A. E-Mail & Telephones
The School and the Institute communicates with students through an e-mail account that is assigned to each student. It is essential that a student activate this account and check it every day. Students can do this at http://mail.gatech.edu or with your favorite email client.
We do not provide phones in student offices. Students may use the phones in the main office for emergency outgoing calls. However, the front office does not pass on telephone messages to students. Students actively engaged in research may have access to phones in the research space of their advisors. If so, outgoing calls must be restricted to professional matters. A phone for local calls is located adjacent to the mail room.
B. Mailboxes
Students have personal mailboxes in room W101. Check it every day. The mailing address is:
School of Physics
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0430
C. Office Space
Students will be assigned a desk somewhere in the School. Typically, students share an office with several other students. Later, they may move to a desk given to them by a thesis advisor.
D. Room Access
A student's Buzz Card opens the exterior doors of the Howey Physics Building. A student's key or Buzz Card opens a student's office, the mailroom, and the Interaction Zone. If you need access to additional rooms or buildings, please ask your advisor to request access through the appropriate building manager. If you are locked out of your office during business hours please see the Howey building manager, Alan Pruitt (Howey S103B). If you are locked out of your office or Howey outside of business hours, you will need to call a colleague for help or, in the case of an emergency, the Campus Police.
All room keys are State property and must be returned after graduation!
E. Travel Funds
I. Graduate Student Travel Awards
The Graduate Committee of the School of Physics invites graduate students to submit proposals to assist with upcoming professional travel to conferences and workshops. The awards are funded by the Amelio Endowment and the Weatherly Fund. Support will typically be up to $500 for a domestic trip and up to $1000 for an international trip. Larger amounts are possible (to support, e.g., attendance at summer schools), but would require additional justification and would depend on the availability of funds. The award will be dispersed as a reimbursement to the student after his or her return to campus and turning in receipts to the Financial Office (see reimbursement information in III.E). Only Ph.D. students in good standing are eligible for the Awards. That is, all students with overdue Thesis Proposals or Annual Reviews will not be considered for Travel Awards.
To be eligible for the award, the student must
- have an accepted abstract for either a talk or a poster at the conference or workshop (this can be omitted if there are no student presentations at the event -- this must be confirmed by the student's advisor)
- submit a 1-page justification for the travel, endorsed via email by their advisor. The student's name and their advisor's name should be listed in the proposal.
- submit a travel budget including the estimated costs of transportation, hotel, registration, per diem, etc.
- submit information on other sources of funding that have been obtained or are being sought
The proposal should be sent as a single PDF file by email to the Associate Chair for Student Success. The student's name must appear in the filename.
Depending on the availability of funds, submitted proposals will be discussed by the Graduate Committee on a quarterly basis and successful proposers will be notified shortly thereafter. The deadlines will be a subset of Feb 1, May 1, Aug 1, and Nov 1. If a competition is being held, a call for proposals will be sent out a month before the deadline. Within 10 days of returning from the trip, the student must provide to the Graduate Committee a 1 paragraph conference summary detailing the professional development gained on the trip.
A graduate student can only win a Travel Award once each calendar year.
Rare exceptions to the above guidelines must be approved by the full Graduate Committee.
II. SGA Funds
The Graduate Student Senate also has a fund to support professional travel. Apply directly to them through the student center (click here).
III. College of Science Doctoral Student Travel Supplement
The College of Science also provides some funds to supplement Ph.D. students to travel to present work at conferences. Download the application form and follow the instructions. Note that students need to already have obtained funds from the School and/or the SGA prior to applying to the College.
F. Security
Our campus is in an urban environment. Take special care if walking in the adjacent neighborhoods after dark. Security on the campus and in our building is very good. We need students help to keep it that way. All persons who have reason to be in this building at night or on weekends have a key. Therefore, there is never any reason to let a person in. Never prop open a door to allow people to enter. Always lock office doors. Anyone who steals the private property of another person (or of the School itself) will be dismissed from the program. If a student ever finds unauthorized persons in the building, open doors, or unusual activities, report them to the campus Police (Ext 2500) immediately.
