That first promotion to a leadership position at work — with more responsibilities, an exciting new challenge, a raise, and fresh confidence that your boss believes in your work and trusts you to deliver results — is the stuff of classic movie moments and sparkling toasts of celebration.

But a new study from Keaton Fletcher and Kimberly French, a duo of assistant professors in the School of Psychology at Georgia Institute of Technology, may force some new thinking about how early career advancement can temporarily throw off well-being and shake up feelings of self-esteem in the short-term and long run. 

Using data accumulated on 184 workers over a 12-year period, the new research suggests that taking on a first formal leadership role at work is, in the first year, a stressful experience for all workers — one that can negatively impact men’s self-esteem more than women’s in that period. However, for years after taking on that first leadership role, both men and women report experiencing increased positivity and self-esteem. 

Fletcher and French’s new paper, “Longitudinal Effects of Transitioning Into a First-Time Leadership Position on Wellbeing and Self-Concept,” is published online in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. 

The tough first year of leadership

The researchers reviewed data that was part of an archival Youth Development Study dataset collected by Jeylan Mortimer of the University of Minnesota. The data, which studied formative experiences among adolescents and young adults, was for a wide range of jobs in small and large organizations, but most were considered traditional office positions. 

“We were capturing people toward the beginning of their development as young adults,” French says. “That is a prime time, when work has a major impact on how we feel about ourselves.”

To better understand an employee’s first-time transition to leadership, the study drew upon a concept known as role theory. People take on different social roles throughout their lives, “and they affect everything from how we perceive ourselves, to how others perceive us, how we behave, our mental health,” Fletcher says. The identity-driven roles can be permanent and lasting, such as the concept of being an adult or a parent, “or they can be more transient roles, like the role of a manager or that of a partner in a relationship.”

The data that Fletcher and French analyzed included information on tension (think: feeling stressed), depression, emotional well-being, self-esteem, feelings of control, and job satisfaction before and after people took on their very first supervisory role. 

The researchers unexpectedly found that “men experienced a significant drop in self-esteem at the point of transition compared to women, but otherwise, there were no significant gender differences at the time of, or following, a leadership transition.”

Internalizing societal expectations for leaders

“We were surprised,” Fletcher says. “Because of role theory, we thought women would suffer more in transition to leadership and get fewer benefits out of it” because of certain social expectations that are often internalized.

“Society tells me as a man, I’m a natural leader and should be good at it,” Fletcher explains. “Then when I run into inevitable challenges as a first-time supervisor, I’m going to take those challenges personally, and they’ll challenge my self-esteem. With men, leadership is part of that role. It’s sort of expected that you’re more dominant and effective at being a leader, and what we see during the first year of transition is that’s it’s stressful — and men may feel like they’re failing, and men see that as a challenge to their self-esteem.”

In contrast, Fletcher says that women have a divergent set of societal norms and expectations that could help explain the durability of their self-esteem in a leadership role. “They haven’t internalized that perspective.”

And French explains there’s much more scientific literature on gender and work relationships than there are studies looking at gender and the experience of being a leader. Her research focuses on how managing work and family affects the health and well-being of individuals and their family members, “and there’s a lot of gendered research there because work and family are gendered domains.”

“The question we posed is pretty unique,” she adds. “Most of what we have is looking at perceived effectiveness of leadership, women or men, and how gendered expectations align with expectations for leaders. It was less on how men and women differentially react to events like becoming a leader.” 

Leadership stresses and the 'Great Resignation'

Although the archival data studied was collected from 2000-2011, both Fletcher and French speculate that difficult first-year leadership transitions may have a part to play in the so-called “Great Resignation,” which is a current trend among office workers who are leaving their jobs or beginning to seek out new roles after the pandemic may have forced reappraisals of their employment situations. The employment expert who coined the term “Great Resignation” also came up with “pandemic epiphanies” to describe workers reevaluating work lives, and Fletcher believes first-year leadership stress contributes.

“We are seeing people taking on leadership roles right now when companies are in crisis, and still in remote work because of Covid,” Fletcher says. “If you were making that leadership transition now, you might not see that long-term benefit because in the short term, it’s very stressful, and you won’t see those benefits right away. People may be doing mental calculus of ‘is this worth it?’ and in the short term the answer may be no.”

But, because the years following a transition to leadership can bring increases in emotional well-being and self-esteem, “just taking on this role sets people on a positive trajectory for how they view themselves and the world,” Fletcher says. 

Advice for employers: start small, share support

That’s why Fletcher and French recommend that organizations offer more support to those chosen for leadership, including a gradual assignment of more responsibilities. 

“Based on our study, more opportunities for informal leadership — before you take on a formal role — should help,” he adds. “Then you run into those challenges on a lower level where the stakes are not so high. And during that year of transition, making sure that the company acts as a mentor. Your supervisor is helping you, giving you guidance, and making sure you’re not taking challenges personally, so you can reframe the experience as beneficial.”

Fletcher adds that, because toxic feelings experienced by new supervisors can be passed down to other workers, companies should provide more help when they present opportunities to employees to lead. 

“Helping people be better people should be a goal of an organization — to better society, not just make money,” French says. “The benefits to self-concept are there. The outcome in and of itself, making workers better people, is a valued outcome."

As of this week, the omicron variant makes up the majority of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. Omicron is more contagious than previous variants and has caused a spike in cases across the nation, including locally.

The same prevention measures that have been put in place previously can still help slow the spread of this variant — vaccination, wearing a face covering, physical distancing, and regular surveillance testing. A well-fitting mask with good filtration is a strong defense for when you are out in public, even if you are fully vaccinated.

As the campus community looks toward winter break, Georgia Tech encourages all students, faculty, and staff to get fully vaccinated, including a booster shot. Campus vaccination clinics will resume in January; to find a vaccination site before that, visit vaccines.gov. Vaccines help reduce the risk of severe illness and hospitalization.

Anyone with Covid-19 symptoms — even mild ones — should get tested and wait for a negative result before interacting with others. Testing on campus is closed through winter break and will resume Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. Until then, you can find an alternate testing site.

We recommend all students, faculty, and staff plan to get tested off-campus before returning for the spring semester, and we recommend each person test again on campus upon their return. Campus testing sites will reopen at full capacity on Jan. 4th to accommodate those returning to campus.

James Stringfellow, an employment specialist with a history of helping Atlanta-based veterans and entertainment industry staff in the workforce, has been named the first career educator for the College of Sciences.

“I am thrilled to have James join the Georgia Tech Career Center,” says Laura Garcia, director of Career Education Programs. “I hope everyone gives him a warm welcome to the Georgia Tech community.” 

Stringfellow, who began his duties on January 4, leads the following initiatives:

  • Assisting students with career mapping, co-op and internships, and workforce preparedness.
  • Supporting College of Sciences programs by facilitating career education events.
  • Supporting College instructors with employer updates and industry trends.
  • Developing employer partnerships to cultivate employment opportunities. 
  • Assisting the Career Center team in meeting its community goals.

Stringfellow will be available for remote meetings from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays. He will work out of Room 2-90 in the Boggs Building from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, and at the Georgia Tech Career Center (located on the first floor of the Bill Moore Student Success Center) from 8 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays.

Stringfellow previously worked for the Veterans Empowerment Organization (VEO) as their employment specialist responsible for assisting veterans with re-entry into the civilian workforce. Prior to the VEO, he served as an award-winning career services manager at SAE Institute where he oversaw employer outreach and graduate employment for audio, film, and entertainment business programs. Stringfellow also worked for DeVry University in both career services and admissions in support of its College of Health Sciences.  

Stringfellow earned a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Tuskegee University, and received his MBA in International Business from Keller Graduate School of Management at DeVry. A member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Stringfellow shares that he stays connected to the entertainment industry by coaching creatives on how to protect their musical brand, speaking at related conferences, and serving as a disc jockey at various events throughout Atlanta.

“I am thrilled to have James join the College of Sciences,” shares Cameron Tyson, assistant dean for Academic Programs in the College of Sciences. 

Tyson and Garcia also extend a special thanks to the new role’s search committee for their “hard work and finding a great addition to our team.” Committee members included:

  • Alonzo Whyte (search chair), academic professional, Undergraduate Neuroscience Program
  • Andrew Newman, professor and undergraduate coordinator, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Enid Steinbart, principal academic professional and director of Undergraduate Advising and Assessment, School of Mathematics
  • Mariah Liggins, advisor for Pre-Health, Pre-Graduate and Pre-Professional Advising
  • Mackenzie Pierce, undergraduate student, School of Psychology

The Georgia Tech College of Computing has received an $11 million grant from Schmidt Futures to create one of the four software engineering centers within the newly launched Virtual Institute for Scientific Software (VISS). The new center will hire half-a-dozen software engineers to write scalable, reliable, and portable open-source software for scientific research.

“Scientific research involves increasingly complex software, technologies, and platforms,” said Alessandro Orso, the software engineer and professor of computer science who is heading up the project. “Also, platforms constantly evolve, and the complexity and amount of data involved is ever-growing.”

The result is that these software systems are often developed as prototypes that are difficult to understand, maintain, and use, which limits their efficacy and ultimately hinders scientific progress.

Software engineers are trained to address these kinds of issues and know how to build high-quality software, but their time is too expensive for a typical research project’s budget. In typical grants, software is often treated as a byproduct of research, meaning that limited funding is allocated for it.

That’s where Schmidt Futures comes in. Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt that bets early on exceptional people making the world better. They are investing $40 million in VISS over five years at four universities: Georgia Tech, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, and University of Cambridge.

“Schmidt Futures’ Virtual Institute for Scientific Software is a core part of our efforts to mobilize exceptional talent to solve specific hard problems in science and society,” said Executive Vice President Elizabeth Young-McNally.

At Georgia Tech, the funds will hire a software engineering lead, as well as three senior and two junior software engineers. A faculty director and an advisory board will help guide the group’s work, which will include collaborations with Georgia Tech scientists.

"We are very proud to host one of the four inaugural Schmidt Futures Virtual Institute of Scientific Software centers,” said Charles Isbell, Dean and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair of Computing.

“Georgia Tech’s center will advance and support scientific research by applying modern software engineering practices, cutting-edge technologies, and modern tools to the development of scientific software. The center will also engage with students and researchers to train the next generation of software engineering leaders.”

Sustainable Development Goals Action and Awareness Week 2022 is Feb. 28 – March 4. The campus community is invited to participate in a variety of events that increase awareness of and encourage actions that advance the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They address the world’s most monumental challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, and peace and justice. Some of the objectives are improved industry, innovation, and infrastructure; affordable and clean energy; and sustainable cities and communities. The SDGs appear by name in the Institute’s strategic plan as long-term goals that should guide teaching, research, and operations.

SDG Action and Awareness Week 2022 will begin with an interactive campus discussion, titled Engaging With the SDGs Across Campus, focusing on how the goals are being realized across the Institute and ways to better work together across disciplines and departments to amplify our impact. President Ángel Cabrera will moderate the discussion with participants from the College of Sciences, Serve-Learn-Sustain, Interdisciplinary Research, and Engineers Without Borders.

Other events during the week include a Tech Dining Sustainability Showcase, a panel on Infrastructure and Sustainability, Changing Relationships: You and Your Aging Parents, Toilet Talk With Shan and Shannon, A Healthy Georgia: Exploring the Impact of the Energy Transition on Public Health, the Association for Sustainable Investment Podcast Club Kickoff, and Engaging With the SDGs to Advance Sustainability in Atlanta. View a full listing of the week’s events.

In Fall 2020, a panel discussion and keynote address by Cabrera introduced the Tech community to the 17 goals. The event covered their relevance to the Institute and emphasized how Georgia Tech can lead the region in implementing and advancing these goals.

“If we are committed to improving the human condition, then we should embrace the SDGs to guide our actions as a university,” Cabrera said when introducing the SDGs.

SDG Action and Awareness Week is part of a larger global effort through the University Global Coalition, whose partners are hosting a variety of online events that are open to all. 

 

As the end of the school year approaches, recognition of exceptional work across research, teaching, administration, and community building took center stage at Harrison Square on April 14 at the College of Sciences Spring Sciences Celebration.

“Our annual celebration is a welcomed tradition in the College,” shared Susan Lozier, dean and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair. “As we greet new members of faculty, recognize excellence and service in research and teaching, and affirm our special community of staff and faculty, we thank the generous alumni and friends who help make these awards possible.”

In addition to annual awards honoring faculty development and mentoring, this year’s ceremony featured new accolades for staff members, made possible by funding from the Betsy Middleton and John Sutherland Dean’s Chair endowment — as well as a trio of awards recognizing exceptional contributions from postdoctoral fellows and research scientists, established through the advocacy of the College’s Research Faculty Advisory Council.

 

Faculty Development Awards

The Cullen-Peck Fellowship Awards, established by Frank Cullen (‘73 Math, MS ‘76 ISyE, PhD ‘84 ISyE) and Elizabeth (Libby) Peck (‘75 Math, MS ‘76 ISyE), to recognize mid-career faculty pursuing highly innovative research:

 

The Gretzinger Moving Forward Award, endowed by Ralph Gretzinger (‘70 Math) and named to honor his late wife Jewel, recognizing the leadership of school chairs and senior faculty members who have played a pivotal role in diversifying faculty composition, creating a family friendly work environment, and providing a supportive culture for junior faculty:

  • Greg Huey, chair and school professor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

 

The Eric R. Immel Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching, endowed by Charles Crawford (‘71 Math) to recognize exemplary teaching in lower-division foundational courses by faculty in the early stages of their career — and to honor a late faculty member in the School of Mathematics, professor Eric R. Immel, who greatly influenced Crawford’s undergraduate experience at Tech:

  • Alonzo Whyte, academic professional in Biological Sciences, academic advisor for the Health and Medical Sciences (HMED) Minor, and director of academic advising for the Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience 

  • Peter Yunker, assistant professor, Physics

 

The Leddy Family Dean’s Faculty Excellence Award, established by Jeff Leddy (’78 Physics) and Pam Leddy to support a faculty member at the associate professor level with proven accomplishments in research and teaching:

  • William (Will) Ratcliff, associate professor in Biological Sciences and director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences program

 

The Faculty Mentor Award, established jointly by the College of Sciences and the Georgia Tech ADVANCE Program and presented to exemplary senior faculty who help new faculty advance in their careers as they learn to balance their roles as researchers, teachers, and advisors to their own graduate students and postdoctoral researchers:

 

Research Faculty Awards

The Outstanding Junior Research Faculty Award and Outstanding Senior Research Faculty Award recognize postdoctoral and non-tenure track research faculty who have made exceptional research contributions with significant impact on their field of study:

Outstanding Junior Research Faculty Award

Outstanding Senior Research Faculty Award

  • Anton S. Petrov, research scientist II and co-investigator of the Center for the Origins of Life in Loren Williams’ research group, Chemistry and Biochemistry

 

The Research Faculty Community Trailblazer Award recognizes postdoctoral and non-tenure track research faculty who have demonstrated exceptional and sustained leadership that strengthens and improves the research faculty community:

 

Staff Leadership and Excellence Awards

The newly established Exceptional Staff Member Award and Staff Excellence Awards recognize staff who exemplify outstanding performance above and beyond the call of duty — positively impacting the strategic goals of their department and the College, consistently providing excellent service within their school or the overall College, and demonstrating exemplary teamwork:

Exceptional Staff Member Award

Staff Excellence Awards

  • Katrine Pate, grants administrator, Physics

  • Lea Marzo, assistant to the chair, Mathematics

  • Stacey Bass, grants administrator lead, Psychology and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

  • Steven Daniele, IT support engineer senior, Academic & Research Computing Services (ARCS)

 

The inaugural Leadership in Action Staff Award and Excellence in Leadership Staff Awards recognize staff who have made exceptional contributions to the College through innovative and strategic leadership, change management, business process improvement, special project leadership, and similar accomplishments:

Leadership in Action Staff Award

Excellence in Leadership Staff Awards

  • Kathy Sims-McDaniels, development assistant in the Dean’s Office and chair of College of Sciences Staff Advisory Council 

  • John Wallom, associate director of IT Operations, ARCS

 

The College also recognized and welcomed a trio of new faculty members who arrived on campus this school year:

  • Onur Birol, academic professional, Biological Sciences

 

The 2022 Spring Sciences Celebration program can be found here, and high-resolution photos can be downloaded here.

Beth Cabrera, the first lady of Georgia Tech, is a psychologist and Tech alumna (M.S. PSY 1993, Ph.D. PSY 1995). Her research focuses on the power of positive psychology to achieve greater success and well-being. For the last few years, she has been sharing her expertise on positivity with Tech students as a guest presenter in a five-week course called "Resilience Building Strategies: Growing Through What We Are Going Through." It was developed in 2019 by Sonia Alvarez-Robinson, executive director of Georgia Tech Strategic Consulting, and Joi Alexander, director of Health Initiatives.  

“Social support is the number one factor for well-being," Cabrera said. "We need people. It’s an evolutionary thing, because back in the caveman days, if you didn’t have your tribe to help keep you safe, you died. You could not survive alone.” 

Today, because of physical distancing in work and social environments brought about by the pandemic, many people are less connected to others. 

“Some people feel like they’re connected because they’re using social media, but that’s not the same kind of connection,” she said. “We are less connected to our communities. We aren’t as involved in our churches or different associations. During the pandemic it was important to have physical distance, but not social distance.” 

Cabrera said that having a positive outlook and experiencing happiness are also important to well-being. But she said that “being happy” should not be the goal. 

“There’s a difference between doing things that allow you to experience positive emotions and having the goal of being happy,” she said. “Being happy all the time is never going to happen, so if you set a goal to be happy, then you’re always going to fall short.” 

Instead, Cabrera suggests participating in activities that make you happy. That could be anything from reading to exercising to hanging out with friends. The result will be a feeling of happiness that can be repeated as needed. 

Positive psychology does not mean you deny your negative feelings. “Positive psychology first and foremost recognizes that we are human and that humans are going to experience a wide range of emotions," she said. "It’s very important to accept all of your emotions, the good and the bad. We know that if you try to ignore or suppress any of those negative emotions, they just get stronger.”

Cabrera is encouraged to see that society is more attuned to mental health issues than ever before. 

“I started talking to companies in 2004 about employee well-being, telling them that it actually is linked to performance. Happy employees will be smarter, more creative, and they will work together better,” she said. “Today there is a heightened awareness of the importance of mental health and the need to help people address these issues.” 

Alvarez-Robinson said, “Having Dr. Cabrera come and speak to our class has been a highlight of the students’ experience since we started the class in 2019. We recognized that our students needed additional skills for navigating change, challenges, and uncertainty. We proposed it as part of the mini-mester pilot program and the first cohort launched in Spring 2020.” 

The one-credit course will be offered again in the fall and is listed as Resilience Building Strategies 4801/8801 (cross-listed for undergraduate and graduate students). 

A recording of Cabrera’s most recent workshop, along with other related sessions, is available on the Georgia Tech Resilience ERG website.  

 

Thackery Brown has always viewed the mysteries of the human mind as “black box problems.” The assistant professor in the School of Psychology specializes in cognitive neuroscience because it enables him “to get behind the curtain and understand why cognition succeeds and fails, and potentially study ways of improving it.”

Cognition, the mental process of acquiring, using, and storing knowledge, will continue to dominate Brown’s research, thanks to a two-year funding grant from the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation, which has awarded $20 million since its founding in 2006 to research projects that “will lead to significant advances in medicine or scientific knowledge.”

It's part of a busy season for Brown. In addition to the Curci funding, he's just received a research grant from the National Institute on Aging, and he and members of his lab just published a new study on memory recall and spatial navigation. 

The Curci grant “is a great honor,” Brown says. “One of the challenges, especially among young scientists, is having opportunities to do research that’s really on the cutting edge of our field. That’s where it’s more high-risk, high-reward. It’s harder to support big ideas, especially when you’re junior faculty, so this is a great opportunity to get at the forefront of the field’s biggest questions.”

A priority for the Curci Foundation is research dealing with neuroscience and brain science, which lends to the title for Brown’s Curci research project: "Establishing the neural mechanisms behind our cognitive maps through development of a virtual reality and closed-loop neurofeedback platform.”

Cognitive maps are how we view the layout of our physical environment in our minds, and learning more about how we construct them and encode the information in them into memory is key to treating Alzheimer’s and other memory-related disorders, as well as the normal aging process.

What Brown has proposed “could potentially change the way we approach memory research,” he says. Brown wants to combine traditional brain imaging tools like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) with machine learning in a unique way. 

“The idea here would be to develop a neurofeedback system, where essentially if we can read out signatures that the brain is attempting to create, we can feed-back stimuli to the brain that can enhance or strengthen those neural signatures.”

Machine learning would allow this to happen in real time. “It could start to interpret neural signals as they’re coming out of the recording device, rather than the researcher needing to go offline and crunch numbers, which is worthless if you’re trying to change someone’s neural function in situ, or as they’re engaged in it.”

Mind-mapping our environments 

In addition to the Curci funding, Brown is also part of a research team whose study, “Episodic memory integration shapes value-based decision-making in spatial navigation”, will soon be published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. The team is made up of Georgia Tech School of Psychology and School of Economics researchers, and the accepted manuscript version of the study was published online April 7. 

The team includes postdoctoral fellow Qiliang He, research assistants Elizabeth Beveridge, Lou Eschapasse, and Vanessa Vargas, all from the School of Psychology; and doctoral candidate Jancy Liu from the School of Economics. All are members of Brown’s Memory Affect Planning (MAP) Lab.

Spatial navigation — knowing where you are, how you got there, and how to get to another destination — is a key cognitive ability. Brown’s research team wanted to know what factors go into the choices humans make when navigating based on memories. Participants learned where various objects were in a virtual environment, and then decided whether to reach those goals from familiar starting locations or unpredictable ones,

“We created a (computational) model of just how much people were integrating prior experiences into their current choices,” Brown says. “We’re hopeful this is a new tool for the field. It may be used for other types of tasks like interpreting neuroimaging data, for example — how much of this behavior or brain activity is being influenced by prior experiences?”

Brown says the recent study is similar to the kind of research he’ll work on with the Curci funding. “What we want to do in the Curci award is try to strengthen people’s mental maps of their environments. The current theory that people broadly hold is that our cognitive maps of environments really come about by integrating different (memory) episodes. When you have two navigational experiences and they cross paths, you stick them together and you start to build a little map.”

The published study tries to determine how good people are in integrating all their different experiences into their cognitive maps, and the decisions that are then made based on that information. “In the Curci award, we want to try to zoom in on the neural signature of the maps themselves, and try to strengthen them to lead to better performance.”

NIH National Institute on Aging grant

Brown was notified in early May that he had won another cognitive neuroscience-related grant, this one a five-year award from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), one of the 27 institutes and research centers that make up the National Institutes of Health.

Brown says the NIA research mission is related to the Curci award. While that grant is more concerned with state-of-the-art method development and understanding cognitive map neural signals by manipulating them, the NIA grant focuses on how the structure of our environment, like the layouts of buildings and roads, is stored by the brain.

“The grant also asks two questions,” Brown adds. “Can we understand individual differences in navigation ability by studying the way our brain stores this structure information? And can differences in how people's spatial memory declines with age be understood in part by how fragmented their neural maps of their environment are?

“This is another huge honor for me. It will support my lab and research program for five years, and combined with the Curci this support touches on many of the big questions about how humans are able to plan and navigate their lives.”

DOI: https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxlm0001133

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35389701/

Funding for the Journal of Experimental Psychology study was provided by the National Institutes of Health and their National Institute on Aging, and the Warren Alpert Foundation.

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

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

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

 

Love Family Foundation Award

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

Cynthia L. Bossart and James Efron Scholarship 

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

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

 

Metha Phingbodhipakkiya Memorial Scholarship 

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

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

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

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

 

Virginia C. and Herschel V. Clanton Jr. Scholarship 

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

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

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

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

 

Robert A. Pierotti Memorial Scholarship

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Larry O’Hara Graduate Scholarship

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

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

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

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

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

 

Herbert P. Haley Fellowship

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

The 2022 winners are:

 

Teaching Assistant Awards

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

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

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

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

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

 

Tech to Teaching Certificates

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

The following College of Sciences students were awarded CIRTL Certificates:

 

Smokies Cognition and Neuroscience Symposium (SCANS) is an informal event featuring cognitive and neuroscience laboratories from the sponsoring schools, sharing information on six main topics:

  • Perception
  • Attention
  • Memory
  • Language
  • Control Processes
  • Emotion and Motivation

There is no fee to attend SCANS, but registration and conference hotel lodging is required. Visit dibs.duke.edu for SCANS news and information.

Registration deadline March 1, 2019

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