{"566451":{"#nid":"566451","#data":{"type":"news","title":"College of Sciences Names 2016 Cullen-Peck Fellows","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe College of Sciences has selected the 2016 recipients of the Cullen-Peck Fellowships in the College of Sciences: \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.physics.gatech.edu\/user\/tamara-bogdanovic\u0022\u003ETamara Bogdanovic\u003C\/a\u003E, an assistant professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.physics.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Physics\u003C\/a\u003E; \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/geophysics.eas.gatech.edu\/anewman\/\u0022\u003EAndrew V. Newman\u003C\/a\u003E, an associate professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.eas.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/biosci.gatech.edu\/people\/frank-stewart\u0022\u003EFrank J. Stewart\u003C\/a\u003E, an assistant professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.biosci.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E, and \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.ap.gatech.edu\/Wheaton\/\u0022\u003ELewis A. Wheaton\u003C\/a\u003E, an associate professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.biosci.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe fellowships recognize exciting research accomplishments by College of Sciences faculty at the associate professor or advanced assistant professor level,\u201d says College of Sciences Dean Paul M. Goldbart. \u201cThe goal is to help recipients take their research programs in new directions.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe fellowships are made possible by a generous gift to the College of Sciences from alumni Frank H. Cullen (B.S. in Mathematics with Honors 1973, M.S. in Operations Research 1975, Ph.D. Engineering 1984) and Libby Peck (B.S. in Applied Mathematics 1975, M.S. in Industrial Engineering 1976).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe in the College of Sciences are grateful for the generosity of alumni who encourage our faculty to take intellectual risks in their research,\u201d Goldbart says. \u201cThe Cullen-Peck fellowships help ensure that our research is pushing the frontiers of knowledge. Congratulations to the 2016 Cullen-Peck fellows, and thank you for all you do for the Georgia Tech community.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.physics.gatech.edu\/user\/tamara-bogdanovic\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETamara Bogdanovic\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E is a theoretical astrophysicist whose research interests include the ins and outs of some of the most massive black holes in the universe. Her group investigates observational signatures associated with supermassive black holes interacting with gas and stars in galactic nuclei.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Recently her group offered a plausible solution to a puzzle: Why is the center of the Milky Way galaxy full of young stars but has very few old ones? Scientists suspect that remnants of old stars are present but are too faint to be detected by telescopes. The theory is that old stars have been dimmed by repeated collisions with the accretion disk \u2013 a disk-like structure of diffuse material \u2013 that at some point in the past orbited a supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5-QSgWitvt8\u0022\u003EComputer simulations\u003C\/a\u003E using models of red giant stars suggest that such collisions could have inflicted significant damage to old stars, making them invisible, only if the accretion disk was sufficiently dense and massive. The study, published in \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/0004-637X\/823\/2\/155\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe Astrophysical Journal\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, is the first to run computer simulations on the theory, which was introduced in 2014.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe generous support of the Cullen-Peck fellowship will allow us to foray into unexplored aspects of the interaction of matter and radiation in the deep gravitational wells of black holes,\u201d Bogdanovic says. She hopes to be able to make more accurate theoretical predictions about the signatures of accreting supermassive black holes in distant galaxies, which can be confirmed by observations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETrained as a geophysicist, \u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/geophysics.eas.gatech.edu\/anewman\/\u0022\u003EAndrew V. Newman\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003Estudies the active deformation and failure of Earth\u0027s rigid outer layer in areas of frequent seismic and volcanic activity. And he wants to understand their impact on society.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOf particular interest are megathrust faults, which are responsible for the largest, and some of the deadliest, earthquakes. For example, using a small network of seismometers and Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors, Newman\u2019s team mapped a segment of a megathrust fault in Costa Rica that was locked, loaded, and ready for failure. They \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1029\/2012JB009230\/full\u0022\u003Ereported the discovery in the \u003Cem\u003EJournal of Geophysical Research\u003C\/em\u003E \u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;in June 2012. Three months later, the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2012\/09\/05\/world\/americas\/costa-rica-earthquake\/\u0022\u003Eearthquake\u003C\/a\u003E occurred.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENewman\u2019s group again measured the GPS sites and \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nature.com\/ngeo\/journal\/v7\/n2\/full\/ngeo2038.html\u0022\u003Ereported in \u003Cem\u003ENature Geoscience \u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003Ethat the anticipated earthquake occurred directly in the locked region and with approximately the magnitude the team estimated was possible. Such \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/scientists-successfully-forecasted-the-size-and-location-of-an-earthquake-180948072\/?no-ist\u0022\u003Epre-event imaging and discovery of dangerous megathrust loading\u003C\/a\u003E is rare because most such earthquakes occur underwater, where GPS doesn\u2019t work. Likewise, these zones are more concerning, because they generate dangerous tsunami waves.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith the support from the Cullen-Peck fellowship, Newman plans to \u201cexplore new and low-cost methodologies for making observations of precise ground deformation on the seafloor.\u201d In the journal \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/journal\/v474\/n7352\/full\/474441a.html\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003ENature\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E, \u003C\/em\u003ENewman had argued that such tools are needed to explore 90% of the active plate boundaries to both better understand dynamics of tectonic plate interaction and to illuminate the risk associated with their geologic hazards, including tsunami generation and underwater volcanism.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/biosci.gatech.edu\/people\/frank-stewart\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFrank J. Stewart\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E explores the genetic diversity of marine microorganisms in hopes of answering two fundamental questions: How do ecological and evolutionary processes create and structure genetic diversity? How is this genetic diversity linked to the diverse biogeochemical functions of microorganisms in nature? In particular, his group is interested in how oxygen loss affects the diversity and metabolism of marine microbes.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn early August 2016, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.rh.gatech.edu\/news\/558891\/global-warming-dead-zone-and-mysterious-bacteria\u0022\u003EStewart and others\u003C\/a\u003E reported in the journal \u003Cem\u003ENature\u003C\/em\u003E the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/journal\/vaop\/ncurrent\/full\/nature19068.html\u0022\u003Ediscovery of new bacterial strains that thrive in oxygen-poor parts of the ocean\u003C\/a\u003E. The new strains breath nitrogen-containing nutrients in place of oxygen. Their metabolism thus helps deplete nitrogen from the oceans, making the oxygen-poor zones even more uninhabitable, as well as kick-starting metabolic processes that generate nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe zinger is that climate change is causing oxygen-poor zones to expand, meaning these new strains will play an increasingly larger role in shaping ocean chemistry.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStewart will use the award to advance a project to analyze whole-genome gene expression data (transcriptomes) from single bacterial cells.\u0026nbsp;Single-cell transcriptomics has been used to study eukaryotic cells, he says, but has been difficult when applied to bacterial cells. With collaborators \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.seas.harvard.edu\/directory\/weitz\u0022\u003EDavid A. Weitz\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/oeb.harvard.edu\/people\/peter-r-girguis\u0022\u003EPeter R. Girguis\u003C\/a\u003E, at Harvard University, Stewart is optimizing methods to recover bacterial transcriptomes from single cells.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf the method works, Stewart says, \u201cit could enhance understanding\u0026nbsp;of microbial ecology and diversity in all of the environments our lab studies, including those in the open ocean and those in the guts of animals.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearch in the laboratory of \u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.ap.gatech.edu\/Wheaton\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELewis A. Wheaton\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E aims to understand how healthy people plan and execute complex tasks, such as kicking a ball or using tools. At present, he is focused on understanding motor skill development across many populations and the neurophysiological relationships between motor development and lexical (vocabulary) development in pediatric populations. The goal is to reveal couplings of language and motor imitation. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother focus area is motor skill development after traumatic amputation. Wheaton would like to understand how central neural networks for motor learning are affected after amputation and what role they play in the use of prostheses.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe award will help set up new human neuroimaging studies to identify functional and neuroanatomical changes related to motor learning, Wheaton says. \u201cIt will also partially fund a student who is expanding this work to develop better therapeutic approaches for patients with neurological injury and disease.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Awards recognize innovative research of Tamara Bogdanovic, Andrew Newman, Frank Stewart, and Lewis Wheaton."}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAwards recognize innovative research of Tamara Bogdanovic, Andrew Newman, Frank Stewart, and Lewis Wheaton.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Awards recognize innovative research of Tamara Bogdanovic, Andrew Newman, Frank Stewart, and Lewis Wheaton."}],"uid":"30678","created_gmt":"2016-08-22 18:44:29","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:22:23","author":"A. Maureen Rouhi","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-08-23T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-08-23T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"566411":{"id":"566411","type":"image","title":"Tamara Bogdanovic","body":null,"created":"1471904821","gmt_created":"2016-08-22 22:27:01","changed":"1531067147","gmt_changed":"2018-07-08 16:25:47","alt":"","file":{"fid":"231755","name":"Tamara Bogdanovic.sq250.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Tamara%20Bogdanovic.sq250_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Tamara%20Bogdanovic.sq250_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":40247,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Tamara%20Bogdanovic.sq250_0.jpg?itok=DNedBvNk"}},"566421":{"id":"566421","type":"image","title":"Andrew Newman","body":null,"created":"1471904919","gmt_created":"2016-08-22 22:28:39","changed":"1475895371","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:56:11","alt":"Andrew Newman","file":{"fid":"206927","name":"andrew.v.newman_mar2012.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/andrew.v.newman_mar2012.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/andrew.v.newman_mar2012.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":163428,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/andrew.v.newman_mar2012.jpg?itok=eQ3RkU8g"}},"566431":{"id":"566431","type":"image","title":"Frank Stewart","body":null,"created":"1471904999","gmt_created":"2016-08-22 22:29:59","changed":"1475895371","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:56:11","alt":"Frank Stewart","file":{"fid":"206928","name":"frank.stewart.original.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/frank.stewart.original.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/frank.stewart.original.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2071729,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/frank.stewart.original.jpg?itok=VjNf3GxX"}},"566441":{"id":"566441","type":"image","title":"Lewis Wheaton","body":null,"created":"1471905142","gmt_created":"2016-08-22 22:32:22","changed":"1475895371","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:56:11","alt":"Lewis Wheaton","file":{"fid":"206929","name":"lewis.wheaton.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lewis.wheaton.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lewis.wheaton.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":30223,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/lewis.wheaton.jpg?itok=ywGzE6YA"}}},"media_ids":["566411","566421","566431","566441"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"12237","name":"Andrew Newman"},{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"170613","name":"Cullen-Peck Fellowships"},{"id":"25111","name":"Frank Stewart"},{"id":"68441","name":"Lewis Wheaton"},{"id":"91731","name":"Tamara Bogdanovic"}],"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=\u0022maureen.rouhi@cos.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EA. Maureen Rouhi\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDirector of Communications\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECollege of Sciences\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maureen.rouhi@cos.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}