The Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine received a Grand Award and an Award of Excellence and TECH TOPICS won an Award of Excellence from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education District III.

The Alumni Magazine received the Grand Award in the general news story or series category for "Viewing Cancer in a New Light," a 24-page special section that appeared in the Winter 2005 edition.

Managing editor Kimberly Link-Wills received an Award of Excellence in the feature writing category for the Fall 2005 Alumni Magazine cover story "The Road Less Traveled," which chronicled the Appalachian Trail journey of Gene Espy.

TECH TOPICS received an Award of Excellence from CASE for its 2005 issues. The awards were presented during the 2006 CASE District III conference in Nashville, Tenn., in February.

The Georgia Tech Research Institute received two CASE awards. John Toon, Research News and Publications Office manager, won the Grand Award for speech writing.

The speech, "Innovation in Our Future: The Challenges Ahead," was written for Wayne Hodges, vice provost for Economic Development and Technology Ventures, and delivered at a national meeting of electric membership cooperatives.

GTRI also received a Special Merit Award for media relations projects for the ULTRA AP (armored patrol) vehicle.

TECH TOPICS and the Alumni Magazine are produced quarterly by the Alumni Association's Communications office.

Thirty years ago, complained an alumnus to the laughter of the crowded ballroom at the Capital City Country Club in Atlanta, the oil crisis of the 1970s created chaos at the gas pumps and severely infringed on his dating. Now the oil crisis is once again creating havoc in his life, he lamented to a panel of experts discussing energy and the economy at a Georgia Tech Alumni Network event.

"What's really being done and why haven't we done these things during the last 30 years?" he asked.

Sam Shelton, a mechanical engineering professor at Tech and a member of the panel, fielded the question and remarked that the country is boosting development of ethanol.

"It's all about economics it seems," Shelton said concerning production of the alternative fuel. "Are we willing to put our future on our ability to get oil from an unstable region of the world?"

A crowd of about 120 attended the Jan. 31 energy discussion, sponsored by Flag Bank and Morgan Keegan. Joseph W. Evans, IM 71, chair and CEO of Flag Financial Corp., introduced the panel. The Alumni Association has made the event available by podcast.

Joining Shelton on the energy panel was Donald Ratajczak, a nationally renowned economist and consultant with Morgan Keegan & Co., and Michael Drickamer, the company's vice president on equity research. Jeff Dickerson, president of Dickerson Communications, was moderator.

"I'm shocked," Ratajczak said. "Last year oil prices were down to $23 a barrel. We were at $55 a barrel before Hurricane Katrina. Of course, the hurricane did disrupt production and prices shot up to $70 a barrel. We all panicked. A year ago we never thought we'd get to $43 a barrel. Then all of a sudden China and India together increased their consumption of oil 1.5 million barrels of oil a day. The world's demand was running at 1.5 million and 2 million barrels of oil a day."

Hurricane Katrina accelerated America's crisis, Ratajczak said, cutting out 28 percent of the oil supply and 15 percent of the supply of natural gas.

"Oil has been our fail-safe mechanism. It's no longer there and that's the big problem." Shelton observed. "Everyone in the world is running wild regarding oil production. The difference between the situations today with the situation in the 1970s, when I got into the energy area is the oil production capability in the Middle East and OPEC.

"Today there is a geological limitation. It's going to be very difficult for us to drill our way out of this."

Shelton said the United States peaked in its oil production in 1970.

"One country after another every year is peaking in its oil production," he said. "At some point the whole world will peak in its oil production. That's just a geological fact. Some people say we are peaking now. Some people say we'll peak in 2020 or 2030. It's the technological challenge we're facing in the next decade or two.

America's transportation needs depend on liquid fuel, Shelton added. The development of ethanol is one of the few liquid fuel alternatives to oil — "about the only one we can use in our current infrastructure."

Ethanol can be produced from corn and also from excess pulpwood from Southern pine trees, he said. One alumnus asked about coal gasification.

The Southern Co. is building a $557 million coal gasification plant in Orange County, Fla., of which the Department of Energy is contributing $235 million, Shelton answered. It is part of DOE's $2 billion, 10-year Clean Coal Power Initiative that also includes construction of coal gasification plants in New Mexico, Minnesota and Texas.

"Oil is cheap — it's cheaper than bottled water," a member of the audience said. "Why does our government not impose a tax on gasoline? I don't understand why we're paying all this money to the Middle East when we could be paying it to ourselves."

Ratajczak offered, "I really do believe we need a windfall profits tax that a person can earn back by spending on increased capital exploration for production."

Dickerson replied, "Oil is cheaper than bottled water. That's an interesting observation."