Tech one of the 100 Best Value Colleges for 2009

USA Today - January 8, 2009
Fancy a challenge and interested in the more scientific aspects of the world? If so, it’s a likely bet that GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY will have just what you need for the next four years or more. Through its six colleges (Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Management, Sciences, and Liberal Arts) and 36 undergraduate majors, students at GEORGIA TECH aren’t at a loss for anything, except perhaps sleep... GEORGIA TECH offers the best of both worlds: the academic opportunity and stringency of a top-tier private university with the cost of a run-of-the-mill public school. For Georgia residents, a year’s tuition is $4,496. For non-Georgians, the price goes up to $22,220. Required fees tack on another $1,146, with room and board adding $7,294... students find Georgia Tech to be incredibly affordable—especially in light of all they get in return. ( View the rankings ).

Fighting the growing menace of fake drugs

CNN - January 13, 2009  
A slim, easy-to-use device that checks the authenticity of medicines would be available in every pharmacy if Facundo Fernandez had his way.  The gadget he has in mind would provide consumers peace of mind about the safety and quality of prescription drugs -- something that is increasingly a concern amid a rise in fake medicines.  A self-described optimist, Fernandez doesn't think his dream is that far-fetched. "I think it's possible," he told CNN. "The technology is available. It's a matter of making this really widespread."  An analytical chemist and assistant professor at GEORGIA TECH, Fernandez has spent the better part of the last decade fighting the global battle against counterfeit drugs.  Taken with the intention of curing illness, phony pharmaceuticals undermine treatment, and in some cases, can have lethal consequences for their unsuspecting buyers. (full story | Facundo Fernandez )

Financing for printed electronics is not drying up

Converting Magazine - January 19, 2009
. . . Although it is tempting to conclude that the financial meltdown is going to destroy, or at least put on the back burner, many exciting companies in this field, things are not so simple. Solvay, having taken an interest in printed electronics only in recent years, is continuing to put significant money into new businesses and research in the field, the latest being a three-year programme to develop organic printed transistors at the center for Photonics and Electronics at GEORGIA TECH. The focus is high-speed printing at low temperature. Pelikon, the company successfully making and selling printed AC electroluminescent displays has just been bought for $10.7 million by the quoted Multi-Fineline Electronix (MFLEX). ( full story | Center for Photonics and Electronics )

Supramolecular chemistry another piece of the |[pi]|

Nature - January 2009
Aromatic pi–pi interactions are important to many biological functions, including stabilizing the structure of DNA and in the binding of ligands to enzyme active sites. Although much of the previous work to understand the nature of such interactions has been directed towards benzene and substituted-benzene dimers, efforts are refocusing on identifying the effects of heteroatoms. Now Edward Hohenstein and David Sherrill at the GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY have studied the interactions between the individual molecules that make up pyridine–pyridine and pyridine–benzene dimers. (full story - requires free registration to view | C. David Sherrill )

GIFT at Yerkes: a summer spent monkeying around

CEISMC Gazette - December, 2008
Christy Hodges, Environmental and Earth Systems Science Teacher at Middle Grove High School in DeKalb County, and three of her students spent last summer working in the research lab at Yerkes Research Institute on the Emory campus as part of the GIFT Program. My students are involved in a behavioral study, where they are scoring the behavior of monkeys using what's called "integral focal sampling" ... (full story )

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