To request a media interview, please reach out to experts using the faculty directories for each of our six schools, or contact Jess Hunt-Ralston, College of Sciences communications director. A list of faculty experts is also available to journalists upon request.



Southeast wildfires driven by climate and weather patterns

Zachary Handlos, Georgia Tech atmospheric science educator, explains how drought, heat, and shifting weather patterns are fueling more intense Southeast wildfires.

11Alive News

Opinion: Why the Southeast is burning. Extreme drought is only part of the reason.

Zachary Handlos, senior academic professional in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, explains how weather patterns can lead to conditions conducive to the types of wildfires currently seen in Florida and Georgia. 

This piece also appeared in The Washington Post and The Conversation.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

Angle of collision between galaxies affects the merger of supermassive black holes

Researchers have long known that when two galaxies approach each other and merge, the supermassive black holes at their centers form a pair and are eventually expected to merge as well.  It is precisely these mergers that are considered one of the sources of the gravitational-wave background — a faint “hum” of spacetime detected in recent years. However, the role played by the geometry of the collision in this process has remained an open question. 

Graduate student Sena Ghobadi of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Physics, along with her colleagues, has developed three-dimensional dynamic models of such collisions. 

A similar story appeared in Sky & Telescope

Universe Magazine

It’s a sing‑off! Myth‑busting about birds and sex when it comes to defending the nest

Assistant Professor Benjamin Freeman and graduate student Shreyas Arashanapalli of the School of Biological Sciences detail their study on the use of birdsong for territorial defense. They highlight that male birds — and many female birds — sing and defend territories. Their examination uncovered that cooperative territorial defense is especially common in birds with long-term social bonds or that live close to the equator.

The Conversation

Drawdown Georgia Launches Climate Outlook Maps To Help Communities Plan for the Future

ATLANTA, GA / ACCESS Newswire / March 30, 2026 / Drawdown Georgia today announced the launch of the Drawdown Georgia Climate Outlook Maps, a new tool designed to help civic, business, and community leaders understand and visualize how Georgia's climate may change between now and 2050-and what those changes could mean for infrastructure, agriculture, public health, and economic development.

Yahoo Finance