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Director of DramaTech Dies Suddenly  On December 1, Gregory B. Abbot, 54, died of a heart attack while driving near his Atlanta residence. Born in Phillipsburg, Kan., Mr. Abbott grew up on his family's farm and earned a master of fine arts degree from the University of Georgia in 1976. He directed the Springer Theatre in Columbus and served as Onstage Atlanta's artistic director before taking the Georgia Tech post in 1984. The funeral was held Tuesday, December 5 at Cathedral of Christ the King. |
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Turner Praises Students for Learning About the United Nations The 2006 High School Model United Nations conference, hosted by the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, held October 16-17 at the Ferst Center, brought together more than 700 high school students from Alabama, Florida, and Georgia giving them a personal perspective of global events. Ted Turner, founder of CNN, chairman of the United Nations Foundation and co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, delivered the keynote address. Dean Sue Rosser introduced Turner by noting how rare it is that one person's vision changed the world. In creating CNN, she said, Turner changed the way people see the news. |
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Brown Disputes Hubbert's Peak In 1956, M. King Hubbert, Shell Oil geophysicist, plotted global oil production volume over time and used that upward slope as a guide to configure a bell-shaped area representing the world's total known oil reserves. By extrapolating the historical production data to the top of the bell, Hubbert could predict the approximate time when oil production would peak, followed by a steady decline. "I think people have some faith in Hubbert's analysis, but there is disagreement about where we are," say Marilyn Brown, Professor, School of Public Policy. "There are those who say we will keep finding oil as long as we're looking for it, and through advances in technology and the use of what they call 'unconventional petroleum,' we will continue to grow our reserves. And then there's the rest of us, who think we're reaching the peak," she says. |
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Korea Conference Urges Continued Partnerships  The Korea Conference, sponsored by the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy in the School of International Affairs, brought together diplomats and academics from the Republic of Korea and international affairs experts from a number of universities and think tanks in the United States. North Korea's decision this week to re-engage in six-party nuclear disarmament talks after a year's absence is being greeted with cautious relief since North Korea's underground nuclear test on October 9. Lee Kwang Jae, Consul General for South Korea for the southeastern United States, said getting North Korea back to the negotiating table is imperative for the security of the region. "This news came as a relief, given the gravity of the current situation," Lee said. |
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Telecommunications Industry Threatened By New Technologies Following the AT&T Inc.-BellSouth Corp. merger, the U.S. Department of Justice said new technologies reshaping the market would keep the $89.4 billion deal from creating a telecommunications monopoly. But the Justice Department's decision, which examines mergers strictly from an antitrust perspective, recognizes that technology is changing much faster than rules and regulations can keep up, said Helena Mitchell, executive director of Georgia Tech's Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP). “The primary factor underlying changes in the telecommunications industry is that technology is moving from an analog to a digital platform that can transmit data, video and text,” Mitchell said. “As a result, it is no longer necessary to regulate as tightly as in the past because so many new technologies can operate on the digital platform. The need to silo the regulation of wired, cable and wireless technologies is no longer as great.” |
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ICANN Revisited in Greece Following last year's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia, the United Nations-sponsored Internet Governance Forum (IGF) began talks on October 30 focusing on pressing Internet governance. At last year's meeting, delegates argued about control of the Internet and whether U.S. interests were too powerful. The IGF hopes to expand the way Internet users access domain names, root servers, and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses by incorporating a larger number of characters to include all languages. Large countries like China could potentially launch its own Internet that would be technically incompatible with the global Internet. Hans Klein, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy, said that there is a real possibility that some countries could walk away from discussions and establish their own system someday. |
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Stereotypes Can Be Detrimental to Individuals  A recent study at the University of British Columbia confirmed that stereotypical impressions - women not being good at math - can hurt the performance of the stereotyped individuals. The study took four groups of women with average age of 20 where each took a three-part test, two math sections separated by a reading comprehension essay. The researchers propose that when group differences are perceived to rest on specific experiences, "people may reason that their own experiences are different or that they can resist the effects of their experiences." It also offers a practical lesson for teachers, says
Dean Sue Rosser. "Faculty should be made aware of how subtle remarks and examples used in curricular content can influence [student] performance in math and science courses as well as their choice of major," she says. |
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Lifting the Veil in the Middle East  In an editorial in the International Herald Tribune, Sylvia Maier, Assistant Professor, School of International Affairs, says
"women's rights are progressing in many Middle Eastern countries, and numerous small but important victories have been won." Examples of this progress includes women running, campaigning, and voting in Saudi Arabia; women were given voting rights as well as hold high government offices in Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait; and, women in Morocco were granted more rights in marriage and divorce as well as King Mohammed VI marrying a computer engineer who does not wear a veil. She also writes that for economic development to continue, increased female participation in the public sphere must continue. |
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Sam Nunn Security Program Visits GT Savannah During the 2006 fall break, the fellows and faculty of the Sam Nunn Security Program traveled to Savannah, Georgia to advance their understanding of a number of critical issues involving technology and global security. Tech’s Savannah Campus currently consists of three contemporary buildings in a new circular business/research park north of the Savannah/Hilton Head Airport. Georgia Tech Savannah has 27 faculty members wired into the Atlanta campus with its own research emphasis taking advantage of the unique geographic, ecological, and economic position of Savannah. |
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| Fox and Miller Receive "Women of Distinction" Awards At the 2006 Women's Leadership Conference on November 3, Mary Frank Fox, NSF Advance Professor in the School of Public Policy, and co-director, Center for the Study of Women, Science, & Technology, was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Member/Woman of Distinction Award. Elizabeth Miller, Advisor for PUBP, HTS and for all UIAC majors and coordinator for undergraduate student services within Ivan Allen College Dean's office, received the Outstanding Staff/Woman of Distinction Award. |
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Street Criers Wins Best Book Award Hanchao Lu, Professor, School of History, Technology, and Society, has won the Cecil B. Currey Best Book Award of the Association of Third World Studies (ATWS) for his latest book Street Criers: A Cultural History of Chinese Beggars. His book is a rich and comprehensive study of beggars' culture and the institution of mendicancy in China from late imperial times to the mid-twentieth century, with a glance at the resurgence of beggars in China today. Generously illustrated, the book brings to life the concepts and practices of mendicancy including organized begging, state and society relations as reflected in the issues of poverty, public opinions of beggars and various factors that contribute to almsgiving, the role of gender in begging, and street people and Communist politics. The award was presented at their annual meeting, November 2-4, at Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina. Lu's last two books have won the Best Book Award.
The Cecil B. Currey award is named in honor of one of the foremost experts on the war in Vietnam. |
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| Ivan Allen College Staff Complete Certifications Within the past year, IAC staff members have completed certifications through the Office of Organizational Development advancing their education to better serve the College and students. The School of Economics had two graduates: Shirley Smith, Office Professional Certificate; and Beverly Paul, Supervisory Development Certificate. The School of History, Technology, and Society had three graduates: Denise Corum, Management Development Certificate; LaDonna Bowen, Office Professional Certificate; and Steven Henderson, Departmental Financial Management Certificate. The School of Modern Languages had two graduates: Loretta Walker, Supervisory Development Certificate; and Tiffany Earley, Departmental Financial Management Certificate. The School of Public Policy had one graduate: Katara Jones, Office Professional Certificate. |
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