Meike Van der Heijden, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Sillitoe Lab
Department of Pathology
Baylor College of Medicine

Livestream via Zoom

SPEAKER BIO

The cerebellum’s protracted developmental timeline makes its maturational program remarkably sensitive to genetic, mechanical, and environmental perturbations. Early cerebellar perturbations can cause diverse neurodevelopmental disabilities in infants, including motor, cognitive, affective, and social deficits. The postnatal cerebellar development of mice uniquely situates this model for in vivo investigation of the dynamics that orchestrate functional circuit maturation. My research goal is to define how the developing cerebellum becomes a functional circuit and to understand why early cerebellar perturbations cause diverse neurodevelopmental deficits. My previous work showed that neural signal maturation relies on the interaction between diverse developmental lineages, that cerebellar-dependent motor and non-motor behaviors differentially rely on distinct neural pathways, and that unique cerebellar neural signal signatures predict various motor impairments. In my lab, we will build on these findings by identifying how neural signals mature, how diverse cerebellar functions are anatomically segregated, and how disease-associated neural signals are propagated in the cerebellar circuit. By bridging developmental and systems neuroscience, this understanding will allow us to appreciate how developmental perturbations can cause diverse neurodevelopmental deficits. Next, we can use this basic knowledge to generate therapies that mimic natural developmental processes. Ultimately, we will employ this understanding to predict, prevent, and reverse neurodevelopmental deficits.

Hosted by: Dr. Patrick McGrath

Event Details

The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) recently awarded Georgia Tech Bioinformatics Graduate Program Ph.D. student Breanna Shi the Advanced Graduate Ambassadorship from their Women and Mathematics program. As part of this award, Shi will organize a workshop to address equity by using her math background to help other underrepresented graduate students across Georgia Tech’s College of Sciences learn and apply math and computational methods in their research. 

Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Biological Sciences Graduate Committee Chair Ingeborg Schmidt-Krey first met Shi during her recruitment into the Bioinformatics (BINF) Ph.D. program, which is directed by Professor King Jordan, and is one of five Ph.D. programs and two M.S. programs  in the School of Biological Sciences at Tech. Shi impressed Schmidt-Krey during her second semester as an engaged student — particularly in research ethics discussions.

“Bree’s background in mathematics coupled with her passion for applying mathematical approaches to biological research made her a fantastic match for such an interdisciplinary program,” said Schmidt-Krey. “Bree has a particular interest in using machine learning in her research and making her skills accessible to other students via her symposium, outreach activities, and teaching.”

Shi first contacted Biological Sciences Associate Professor Patrick McGrath about coming to Georgia Tech to join the Bioinformatics program. “With her mathematical background and interest in genomics, I thought that she would be a great match for this program and Georgia Tech in general,” McGrath said.

“Now in her second year, Breanna is fully participating in our lab’s research,” he added. “She’s using her skills in machine learning and computational biology to understand the evolution of behavior in Lake Malawi cichlids, a large flock of species that have evolved a variety of new social behaviors.”

Schmidt-Krey shared that Shi advocates for graduate students via the Georgia Tech Student Government Association (SGA), is working towards the Tech to Teaching certificate in preparation for her plans to become a professor, participates in several underrepresented minority recruitment activities, and is an instructor in the VIP program, where she will involve undergraduates from various backgrounds in her research.

“Bree is currently supported by a GEM Fellowship and  GAANN award. Bree's symposium impressively shows a second-year Ph.D. student's initiative and commitment to equity in our community.” 

Shi has also been awarded the Graduate Fellowship for STEM Diversity (GFSD) and the Graduate Retaining Inspirational Scholars in Technology and Engineering (Grad RISE) from Georgia Tech’s Center for Engineering Education and Diversity (CEED).

“Bree’s research includes looking for particular neurons in the brain that are activated during reproductive behaviors,” said McGrath, who is now Shi’s advisor.

McGrath added that Shi is also passionate about using new technologies to study aggression behaviors, simulating virtual fish to induce and learn from aggressive behaviors in other fish.

Currently overseeing a large group of undergraduate and master’s students, Shi is also passionate about mentorship, adding that she became interested in education research through her time with the Georgia Tech Center for Teaching and Learning.

“While I was initially nervous about having her overseeing so many students so early in her career, Breanna has really done an outstanding job of overseeing this group,” McGrath shared. “Her goal is to become an academic professor, so it's great to see her display these skills. I am very proud of what Breanna has accomplished in such a short time.”

Shi’s mentorship will continue with the IAS workshop. “[The workshop] will be a partnership with Christin Salley, a third year Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering who is also a GEM fellow,” Shi said.

“Our hope is to get graduate students interested in using mathematics and computer science into their research,” Shi said. “As diversity fellows, Christin and I are making it a priority to  include students from diverse groups and to facilitate mentoring.”

They also hope to provide a collaborative environment where students can network and learn. “Our goal is to host this event annually,” Shi added.

Shi, who has two degrees in mathematics, has been interested to understand why some students find math and computer sciences (CS) difficult to master. She hopes to employ a few non-traditional techniques that will allow students to feel less resistant and more understanding of the subjects. “We hope to provide greater outcomes for the participants than their past experiences with math and CS.”

The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) recently awarded Georgia Tech Bioinformatics Graduate Program Ph.D. student Breanna Shi the Advanced Graduate Ambassadorship from their Women and Mathematics program. As part of this award, Shi will organize a workshop to address equity by using her math background to help other underrepresented graduate students across Georgia Tech’s College of Sciences learn and apply math and computational methods in their research. 

Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Biological Sciences Graduate Committee Chair Ingeborg Schmidt-Krey first met Shi during her recruitment into the Bioinformatics (BINF) Ph.D. program, which is directed by Professor King Jordan, and is one of five Ph.D. programs and two M.S. programs  in the School of Biological Sciences at Tech. Shi impressed Schmidt-Krey during her second semester as an engaged student — particularly in research ethics discussions.

“Bree’s background in mathematics coupled with her passion for applying mathematical approaches to biological research made her a fantastic match for such an interdisciplinary program,” said Schmidt-Krey. “Bree has a particular interest in using machine learning in her research and making her skills accessible to other students via her symposium, outreach activities, and teaching.”

Shi first contacted Biological Sciences Associate Professor Patrick McGrath about coming to Georgia Tech to join the Bioinformatics program. “With her mathematical background and interest in genomics, I thought that she would be a great match for this program and Georgia Tech in general,” McGrath said.

“Now in her second year, Breanna is fully participating in our lab’s research,” he added. “She’s using her skills in machine learning and computational biology to understand the evolution of behavior in Lake Malawi cichlids, a large flock of species that have evolved a variety of new social behaviors.”

Schmidt-Krey shared that Shi advocates for graduate students via the Georgia Tech Student Government Association (SGA), is working towards the Tech to Teaching certificate in preparation for her plans to become a professor, participates in several underrepresented minority recruitment activities, and is an instructor in the VIP program, where she will involve undergraduates from various backgrounds in her research.

“Bree is currently supported by a GEM Fellowship and  GAANN award. Bree's symposium impressively shows a second-year Ph.D. student's initiative and commitment to equity in our community.” 

Shi has also been awarded the Graduate Fellowship for STEM Diversity (GFSD) and the Graduate Retaining Inspirational Scholars in Technology and Engineering (Grad RISE) from Georgia Tech’s Center for Engineering Education and Diversity (CEED).

“Bree’s research includes looking for particular neurons in the brain that are activated during reproductive behaviors,” said McGrath, who is now Shi’s advisor.

McGrath added that Shi is also passionate about using new technologies to study aggression behaviors, simulating virtual fish to induce and learn from aggressive behaviors in other fish.

Currently overseeing a large group of undergraduate and master’s students, Shi is also passionate about mentorship, adding that she became interested in education research through her time with the Georgia Tech Center for Teaching and Learning.

“While I was initially nervous about having her overseeing so many students so early in her career, Breanna has really done an outstanding job of overseeing this group,” McGrath shared. “Her goal is to become an academic professor, so it's great to see her display these skills. I am very proud of what Breanna has accomplished in such a short time.”

Shi’s mentorship will continue with the IAS workshop. “[The workshop] will be a partnership with Christin Salley, a third year Ph.D. student in Civil Engineering who is also a GEM fellow,” Shi said.

“Our hope is to get graduate students interested in using mathematics and computer science into their research,” Shi said. “As diversity fellows, Christin and I are making it a priority to  include students from diverse groups and to facilitate mentoring.”

They also hope to provide a collaborative environment where students can network and learn. “Our goal is to host this event annually,” Shi added.

Shi, who has two degrees in mathematics, has been interested to understand why some students find math and computer sciences (CS) difficult to master. She hopes to employ a few non-traditional techniques that will allow students to feel less resistant and more understanding of the subjects. “We hope to provide greater outcomes for the participants than their past experiences with math and CS.”

The Georgia Institute of Technology will hold its Fall 2022 Commencement ceremonies Dec. 16 – 17 at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

This semester's ceremonies celebrate 1,690 summer graduates and 3,930 fall graduates — 1,500 bachelor’s students, 3,760 master’s students, and 360 doctoral students across both semesters.

As part of the ceremonies, three distinguished speakers will address graduates as they embark on their post-graduate lives and careers. All three are familiar with the Georgia Tech experience, either as a student or faculty member — and one is a College of Sciences alumna.

Meet the speakers.

The Georgia Institute of Technology will hold its Fall 2022 Commencement ceremonies Dec. 16 – 17 at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

This semester's ceremonies celebrate 1,690 summer graduates and 3,930 fall graduates — 1,500 bachelor’s students, 3,760 master’s students, and 360 doctoral students across both semesters.

As part of the ceremonies, three distinguished speakers will address graduates as they embark on their post-graduate lives and careers. All three are familiar with the Georgia Tech experience, either as a student or faculty member — and one is a College of Sciences alumna.

Meet the speakers.

Nine new Faculty Fellows were appointed to the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS). In addition to their own work, BBISS Fellows serve as a board of advisors to the BBISS; foster the culture and community of sustainability researchers, educators, and students at Georgia Tech; and communicate broadly the vision, mission, values, and objectives of the BBISS. Fellows will work with the BBISS for three years, with the potential for a renewed term.

The BBISS Faculty Fellows program has been in place since 2014. Fellows will number between 10 and 15, will be drawn from across all 6 colleges and GTRI at Georgia Tech. It is expected that annual allowances provided to each BBISS Fellow will range from $1000 to $1500 depending on number of fellows in the program and availability of funds.

The new BBISS Faculty Fellows are:

  • Joe Bozeman – Assistant Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Dylan Brewer - Assistant Professor, School of Economics
  • Andre Calmon – Assistant Professor, Scheller College of Business
  • Brian Gunter - Associate Professor, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
  • Jenny McGuire – Assistant Professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and School of Biological Sciences
  • Jessica Roberts – Assistant Professor, College of Computing
  • Ilan Stern – Senior Research Scientist, Georgia Tech Research Institute
  • Anjali Thomas - Associate Professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs
  • Zhaohui Tong - Associate Professor, School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

These faculty members join the current roster of Faculty Fellows:

More information can be found on the BBISS website.

Nine new Faculty Fellows were appointed to the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS). In addition to their own work, BBISS Fellows serve as a board of advisors to the BBISS; foster the culture and community of sustainability researchers, educators, and students at Georgia Tech; and communicate broadly the vision, mission, values, and objectives of the BBISS. Fellows will work with the BBISS for three years, with the potential for a renewed term.

The BBISS Faculty Fellows program has been in place since 2014. Fellows will number between 10 and 15, will be drawn from across all 6 colleges and GTRI at Georgia Tech. It is expected that annual allowances provided to each BBISS Fellow will range from $1000 to $1500 depending on number of fellows in the program and availability of funds.

The new BBISS Faculty Fellows are:

  • Joe Bozeman – Assistant Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Dylan Brewer - Assistant Professor, School of Economics
  • Andre Calmon – Assistant Professor, Scheller College of Business
  • Brian Gunter - Associate Professor, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
  • Jenny McGuire – Assistant Professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and School of Biological Sciences
  • Jessica Roberts – Assistant Professor, College of Computing
  • Ilan Stern – Senior Research Scientist, Georgia Tech Research Institute
  • Anjali Thomas - Associate Professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs
  • Zhaohui Tong - Associate Professor, School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

These faculty members join the current roster of Faculty Fellows:

More information can be found on the BBISS website.

For marine scientist, climate activist, and Tech alumnus Albert George (MS HSTS 2009), the fight against climate change is also a fight for home. 

Now, what started as a citizen science initiative led by George has turned into a $2.6 million National Fish and Wildlife Association effort to restore degraded salt marshes in Charleston, South Carolina. As part of the project, Joel Kostka, professor and associate chair of Research in the School of Biological Sciences, will lead a team of researchers to not only monitor these restoration efforts, but gain insights into why the marshes degraded in the first place — and how to prevent it from happening in the future.

Over the past three years, Kostka, who has a joint appointment in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has worked with SCDNR and Robinson Design Engineers, a local firm co-led by Tech alum Joshua Robinson (CEE 2005), to develop engineering and design plans for the restoration of the salt marshes.

“That project went really well,” shared Kostka, “and now we have developed engineering and design plans for the actual restoration as we are moving forward with the next phase.”

Work for the current phase of the project is set to begin soon. Over the next four years, community volunteers will work to plant marsh grasses, restore oyster reefs, and excavate the tidal creeks that supply the marsh with sea water. 

“Because if we don't do this work,” George shared, “then basically it means a place that I grew up in and a place that I call home will no longer exist.”

Read more about the collaborative effort and the community that started it all in the College of Sciences newsroom.

Georgia Tech Community-Wide Campaign Event on December 10th

Please join us for a campaign launch event for students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Enjoy free food and giveaways, along with interactive experiences with students and alumni as they describe their startups developed through CREATE-X and showcase their work in robotics and artificial intelligence. Test your Tech knowledge on the Tech Trivia Wall and listen to engaging speakers. 

  

Event Details

December 10, 2022

11 a.m.  to 2 p.m.

Speaker Program begins at 12 p.m.

 

Speaker lineup:

  1. Jenny Moore, AE 2005, “From Freshman Calc to 5th Gen Fighters”
  2. Jimmy Mitchell, CE 2005, “Building Sustainability Through Progress & Service” 
  3. Tom Fanning, IMGT 1979, M.S. IMGT 1980, HON Ph.D. 2013, “Three Spheres: Southern Company chairman, president & CEO Tom Fanning shares how energy security breeds economic security, which in turn breeds national security”
  4. Jean Marie Richardson, MGT 2002, “Set Your Intentions to Build the Future”
 

Jenny “Juno” Moore, AE 2005, is an F-35 Training and Operations subject matter expert, flight instructor, and fighter pilot. 

Jimmy Mitchell, CE 2005, is senior director of business development at Skanska and one of Georgia’s first LEED managers, the creator of the Atlanta Mission urban garden, and a founding board member of the Lifecycle Building Center, the construction material reuse nonprofit based in Atlanta. His project experience includes the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, a fully certified Living Building Challenge project. 

Tom Fanning, IMGT 1979, M.S. IMGT 1980, HON Ph.D. 2013, is the chairman, president & CEO of Southern Company. 

Jean Marie Richardson, MGT 2002, is the founder and CEO of iFOLIO, an Atlanta-based, rapidly growing tech company.

 

Transform tomorrow, together. Visit transformingtomorrow.gatech.edu for more information.

Event Details

Paula T. Hammond, Ph.D.
Institute Professor and Department Head of Chemical Engineering
Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

Paula T. Hammond is Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering. She is a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the MIT Energy Initiative, and a founding member of the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology. The core of her work is the use of electrostatics and other complementary interactions to generate functional materials with highly controlled architecture. Her research in nanomedicine encompasses the development of new biomaterials to enable drug delivery from surfaces with spatio-temporal control. She also investigates novel responsive polymer architectures for targeted nanoparticle drug and gene delivery, and has developed self-assembled materials systems for electrochemical energy devices.

Professor Paula Hammond was elected into the National Academy of Science in 2019, the National Academy of Engineering in 2017, the National Academy of Medicine in 2016, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013. She is one of only 25 distinguished scientists elected to all three national academies. She won the ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science in 2018, and she is also the recipient of the 2013 AIChE Charles M. A. Stine Award, which is bestowed annually to a leading researcher in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of materials science and engineering, and the 2014 AIChE Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research. She was selected to receive the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Teal Innovator Award in 2013, which supports a single visionary individual from any field principally outside of ovarian cancer to focus his/her creativity, innovation, and leadership on ovarian cancer research. By developing degradable electrostatically assembled layer-by-layer (LbL) thin films that enable temporal and even sequential controlled release from surfaces, Paula Hammond pioneered a new and rapidly growing area of multicomponent surface delivery of therapeutics that impacts biomedical implants, tissue engineering and nanomedicine. A key contribution is her ability to introduce not only controlled release of sensitive biologics, but her recent advances in actually staging the release of these drugs to attain synergistically timed combination therapies. She has designed multilayered nanoparticles to deliver a synergistic combination of siRNA or inhibitors with chemotherapy drugs in a staged manner to tumors, leading to significant decreases in tumor growth and a great lowering of toxicity. The newest developments from her lab offer a promising approach to messenger RNA (mRNA) delivery, in which she creates pre-complexes of mRNA with its capping protein and synthesized optimized cationic polypeptides structures for the co-complexation and stabilization of the nucleic acid-protein system to gain up to 80-fold increases in mRNA translation efficiency, opening potential for vaccines and immunotherapies. Professor Hammond has published over 320 papers, and over 20 patent applications. She is the co-founder and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of LayerBio, Inc. and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Moderna Therapeutics.

IBB welcomes all in Georgia Tech's bio-community to attend - lunch immediately following the lecture.

Event Details

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