Tech Topics - Winter 2008 - (Page 18)

THE HILL Legacy from page 16 current year. Depending on how the economy performs in the remaining months of the fiscal year, we may see additional cuts beyond what we’ve already encountered. Times of financial austerity provide an incentive to cast a critical eye on how we are spending our money. They offer an opportunity to find new ways to streamline our operations and make them more efficient. They call upon us to make sure that we spend our resources wisely and well, that we are getting the biggest possible bang for our bucks and that our allocation of resources is aligned with our strategic goals. Georgia Tech has always been nimble, practical and entrepreneurial and has often found innovative ways to do more with less than other, wealthier institutions. really aligns beautifully with our interests and expertise is at the intersection of medicine, nanoscience and computing, and Georgia Tech’s genuinely interdisciplinary environment is an asset that is helping us assume leadership. Together with our partner, Emory University, Georgia Tech has moved quickly to the forefront in nanomedicine. As scientists and engineers at Georgia Tech and elsewhere have developed an increasingly sophisticated array of technologies for gathering detailed data on the human body, the door of opportunity is open for high-performance computing to step more fully into the medical arena. From figuring out how the protein products in the human genome work to developing personalized medicine, predictive medicine and new drugs, computing has a growing contribution to make in the development of the next generation of health care. Georgia Tech is well-positioned to lead the way. High-performance computing models are the test tubes of the 21st century. Supercomputers can model the behavior of anything that is too big, too tiny, too far away or too dangerous to deal with in person, from exploring stars to individual atoms, from hurricanes and earthquakes to disease outbreaks. Computer models offer an opportunity to explore the possible consequences of decisions or actions. Economists and investment managers are also increasingly turning to computers to model the complexities of today’s global economy. The excellence of Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, which is ranked ninth in the nation, and our interdisciplinary climate position us to be a leader in developing a wide range of uses for computer modeling, even as Tech’s computer researchers simultaneously expand the power of high-performance computing. Our new degree programs in computational science and engineering strengthen and leverage the interdisciplinary collaboration that enables the creation of computational models for solving important real-world problems. The bottom line is that Georgia Tech has not only grown in size and reputation over the past decade, but the strategic character of that role has positioned us for even greater prominence. Significant opportunities are opening before us to apply our expertise to some of the world’s most intractable challenges and to make discoveries and develop technologies that improve the quality of life around the globe. Presidential Search Panel Gathers Input By Kimberly Link-Wills T Entrepreneurial Approaches We have long taken an entrepreneurial approach to energy, with the focus on the development of alternative sources and new technologies. For a while, our efforts in this area were considered a little esoteric, but today the time is right for our work in alternative energy to play a more central role. These alternative technologies range from the next generation of solar cells to batteries and fuel-cell technologies, from new technologies for producing biofuels to tiny nanogenerators that harvest energy from their surroundings to power small electronic devices. At the same time, our significant research in the area of controlling carbon emissions has now gained the attention of mainstream fossil fuel industries that are realizing the growing urgency for addressing this challenge. They are coming to us for our expertise in these technologies, which range from carbon separation and capture to cleaner combustion technologies. Even as Georgia Tech engineers work on new energy technologies, our scientists are gathering data that provide a greater understanding of climate change and the impact of global warming. For much of our history, no one used the words Georgia Tech and medicine in the same sentence, but we are increasingly becoming an important player in this arena. Our research initiatives are intersecting with medicine in many places, from helping hospitals to streamline their operations to speeding up the process of translating research discoveries into patient diagnosis and care. But the newly emerging field that “Times of financial austerity provide an incentive to cast a critical eye on how we are spending our money.” he chairman of the presidential search committee expects Wayne Clough’s successor to be named by March. “My anticipation is we will be prepared to name the next president of Georgia Tech early next year, within the first three months,” Willis Potts, IE 69, told alumni during one of a series of meetings on the Tech campus in September. Potts is one of eight Georgia Tech alumni on the 18-member Board of Regents. All are serving on the presidential search committee, which met with Tech graduates as well as faculty, staff, students and the Athletic Association over two days in sessions also attended by the head of the search firm hired by the Board of Regents. “We will probably have on our total log of nominees and applicants as many as a hundred people. It could be more,” said Bill Funk, president of higher education search firm R. William Funk. “The active candidate pool is usually between 30 and 50 people. Those are individuals who either apply or who respond to a nomination.” Tech’s next president may not come from academia. “My instructions from the search committee are to cast as wide a net as possible to find the very best leaders and managers we can find,” Funk said. “I expect at the end of the day the pool will be skewed to like experiences at like institutions. But we made a concerted effort to look outside higher education at philanthropic organizations, the national research laboratories, for-profit businesses.” Potts said the difficult selection process is made even harder by state open records laws. “We can deal confidentially with these candidates now,” Potts said. “We can do that all the way up until the committee itself has completed our obligation. Our obligation is to present to the Board of Regents three to five candidates that the committee feels can be the president of Georgia Tech. The Board of Regents, all 18, will interview those final five that come out of the search committee. “We have to publish for 14 days the three we consider the finalists. That’s where the going gets rough,” Potts said. “Bill will find fabulous candidates for this position who will not subject themselves to the potential of their name being put out in public. They may be the sitting president at a university now and they can just not afford or subject themselves to the possibility” that their names would be published but they would not get the job. “You can imagine what it would be like back on the home front,” he continued. “When we get to that point, I guarantee you … that we will lose more than one outstanding candidate when that eventuality is explained to them. They will just not have their name put out there. From the ones who do, the Regents will select one and at the end of that 14-day period will name the new president of Georgia Tech.” Bill Goodhew, IM 61, said alumni wouldn’t take well to a president who tried to eliminate three things of which they are particularly proud: ROTC, the Greek system and athletics. “Athletics is part of life here too,” Goodhew said. “It’s like the Greek system. It keeps life from being unbearable.” Potts agreed, saying, “This institution has a remarkable athletic history and tradition. There’d be a few people in this room who’d pitch a fit if a president tried to modify that. … Wayne understood it. He was educated here. That’s part of his DNA just like it’s a part of mine. “Somebody who comes in here from another institution may be the finest technologist in the world but they may not understand we bleed white and gold around here.” TechTopics | Winter 2008

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Tech Topics - Winter 2008 Contents Letters Buzz Around Town Alumni House Rockin’ Good Time State of the Institute The Hill Presidential Search Going Airborne Student Life An Architect’s Eyes Weight Coach Robot Burdell & Friends Ramblin’ Roll Rural Readers Leading Ladies Yellow Jackets Beyond His Years Leading Change Real World

Tech Topics - Winter 2008

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