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Spark: College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

Welcome to the College of Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology — we're so glad you're here. Learn more about us in this video, narrated by Susan Lozier, Dean and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair in the College and President of AGU, and at: cos.gatech.edu

Recent News

Jean Lynch-Stieglitz

The College of Sciences is pleased to announce the appointment of Jean Lynch-Stieglitz as chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, effective September 2024.


Taking a sediment core from the Florida Straits.

The study, lead by researchers at Georgia Tech, uncovers how weakening prehistoric ocean currents impacted North Atlantic nutrient levels and ocean life, supporting predictions about how today's oceans might react to a changing climate.


2024 Spring Sciences Celebration Honorees

Members of the College of Sciences community gathered at Harrison Square on May 8 to recognize outstanding faculty and staff as part of the 2023-2024 academic year Spring Sciences Celebration.


Jie He

Georgia Tech researcher investigates how rainfall will change as Earth’s atmosphere heats up.


Upcoming Events

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Experts in the News

Researchers at Georgia Tech analyzed the weakening of ocean currents and how it could affect ocean life. A report published by Science studied the reaction of ocean currents to climate change, resulting in a potential decline in biological activity and nutrients in the North Atlantic. Using empirical data led by Jean Lynch-Stieglitz, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, the study observed the sediments at the Gulf Stream's origin. The region plays an important role in the North Atlantic's biological activity, particularly the ocean currents that could weaken due to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. (This also appeared at Phys.org.)

Nature World News

May 13, 2024

Forecasters are predicting a busy Atlantic hurricane season. The projections point to a potential weather double-whammy, said Zachary Handlos, senior academic professional at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “The forecasts are expecting a higher frequency of storms this year, potentially aligned with record-breaking years like 2020 and 2005,” he noted. “But then on top of that there's a high chance of a few major hurricanes that could be thrown in the mix of all the named storms.” 

Thirty named storms formed in 2020. Fifteen Atlantic cyclones became hurricanes in 2005 including Katrina, which caused nearly $200 billion in damage and led to more than 1,800 deaths. Both seasons were influenced by La Niña patterns, which involve the cooling of tropical Pacific waters but lead to a reduction in vertical wind shear that acts as a brake against Atlantic hurricanes. This year, warming Atlantic waters and the expected arrival of a La Niña pattern are driving expectations for a hyperactive hurricane season. “The waters are already warmer than usual in the Atlantic, and warm water is a key ingredient for kind of starting off and forming hurricanes,” Handlos said. “If you mix that trend on top of the possible La Niña setup, it's just a potential recipe for disaster.” 

Savannah Now

May 13, 2024

Estimating fire emissions prior to the satellite era is challenging because observations are limited, leading to large uncertainties in the calculated aerosol climate forcing following the preindustrial era. This challenge further limits the ability of climate models to accurately project future climate change. In this study, researchers reconstruct a gridded dataset of global biomass burning emissions from 1750 to 2010 using inverse analysis that leveraged a global array of 31 ice core records of black carbon deposition fluxes, two different historical emission inventories as a priori estimates, and emission-deposition sensitivities simulated by the atmospheric chemical transport model GEOS-Chem. The study’s researchers include Bingqing Zhang, Takamitsu Ito, and Pengfei Liu of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Nature Communications

April 30, 2024

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