On the occasion of its 2017 Industrial Partners Day and Exposition, the Center for the Science and Technology of Applied Materials and Interfaces (STAMI) is pleased to host a public lecture by Harvard University Professor George M. Whitesides.

ABSTRACT

This talk will describe bioanalytical/medical methods designed for use in resource-limited environments, for public health, at the point of care, and in related applications in food and water safety, forensics, and others. These methods include paper diagnostics, density-based methods (magnetic levitation and two-phase polymer systems), electrochemistry, and cell-phone-based methods.

The program also asks what strategies in academic research will be most successful in translating results from university bench science into real solutions to problems in health in the hands of users, and who else must be involved in this translation.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

George M. Whitesides is one of most influential chemists living today. The Harvard University professor has spent his legendary career solving problems in science and industry. He works in four research areas – biochemistry, materials science, catalysis, and physical organic chemistry – across more than a dozen problems, from the chemical origin of life to low-cost diagnostics and tools for global health.

For the Whitesides research group, “the most important objective of science and technology is to solve problems in a way that improves the human condition,” he said in 2011 in accepting the King Faisal International Prize for Science. “Knowledge is good; knowledge applied successfully to the solution of problems is better, [but] also more difficult to do.”   

In a 2012 interview with MIT Technology Review, Whitesides named the kinds of problems he most wants to solve.

First are what he calls scientific problems, such as the origin of life. “I don’t understand how you go from a system that’s random chemicals to something that becomes...a Darwinian set of reactions that are getting more complicated spontaneously,” he said.  

Second are what may be considered translational problems: how to get research-based knowledge to work in real environments. As an example, the Whitesides group has been working on low-cost diagnostics based on paper. “It’s not that we don’t know how to do it, but we haven’t done it yet,” he said. In a TED talk, Whitesides describes one solution: an inexpensive lab-on-a-chip made of paper and carpet tape.

As a teacher, Whitesides is interested in a third type of problem: “How do you find the connection between individual students and what they want to do in such a fashion that they end up being good scientists,” he said. “What’s necessary to do that?”

There is no shortage of problems to solve, from the intellectual to the practical. “Young people everywhere...will inherit these problems,” Whitesides said in his King Faisal acceptance. “Educating young people, helping them to understand the importance of what they are to do, and encouraging them to take on large tasks is as important as – and perhaps more important than – the science and engineering they do as students.” 

Whitesides is the author or coauthor or more than 1,100 scientific papers. He has mentored more than 300 scientists and co-founded more than 12 companies. His contributions are wide-ranging, including materials and organic surface chemistry, soft lithography, molecular self-assembly, nanotechnology, microfluidics, energy production and conservation, and rational drug design.

ABOUT FRONTIERS IN SCIENCE LECTURES

Lectures in this series are intended to inform, engage, and inspire students, faculty, staff, and the public on developments, breakthroughs, and topics of general interest in the sciences and mathematics. Lecturers tailor their talk for nonexpert audiences.

School of Physics, Soft Condensed Matter & Physics of Living Systems Seminar: Prof. Christian Santangelo, UMass Amherst University

There are now a number of experimental platforms for fabricating self-folding origami structures. In these platforms, individual folds on an initially flat sheet are patterned so that the structure folds autonomously into a desired three dimensional shape.

The dream is to develop a system in which three-dimensional structures can be fabricated from a rapid roll-to-roll process. Yet, in our experiments with self-folding origami, structures sometimes misfold, especially as they become more complicated.

In this talk, I will discuss a model to understand why self-folding origami misfolds by counting the number of folding pathways of “random” origami. Finally, I will discuss methods that may circumvent the problem and suppress misfolds.

Research Bound in STEM has two goals:

• To encourage undergraduate students from groups underrepresented in STEM to pursue graduate school.
• To stimulate their interest in the graduate programs of the College of Sciences.

Fifty students participate annually. Participants arrive on Thursday afternoon. On Friday morning, they visit the Georgia Tech campus and participate in two workshops: “Applying and Gaining Admission to Graduate Schools" and “Writing Effective Personal Statements for Graduate School Admissions and Fellowships”.

On Friday afternoon, participants visit College of Sciences schools and participate in lab tours, discussions, and information sessions on discipline-specific research, admissions criteria, and funding opportunities.

On Friday evening, participants have dinner with Georgia Tech faculty and students. The dinner features a distinguished College of Sciences graduate as the keynote speaker.

The program concludes on Saturday morning.  Students return to their respective undergraduate campuses.

Participation is by invitation only. For more information,  contact keith.oden@cos.gatech.edu or visit www.researchbound.gatech.edu.

A Frontiers in Science lecture made possible by the College of Sciences' Living Learning Communities SMaRT and SHaRP

Brain science is the least explored of all our sciences. As a result, fear, trepidation, and stigma are associated with the invisible world of brain illnesses (referred to as “mental illnesses”). People are afraid to advocate for themselves and their loved ones to get help in times of need.

But the brain is just another organ, and as such, can be healthy or unhealthy. In this presentation, Jeremy Richman will discuss what is known about risk factors for engaging in violent behavior and protective factors for building connection and compassion.

Richman seeks to better understand the neurobiological and environmental factors associated with violence and compassion. Once a deeper understanding has been established, these insights can be used to educate citizens about how to identify the signs and symptoms of someone troubled or in crisis; how to responsibly advocate for those at risk of violence to themselves or others; and most importantly, how to foster kind, healthy, and compassionate individuals and communities.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Jeremy G. Richman is a cofounder and the CEO of the Avielle Foundation. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to preventing violence and building compassion through neuroscience research, community engagement, and education. Richman is also a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.

Richman has extensive research experience, from neuroscience and neuropsychopharmacology, to cardiovascular biology, diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, immunology, inflammation, and drug discovery. He is passionate about helping people live happier and healthier lives.

Richman is dedicated to reaching out and educating youth, and he believes that our future relies on their imaginations. This is manifest in his teaching of martial arts, biology, neuroscience, and rock climbing to children and teens for the past 25 years.

Most importantly, Richman believes it is critical to empower youth to advocate for themselves and their peers when it comes to brain health and brain illnesses.

ABOUT FRONTIERS IN SCIENCE LECTURES

Lectures in this series are intended to inform, engage, and inspire students, faculty, staff, and the public on developments, breakthroughs, and topics of general interest in the sciences and mathematics. Lecturers tailor their talk for nonexpert audiences.

PARKING

The closest parking would be the Visitor Parking Lot at 355 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30313.

Public nights at the Georgia Tech Observatory have resumed for the 2017-2018 season. During the fall and spring semesters, the observatory will be open one Thursday each month (except December) for people to observe various celestial bodies.

The viewing on October 26 includes a 30-minute with Pranav Dave talk at 8 pm. Topic: The Stellar Graveyard.

Public nights are contingent on clear weather.

Potential closures and driving directions are on the official website.

Go here for the full schedule.

ALL ARE WELCOME.

Join the Center for Academic Enrichment and the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain as we screen “Ever the Land,” a documentary about one of New Zealand’s most independent Maori tribes, Ngāi Tūhoe, and their quest to construct a Living Building on their land. The new building is the binding character in this observational documentary that immerses us in a culture that is tightly woven into its land and an architecture that is defined by its integrity to it.  This is a film about past and future, tradition and modernity. Most of all, though, it’s about the grandest hopes—and what it takes to fulfill them.

The film will be followed by a faculty-led discussion featuring Jennifer Hirsch, director of the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain; Juan Archila, assistant director of facilities, College of Sciences; Juan Carlos Rodriguez, associate professor Modern Languages; Hugh Crawford, associate professor of Literature, Media. and Communication; and Drew Cutright, program manager, Office of the Executive Vice President and Outreach for the Georgia Tech Living Building.

School of Physics Colloquium, Prof. Robin Selinger, Kent State University

Soft materials with orientational order can undergo dramatic shape transformations driven by change of temperature or other stimuli. Nematic elastomers, a form of liquid crystal polymer, have been patterned with topological defects and deform from a flat film into twisted, bent, folded, and curved shapes on heating or cooling.  Lipid vesicles, during a phase transition from an untilted to a tilted phase, deform from smooth spheres to crumpled, disordered shapes. In both of these materials, topological defects play a key role: they drive shape change by inducing curvature.

Conversely, a liquid crystal enclosed in a confined geometry may have topological defects even in its lowest energy state, induced by imposed curvature. We categorize these various material systems into three classes: 1. Microstructure fixed and shape evolves; 2. Shape fixed and microstructure evolves; and 3. Both shape and microstructure evolve with competing kinetics. We explore mechanisms by which each of these processes can give rise to a deterministic shape transformation or else get trapped in long-lived metastable states.

To explore these pattern-formation processes, we use simulation techniques including coarse-grained particle-based models of lipid membranes, nonlinear finite element simulation of elastic solids, continuum models of liquid crystal textures, and statistical physics models of defects in curved geometries, comparing to relevant experiments.

Work supported by NSF-DMR-1409658, and NSF-CMMI 1436565, and NSF-CMMI 1663041. 

Registration is no longer available because the registration capacity has been exceeded.

We invite high school students (and their guests) who are interested in learning about undergraduate degree programs in the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech to attend the open house “It’s All About Science and Math.” Visitors will learn about opportunities in the degree programs listed below, receive information about admission requirements and financial aid, attend a class, and tour scientific facilities/labs and parts of campus. This program is free to visitors and guests.

Due to limited space, participants are encouraged to sign up early. To schedule a class or group visit, please contact Dr. Cameron Tyson.

Degree programs:  Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Physics, and Psychology.

REGISTER TO VISIT (click on link and select "It's All About Science and Math")

General Itinerary

10:00 - Introduction to Opportunities in Science and Math at Georgia Tech 

11:15 - Attend a science or math class with a student host and meet a professor. Classes/groups will visit a research lab during this time, and learn some science!

12:05 – Visitors will be provided lunch and can chat with College of Sciences faculty, students and advisors.

Optional activities: After lunch, individual prospective students and guests are encouraged to attend a freshmen admission information session and campus tour if they are visiting the campus for the first time. Be sure to sign up for the 1:15pm general session and campus tour when you register for It's All About Science and Math. 

1:15 – Freshmen admission information session, Student Success Building, Clary Theater

2:15 - Campus tour, departs from Student Success Building

3:30 - Meet a financial aid advisor (walk-ins accepted), Student Success Building, 3rd Floor

The Soft Matter Incubator (SMI, smi.gatech.edu) seed grant program seeks proposals on fundamental soft matter that will enable obtaining preliminary data for submitting multi-investigator proposals. As a result, only proposals with a strong scientific potential and significance, which clearly articulate a path forward towards assembling a strong team and a cohesive theme, will be considered.

Since multi-investigator proposals require teams of investigators at different career stages, the submitting team must consist of at least two Georgia Tech investigators with different academic ranks, one of whom must be associated with SMI.

Proposals should include a project summary of no more than 250 words and a project description that should not exceed two pages. Emphasis will be placed on proposals that clearly articulate why the research is new and important and how it can lead to the assembly of a larger team and the eventual development of a multi-investigator proposal.

A separate one-page budget, not to exceed $15,000, should also be provided. Seed grant funds may be used to support student salaries, materials, and supplies.

Proposals should be submitted electronically to Sharon Lawrence (sharon.lawrence@chemistry.gatech.edu) by November 15, 2017.

SMI anticipates a total of two seed grants, which will be announced by December 1, 2017. Funds must be spent by June 30, 2018.

Required deliverables include a final written report on progress made and a presentation of the major findings/results and the path for continuing the work and/or submitting proposals seeking external funds.

Registration is no longer available because the registration capacity has been exceeded.

We invite high school students (and their guests) who are interested in learning about undergraduate degree programs in the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech to attend the open house “It’s All About Science and Math.” Visitors will learn about opportunities in the degree programs listed below, receive information about admission requirements and financial aid, attend a class, and tour scientific facilities/labs and parts of campus. This program is free to visitors and guests.

Due to limited space, participants are encouraged to sign up early. To schedule a class or group visit, please contact Dr. Cameron Tyson.

Degree programs:  Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Physics, and Psychology.

REGISTER TO VISIT (click on link and select "It's All About Science and Math")

General Itinerary

10:00 - Introduction to Opportunities in Science and Math at Georgia Tech 

11:15 - Attend a science or math class with a student host and meet a professor. Classes/groups will visit a research lab during this time, and learn some science!

12:05 – Visitors will be provided lunch and can chat with College of Sciences faculty, students and advisors.

Optional activities: After lunch, individual prospective students and guests are encouraged to attend a freshmen admission information session and campus tour if they are visiting the campus for the first time. Be sure to sign up for the 1:15pm general session and campus tour when you register for It's All About Science and Math. 

1:15 – Freshmen admission information session, Student Success Building, Clary Theater

2:15 - Campus tour, departs from Student Success Building

3:30 - Meet a financial aid advisor (walk-ins accepted), Student Success Building, 3rd Floor