Georgia Institute of Technology President G.P. “Bud” Peterson will provide insights on how innovation will impact the next generation of young people during the “The University of the Future” panel discussion at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The annual meeting is scheduled for Feb. 17-21 in Washington, D.C.

The three-hour session, designed by Georgia Tech’s Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine and Institute Professor Bob Nerem, will be moderated by Nerem and Jim Duderstadt, former president of the University of Michigan, and will include several other university presidents. It will focus on how universities must evolve to be relevant in the future, both to the education of young people and to the broader needs of society, while confronting challenges ranging from the accelerating pace of developments in science, engineering and technology to the ever-increasing global nature of higher education.

“Our role as educators is continually challenged and we will be judged by how well we can prepare our students to meet the evolving needs of the world around us,” said Peterson. “We have an opportunity to shape the future, not only of our institutions, but also for the generations of students who will pass through the doors of our institutions in the years to come.”

Two Georgia Tech faculty members will also make presentations at the AAAS conference. School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Joseph W. Perry will present research on “Organic Photonic Materials for All-Optical Signal Processing.” The presentation, part of the seminar “Frontiers in Organic Materials for Information Processing, Energy and Sensors,” was organized by Perry and Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Jean-Luc Bredas, along with a Northwestern University colleague. Julia Kubanek, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biology, will also present “Warding off Disease on Coral Reefs: Antifungal Chemical Cues in Tropical Seaweeds,” part of the symposium “Chemically Speaking: How Organisms Talk to Each Other.”

In addition, six Georgia Tech faculty members will be honored as new AAAS Fellows at the meeting, including Gilda A. Barabino, associate chair for graduate studies and professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering; Stephen P. DeWeerth, professor of biomedical engineering at the Coulter Department, Don P. Giddens, dean of the College of Engineering and biomedical engineering professor in the Coulter Department; Joseph W. Perry, professor of physical, polymer and materials chemistry and optical science; Valerie Thomas, an associate professor of natural systems with a joint appointment in Georgia Tech’s H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the School of Public Policy in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts; and Zhuomin Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering.

The AAAS annual meeting, described as “the Olympics of science conferences,” features hundreds of top scientists, policy experts and leading educators from some 50 nations.