Environment Research | Research News Center

Researchers set up a lightning mapping array unit at a location near Atlanta

July 13, 2026

Georgia Tech Lightning Mapping Array Helps Protect World Cup Visitors

1 min read

A Georgia Tech lightning mapping array is helping authorities protect World Cup visitors from severe weather.

4 panel image: clockwise from upper left - solar panels in field, data center and cooling complex, Hormuz Island, gas pump in a car's fuel port

July 1, 2026

EPIcenter Experts in the News: AI, Prices, and the War

1 min read

EPIcenter Faculty Affiliates have recently contributed to more than a dozen news broadcasts, public radio interviews, and national media conversations on energy price trends, the war in Iran, and what these mean for everyday Americans.

June 24, 2026

Bruce Weinelt Joins BBISS as Managing Director

2 min read

Bruce will develop and lead BBISS’s external partnership and fundraising strategy, grounded in the Institute's academic research priorities.

United States map showing the eight regions of the CORE-CM Initiative. Courtesy: Department of Energy Core-CM Initiative

June 24, 2026

Mining New Possibilities for Critical Minerals: Mapping a Stronger U.S. Supply Chain

4 min read

A new Department of Energy award will help Georgia Tech lead a regional effort to identify, recover, and reuse materials essential to energy, manufacturing, and national security.

June 11, 2026

Scientist Maps Biodiversity on a Warming Southern Landscape

8 min read

Jenny McGuire is refining tools and partnerships that help protect biodiversity, from Atlanta’s urban canopy to the southern Appalachians.

Portrait of an individual photographed outdoors, shown from the shoulders up and wearing a dark red top. The background includes a textured stone column, greenery, and part of a building with a window visible behind the subject.

May 27, 2026

Data Centers, Microbes, and the Future of Water Reuse

5 min read

Metro Atlanta has become a magnet for hyperscale data centers and securing enough cooling water with wastewater reuse has unknown public health risks.

Emily Weigel, School of Biological Sciences

May 6, 2026

Emily Weigel Receives National Award for Excellence in Ecology Education

2 min read

The award celebrates Weigel's sustained, outstanding work in ecology education.

Collage of multiple individual portrait photos arranged in a grid, showing people photographed from the shoulders up in a variety of indoor and outdoor settings. Backgrounds include office spaces, greenery, campus walkways, and neutral studio backdrops, with individuals wearing professional or business‑casual clothing. The images vary in lighting and composition but share a consistent head‑and‑shoulders portrait style.

May 4, 2026

2026 Sustainability Next Seed Grants Awarded

3 min read

This year’s seed grant awards align with the four main thematic areas in which BBISS aims to enhance Georgia Tech’s research to address some of our most pressing sustainability challenges

April 28, 2026

James Stroud Awarded Linnean Society’s Bicentenary Medal

2 min read

The annual Bicentenary Medal is considered one of the most prestigious awards for researchers studying natural history.

Side‑by‑side comparison graphic showing two hurricane forecast visualizations. The left panel, labeled ‘Conventional Hurricane Map,’ displays a white cone of uncertainty over the Atlantic Ocean and southeastern United States with dated forecast points for Hurricane Florence, while the right panel, labeled ‘Inclusive Hurricane Map,’ shows a red shaded impact corridor over Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina with a storm track line and icons indicating storm categories near cities such as Atlanta, T

April 22, 2026

Communicating During a Crisis

5 min read

The Center for Inclusive Climate Communication (CICC) at Georgia Tech is a new and growing consortium of researchers, organizations, agencies, and companies whose goal is to ensure that climate and disaster information of all types is widely accessible.

Large group of people standing and seated in a bright industrial-style indoor space, gathered on and around a metal staircase and long tables. The setting includes exposed beams, railings, overhead lighting, and tables with notebooks, cups, and coats visible in the foreground.

March 25, 2026

Atlanta Area Students Partner With Community Organizations for Research Projects

4 min read

The Atlanta Community-Engaged Research Student Network launched this semester to train graduate students to co-lead community-engaged and locally focused research along with community-based organizations.

March 23, 2026

Four Challenges to the U.S. Energy Transition

1 min read

Reliable energy is a matter of national security. There are also vying economic policies to consider, political and financial incentives to navigate, and questions of social and economic inequality to consider.

Blue and orange spirals against a light blue background.

March 17, 2026

Turning Carbon Into Chemistry

4 min read

Georgia Tech researchers have developed a breakthrough system to manufacture valuable amino acids. It’s the most efficient system of its kind — and removes more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits.

A rural residence with solar panels installed outdoors, set among desert vegetation with mountains in the distance.

March 11, 2026

2 min read

A new study by EPIcenter affiliate Jamal Mamkhezri examines how public preferences for solar‑energy policy have shifted over a six‑year period in New Mexico, offering one of the first long‑term repeated cross‑section analyses of willingness to pay (WTP) f

February 27, 2026

New Research Priorities Chart Course Toward Impactful, Energy-Efficient Computing

3 min read

Georgia Tech faculty members contributed to two DOE Advanced Scientific Computing Research program workshops. Recently published reports of their work may yield more energy-efficient computers and better predictions for environmental challenges.

Three men's individual portrait-style photos are arranged side by side, each showing a person from the shoulders up. The individuals wear collared shirts and appear in different lighting settings, including a dark background, a neutral studio backdrop, and a bright white background.

February 24, 2026

Understanding the Data Center Building Boom

7 min read

Explosive data center growth requires research to inform policies which manage the building of this critical infrastructure.

A view inside the Scholars Event Theater of a session of the Sustainability Showcase. A man speaks to a crowd while presenting slides on a large projection screen.

February 18, 2026

2026 BBISS Sustainability Showcase Recap: Resilience Is About Systems

4 min read

Across disciplines and scales, a unifying theme emerged: resilience is not a single solution. It is a systems-level challenge requiring integration across science and technology, policy, communities, and human experience.

February 17, 2026

Mapping Mountain Birds in a Changing World: Benjamin Freeman Awarded Sloan Fellowship For Mountain Bird Ecology Research

4 min read

The fellowship is one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early-career scholars.

February 13, 2026

Christos Athanasiou to Receive 2025 Eshelby Mechanics Award for Young Faculty

2 min read

The award recognizes early-career researchers who’ve made impactful contributions to the field of mechanics.

Students visited Lachung and Chungthang in Sikkim, India. Upstream in the Teesta Valley, students examined how steep terrain and river confinement amplify flood forces and how failures can cascade across an entire corridor of infrastructure.

January 22, 2026

AI Tool Turns Disaster Zones Into Living Classrooms

4 min read

An AI-powered tool is changing how researchers study disasters and how students learn from them.