Faculty Experts for News Media

These Ivan Allen experts are among those who can comment on issues currently in the news:

When it comes to inflationary pressures stalking holiday shoppers, things are likely to get worse before they get better, predicts Willie Belton, an economist in Georgia Tech’s School of Economics, a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand, and people are going to spend, or try to spend, for the holidays as they always have,” Belton predicts. “But this is going to exacerbate the shortages, and that’s going to further drive prices up. You’re going to hear a lot of hollering and screaming about prices until January, when prices will start to fall off a cliff as demand goes down and the supply chain starts to get squared away.”

Belton can discuss the causes of current inflation, the impact of the federal infrastructure plan in future inflation, and the role the Covid-19 pandemic could continue to play in pricing.

A Russian anti-satellite missile test Monday that generated thousands of pieces of debris, posing a potential danger to satellites and even the international and Chinese space stations, highlights the urgent need for orbital “rules of the road," says Mariel Borowitz, an expert in space policy in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

“The fact that we have not developed norms for appropriate behavior in space means Russia can do what they just did, which is obviously bad for all actors,” said Borowitz.

Borowitz can address whether the incident could boost efforts to implement an international agreement on responsible behavior in space, the subject of a U.N. General Resolution earlier this year. She can also discuss Russia’s potential liability under the sole, poorly litigated treaty governing such incidents, should any damage occur.

Amit Prasad is a sociologist in the School of History and Sociology who has studied Covid-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation and comes to the conclusion that efforts to stamp them out are doomed to fail. Instead, he argues government and public health leaders should carefully examine the social and cultural contexts that give rise to and help further such beliefs.