As you can imagine, our resident astronomer and director of the Georgia Tech Observatory, James Sowell, is getting very excited about the Aug. 21 solar eclipse. Yet the one issue he wants to emphasize in the days leading up to the big celestial event is eclipse-viewing safety, and he gets a chance to talk about it in this "Eye on Blindness" podcast with host Carol McCullough of the Georgia Radio Reading Service.
Should Ph.D. students put their research work on hold for internships? It can be a challenge, but this story argues for its consideration. The real-world experience one acquires as an intern can help round out research students' résumés, give them an early taste of the professional world, and provide them with networking opportunities. Margot Paez, a Ph.D.
Karan Jani stayed very busy during his time in the School of Physics. In addition to being a doctoral candidate, Jani was also a key member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) team that first observed the existence of gravitational waves in 2015. Jani received his Ph.D. this year. Now the astrophysicist has returned to his native India, but he is still busy as he is helping to reform that country's education system.
By now, you should be aware that of the coast-to-coast total solar eclipse happening next Monday, and Atlanta will experience 97 percent totality. If you aren't aware, then you're obviously Captain America and you've just been thawed out of that ice you were trapped in for the past 70 years. Georgia Tech is certainly aware, and this story by reporter Carl Willis of WSB-TV does a good job of covering what we have planned.
Atlanta NPR affiliate WABE 90.1 devoted its entire Closer Look broadcast to Monday's solar eclipse. The radio station's coverage included an interview with James Sowell, School of Physics senior academic professional. director of the Georgia Tech Observatory, and Tech's resident astronomer.
School of Physics Assistant Professor Elisabetta Matsumoto's research in hyperbolic virtual reality recently captured the attention of The New York Times.
Those scenes of floating fire ant "rafts" plaguing flooding victims of Hurricane Harvey in Houston? David Hu, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, first examined that nightmare scenario in 2011. That was when Hu and his research team published a study on how ants lock legs to form the rafts.
School of Physics Assistant Professor Simon Sponberg has the coveted cover story in the September issue of Physics Today. Sponberg, principal investigator in the Agile Systems Lab, gives a state-of-the-science report on animal locomotion; how different physiological systems within a moth, for example, interact within the insect to enable movement, and how that moth interacts with its environment.
As if the swamped residents of the Texas Gulf Coast don't have enough reasons to curse Hurricane Harvey, here's one more: clumps of stinging fire ants bobbing in the floodwaters.
