{"691204":{"#nid":"691204","#data":{"type":"news","title":"\u2018Brilliant and Engaging\u2019 \u2014 Remembering Michael Salomone and His Four Decades of Service to Georgia Tech","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech alumni who had the pleasure of taking an international affairs class with Professor Emeritus Michael D. Salomone know he had a gift for holding a classroom transfixed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDr. Salomone was one of the best professors and best people I met in my time at Georgia Tech, from his ability to capture a room with battle descriptions to making everyone laugh with stories about his own life,\u201d said Bryn Thornburgh, INTA 2018.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat many might not know, however, is he was also a consummate food and wine connoisseur. He loved to hold court at the now-defunct Veni Vidi Vici restaurant in Atlanta following university events, said his former Nunn School of International Affairs colleague, Professor Emeritus \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/brian-woodall\u0022\u003EBrian Woodall\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhenever I dined with Mike, it was my standard practice to try to be seated next to him. I never had a regrettable meal when heeding Mike\u0027s menu recommendations,\u201d Woodall said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/michael-salomone\u0022\u003ESalomone\u003C\/a\u003E, who retired in 2025 after more than 36 years of service to Georgia Tech, the Nunn School, and its students, passed away recently.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA Cornerstone of the Nunn School\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe was the last remaining member of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/inta.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool\u2019s\u003C\/a\u003E original 1991 roster, having joined Georgia Tech in 1989 at the behest of his former Carnegie Mellon University colleague, \u2014then Georgia Tech President John Patrick Crecine \u2014 to help form a new international affairs school at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESalomone\u2019s foundational work at the intersection of technology and international affairs served as a model for the new Nunn School, according to Adam N. Stulberg, Sam Nunn School Chair in International Affairs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDr. Salomone\u2019s deft skill at managing organizational change enabled the School to make the smooth transition to embracing the STEM moorings at GT while preserving excellence at advancing social science teaching and research on international affairs,\u201d \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/adam-n-stulberg\u0022\u003EStulberg\u003C\/a\u003E \u0026nbsp;wrote President \u00c1ngel Cabrera in a letter recommending Salomone for emeritus status.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe latter helped to pave the way for a future interdisciplinary programming profile that simultaneously speaks to the strengths of GT and distinguishes the Nunn School from peer professional schools of international affairs.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u2018Glad and Grateful to Have Learned From Him\u2019\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlumni say Salamone\u2019s lectures were legend.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey were theatrical, dynamic, and unforgettable,\u201d said Tarun Chaudhary, M.S. International Affairs 2009, Ph.D. IAST 2019, a part-time lecturer in the Nunn School who first encountered Salomone as an undergraduate student 25 years ago.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChaudhary recalled Salomone lying across classroom tables to reenact the likely apocryphal dying words of German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, who supposedly foreshadowed Germany\u0027s failed invasion of France by obsessing over the army\u0027s flank: \u201cRemember, keep the right wing very strong.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe energy and curiosity he brought into the classroom translated into students reading deeply, asking questions, and participating fully,\u201d \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/tchaudhary\u0022\u003EChaudhary\u003C\/a\u003E said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHenri Korhonen, IAML 2009, said he took as many classes with Salomone as possible, his favorite of which was a semester-long wargaming exercise.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI made lifelong friends in that course and it is my favorite academic memory of my time at Tech, both for how hard we had to work at it and how much fun we had doing it,\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr\u003EKorhonen said. \u201cHe was brilliant and engaging and I am glad and grateful to have learned from him.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESalomone\u2019s passion for teaching landed him a spot in Georgia Tech \u003Cem\u003EAlumni Magazine\u2019s\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp; \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/issuu.com\/gtalumni\/docs\/vol94_no2_low_res\u0022\u003E2018 feature\u003C\/a\u003E on \u201cTranscendent Teachers,\u201d in which he spoke of his love for academia, advice for students, and his affection for teaching, even at the age of 73.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYes, I\u0027m really old,\u201d Salomone told the magazine. \u201cBut I never tire of this job; I love it.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA Half Century of Scholarship\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESalomone\u2019s remarkable career began in 1967 with bachelor\u0027s and master\u2019s degrees in international affairs from Lehigh University. He went on to earn his master\u2019s degrees and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh, with a brief interruption between them by a stint in the U.S. Army after being drafted.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFollowing jobs at Pitt and the federal government, he joined Carnegie Mellon University in 1979, where he remained in a variety of roles until joining Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOnce here, Salomone served as executive assistant and senior counsel to Crecine, as assistant chair of the Nunn School, and as a professor, where he taught more than two dozen different courses over the years.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe developed many of them, including his signature courses on scenario writing and path gaming and modeling, simulation, and military gaming.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMike was very much ahead of his time in embracing experiential learning and his courses were extraordinarily popular with engineering and computing students captured by his ability to bring the links between technology, organization, and strategy across centuries of warfare to life in a classroom,\u201d Stulberg said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis work was also influential beyond the classroom, with his research and insights informing the work of practitioners in the defense industry, in Congress, and elsewhere, according to Stulberg.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESalomone was also an important mentor to other faculty members. Nunn School Associate Professor Jenna Jordan said Salomone\u2019s work on scenario writing and path gaming has become a central pillar of her own teaching and research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFew people have had as profound an impact on the direction of my career, my academic interests, and the way I think about the world as Mike,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/5d9f62a7-551d-54eb-b4dc-83a76975031e\u0022\u003EJordan\u003C\/a\u003E, who is also the School\u2019s Associate Chair. \u201cHe gave me opportunities that stretched me professionally and instilled in me a confidence that I did not always have in myself. His faith changed the trajectory of my career and, in many ways, changed my life.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EChaudhary said he still hears Salomone\u2019s advice in his head each time he steps to the front of a classroom: \u201cExplain it like you\u2019re talking to your mom across the table at Thanksgiving, but throw in a little P. T. Barnum to keep it interesting.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESalamone was one of the founding members of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Salamone was one of the founding members of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs."}],"uid":"34600","created_gmt":"2026-07-21 19:12:31","changed_gmt":"2026-07-21 19:16:40","author":"mpearson34","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-07-21T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-07-21T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680642":{"id":"680642","type":"image","title":"Michael D. Salomone","body":"\u003Cp\u003EProfessor Emeritus Michael D. Salomone, a founding member of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs.\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1784661194","gmt_created":"2026-07-21 19:13:14","changed":"1784661194","gmt_changed":"2026-07-21 19:13:14","alt":"Professor Emeritus Michael D. Salamone","file":{"fid":"264931","name":"Georgia-Tech-Magazine-Professors-May-20186984.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/07\/21\/Georgia-Tech-Magazine-Professors-May-20186984.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/07\/21\/Georgia-Tech-Magazine-Professors-May-20186984.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1716884,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/07\/21\/Georgia-Tech-Magazine-Professors-May-20186984.jpg?itok=mVRnvpRi"}}},"media_ids":["680642"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1285","name":"Sam Nunn School of International Affairs"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMichael Pearson\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}