Category: News

Jud Ready always wanted to be an astronaut.

“From first grade forward, that’s what I planned to do,” said Ready, principal research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute and adjunct professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. “While studying engineering in college, I realized I didn’t want to build the spaceship. I wanted to work inside the spaceship.”

Glenn Lightsey, interim director of Georgia Tech’s Space Research Initiative, had similar aspirations. Both men tried to follow their dreams to the stars. But life presented them with alternative plans.

Read the full story here.

The comet made a close approach to Earth around Halloween, offering a rare and spectacular celestial event.

Read the article by Dr. James Wray, Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology here.

Watch the video here!

Lisa Yaszek, Regents’ Professor of Science Fiction Studies, shares her insights on Georgia Tech’s recent event, Spacefunk! A Science Fiction Reading Meet ‘N’ Greet.

https://research.gatech.edu/spacefunk-building-futures-full-color-georgia-tech-across-atlanta-and-around-world

Thomas G. Roberts, a postdoctoral fellow in International Affairs at Georgia Tech explained it to The Conversation. 

https://theconversation.com/both-harris-and-trump-have-records-on-space-policy-an-international-affairs-expert-examines-where-they-differ-when-it-comes-to-the-final-frontier-238289

Minor in Quantum Sciences and Technology (Available Now!)

In response to the explosion of research, development, investment, and employment opportunities in quantum information science taking place across academia, national labs, and private industry, the Georgia Tech School of Physics is now offering a new undergraduate Minor in Quantum Sciences and Technology.

Major in Astrophysics (Coming Summer 2025!)

The Bachelor of Science in Astrophysics degree provides comprehensive and rigorous training in the fundamental physical processes and laws that govern planetary systems, stars, galaxies and the Universe as a whole. In addition to these core topics, the degree includes training in computational techniques and data analysis that can be applied to a variety of disciplines.

To learn more about the new major and minor, and to see the required coursework, view the full story here.

The conflict in Ukraine is showing the world a lot about the future of warfare, and it’s not all satellites and AI, conflict scholar Tim Sweijs told students and faculty during a recent Georgia Tech visit. 

“The war in Ukraine has punctured the visions that portray future wars as being hybrid, liminal, or gray-zoned,” Sweijs said, referring to conflicts that fall in between peace and warfare. “We’re seeing over the past 30 months is a war of attrition with large armies stretched out over hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of battlefront.” 

Sweijs is director of research at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and a senior research fellow at the Netherlands Defence Academy’s War Studies Research Centre. His talk was part of a series sponsored by the Nunn School of International Affairs focusing on the intersection of emerging technologies and their implications for conflict and statecraft.

Click here to continue reading the article.

When it comes to space, policy is where it’s at, Ivan Allen College alum Kaitlyn Johnson, International Affairs 2014, told a room full of aspiring aerospace sector employees in the first of a new series of presentations on careers in space policy.

“There’s policy for everything. Every science and technology career field or specialization has someone in D.C. working on the political side to either get you funding, get you support on the Hill, or pass regulations to allow innovative companies to exist and pursue things,” said Johnson, deputy director of the Strategic Initiatives Group at the U.S. Space Force.

Johnson was on campus Sept. 19 to speak to postdoctoral researcher Thomas González Roberts’ space policy class and to headline a career talk open to students from across campus.

Click here to read the full article.

Across Georgia Tech, researchers are exploring the universe — its origins, possible futures, and humanity and Earth’s place in it. These investigations are the efforts of hundreds of astrobiologists, astrophysicists, aerospace engineers, astronomers, and experts in space policy and science fiction — and all of this work is brought together under the Institute’s new Space Research Initiative (SRI).

The SRI is the hub of all things space-related at Georgia Tech. It connects research institutes, labs, facilities, Schools, and Colleges to foster the conversation about space across Georgia and beyond. As a budding Interdisciplinary Research Institute (IRI), the SRI currently encompasses three core centers that contribute distinct interdisciplinary perspectives to studying space.

To learn about all of the research centers supported by the SRI, and to read the full story, click here.

“Most space mission systems historically have used one spacecraft designed to complete an entire mission independently. Whether it was a weather satellite or a human-crewed module like Apollo, nearly every spacecraft was deployed and performed its one-off mission completely on its own.”

To learn more, you can read the full story here.