Rosser Recognized for Decade of Distinguished Service

Atlanta (July 15, 2009) — Departing Ivan Allen College Dean Sue Rosser has been appointed Professor Emerita in the School of Public Policy. The appointment was made by Georgia Tech administration, in accord with the recommendation of faculty, in recognition of Rosser’s distinguished service to the Institute.

In bestowing the appointment, Georgia Tech Provost Gary Schuster lauded Rosser’s “energy, dedication, and achievement” during her tenure at Georgia Tech (1999-2009). Schuster said that Rosser has “positioned the College on an outstanding trajectory.”

Sue V. Rosser

Rosser was Georgia Tech’s first female academic dean. She clarified the mission of Ivan Allen College in support of the strategic vision of Georgia Tech, emphasizing teaching and research that examine science, engineering, and computing through the lens of the liberal arts. She is credited with building collaborative programs across disciplines, thus expanding the Institute’s intellectual diversity and its ability to produce graduates who are prepared to address societal issues both domestically and internationally.

Under Rosser’s leadership, the College developed three doctoral programs, three master’s programs and four bachelor’s programs, increased by one-third its tenure-track faculty, and doubled student enrollment. She expanded the research identity and profile of the College spearheading the growth of sponsored research from $1 million (2002) to more than $6 million (2008) and making it the most diverse funding of any unit within Georgia Tech (NSF, DARPA, NIH, Sloan, Kauffman, Mellon, NEH, the European Union, and the MacArthur Foundation).

A leading scholar in women’s studies, Rosser held the Ivan Allen Dean’s Chair of Liberal Arts and Technology and faculty appointments in the Schools of Public Policy and History, Technology, and Society. She continued a career of significant and prolific research during her tenure as Dean. To date, she has authored and/or edited 12 books and written approximately 130 journal articles on the theoretical and applied problems of women, science, and technology and women's health.

Rosser will become provost at San Francisco State University (SFSU) in August. She expressed appreciation to Ivan Allen College chairs and faculty and colleagues in other units across Georgia Tech for their collaboration in building successful graduate and undergraduate programs. She commented, “I will miss the wonderful sense of collegiality and interdisciplinarity that permeates Tech and makes it such an exciting environment.”

Telotte Named LCC Interim Chair

Atlanta (June 23, 2009) — Professor Jay P. Telotte is serving as Interim Chair of the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture (LCC). Telotte is transitioning to leadership of the School as Chair Kenneth J. Knoespel moves to the role of Interim Dean of the Ivan Allen College July 1, 2009.

Jay Telotte

Telotte joined the Georgia Tech faculty as an Assistant Professor of English in 1979 and, in 1991, was promoted to Professor in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture. He has been director of the School's undergraduate studies since fall of 2000, focusing on developing a flexible and interdisciplinary curriculum. The program leads the College in conferring humanities credits, with more than 200 students enrolled in the Science, Technology, and Culture program (STAC), and 270 in the Computational Media program (CM — a joint degree with the College of Computing). Currently, Telotte is working with Professors Rebecca Burnett and Ty Herrington to develop a new minor in Technical Communication which is expected to launch in January 2010.

Telotte (PhD University of Florida) is a scholar of film history, film technology, and genres. He has authored seven books, edited two others, published more than 100 scholarly articles, and presented numerous conference papers. Recent and forthcoming books focus on Disney and animation.

Telotte initiated the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture’s film studies program evolving it into a Film Studies Minor and the STAC degree Media Studies track. He has focused those curricula on film history, analysis, and criticism, helping to recruit distinguished international faculty whose expertise encompasses narrative, non-narrative, documentary, and experimental film.

Telotte has served in numerous leadership roles at Georgia Tech: member of the Executive Board; representative to the Faculty Senate; member and Chair of the Faculty Status and Grievance Committee; Ivan Allen College representative to the Regents Professor Committee. His nomination as Interim Chair of the School was widely supported by LCC faculty. Most immediately, he will be involved in developing the Board of Regents five-year review of the School’s curriculum.

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Goodman Announces $1.25M NSF Grant for Scholarships

Atlanta (July 15, 2009) — Seymour (Sy) Goodman, Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Ivan Allen College, and the College of Computing was awarded a $1.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation to support scholarships for students pursuing degrees and research in cyber security.

Sy Goodman

Co-PI on the grant is Assistant Professor Patrick Traynor in the College of Computing. Goodman is co-director of the Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC) and the Center for International Strategy Technology, and Policy (CISTP). Prof. Traynor is a member of GTISC.

The two year scholarships will be awarded to 20-25 graduate students over the next 5-6 years. Details on eligibility requirements and application procedures will be given in a forthcoming announcement. U.S. citizenship will be required.

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ROTC Commanders Farmer and Radloff Depart

Atlanta (July 15, 2009) — Commanders of two of Georgia Tech’s three Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) completed their tour of duty this summer.

LTC Nathaniel Farmer

Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Farmer, Commanding Officer of the Army ROTC (ARTOC) and Professor of Military Science, began assignment at Georgia Tech in May, 2007. During his tour of duty here, Farmer focused on building his organization to be responsive to the administrative, training, and academic needs of Army cadets, building relationships with faculty and staff across the Ivan Allen College and Georgia Tech, and recruiting cadets who upheld army values.

“The best part of my job was at each close of a semester,” reflected Farmer. “Seeing my Cadets walk across the stage to graduate and earn their commission as an officer in the United States Army. Georgia Tech and GT ROTC have presented many challenges that all my Cadets have overcome - these experiences have made our graduates some of the best prepared officers this nation will have to uphold America's values, our way of life, and the Constitution of the United States.”

Farmer has assumed command of the Army’s Pine Bluff Chemical Activity unit in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. His replacement, Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Fritchle, officially assumed command of the Georgia Tech Army ROTC July 7. He arrives on campus in August.

Captain Wayne Radloff

Captain Wayne Radloff, Chair and Commanding Officer of Georgia Tech’s Navy ROTC (NROTC) will depart Georgia Tech August 31. He was assigned as commanding officer of NROTC at Georgia Tech in August, 2006. His departure coincides with his retirement from NROTC with over 30 years of commissioned service.

Radloff was commissioned through the NROTC program at Jacksonville University in Florida in 1979. He is a Subspecialist in Electronic Warfare and Financial Management, as well as a Joint Subspecialist. His decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (three awards), the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal as well as various unit commendations and awards.

Radloff has served in many and varied assignments during his career (see link to bio below). A Professor of Naval Science, he is exploring possibilities through the new GI PhD being developed at Georgia Tech.

Radloff acknowledged his staff for their outstanding support. Coinciding with his retirement this summer, Radloff will commission his son as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

Captain Stephen H. Kirby arrives in August to head NROTC at Georgia Tech.

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McKnight Refutes AJC Column

Atlanta (July 15, 2009) — In a July 13th column in the Atlanta Journal Constitution online, Phil McKnight, Professor of German and Chairman of the Ivan Allen College School of Modern Languages, rebutted assertions made by a previous guest columnist who questioned the utility of Georgia students learning French.

Phil McKnight

Foreign Languages Enhance Creative Thinking
by Phil McKnight

Jim Motter wrote recently that his son will not qualify to use German in the International Plan at Georgia Tech and that while Spanish, Mandarin, Latin and German are desirable languages in high school, French “is a waste of time.”

All languages we teach at Tech have a vital place in the curriculum, which focuses on developing effective intercultural communication skills, a positive attitude toward cultural identity differences and the ability to articulate global aspects of emerging intercultural communication skills, a positive attitude toward cultural identity differences and the ability to articulate global aspects of emerging intercultural and international challenges like climate change, immigration and technology.

A new generation of students has expressed a strong desire to become more globally aware and competent. Even without a formal foreign language requirement, our enrollments have more than doubled recently as we have integrated foreign language study into a broad interdisciplinary configuration to respond to student demand.

As a result: A staggering 20 percent of undergraduates are enrolled in foreign languages, compared to just 8.6 percent for all U.S. colleges.

(Click link below to read McKnight's full article)

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Nair-Reichert Focuses on Impacts of Trade Liberalization

Atlanta (July 15, 2009) — Usha Nair-Reichert, Associate Professor in the School of Economics, has focused her current research on trade and financial reforms, foreign direct investment, and sustainable economic development. These interests are a natural offshoot of her previous work in the central bank in India in the areas of exchange control, trade, foreign direct investment and technology transfer policies.

Usha Nair-Reichert

Nair-Reichert's recent research includes a paper, “Firm Heterogeneity, Trade Liberalization and Duration of Trade and Production: The Case of India,” co-authored with Tibor Besedes, Assistant Professor, School of Economics. The paper was accepted at conferences in Ljubljana, Slovenia and New Delhi, India in June 2009. An interesting result from this work which uses data on Indian firms indicates that, after controlling for initial firm productivity, trade liberalization decreases the likelihood that a firm will cease producing and/or exporting a given product. This work is part of an ongoing research project that seeks to establish changes in the duration of trade and production after trade liberalization as additional channels through which trade reforms could impact firm productivity and growth.

Another paper investigating these factors in India is titled, “Trade Liberalization, Firm Performance and Financing Constraints,” and is co-authored with Olga Shemyakina, Assistant Professor, School of Economics. It was presented at the 2nd Georgia International/Development Economics Workshop at the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta in December 2008. This study indicates that financing constraints, such as unavailability of external funding, have had a negative and significant impact on the productivity of Indian firms during the period 1994-2006. However, being an exporter in a financially constrained industry partially mitigates the negative impact on productivity.

Nair-Reichert attended the scientific committee meeting of the European Economics and Finance Society (EEFS) at the University of Warsaw in Poland in June 2009. She presented a paper “Export Competitiveness and Access to Trade Facilitating Services,” co-authored with Richard Cebula and Joy Mazumdar at the EEFS conference examining the role of liberalization of trade in services in facilitating trade in manufactured goods.

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HTS’ Giebelhaus Retires After 33 Years

Atlanta (July 15, 2009) — August “Gus” Giebelhaus, Professor in the School of History, Technology, and Society (HTS), retires this month after thirty-three years with Georgia Tech.

August “Gus” Giebelhaus

Giebelhaus, (PhD University of Delaware) joined the Institute in 1976, becoming a full Professor of Social Sciences in 1987. He was Founding Director (Chair) of HTS and chief architect of the School’s Undergraduate HTS degree and the Master’s and PhD degrees in the History and Sociology of Technology and Science. He has served in many roles to improve learning at Georgia Tech and was inducted into its ANAK, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Phi Kappa Phi honorary societies.

Giebelhaus has been honored for his teaching by both graduate and undergraduate students. He was the first recipient of the Theresa Jiminez "Commitment to Honor" award recognizing his work as member and chair of the Student Honor Committee at Georgia Tech. In 2007, he was honored as the Faculty Member of the Year by the Graduate Student Government Association. He supervised the creation of two exhibits at the American Museum of Papermaking, including “How Do They Spend It? Kids and Paper Money around the World” and “The Art of the Book.”

Giebelhaus exerted strong influence on the field of history of technology as assistant and associate editor of the international journal, Technology and Culture (University of Chicago). He has published four books and numerous scholarly articles. He has played trumpet with the Georgia Tech Symphony Orchestra for many years.

In retirement, Geibelhaus will pursue music, travel, and time with his grandchildren.

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Faculty Profile - Kristie Macrakis - Nazi Science, Spies, and Invisible Ink

Atlanta (July 15, 2009) — Kristie Macrakis (PhD Harvard) joined Ivan Allen College as a Professor in the School of History, Technology, and Science in January 2009. She studies and teaches the history of science, espionage, and, this fall, will teach a class on the history of science under the Nazis.

Kristie Macrakis

Macrakis became interested in Nazi science while researching her dissertation in Berlin, Germany, which culminated in her first book Surviving the Swastika: Scientific Research in Nazi Germany (Oxford University Press). Her second book was on science in communist East Germany, Science Under Socialism: East Germany in Comparative Perspective (Harvard University Press).

Macrakis’ most recent book Seduced by Secrets: Inside the Stasi’s Spy-Tech World (Cambridge University Press) focuses on technology in the service of espionage and the reverse of that, espionage in the service of technology. The book is a groundbreaking study on the technical methods of one of the most feared and effective spy agencies in history, the East German Stasi.

Though it makes for riveting research and reading, Macrakis finds espionage wasteful. “My own view from studying history since World War II and the explosion of spy bureaucracies is that it has become a part of modern statecraft with very small return.” Macrakis has co-edited another book, East German Foreign Intelligence: Myth, Reality and Controversy (Routledge) which publishes this month.

Macrakis has received research grants and awards from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, the National Science Foundation, the Humboldt Foundation, as well as a Fulbright grant. Her current work delves into material so cloaked in secrecy that she literally can’t see what she’s studying - the history of invisible ink from ancient to modern times.

“When I started on this subject matter,” says Macrakis, “I didn’t anticipate that it would be so intriguing, but invisible ink paradigmatically mirrors espionage. It’s quite elusive as you can imagine: I keep coming across blank pages.”

If invisible ink sounds irrelevant in the electronic age, consider that the CIA will not release formulas for it. Macrakis is currently searching for a chemist interested in reproducing invisible ink.

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Public Policy PhD Students Present at PRIME Conference

Atlanta (July 15, 2009) — Reynold Galope and Agrita Kiopa, PhD students in the School of Public Policy, were invited to presentations at the PRIME 6th PhD and Early Career Researcher Conference on Challenges in Research and Innovation Policy Studies held June 29 — July 2 at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

Reynold Galope

Galope’s paper was A Matching Protocol to Measure the Impact of Federal, State and University Business Assistance Programs: An Application using the Georgia Manufacturing Survey. He is in the Public Policy PhD program joint with the Andrew Young School at Georgia State University and is advised by Philip Shapira.

Kiopa presented Industry Ties of Academic Scientists: Access to Human and Social Capital through Collaborative Networks. She is a Graduate Research Assistant to Associate Professor Julia Melkers.

The conference presented papers from a select group of PhD students and early career researchers from leading international research centers in science and technology policy, with comments offered by prominent scholars in the field.

PRIME (Policies for Research and Innovation in the Move towards the European Research Area) is a Network of Excellence supported by the European Union's 6th Framework Programme. It involves more than 200 researchers from 40 institutes. The Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy is an associated member of PRIME.