conservation efforts.  

The newly endowed faculty position supports research and teaching that meaningfully advances the understanding and responsible stewardship of species and community dynamics amid evolving ecological interactions driven by global environmental change. 

McGuire, an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, was selected for her pioneering ecological research and exceptional teaching efforts.

“Jenny’s creative and fundamental research in spatial and community ecology is helping to position Georgia Tech as a leader in biodiversity and ecosystem conservation,” says Todd Streelman, professor and chair of the School of Biological Sciences. “Her appointment continues a trend in the School to award research endowments to our most promising early- and mid-career scientists and highlights the strong support and generosity of alumni such as the Teasley family.”

Meet Jenny McGuire

McGuire joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 2017 as an assistant professor. She earned a Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral research at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and the University of Washington.

Her research explores how plants and animals respond to environmental changes across space and time — from the ancient past to modern urban environments to the future. She leads the Spatial Ecology and Paleontology Lab, which integrates paleontological data, ecological modeling, and fieldwork to understand how biodiversity shifts in response to climate change and human development.

“Our goal isn’t just to preserve biodiversity, but also to help it thrive in a changing landscape,” says McGuire.

She plans to use the Teasley endowment to advance wildlife redistribution research in the Southeastern U.S.

“Georgia is a climate change highway,” explains McGuire. “Species are moving northeast toward the Appalachian Mountains, but roads, development, and fragmented habitats often block their paths.”

McGuire believes Georgia Tech is uniquely positioned to lead in this field, thanks to its technological strengths. She and her team will collaborate across campus and the Southeast, implementing cutting-edge biodiversity monitoring to better understand how species experience and respond to environmental changes.

“Conducting this research in urban areas like Atlanta — where green infrastructure can serve as vital wildlife corridors — is especially important,” adds McGuire.

The Teasley Professorship will also support student involvement at all levels. McGuire hopes to build a more connected and proactive research community that brings together students, ecologists, biologists, engineers, computer scientists, and community partners to address biodiversity challenges across the Southeast.

McGuire is a 2024 Cullen-Peck Fellow, a Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems Faculty Fellow since 2023, and an NSF CAREER Award winner. Her long-running outreach program, Fossil Fridays, invites students, families, and community members into the lab to sort and study real fossil specimens.

Looking ahead, she’s eager to explore the possibilities provided by the Teasley Professorship.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to elevate Georgia Tech’s role in shaping how we understand and protect life on a changing planet.”

A legacy of excellence

Harry E. Teasley, Jr. graduated from Georgia Tech in 1959 with a degree in industrial engineering and worked for over 33 years for The Coca-Cola Company. In addition to the many leadership roles he held at Coca-Cola, Mr. Teasley is remembered for pioneering the first Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to be used in an industrial context. LCA was a pioneering analytical framework assessing environmental impacts of a product's life from "cradle to grave," and it is used across most major industries today. 

The Harry and Anna Teasley Professorship in Ecology is the second Teasley Professorship supporting environmental research at Georgia Tech. School of Biological Sciences Regents’ Professor Mark Hay has held the Harry and Anna Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology since 1999.

Mrs. Teasley provided an official statement regarding the Harry and Anna Teasley Professorships at Georgia Tech:

“It was the intent of my late husband Harry E. Teasley Jr. that the funds he gave to Professor Mark Hay at Georgia Tech would be to support excellence in the field of environmental biology and to provide him with the freedom to study any concept, hypothesis, or organism that his experience-honed intuition guided him to.  

With time, Professor Hay has proven to have been a very worthy choice and has made my late husband and I very proud through the breadth and depth of his studies, discoveries, and highest possible awards he has received. Once this was established, and along with the profound esteem both men had developed for each other, there was the wish to leave a legacy beyond the research: the human values and scientific approach to research that Professor Hay has demonstrated from the start.  

Having been the unanimous choice of the evaluating committee, Associate Professor Jenny McGuire seems to be an excellent first recipient, and I am very proud to welcome her as I know my late husband would have been as well. 

I wish her many successes in pursuing and teaching her very promising research, and I look forward to learning about the impact she will have in her field as we have through the years admired Professor Mark Hay’s achievements.

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To learn more about Transforming Tomorrow: The Campaign for Georgia Tech, visit transformingtomorrow.gatech.edu. 

A charcoal-like material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors could be a cheap, sustainable way to keep pollution from washing off roadways and into Georgia’s lakes and rivers.

Engineers at Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern University have found that this biological charcoal, or biochar, can be mixed with soil and used along roadways to catch grimy rainwater and filter it naturally before it pollutes surface water.

Their tests found the biochar effectively cleans contaminants from the rainwater and works just as well in the sandy soils of the coastal plain as in the clays of north Georgia. Their biochar-soil mixture can be easily substituted for expensive material mined from the earth that’s typically used on roads. 

Though they focused on Georgia, the researchers said the findings could easily apply across the U.S., providing a simple, natural way to keep road pollutants out of water sources. They published their approach in the Journal of Environmental Management.

Learn about their system on the College of Engineering website.

More than half a century after the United States won the race to the moon, the White House is setting its sights on a new frontier: Mars. In a move reminiscent of the Apollo era, the administration has proposed landing Americans on the red planet by the end of 2026 — a bold initiative that has reignited national ambition and drawn comparisons to the space race of the 20th century. 

The award’s €80,000 endowment will support a research trip to Germany for up to a year — during which Kostka will collaborate with Professor Mar­cel Kuypers, director of the Max Planck In­sti­tute for Mar­ine Mi­cro­bi­o­logy in Bre­men, Germany — to as­sess the role of mar­ine plant mi­cro­bi­o­mes in coastal mar­ine eco­sys­tem health and climate re­si­li­ence.

Kostka, who holds joint appointments in the School of Bio­lo­gical Sci­ences and School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is also the as­so­ci­ate chair for re­search in Bio­lo­gical Sci­ences. He was ​​recently named the inaugural faculty director of Georgia Tech for Georgia's Tomorrow. The new Center, announced by the College of Sciences in December 2024, will drive research aimed at improving life across the state of Georgia. 

Wetlands in a changing climate

“Human population is centered on coastlines, and coastal ecosystems provide many services for people,” Kostka says. “Although they cover less than 1 percent of the ocean, coastal wetlands store over 50 percent of the seafloor’s rich carbon reserves.” But researchers aren’t sure how these ecosystems will respond to a changing climate.

Microbes may be the key. Microbes play a critical role in maintaining plant health and helping them adapt to stressors, Kostka says. Similar to human bodies, plants have microbiomes: a community of microbes intimately associated with the plant that help it take up nutrients, stimulate the plant’s immune system, and regulate plant hormones. 

“Our research indicates that plant microbiomes are fundamental to wetland ecosystem health, yet almost everything we know about them is from agricultural systems,” he adds. “We know very little about the microbes associated with these important marine plants that dominate coastal ecosystems.”

Kostka’s work in Germany will investigate how microbiomes help coastal marine plants adapt to stress and keep them healthy. From there, he will investigate how plant microbiomes contribute to the carbon and nutrient cycles of coastal ecosystems — and how they contribute to ecosystem resilience.

Expanding collaboration — and insights 

One goal of the collaboration is to exchange information on two types of marine plants that dominate coastal ecosystems worldwide: those associated with seagrass meadows and salt marshes.

“I’ve investigated salt marsh plants in the intertidal zone between tides, and my colleagues at the Max Planck Institute have focused on seagrass beds and seagrass meadows, which are subtidal, below the tides,” Kostka says. “While these two ecosystems have some different characteristics, they both cover large areas of the global coastline and are dominated by salt-tolerant plants.” 

In salt marshes, Kostka has shown that marine plants have symbiotic microbes in their roots that help them to take up nitrogen and deal with stress by removing toxic sulfides. He suspects that these plant-microbe interactions are critical to the resilience of coastal ecosystems. “The Max Planck Institute made similar observations in seagrass meadows as we did in salt marshes,” Kostka explains. “But they found different bacteria.”

From Georgia to Germany

Beyond supporting excellence in research, another key goal of the Humboldt Research Award is to support international collaboration — something very familiar to Kostka. “I've been working with Professor Kuypers and the Max Planck Institute in Bremen for many years,” he says, adding that he completed his postdoctoral research at the Institute. “Max Planck's labs are some of the best in the world for what they do, and their imaging technology can give us an unprecedented look at plant-microbe interactions at the cellular level.”

“This project is also special because I am collaborating with other scientists in northern Germany,” Kostka adds. “The University of Bremen is home to the Cen­ter for Mar­ine En­vir­on­mental Sci­ences (MARUM), which is designated as a Cluster of Excellence by the German National Science Foundation, so there are a number of fantastic research centers in Bremen to work with.”

His hope is that this project will deepen collaboration between the research at Georgia Tech and research in Germany. “I look forward to seeing what we can uncover about these critical systems while working together.”

The study, “Evidence for a composite volcano on the rim of Jezero crater on Mars,” was published this May in the Nature-family journal Communications Earth & Environment, and underscores how much we have left to learn about one of the most well-studied regions of Mars.

Lead author Sara C. Cuevas-Quiñones completed the research as an undergraduate during a summer program at Georgia Tech; she is now a graduate student at Brown University. The team also included corresponding author Professor James J. Wray (School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), Assistant Professor Frances Rivera-Hernández (School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), and Jacob Adler, then a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Tech and now an assistant research professor at Arizona State University. 

“Volcanism on Mars is intriguing for a number of reasons — from the implications it has on habitability, to better constraining the geologic history,” Wray says. “Jezero Crater is one of the best studied sites on Mars. If we are just now identifying a volcano here, imagine how many more could be on Mars. Volcanoes may be even more widespread across Mars than we thought.”

A mountain in the margins

Wray first noticed the mountain in 2007, while considering Jezero Crater as a graduate student. 

“I was looking at low-resolution photos of the area and noticed a mountain on the crater’s rim,” he recalls. “To me, it looked like a volcano, but it was difficult to get additional images.” At the time, Jezero Crater was newly discovered, and imaging focused almost entirely on its intriguing water history, which is on the opposite side of the 28-mile-wide crater.

Then, Jezero Crater, due to these lake-like sedimentary deposits, was selected as the landing spot for the 2020 Perseverance Rover — an ongoing NASA mission seeking signs of ancient Martian life and collecting rock samples for possible return to Earth.

However, after landing, some of the first rocks Perseverance encountered were not the sedimentary deposits one might expect from a previously-flooded area — they were volcanic. Wray suspected he might know the origin of these rocks, but to make a case for it, he would need to show that the mountain on the edge of Jezero Crater could indeed be a volcano.

A new researcher — and old data

The opportunity presented itself several months after Perseverance landed when Cuevas-Quiñones applied to a Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program hosted by the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences to work with Wray. 

“A previous study led by Briony Horgan (professor of planetary science at Purdue University) had also suggested that Jezero Mons could be volcanic,” Cuevas-Quiñones says. “I began wondering if there was a way to home in on these suspicions.”

The team partnered with study coauthor Rivera-Hernández, who specializes in characterizing the surface of planets and their habitability. They decided to use datasets gathered from spacecraft orbiting Mars to compare the properties of Jezero Mons to other, known, volcanoes. “We can’t visit Mars and definitively prove that Jezero Mons is a volcano, but we can show that it shares the same properties with existing volcanoes — both here on Earth and Mars,” Wray explains.

“We used data from the Mars Odyssey Orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, and Perseverance Rover, all in combination to puzzle this out,” he adds. “I think this shows that these older spacecraft can be extremely valuable long after their initial missions end — these old spacecraft can still make important discoveries and help us answer tricky questions.”

For Cuevas-Quiñones, it also underscores the importance of REU programs and opportunities for undergraduates. “I was an undergraduate student at the time, and this was my first time conducting research,” she says. “It was fascinating to learn how different data sets could be used to decode the origin of a landscape. After Jezero Mons, it became clear to me that I would continue to study Mars and other planetary bodies.”

The search for life — and determining Mars’ age

The discovery makes the crater even more intriguing in the search for past life on Mars. A volcano so close to watery Jezero Crater could add a critical source of heat on an otherwise cold planet, including the potential for hydrothermal activity — energy that life could use to thrive. 

This type of system also holds interest for Mars as a whole. “The coalescence of these two types of systems makes Jezero more interesting than ever,” shares Wray. “We have samples of incredible sedimentary rocks that could be from a habitable region alongside igneous rocks with important scientific value.” If returned to Earth, igneous rocks can be radioisotope dated to know their age very precisely. Dating the Jezero Crater samples could be used to calibrate age estimates, providing an unprecedented window into the geologic history of the planet.

The take home message? “Mars is the best place we have to look in our solar system for signs of life, and thanks to the Perseverance Rover collecting samples in Jezero, the United States has samples from the best rocks in the best place on Mars,” Wray says. “If these samples are returned to Earth, we can do incredible, groundbreaking science with them.”

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02329-7

Funding: Cuevas-Quiñones was supported by Georgia Tech’s 2021 Research Experience for Undergraduates program sponsored by NSF and 3M corporation. Wray was supported by NASA funding for Co-Investigators on HiRISE and CaSSIS. CaSSIS is a project of the University of Bern and funded through the Swiss Space Office via ESA’s PRODEX program. The instrument hardware development was also supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) (ASI-INAF agreement 2020-17-HH.0), INAF/Astronomical Observatory of Padova, and the Space Research Center (CBK) in Warsaw. Support from SGF (Budapest), the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Lab, and NASA are also gratefully acknowledged. Operation support from the UK Space Agency is also acknowledged.

“Joel is perfectly suited to lead this new initiative, especially since his research for a number of years has focused on Georgia and the vulnerability of both humans and ecosystems to climate change,” says Susan Lozier, dean of the College of Sciences, Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair, and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “I look forward to seeing how Science for Georgia’s Tomorrow takes shape and evolves under his thoughtful leadership.”

“I believe that my experience in research administration and in leading multidisciplinary research programs, along with the focus of my research on the vulnerability of Georgia’s communities to climate change, have prepared me well for this role,” says Kostka, who is the Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor and associate chair for Research in the School of Biological Sciences with a joint appointment in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “I am excited about the opportunity to lead the center as its inaugural director.” 

Kostka’s appointment will begin on May 1, 2025. 

Championing science in Georgia

Georgia's Tomorrow was created to foster research related to the health and resilience of Georgia’s people, ecosystems, and communities. Specifically, it will serve to boost research collaboration across the Institute, pave the way for public-private partnerships, and expand opportunities for Georgia students and communities to engage with Institute research. 

Among Kostka’s first tasks as faculty director will be the development of the center’s strategic plan and the completion of two dedicated cluster hires from within the College of Sciences’ six schools. 

Meet Joel Kostka

Kostka is known for bridging biogeochemistry and microbiology to elucidate the role of microorganisms in ecosystem function. He has emerged as an international leader in ecosystem biogeoscience, providing a quantitative predictive understanding of how ecosystems function as well as determining the mechanisms by which climate change alters ecosystem resilience. He partners with a variety of stakeholders to conduct research on the restoration and adaptive management of coastal ecosystems in Georgia.

Kostka has also served as the PI of a range of multidisciplinary research projects focused on environmental change as well as scientific advisory boards including Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute, the NSF-funded Plum Island Estuary Long-term Ecological Research program, and the Johnston Center for Coastal Sustainability on Bald Head Island.

Kostka received a B.S. in Biology from Western Illinois University and a Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of Delaware. Prior to joining Georgia Tech in 2011, he was a professor at the Department of Oceanography and Associate Director of the Institute of Energy Systems, Economics, and Sustainability at Florida State University.

Initial support for Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow is generously provided by the College of Sciences Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Dean's Chair fund. Cluster hire funding has been awarded by Provost Steven W. McLaughlin. The initiative will also seek funding from state, national and international organizations, private foundations, and government agencies to expand impact. Philanthropic support will also be sought in the form of professorships, programmatic support for the center, and seed funding.

Georgia Tech for Georgia's Tomorrow initially launched under the working name Science for Georgia's Tomorrow (Sci4GT). 

Wang is a recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI). The award recognizes Wang for his lifelong work on democratizing human-centered AI.

“Throughout my Ph.D. and industry internships, I observed a gap in existing research: there is a strong need for practical tools for applying human-centered approaches when designing AI systems,” said Wang, now a safety researcher at OpenAI.

“My work not only helps people understand AI and guide its behavior but also provides user-friendly tools that fit into existing workflows.”

[Related: Georgia Tech College of Computing Swarms to Yokohama, Japan, for CHI 2025]

Wang’s dissertation presented techniques in visual explanation and interactive guidance to align AI models with user knowledge and values. The work culminated from years of research, fellowship support, and internships.

Wang’s most influential projects formed the core of his dissertation. These included:

• CNN Explainer: an open-source tool developed for deep-learning beginners. Since its release in July 2020, more than 436,000 global visitors have used the tool.
• DiffusionDB: a first-of-its-kind large-scale dataset that lays a foundation to help people better understand generative AI. This work could lead to new research in detecting deepfakes and designing human-AI interaction tools to help people more easily use these models.
• GAM Changer: an interface that empowers users in healthcare, finance, or other domains to edit ML models to include knowledge and values specific to their domain, which improves reliability.
• GAM Coach: an interactive ML tool that could help people who have been rejected for a loan by automatically letting an applicant know what is needed for them to receive loan approval.
• Farsight: a tool that alerts developers when they write prompts in large language models that could be harmful and misused.  

“I feel extremely honored and lucky to receive this award, and I am deeply grateful to many who have supported me along the way, including Polo, mentors, collaborators, and friends,” said Wang, who was advised by School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) Professor Polo Chau.

“This recognition also inspired me to continue striving to design and develop easy-to-use tools that help everyone to easily interact with AI systems.”

Like Wang, Chau advised Georgia Tech alumnus Fred Hohman (Ph.D. CSE 2020). Hohman won the ACM SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2022.

Chau’s group synthesizes machine learning (ML) and visualization techniques into scalable, interactive, and trustworthy tools. These tools increase understanding and interaction with large-scale data and ML models. 

Chau is the associate director of corporate relations for the Machine Learning Center at Georgia Tech. Wang called the School of CSE his home unit while a student in the ML program under Chau.

Wang is one of five recipients of this year’s award to be presented at the 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025). The conference occurs April 25-May 1 in Yokohama, Japan. 

SIGCHI is the world’s largest association of human-computer interaction professionals and practitioners. The group sponsors or co-sponsors 26 conferences, including CHI.

Wang’s outstanding dissertation award is the latest recognition of a career decorated with achievement.

Months after graduating from Georgia Tech, Forbes named Wang to its 30 Under 30 in Science for 2025 for his dissertation. Wang was one of 15 Yellow Jackets included in nine different 30 Under 30 lists and the only Georgia Tech-affiliated individual on the 30 Under 30 in Science list.

While a Georgia Tech student, Wang earned recognition from big names in business and technology. He received the Apple Scholars in AI/ML Ph.D. Fellowship in 2023 and was in the 2022 cohort of the J.P. Morgan AI Ph.D. Fellowships Program.

Along with the CHI award, Wang’s dissertation earned him awards this year at banquets across campus. The Georgia Tech chapter of Sigma Xi presented Wang with the Best Ph.D. Thesis Award. He also received the College of Computing’s Outstanding Dissertation Award.

“Georgia Tech attracts many great minds, and I’m glad that some, like Jay, chose to join our group,” Chau said. “It has been a joy to work alongside them and witness the many wonderful things they have accomplished, and with many more to come in their careers.”

Through a new review paper published in Nature, the researchers underscore how long-term studies have captured evolution's most elusive processes, including the real-time formation of new species and the emergence of biological innovations.

"Evolution isn't just about change over millions of years in fossils — it's happening all around us, right now," says James Stroud, the paper’s lead author and an Elizabeth Smithgall Watts Early Career Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech. "However, to understand evolution, we need to watch it unfold in real time, often over many generations. Long-term studies allow us to do that by giving us a front-row seat to evolution in action."

The paper, “Long-term studies provide unique insights into evolution,” is the first-ever comprehensive analysis of these types of long-term evolutionary studies, and examines some of the longest-running evolutionary experiments and field studies to date, highlighting how they provide new perspectives on evolution. For example, in the Galápagos, a 40-year field study of Darwin’s finches — songbirds named after evolutionary biology’s famous founder — documented the formation of a new species through hybridization. In the lab, a study spanning 75,000 generations of bacteria showed populations unexpectedly evolving completely new metabolic abilities.

“These remarkable evolutionary events were only caught because of the long-term nature of the research programs,” Stroud says. “Even if short-term studies captured similar events, their evolutionary significance would be hard to assess without the historical context that long-term research provides.”

“The most fascinating results from long-term evolution studies are often completely unexpected — they're serendipitous discoveries that couldn't have been predicted at the start,” explains the paper’s co-author, Will Ratcliff, Sutherland Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences at Georgia Tech.

“While we can accelerate many aspects of scientific research today, evolution still moves at its own pace,” Ratcliff adds. “There's no technological shortcut for watching species adapt across generations.” 

Decades of discovery — from labs to islands

The new paper also highlights a growing challenge in modern science: the critical importance of supporting long-term research in an academic landscape that increasingly favors quick results and short-term funding. Yet, they say, some of biology's most profound insights emerge only through multi-decadal efforts.

Those challenges and rewards are familiar to Stroud and Ratcliff, who operate their own long-term evolutionary research programs at Georgia Tech. 

In South Florida, Stroud’s ‘Lizard Island’ is helping document evolution in action across the football field-sized island’s 1,000-lizard population. By studying a community of five species, his research is providing unique insights into how evolution maintains species’ differences, and how species evolve when new competitors arrive. Now operating for a decade, it is one of the world’s longest-running active evolutionary studies of its kind.

In his lab at Georgia Tech, Ratcliff studies the origin of complex life — specifically, how single-celled organisms become multicellular. His Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment (MuLTEE) on snowflake yeast has run for more than 9,000 generations, with aims to continue for the next 25 years. The work has shown how key steps in the evolutionary transition from single-celled organisms to multi-celled organisms occur far more easily than previously understood.

Important work in a changing world

Stroud says that the insights from these types of studies, and this review paper, are arriving at a crucial moment. “The world is rapidly changing, which poses unprecedented challenges to Earth's biodiversity,” he explains. “It has never been more important to understand how organisms adapt to changing environments over time.”

“Long-term studies provide our best window into achieving this,” he adds. “We can document, in real time, both short-term and long-term evolutionary responses of species to changes in their environment like climate change and habitat modification."

By drawing together evolution's longest-running experiments and field studies for the first time, Stroud and Ratcliff offer key insights into studying this fundamental process, suggesting that understanding life's past — and predicting its future — requires not just advanced technology or new methods, but also the simple power of time.

Funding: The US National Institutes of Health and the NSF Division of Environmental Biology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08597-9

Ph.D. student Phillip Si and Assistant Professor Peng Chen developed Latent-EnSF, a technique that improves how ML models assimilate data to make predictions.

In experiments predicting medium-range weather forecasting and shallow water wave propagation, Latent-EnSF demonstrated higher accuracy, faster convergence, and greater efficiency than existing methods for sparse data assimilation.

“We are currently involved in an NSF-funded project aimed at providing real-time information on extreme flooding events in Pinellas County, Florida,” said Si, who studies computational science and engineering (CSE). 

“We're actively working on integrating Latent-EnSF into the system, which will facilitate accurate and synchronized modeling of natural disasters. This initiative aims to enhance community preparedness and safety measures in response to flooding risks.” 

Latent-EnSF outperformed three comparable models in assimilation speed, accuracy, and efficiency in shallow water wave propagation experiments. These tests show models can make better and faster predictions of coastal flood waves, tides, and tsunamis. 

In experiments on medium-range weather forecasting, Latent-EnSF surpassed the same three control models in accuracy, convergence, and time. Additionally, this test demonstrated Latent-EnSF's scalability compared to other methods.

These promising results support using ML models to simulate climate, weather, and other complex systems.

Traditionally, such studies require employment of large, energy-intensive supercomputers. However, advances like Latent-EnSF are making smaller, more efficient ML models feasible for these purposes.

The Georgia Tech team mentioned this comparison in its paper. It takes hours for the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts computer to run its simulations. Conversely, the ML model FourCastNet calculated the same forecast in seconds.

“Resolution, complexity, and data-diversity will continue to increase into the future,” said Chen, an assistant professor in the School of CSE. 

“To keep pace with this trend, we believe that ML models and ML-based data assimilation methods will become indispensable for studying large-scale complex systems.”

Data assimilation is the process by which models continuously ingest new, real-world data to update predictions. This data is often sparse, meaning it is limited, incomplete, or unevenly distributed over time. 

Latent-EnSF builds on the Ensemble Filter Scores (EnSF) model developed by Florida State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers. 

EnSF’s strength is that it assimilates data with many features and unpredictable relationships between data points. However, integrating sparse data leads to lost information and knowledge gaps in the model. Also, such large models may stop learning entirely from small amounts of sparse data.

The Georgia Tech researchers employ two variational autoencoders (VAEs) in Latent-EnSF to help ML models integrate and use real-world data. The VAEs encode sparse data and predictive models together in the same space to assimilate data more accurately and efficiently.

Integrating models with new methods, like Latent-EnSF, accelerates data assimilation. Producing accurate predictions more quickly during real-world crises could save lives and property for communities.

[Related: University of South Florida Researchers Track Flooding in Coastal Communities During Hurricanes Helene and Milton]

To share Latent-EnSF to the broader research community, Chen and Si presented their paper at the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE25). The Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) organized CSE25, held March 3-7 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Chen was one of ten School of CSE faculty members who presented research at CSE25, representing one-third of the School’s faculty body. Latent-EnSF was one of 15 papers by School of CSE authors and one of 23 Georgia Tech papers presented at the conference.

The pair will also present Latent-EnSF at the upcoming International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR 2025). Occurring April 24-28 in Singapore, ICLR is one of the world’s most prestigious conferences dedicated to artificial intelligence research.

“We hope to bring attention to experts and domain scientists the exciting area of ML-based data assimilation by presenting our paper,” Chen said. “Our work offers a new solution to address some of the key shortcomings in the area for broader applications.”

ElectrifyGT is at the forefront of Georgia Tech’s push for a cleaner future.  

Led by Loren Williams (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Moran Frenkel-Pinter (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and published in Nature Chemistry, the team’s paper investigates how chemical mixtures evolve over time, offering new insights into the origins of biological complexity.

“Our research applies concepts from evolutionary biology to chemistry,” explains Williams, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “We know that everything in biology can be reduced to chemistry, but the idea of this paper is that in the right conditions, chemistry can evolve, too. We call this chemical evolution.”

While much research has focused on individual chemical reactions that could lead to biological molecules, this study establishes an experimental model to explore how entire chemical systems evolve when exposed to environmental changes. 

“Chemical evolution is chemistry that keeps changing and doing new things,” Williams explains. “It’s unending chemical change, but with exploration of new chemical spaces. We wondered if we could set up a system that does that without introducing new molecules ourselves — instead we had the system oscillate between wet and dry conditions.” 

In nature, these systems might look like a landscape where water condenses, and then dries out, over and over again — conditions that arise naturally from the day-night cycles of our planet.

From simple molecules to complex systems

The study identified three key findings — chemical systems can continuously evolve without reaching equilibrium, avoid uncontrolled complexity through selective chemical pathways, and exhibit synchronized population dynamics among different molecular species. This suggests that environmental factors played a key role in shaping the molecular complexity needed for life to emerge.

“This research offers a new perspective on how molecular evolution might have unfolded on early Earth,” says Frenkel-Pinter, assistant professor in the Institute of Chemistry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “By demonstrating that chemical systems can self-organize and evolve in structured ways, we provide experimental evidence that may help bridge the gap between prebiotic chemistry and the emergence of biological molecules.” 

Beyond its relevance to origins-of-life research, the study’s findings may have broader applications in synthetic biology and nanotechnology. Controlled chemical evolution could be harnessed to design new molecular systems with specific properties, potentially leading to innovations in materials science, drug development, and biotechnology.

This research is shared jointly with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem newsroom.

Making the switch could slash the impact of one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions: Buildings account for roughly 1/5 of emissions globally. By some estimates, using hemp-based products would reduce the environmental impact of insulation by 90% or more. 

The Georgia Tech researchers’ work, reported this month in the Journal of Cleaner Production, is one of the first studies to evaluate the potential for scaling up U.S. production and availability of hemp-based insulation products.

Read about their findings on the College of Engineering website.

Georgia Tech’s Space Exploration and Analysis Laboratory (SEAL) has developed new algorithms that are headed to the Moon, as part of the Intuitive Machine’s IM-2 mission. The mission is sending a Nova-C class lunar lander named Athena to the Moon’s south pole region to test technologies and collect data that aim to enable future exploration. The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

As the Los Angeles fires quickly spread starting Jan. 7, with wind gusts approaching 100 mph, scientists observed a 110-fold rise in airborne lead levels. This spike had receded by Jan. 11.  

Someday, your drinking water could be completely free of toxic “forever chemicals.” 

Launched in April during the Frontiers in Science: Climate Action Conference and Symposium, the Challenge “provides seed funding for climate mitigation and adaptation research led by ambitious early-career faculty eager to work across disciplines,” explains Beril Toktay, Regents’ Professor and interim executive director of BBISS. 

One goal of the Challenge is to facilitate research collaboration across the Institute. “Transitioning to a sustainable, clean energy system requires concerted collaboration across diverse disciplines,” says Tim Lieuwen, Regents’ Professor, David S. Lewis, Jr. Chair, and executive director of SEI. “Initiatives like this are instrumental in paving the way for such groundbreaking interdisciplinary work.” 

The four selected proposals include researchers from five different schools and two centers, and will investigate biodiversity, coral reef resilience, lithium-ion battery recycling, and coastal resilience. “I am pleased with the range of proposals submitted by our assistant professors,” adds Susan Lozier, dean of the College of Sciences and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “Each proposal represents an opportunity to combine expertise from across the Institute to deepen our understanding of climate challenges and uncover possible solutions.”

Each of the following projects will receive a $15,000 seed grant to be used during the 2025 fiscal year:

Climate Solutions in the Most Biodiverse Regions on Earth: Testing Whether Warming Temperatures have set in Motion an “Escalator to Survival” in Tropical Rainforests

• Benjamin Freeman, assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences
• James Stroud, assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences
• Saad Bhamla, assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Amirali Aghazadeh, assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

The research team seeks to test the “escalator to survival” concept, which theorizes that lowland tropical species will only be able to persist in the face of rising temperatures if they are able to shift their ranges to nearby foothills and mountains, where temperatures remain cooler. 

Macro- and Microscale Drivers of Coral Reef Resilience in a Changing Climate

• Isaiah W. Bolden, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Lauren Speare, assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection

The research team will develop transformative tools to evaluate reef health and resilience; detect impending compositional changes; determine the capacity for reef regeneration; and elevate mitigation strategies that preserve reef diversity and ecosystem services.

A Workforce and Community-Engaged Team Building Approach for Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling in the U.S. Southeast: Addressing Social and Ecological Implications 

• Joe F. Bozeman III, assistant professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Public Policy
• Jennifer Hirsch, senior director of the Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education

This project will build a transdisciplinary team to determine how to effectively unite community stakeholders, industry, social scientists, and engineers when applying for external grants to establish a U.S. southeastern hub for EV-battery lithium recycling.

Building Coastal Resilience: Science-based Adaptive Solutions to Mitigate Hurricane-Induced Compound Flooding in the Southeast U.S.

• Ali Sarhadi, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

This project will quantify the risks associated with hurricane-induced compound flooding in a warming climate by developing physics-based hydrodynamic and AI models. The project aims to investigate factors related to geography in climate resilience and develop science-based, cost-effective adaptation strategies through active community engagement in Savannah, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida.

The demand for electricity to power AI data centers is skyrocketing, placing immense pressure on traditional energy sources.  

Lead author James Stroud, an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, was studying Cuban brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) in South Florida when the Puerto Rican crested anole (Anolis cristatellus), suddenly appeared in the region.

Published in Nature Communications, the study documents what happens as the two Anolis lizards adapted in response to the new competitor, while helping to resolve a longstanding challenge in evolutionary biology — directly observing the role of natural selection in character displacement: how similar animals adapt in response to competition.

"Most of what we know about how animals change in response to this process comes from studying patterns that evolved long ago,” Stroud says. “This was a rare opportunity where we could watch evolution as it happened."

Competition from coexistence 

While these two small, brown lizards diverged evolutionarily between 40-60 million years ago and evolved on completely separate Caribbean islands, the two species are nearly identical, and fill similar ecological niches.

So, when the Puerto Rican crested anole suddenly appeared in Cuban brown anole habitat at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in 2018, the two were competing for similar habitats and food sources.

“When two similar species compete for the same resources, like food and territory, they often evolve differences that allow them to coexist,” Stroud says. But, while scientists have found many examples of similar species developing different traits to ease this overlap, “scientists have rarely been able to observe this process as it unfolds in nature.”

Stroud’s team had already been studying Cuban brown anoles at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens in Miami, Florida, two years prior to when the crested anoles invaded. The team was able to quickly pivot to observe how the invasion changed both species, analyzing the lizards’ changing diets, measuring if the lizards were moving through foliage or on the forest floor, and recording the different species’ locations relative to each other. For over a thousand lizards, they also measured perch height — the distance from the ground that the lizard is perching — a primary marker of how Anolis lizards divvy up habitat.

“We not only observed how these lizards changed their habitat use and behavior when they encountered each other,” says Stroud, “but we also documented the natural selection pressures driving their physical evolution in real-time."

Human-made habitats and natural experiments

The research team found that when these lizard species occur together, they divide up their habitat in predictable ways — the Cuban brown anole shifted to spend more time on the ground, and evolved longer legs to run faster in this habitat, while the slightly larger Cuban crested anole lived in vegetation above the ground. 

"We found that brown anoles with longer legs had higher survival after crested anoles showed up," says Stroud. "This matches perfectly with the physical differences we see in populations where these species have been living together for many generations."

Stroud adds that while the research provides some of the strongest observations of evolution in action to date, it also demonstrates how human activities can create natural experiments that help us understand fundamental evolutionary processes — both species of Anolis lizard in the study were originally non-native to South Florida.

“As species increasingly come into contact due to human-mediated introductions and climate change, these studies may be important for predicting how communities will respond,” he says. "By studying these non-native lizards who are meeting each other for the first time in their existence, we had a unique opportunity to see the actual process unfold and connect it to the patterns we observe in nature."

Five years after the headline-grabbing “murder hornet” (Vespa mandarinia, renamed the northern giant hornet in 2022) was first spotted in Washington state, the U.S. has declared the invasive species eradicated.  

Professor Greg Huey has been awarded an NSF RAPID grant to unravel the chemical composition of the emission plumes. The grant, "Identification and Measurement of Emissions from the Biolab Incident Impacting the Atlanta Urban Area", will support the analysis of air chemistry data collected during a three-week span that the plume impacted the Atlanta area.

During the incident, Huey’s lab collected real-time air chemistry data in two locations — at Georgia Tech in Midtown Atlanta, and near the BioLab facility, in Conyers, GA.

Huey, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has spent the last fifteen years measuring halogens — including chlorine and bromine — in remote locations like Barrow, Alaska. “Normally, there are no halogens detectable in the Atlanta area,” he says. “But spending the last 15 years making observations in other locations means that we were well-equipped to measure the halogens from the BioLab plume, and untangle some of the plume’s chemistry.”

“Our goal is to understand and report what was in the plume, then establish a website and make the data publicly available,” Huey adds. “We aim to share valuable public knowledge about this incident.”

A rapid response

When the plume first became visible, Huey recognized the ability to collect data in real-time. 

“We decided to turn our high resolution mass spectrometer on and start sampling air,” he says. This piece of scientific equipment is capable of capturing and identifying chemical signatures, and is sensitive to measuring levels of specific chemicals, such as chlorine and bromine. “We have a port measure on the roof of our building at Georgia Tech, which allowed us to start observing the first day,” he adds.

However, this kind of data collection also depends on wind direction blowing chemicals to different regions, Huey explains.

Leveraging the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences’ mobile air quality trailer, the team deployed a second mass spectrometer near the BioLab facility in Conyers, Georgia. “The City was very supportive,” Huey shares. “We set up the mobile lab in the parking lot of Conyers City Hall with the goal of seeing what we could measure — and if we were seeing high levels of chlorine.”

With both sites established, Huey says the team was able to simultaneously measure in Conyers and in Midtown Atlanta — and began to see that the plume was more chemically complex than initially thought.

A proactive approach

Collected data in tow, the NSF RAPID grant will support Huey and a graduate student in the analysis of those site readings, including calibration and publication of chemical data — to be archived to a publicly accessible site; analysis of mass spectra associated with the plumes and identification of chemical compounds; calibration of the species identified, prioritized based on toxicity; and publication of a report on all species detected in the plumes. 

Data from the project will help inform communities potentially impacted by the plume — while helping predict the impacts of similar chemical incidents, enabling a better understanding of how to address accidental chemical emissions in the future. 
“We want to have a better idea of what this type of incident can produce for future incidents, and we want to have a better idea of what people may have been exposed to,” Huey says.  “While we can’t measure and identify everything, this project will help us become better informed for the future.”

Funding: 

NSF AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences #2509330

“From all of us in Biological Sciences, we’re thrilled to see Ben Freeman named a Packard Fellow,” says School Chair Jeffrey (Todd) Streelman. “Ben’s research is important, compelling, and creative — a triple-threat combination that justifies this recognition.”

Awarded annually to only 20 individuals by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Packard Fellows are known for pursuing cutting-edge research, never-before-done projects, and ambitious goals. 

“These scientists and engineers are the architects of tomorrow, leading innovation with bold ideas and unyielding determination,” shares Nancy Lindborg, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Packard Foundation. “Their work today will be the foundation for the breakthroughs of the future, inspiring the next wave of discovery and invention.” 

“I'm flabbergasted to receive this prestigious award,” says Freeman. “Packard support will be transformative. It will give me the freedom to do the sorts of risky projects that I've dreamed about, and will support the intense fieldwork that I'm convinced is necessary to understand big questions in climate change ecology.”

The Packard funding will support Freemans most ambitious project to date: developing “Tech Mountain” in the tropics, a long-term field project focused on surveying thousands of individual birds. From mountain slope to summit, he will track their motions, their nests and predators, where they live, eat, move, and die — and how this changes as temperatures warm.

The pioneer study will shape a window into how birds and other organisms are responding to our changing climate, while developing technology and methodology that could revolutionize the fields of ecology and biology.

The escalator to extinction

Freeman’s previous research has shown that, in general, birds are moving to higher elevations as our climate changes. 

“I found that as it's gotten warmer in the tropics, it's set in motion what I call an escalator to extinction,” he explains. “Birds are living at higher and higher elevations, and those that were common on a mountain top when I was a toddler in Peru are now gone from that mountain.”

While this previous research has shown that tropical birds are on this escalator, it hasn’t been possible to determine the specifics: which birds might be most vulnerable and what the key stressors are.

Freeman explains that “Tech Mountain” will be a first-of-its-kind field site, equipped with innovative sensors and trackers — think cameras placed on nets, recording equipment, climatic sensors, and small individual trackers on each bird.

“I want to figure out what drives their birth rates, where they're dying, and where they're moving during the course of their life,” he shares. “That will help us unravel how this escalator to extinction works.”

Building ‘Tech Mountain’

Several thousand meters tall, encompassing lowland rainforest, foothill rainforest, and cloud forest, Freeman’s field site will feature dense vegetation, steep grades, and encompass several different climatic zones — each with unique species.

Along its slopes, Freeman’s team will find, catch, mark, and follow the lives of thousands of individual birds across hundreds of species — for a minimum of five years, but potentially for decades. It’s never been done before.

Currently, most GPS trackers are too large for small birds, and smaller trackers capture limited information. Additionally, these smaller trackers cannot wirelessly transfer data — in order to download and access the data, each bird must be recaptured.

“The conditions are tough. It’s rugged. It’s humid. It’s cloudy and wet. We’ll need to put resources into developing technology that fits our needs, and experiment with different ways of tracking individuals in these difficult conditions,” Freeman says.

Freeman will also leverage eBird, an online hub where community scientists can upload their observations. “Millions upon millions of observations are uploaded by community scientists, citizen scientists, birders — people,” he adds. “And using this data, we can estimate the vulnerability of mountain bird species — which species seem to be shrinking their ranges and declining in abundance.”

This builds on Freeman’s current work creating the Mountain Bird Network, which supports community scientists in conducting bird surveys on their local mountains.

Georgia Tech and global connections

Freeman’s tools and methodologies could revolutionize fieldwork for ecologists and biologists, opening the door for rigorous new field studies.

It will also provide opportunities to deepen collaborations abroad. “I'm planning on working closely with Dr. Elisa Bonaccorso's lab at the University of San Francisco, Quito (USFQ Ecuador),” Freeman says, “and I’m looking forward to that collaboration. The Packard funding will also support work in Ecuador conducted by an Ecuadorian graduate student who is studying at Georgia Tech.”

Throughout the research, students will be at the heart of the projects. “I take mentoring scientists very seriously,” Freeman shares. “Undergraduates will have the opportunity to get involved on the biology side of this research, the computational side, and on the engineering side of the research. They’ll even help develop new tracking technologies.

The Packard Fellowship will not only support my research — but help me provide these opportunities in the coming years to Georgia Tech’s future scientists.” 

Installed recently at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC), an X-band weather radar purchased two years ago by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Georgia (UGA) is now providing data for a section of north Georgia where information on severe storms such as tornados can be limited by terrain.

The radar will also be used for research into weather and severe storms, and by students at the three institutions for learning about everything from physics and engineering to weather, rainfall, and the effects of changing climate on the migration patterns of birds and insects. The instrument will be one of just a handful of weather radars operated by universities in the United States.

“We are really excited about this partnership with Georgia Tech, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, the University of Georgia, and Georgia Gwinnett College,” said Marshall Shepherd, Associate Dean for Research, Scholarship and Partnership at UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and Director of UGA’s Atmospheric Sciences Program. “The radar will be a real-time component of classes, so it’s creating new instructional and service capabilities. It will also enable researchers at the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech to pursue new research opportunities in the areas of severe weather, frozen precipitation – and perhaps even studies of birds and insects.”

The radar will provide a new data source for UGA’s WeatherDawgs service, which provides hyperlocal weather data not only for the Athens community, but also for residents of eastern and northeastern Georgia. The system will also provide a real-time component for the mesoscale meteorology course taught at the university.

For Georgia Tech, the radar will support the work of the Severe Storms Research Center (SSRC), a state-funded initiative that serves as a focal point for severe storms research in the state. The radar will also support research and education at Georgia Tech, including courses on weather radar systems and studies of lightning being done in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“The new radar will help fill some low-level gaps in weather radar coverage in north Georgia, and give higher-resolution data for the Georgia Gwinnett campus, University of Georgia campus, Georgia Tech campus and areas in between,” said John Trostel, director of the SSRC. “This is an area where both UGA and Georgia Tech have interests because it goes from urban to suburban, then back to urban. We might see some very interesting weather phenomena going on in those transition areas.”

The National Weather Service has access to a feed from the radar and will use it to obtain information about low-altitude weather activity that can’t be seen as well from sources such as the NEXRAD radar based in Peachtree City and the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Trostel added.

For Georgia Gwinnett College, the radar will provide real-world examples of how physics and engineering concepts are applied. Data from the radar system, which will be accessible to the college, would also provide students with a new research opportunity that is a required component of the science curriculum.

“Our Physics and Pre-Engineering courses already cover the concepts of electromagnetic waves and the Doppler effect, which are the main principles behind radar,” said Neelam Khan, the Chair of the Physics and Pre-Engineering Department at Georgia Gwinnett College. “Through this radar, students will learn about the applications of Doppler radar to track weather patterns and visualize the data it produces.”

Connections with the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, and the Georgia Tech Research Institute will also help broaden the experience of students at Georgia Gwinnett College, a four-year public college that was founded in 2005 and now has more than 11,000 students, Khan said. All three collaborating institutions are part of the University System of Georgia.

The Furuno WR-2100 X-band weather radar was purchased in 2022 using funding from Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia. It was initially placed atop a building on GTRI’s Smyrna campus, where it underwent tests while Trostel and Shepherd searched for the best location for a more permanent installation. The researchers have used the device to look at storms, generate data, and practice data analysis.

The Georgia Gwinnett location was selected because the campus location enables coverage for both Atlanta and Athens. The Gwinnett County location also helps fill potential gaps in northeast Georgia and brings a unique resource for GGC’s educational mission. The radar is now fully operational.

Owning and operating a weather radar is unusual for colleges and universities, but not surprising given the impact of severe weather in Georgia, Shepherd noted.

“Weather is a significant threat to our lives and property, particularly in Georgia,” Shepherd said. “While we have an adequate radar network from the National Weather Service and the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar, there are often gaps and needs for higher resolution, more detailed information. Our institutions have entered very rare air in owning and operating a weather radar that will benefit our students, the state, and our research enterprise in the University System of Georgia institutions.”

Because they’ll be able to control the geographic areas covered by the radar and the level of detail in the information gathered, the new weather radar will be a useful tool not only for tracking storms, but also for conducting research, Trostel said. Its ability to provide highly detailed information even allows it to track the movement of insects and birds, for example.

“We can see things at higher resolution, and we have complete control over how we manipulate the radar beam to look at things,” Trostel said. “The radar is much less expensive to purchase and operate than other weather radars, which makes it a budget-friendly tool for university research.”

The instrument cost approximately $150,000 to purchase and was acquired through donations and internal funding at UGA and Georgia Tech. Shepherd and Tom Mote, the founding director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at UGA, contributed funds from institutional research budgets. A significant financial gift was also acquired from Elaine Neal, an alumna of the UGA Department of Geography and longtime donor to the University of Georgia.

At Georgia Tech, funds were provided by GTRI’s Sensors and Electromagnetic Applications Laboratory, and the Aerospace, Transportation and Advanced Systems Laboratory, the Georgia Tech Office of the Executive Vice President for Research, and Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering.

Writer: John Toon (john.toon@gtri.gatech.edu)
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia USA

Terracell is roughly the size of a paperback book and uses microbes found in soil to generate energy for low-power applications. 

Previous designs for soil microbial fuel cells required water submergence or saturated soil. Terracell can function in soil with a volumetric water content of 42%

Terracell placed in Fast Company’s list of the best sustainability-focused designs of 2024.

Researchers at Northwestern University lead the multi-institution research team that designed Terracell.

Josiah Hester, an associate professor in Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing who previously worked at Northwestern, directs the Ka Moamoa Lab, where the project was conceived. 

The team includes researchers from Northwestern, Georgia Tech, Stanford, the University of California-San Diego, and the University of California-Santa Cruz.

Their research was published in January in the Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable, and Ubiquitous Technologies. The researchers will also present this work at the ACM international joint conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp), Oct. 5-9.

According to the Fast Company website, the Innovation by Design Awards recognize “designers and businesses solving the most crucial problems of today and anticipating the pressing issues of tomorrow.” Winners are published in Fast Company Magazine and are honored at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in the fall.

“Terracell could reduce e-waste and extend the useful lifetime of electronics deployed for agriculture, environmental monitoring, and smart cities,” Hester said. “We were honored to be recognized for the design innovation award. It is a testament to the promise of sustainable computing and our hope for a more sustainable world.”

For more information about Terracell, see the story featured on Northwestern Now, or visit the project’s website.

Kostka serves as Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor and associate chair for Research in Biological Sciences with a joint appointment in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech.

Each year, AGU recognizes individuals and teams for their accomplishments in research, education, science communication and outreach. “These recipients have transformed our understanding of the world, impacted our everyday lives, improved our communities and contributed to solutions for a sustainable future,” shared AGU President Lisa J. Graumlich and the organization’s Honors and Recognition Committee in a September 18 announcement.

Kostka is an expert in ecosystem biogeoscience, which couples biogeochemistry with microbiology to uncover the role of microorganisms in ecosystem function — along with determining the mechanisms by which environmental perturbations (climate change) alter microbially-mediated biogeochemical cycles.

“To be named as a fellow of the American Geophysical Union is very special to me, in particular because it signifies the trust and respect of my colleagues,” Kostka says. “I am honored to stand on the shoulders of such a great group of researchers that have moved this field forward.” 

“Of course,” he adds, “I would not be in this position without amazing mentors, colleagues, students, and postdocs from whom I have learned so much.”

“I want to congratulate Dr. Kostka on this tremendous honor,” adds Biological Sciences Professor and Chair Todd Streelman. “His passion for ecology and understanding the impacts of environmental change on ecosystems is evident. I am delighted that his significant contributions have been recognized by his colleagues in the American Geophysical Union.” 

Honorees will be celebrated at AGU24, which will convene more than 25,000 attendees from over 100 countries in Washington, D.C. this December under the theme “What’s Next for Science.”

Led by a team of University of Alaska Fairbanks and Georgia Tech researchers that includes School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Professor Rodney Weber, the researchers' latest findings are published in Science Advances. 

In the study, the team leveraged state-of-the-art thermodynamic tools used in global air quality models, with an aim to better understand how reducing the amount of primary sulfate in the atmosphere might affect sub-zero air quality conditions.

The project stems from the 2022 Alaskan Layered Pollution and Chemical Analysis project, or ALPACA, an international project funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and European sources. It is part of an international air quality effort called Pollution in the Arctic: Climate Environment and Societies.

Read the full story in the University of Alaska Fairbanks newsroom.

Commemorating the enthusiasm and vision of the organization’s founders, the Founder's Prize is awarded to an outstanding early career ecologist who is beginning to make a significant contribution to the science of ecology. 

Stroud is being recognized for his groundbreaking research as an integrative evolutionary ecologist, investigating how ecological and evolutionary processes may underlie patterns of biological diversity at the macro-scale.

Earlier this year, Stroud was also named an Early Career Fellow by the Ecological Society of America (ESA). He is the first person to win both seminal early career researcher awards from ESA and BES — the two largest and most influential ecological societies in the world — in the same year. 

“The British Ecological Society could not have selected a more deserving recipient of this prestigious award,” says David Collard, senior associate dean in the College of Sciences and professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “James is a model of faculty excellence in his innovative research, commitment to education, and leadership in the field. We look forward to his continued impact in driving forward the field of ecology.”

Stroud's highly multidisciplinary research combines field studies with macro-ecological and evolutionary comparative analyses, primarily studying lizards. His current interests focus on measuring natural selection in the wild, often leveraging non-native lizards as natural experiments in ecology and evolution.

"I am completely overwhelmed and honored to receive this award,” Stroud says, “and especially from a society very close to my heart. My first ever scientific conference was a BES meeting.”

Stroud will be presented with an honorarium prize during a ceremony at the BES Annual Meeting in Liverpool this December. The meeting brings together over 1,000 ecologists to discuss the latest advances in ecological research. For more than a century, the BES has been championing ecology through its journals, meetings, grants, education, and policy work.

“This award really symbolizes the amazing support and guidance I have received throughout my career from an incredible network of mentors and colleagues,” Stroud adds, “and now, the amazing people I get to work with in my own research group, as well.”

###

About the British Ecological Society

The British Ecological Society (BES), founded in 1913, is the oldest ecological society in the world, championing the study of ecology for over a century. With over 7,000 members in more than 120 countries, the BES is the largest scientific society for ecologists in Europe and promotes the study of ecology through its six academic journals, conferences, grants, education initiatives and policy work. 

About Georgia Tech

The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is one of the top public research universities in the U.S., developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts,  and  sciences degrees. Its more than 47,000 undergraduate and graduate students represent 54 U.S. states and territories and more than 143 countries. They study at the main campus in Atlanta, at instructional sites around the world, or through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society. 

“This is not a story with just one punch line,” said He, assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, whose most recent work appeared in the journal Nature Climate Change. “I didn’t really expect to find anything this interesting—there were a few surprises.”

He is principal investigator of the Climate Modeling and Dynamics Group, which combines expertise in physics, mathematics, and computer science to study climate change. The team’s latest study, a collaboration with Mississippi State University and Princeton University, examines hydrological sensitivity in the planet’s three tropical basins: the central portions of both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and most of the Indian Ocean, an equatorial belt girding the Earth between the Tropic of Cancer (north) and Tropic of Capricorn (south).

Hydrological sensitivity (HS) refers to the precipitation change per degree of surface warming. Hydrological sensitivity is a key metric researchers use in evaluating or predicting how rainfall will respond to future climate change. Positive HS indicates a wetter climate, while negative HS indicates a drier climate.

“The projection of hydrological sensitivity and future precipitation has been widely investigated, but most studies look at global averages — nobody had yet looked closely at each individual basin,” He said. “And the real impact on global climate change will come from the regional scale.”

In other words, what happens in tropical waters has far-reaching effects.

Long Reach of the Tropics

He wanted to specifically examine the tropical basins because they already have a well-known influence on remote locations: El Niños and La Niñas. These weather patterns that shift every couple of years are examples of tropical oceanic precipitation changes that have a global impact.

“These precipitation changes create heating and cooling in the atmosphere that set off atmospheric waves affecting remote climates across the globe,” He said. During El Niño winters, for example, the southeastern U.S. typically gets more precipitation than usual.

But El Niños and La Niñas are naturally occurring, whereas the tropical precipitation changes He identified are projected as outcomes of human-induced global warming — a simulation, part of a climate model.

Climate models are an essential tool for He and other researchers, who use them to simulate possible future scenarios. These are computer programs that rely on complex math equations to project the atmospheric interactions of energy and matter likely to occur across the planet.

What surprised He was the substantial difference in HS between tropical basins. Essentially, in He’s model the Pacific tropical basin has an HS more than twice as large as the Indian basin, with the Atlantic basin projected as a negative value.

“It was surprising because these differences can’t be explained by the mainstream theories on tropical precipitation changes,” He said. “In other words, none of the theories we knew would have predicted it.”

Modeling the Sensitive Future

The effects of such diverging hydrological sensitivity would be widespread, according to He. For example, his experiments suggest that the continental U.S. will get wetter, and the Amazon will become drier.

“If these model projections are true, these effects will materialize as the climate continues to warm,” said He, who can’t predict exactly how long it will be before these effects can be detected in actual observations of our three-dimensional world.

That’s because they only have reliable observations of oceanic tropical precipitation since 1979. Precipitation changes over decades are strongly affected by internal climate variability — that is, climate change that isn’t caused by humans. When human-induced precipitation changes are significantly greater than internal climate variability, we should be able to detect the wide-ranging effects of diverging hydrological sensitivity.

But the challenges of continuing climate change do not allow the luxury of waiting until every aspect of climate projection becomes a reality, He noted, adding, “We are relying on climate projections to some extent to guide our adaptation and mitigation plans. Therefore, it is important to study and understand the climate projections.”

Based on the scenario projected by climate models used in He’s research, the effects of El Niños and La Niñas on remote climates will become stronger.

“What we can imply is that this strengthening would be partly due to the diverging HS among tropical basins,” He concluded.

While the future effects of HS on El Niños and La Niñas weren’t discussed in this study, He believes it would make a very interesting research subject going forward.

“These awards advance Georgia Tech’s Strategic Plan to connect globally and amplify impact by contributing to global efforts that advance the U.N. SDGs through our education, research, and service,” said Rebecca Watts Hull, assistant director of Faculty Development for Sustainability Education Initiatives. “Huge thanks to Sustainability Next for funding these grants and to the Undergraduate Sustainability Education Committee (USEC) for managing them.”

All three rounds of grant-funded projects feature high enrollment and core courses, significantly expanding the reach of Georgia Tech’s sustainability-across-the-curriculum initiatives.

School of Physics Professor Flavio Fenton is one of the third-round recipients, working with School of Physics Academic Professional Emily Alicea-Muñoz to integrate the UN SDGs into a computational physics course. For Fenton, sustainability education is a vital part of addressing today’s challenges. “In an era marked by unprecedented technological advancement and pressing environmental concerns and complex global challenges ranging from climate change to socioeconomic inequality, addressing these issues demands interdisciplinary solutions and a profound understanding of the interconnectedness between science, society, and the environment,” said Fenton. In their computational physics course, he and Alicea-Muñoz will develop cutting-edge educational resources that blend concepts with real world applications using the UN SDGs. “Through the creation of interactive codes, simulations, and learning modules, we envision a transformative learning experience that empowers students to apply their theoretical knowledge to address pressing global energy challenges,” he said. Fenton also noted that they plan to present the software programs and modules developed through this project at the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) conference, expanding access to other physics courses and teachers. 

Grant recipients are encouraged to join the Community of Practice on Transformative Teaching with the SDGs. More than 30 faculty members participate in the Community of Practice, meeting regularly to present works in progress, get peer feedback, share resources, and develop strategies to engage more faculty and students in sustainability education.

“Participating in this grant program was a wonderful learning experience, not just for my students but also for myself,” said HyunJoo Oh, assistant professor in Industrial Design and Interactive Computing. Oh was a second-round grant recipient focused on sustainable design principles like prototyping smart products, environmentally responsive design, and the circular economy. “The program provided me with valuable resources and motivation to push myself further. Participating in the Community of Practice on Transformative Teaching with the SDGs was also inspiring. It was wonderful to meet colleagues from different units across campus who share the same passion for sustainability.”

Ingeborg Rocker, 2023-24 USEC chair, noted that the grant program fosters Georgia Tech’s mission to “develop leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition,” which depends on social, environmental and economic sustainability. “USEC advances cross-disciplinary curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities that foster the next generation of sustainability leaders.” Matthew Reallf, incoming USEC chair, added “these grants enable Georgia Tech faculty to couple their creative talents with Tech’s strategic plan to develop exceptional leaders from all backgrounds ready to produce novel ideas and create solutions with real human impact. Supporting diverse faculty with the resources to explore these opportunities is a privilege.”

Learn more about sustainability education at Georgia Tech through the Sustainability Next Plan and the Climate Action Plan. Want to get involved? Contact Matthew Realff, chair, for more information about the Undergraduate Sustainability Education Committee or reach out to Rebecca Watts Hull for support with sustainability and SDG course design or redesign.

To view the list of recipients and projects, visit CTL's blog.

For the next 378 days, Brockwell, a 1999 civil engineering graduate, and three other crew members participated in the study designed to gain insights into the challenges of deep space exploration and its effects on human health and performance. The crew performed robotic operations, habitat maintenance, agricultural activities, and simulated surface walks in the "sandbox" with the assistance of virtual reality while enduring intentional resource limitations, isolation, and confinement. 

A structural engineer by day, he has always dreamed of space travel, and when a fellow Yellow Jacket alerted Brockwell to the application for the CHAPEA mission, he seized the opportunity.  

"Sometimes, you get chances in your lifetime, and if I don't get a chance to actually go to Mars, if I can take this chance to help us get there as a planet, I'm honored," he said.