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Couch to Give Allen Prize Address at Founder's Day The Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech announces that Dr. Carol A. Couch, director of the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) within the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, will give the Allen Prize Address at the College's annual Founder's Day luncheon on March 15 at 1 p.m. at The Biltmore in midtown Atlanta. Dr. Couch's address, “The Challenges of Georgia's Changing Landscape,” is open to the public.
“We are pleased that Dr. Couch, a leader and proponent of environmental policy in Georgia and a Georgia Tech alumna, will help us celebrate the legacy of Charles and Lessie Smithgall, this year's recipients of the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service,” says Sue V. Rosser, dean of the Ivan Allen College. “The Smithgalls' love of the environment shows in their many gifts to the state of Georgia, Georgia Tech and other Georgia institutions so it is fitting that Dr. Couch will speak about the changing landscape in Georgia.” Couch, the first woman to lead EPD in its 35-year history, was appointed by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue and the Board of Natural Resources in October 2003. As director, she is responsible for an 850-person agency that implements and enforces 26 state and four federal laws designed to protect, conserve and restore Georgia's environmental resources. Couch chairs the Water Council, a coordinating committee charged with overseeing the development of a comprehensive statewide water plan. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Clean Air Campaign and is on the Board of Trustees of the Livable Communities Coalition. Before joining EPD, Couch was a member of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), leading nationally distributed, multi-disciplinary teams of engineers, hydrologists, chemists and biologists in the design, conduct and reporting of water resource investigations. She also served as southeastern regional biologist in the southeastern region, and as hydrologist in the Georgia District of the USGS Water Resources Division. Couch received her Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Georgia, her master's degree from the University of South Carolina and a bachelor's degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her graduate studies focused on the ecology of coastal rivers and estuaries. She was born in Nuremberg, Germany and settled in Columbus, Georgia upon her father's retirement from the U.S. Army. Her love of nature grew from fishing and hunting with her father in Georgia's beautiful and diverse outdoors. Couch is an avid hiker, landscape painter, sometime golfer and is currently writing a series of travel essays. At the Founder's Day celebration, the Ivan Allen College will honor the recipients of the 2007 Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service—Charles and Lessie Smithgall. Previous recipients of the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service include Jesse Hill Jr., Atlanta businessman and civil rights leader (2006); Will Wright, co-founder of Maxis and original designer of SimCity and The Sims computer games (2005); former Senator Sam Nunn, co-chairman and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (2004); Molly Ivins, nationally syndicated columnist (2003); Jimmy Carter, former U.S. President and Georgia Governor (2002); and Zell Miller, former U.S. Senator and Georgia Governor (2001). More details about Founder's Day celebration and the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service are available online at http://www.foundersday.iac.gatech.edu/index.html. For information on attending the 2007 Ivan Allen College Founder's Day award ceremony, please contact Carol Silvers at 404.894.9539, or on-line at carol.silvers@iac.gatech.edu. |
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North Korean Diplomats Visit Sam Nunn School's CISTP The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs (INTA) and the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy (CISTP) hosted two high-ranking North Korean diplomats last December for a series of confidential informal diplomatic events. While on campus, the North Korean officials met with two INTA classes to hear their proposals concerning the current nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, and to review and critique US policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. |
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Rosser Serves as Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer Dean Sue Rosser has been selected as a 2007-2008 Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer. She will present her findings of her book, The Science Glass Ceiling: Academic Women Scientists and their Struggle to Succeed, and discuss "Transforming Institutions through ADVANCE". This series features presentations by outstanding academics at the leading edge of science. The Sigma Xi lectures are supported by Sigma Xi members, with additional support from the American Meteorological Society, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Society for Risk Analysis. |
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Writing Association Comes to Atlanta The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) annual conference, which is free and open to the public, will take place this year at the Atlanta Hilton, March 2-3, and beginning at 8:30 pm. The conference will host more than 250 literary events, featuring dozens of internationally renowned literary figures, Pulitzer
Prize winners, and National Book Award recipients, including John Barth, Kaye Gibbons, Coleman Barks, and members
of the Academy of American Poets. The mission of AWP, founded in 1967, is to foster literary talent
and achievement, to advance the art of writing as essential to a good education, and to serve the
makers, teachers, students, and readers of contemporary writing. |
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Living Games World III Set for March 29th This year marks the third instantiation of Living Game Worlds Symposium, Playing with Reality, which will take place on March 29th at Technology Square Research Building. Presented by the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture and the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center (GVU), this annual event explores emerging questions in design and theory in the production and critique of video games. This year, the symposium will focus on games that take on real-world topics and address some of the potential risks and pitfalls inherent in merging play with reality. |
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Pearson Appears in NOVA Program Dr. Willie Pearson Jr., Professor, School of History, Technology, and Society, has been an advisor to the NOVA program “Forgotten Genius”, a TV documentary about the personal and professional life of Percy Julian, the first black chemist to become a member of the National Academy of Sciences. The program aired originally on February 6 on local PBS stations. Pearson, who specializes in science and technology policy-related research on the professional development of minority scientists and engineers, helped with many aspects of the project, reviewing the producers' materials, critiquing proposals, serving as a member of the program's advisory board, and on-air expert commentator. |
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IAML and GEML Serve as Models for Foreign Language Study Two new undergraduate degree programs were singled out for praise in a recent congressional testimony. Testifying before the House on January 25, 2007, Diane W. Birckbichler, Director, Foreign Language Center and Chair, Department of French and Italian, The Ohio State University. She identified the Bachelor of Science degree in Global Economics and Modern Languages (GEML) and the Bachelor of Science degree in International Affairs and Modern Languages (IAML) as innovative undergraduate degrees, noting that these programs "prepare graduates for the types of jobs available in both the public and private sector." Both programs combine rigorous training in a discipline with intensive foreign language and cultural study. |
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Video Games Tackle Social and Political Issues  In an article in the International Herald Tribune, January 18, Ian Bogost, Assistant Professor, School of Literature, Communication, and Culture, along with his company, Persuasive Games, was cited as
creating "playable editorial cartoons," as he calls them — that are packed with political messages. Among his creations is a game that challenges users to double the price of crude oil by afflicting a fantasy land with a series of natural disasters. Bogost is among a growing number of designers who develop video games that focus and comment on the world's social and political ills. "I'm not against fun. I like to play the same video games everyone else does. But I don't believe that video games have to be fun," Bogost said. "I think they need to be given the opportunity to bother and disturb us." |
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INTA Graduate Awarded Gates-Cambridge Scholarship  Graduating from Georgia Tech in Spring 2006 with a degree in Applied Biology and International Affairs (INTA), Nabil Wilf has won the Gates-Cambridge scholarship, which is an international scholarship program to enable outstanding graduate students from outside the United Kingdom to study at the University of Cambridge.
He is currently on a Fulbright scholarship in Kuwait and will pursue a Ph.D. in Genetics at Cambridge. The scholarships are awarded on the basis of a person's intellectual ability, leadership capacity and desire to use their knowledge to contribute to society throughout the world by providing service to their communities and applying their talents and knowledge to improve the lives of others
along with a strong aptitude for research, analysis, and a creative approach to defining and solving problems. |
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Georgia Tech Receives Internationalization Award  Georgia Tech is a recipient of the Senator Paul Simon Internationalization Award for 2007.
The development of the nomination proposal was a team effort including
William Long,
Chair and Professor, The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and Phil McKnight, Chair and Professor, School of Modern Languages.
This award
recognizes institutions for overall excellence in internationalization efforts as evidenced in practices, structures, philosophies, and policies. The award will be formally announced in May 2007. |
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Economics Professor Passes Away  William Biven, 82, Professor Emeritus, School of Economics, died of pulmonary fibrosis on January 18. During Biven's 44-year career at Georgia Tech, he received teaching awards including Georgia Tech Outstanding Teacher in 1966, Outstanding Professor Award for the Master's Program in Management in 1990, and Outstanding Teaching in the College of Management in 1997. He also found time to write a few books, including Who Killed John Maynard Keynes? in 1989 and Jimmy Carter's Economy: Policy in an Age of Limits in 2002. Biven had a lifetime love of sports and played basketball at St. Mary's College in Kentucky before attending St. Louis University to earn his doctorate in economics. |
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