Alan Erera

Alan Erera
alan.erera@isye.gatech.edu

Alan Erera is a Manhattan Associates/Dabbiere Chair and the Associate Chair for Research in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. He is also the faculty director for the M.S. in Supply Chain Engineering program, Co-Director for Global Transportation in the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, and Co-Executive Director of the Georgia Tech Panama Logistics Innovation & Research Center.

His research focuses on transportation and logistics systems planning and control, with an emphasis on planning under uncertainty and real-time operational control.  His recent work has addressed dynamic vehicle routing systems for same-day distribution; resilient logistics network design for food supply chains; service network design, linehaul equipment management, and driver scheduling for consolidation freight carriers; robust container fleet management for global shipping companies; and robust and flexible vehicle routing system planning and control for distribution companies. He has written extensively in these subject areas, and has delivered over 100 technical presentations and invited lectures. His research program has been supported by federal agencies (DHS, USDOT, NSF) and major U.S. freight carriers and manufacturing firms.

He received his B.S. Eng. from Princeton University, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

UPS Professor of Logistics
Phone
(404) 385-0358
Additional Research
Hydrogen Storage/Transport; System Design & Optimization
IRI and Role
Energy > Hydrogen Group
Energy > Research Community
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Industrial Systems Engineering

Scott Duncan

Scott Duncan
sduncan@asdl.gatech.edu

Dr. Scott Duncan is part of the Research Faculty within the School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he is a member of ASDL’s Digital Engineering Division. In his current position, Dr. Duncan leads and manages multi-disciplinary research teams in projects relating to terrestrial infrastructure systems, including community energy systems comprising grid-interactive efficient buildings, district thermal systems, distributed energy resources (DERs), and microgrids. These teams assess and support the design of these systems by applying techniques from systems engineering, data analysis, modeling and simulation, visualization, optimization, digital twinning, and model-based systems engineering. Dr. Duncan co-manages, with Dr. Jung-Ho Lewe, the Energy Infrastructure and Data Engineering group, which is part of the long-running Smart Campus Initiative between ASDL and GT Infrastructure & Facilities. Dr. Duncan is a Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), serving on its the Terrestrial Energy Systems (TES) Technical Committee. He is also the Initiative Lead for GT’s Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) overseeing research operations for the Tech Square Microgrid.

Research Engineer II
SEI Lead: Microgrids
Phone
(404) 385-7707
Additional Research
Smart Infrastructure
IRI and Role
Energy > Fellow
Energy > Research Community
Energy
Sustainable Systems > Staff
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
Research Areas
Sustainable Systems
  • Resource and Materials Use

Alan Doolittle

Alan Doolittle
alan.doolittle@ece.gatech.edu

Professor Doolittle is a native of Jonesboro, Georgia. He graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering with highest honors in 1989. He later received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1996 from Georgia Tech. 

His thesis work revolved around identifying the device limiting defects in photovoltaic silicon materials using several custom designed and patented tools. He later worked as a Research Engineer II in the area of compound semiconductor growth with emphasis on wide bandgap semiconductors. He joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 2001. 

During his time at Georgia Tech he has helped develop academic programs in the areas of microelectronic fabrication, materials growth, characterization, and measurement system design. Professor Doolittle consults with industry in the areas of law, materials testing, MBE growth, and test equipment development. 
His hobbies include bible studies, classic cars, playing the guitar, and reading. Most of his free time is spent with his two teenage children.

Professor
Phone
(404) 894-9884
Additional Research
Electrical Grid; Energy Storage
IRI and Role
Energy > Research Community
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Deepak Divan

Deepak Divan
deepak.divan@ece.gatech.edu
Director, Intelligent Power Infrastructure Consortium
Phone
(404) 385-4036
Additional Research
Utilities; Electric Vehicles; Electrical Grid
IRI and Role
Energy > Research Community
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Claudio Di Leo

Claudio Di Leo
cvdileo@gatech.edu
Assistant Professor
Phone
(404) 894-0042
Additional Research
Energy Storage; Hydrogen
IRI and Role
Energy > Research Community
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Sheng Dai

Sheng Dai
sheng.dai@ce.gatech.edu

Sheng Dai, Ph.D., P.E., earned his degrees from Tongji University and Georgia Tech. He worked as an ORISE postdoc at the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, and returned to Georgia Tech as a faculty member in 2015. He is currently an associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ocean Science and Engineering. and holds a courtesy appointment at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech.

Dr. Dai's group addresses emerging energy and environment challenges through studying subsurface geomechanics, geomaterials characterization, energy geotechnics, bio-inspired geotechnics, flow in porous media, and granular dynamics. His research has been funded by federal funding agencies (DOE, NSF, NASA, DOT), national labs (INL, NETL), and industry (AECOM, GTI, Leidos).  Dr. Dai has been recognized for his research and teaching, including being a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the ORISE Fellowship, the Bill Schutz Junior Faculty Teaching Award, and the Class of 1969 Teaching Fellows at Georgia Tech.

He is an associated editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth and Advances in Geo-Energy Research, an editorial advisor of Geomechanics for Energy and Environment, and serves on the Pressure Core Advisory Board for U.S. Geological Survey, the GOM2 Marine Test Technical Advisory Committee for UT/DOE, the National Gas Hydrate Program for NETL, and the Task Force Leader of TC308 Energy Geotechnics of ISSMGE. 

Assistant Professor
Phone
(404)385-4757
Additional Research
Oil/Gas; Combustion; Electronics; Energy Harvesting; Energy Storage; Thermal Systems
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Energy > Hydrogen Group
Energy > Research Community
Bioengineering and Bioscience
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering

Christine Conwell

Christine Conwell
cconwell@gatech.edu

A principal research scientist, Christine Conwell is the interim executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) since September 2024 and has served as the director of planning and operations since 2020. She oversees strategic and annual planning within SEI and partners with campus researchers and units to create and execute strategic programs and events. Most recently, she led the development of a new five-year action plan and launched a signature initiative to build energy-focused research partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions.  

Before her role at SEI, Conwell was managing director of the $40 million NSF-NASA Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE) in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where she oversaw daily operations, fostered collaborations between 12 universities and other partners, and developed outreach and educational programs. Annually, she worked with more than 80 faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and students and advised on key opportunities to maximize the center's impact. She served as a key leader within CCE’s management team and, in 2020, she was awarded Georgia Tech’s prestigious Outstanding Achievement in the Research Enterprise Award for her leadership.

Conwell holds a B.S. in molecular biology and chemistry from Westminster College in Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Georgia Tech. She has authored several peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and grants on her research in DNA biophysics and non-viral gene delivery, and was a postdoctoral recipient of the NIH Ruth Kirschstein National Research Service Award. During her time at Georgia Tech, Conwell has served as a member of the Research Faculty Senate and the Faculty Executive Board, and she was selected as a member of the fifth Leading Women at Georgia Tech cohort.

Interim Executive Director, Strategic Energy Institute
Additional Research

Oil/Gas

IRI and Role
Energy > Leadership
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology

Thomas Champion

Thomas Champion
thomas.champion@ece.gatech.edu
Research Engineer
Phone
(404) 675-1867
Additional Research
Utilities; Electrical Grid
IRI and Role
Energy > Research Community
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Susan Burns

Susan Burns
susan.burns@ce.gatech.edu

Susan E. Burns, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE is a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and associate chair for administration and finance at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Burns earned a B.C.E. in civil engineering (1990), an M.S. in civil engineering (1996), an M.S. in environmental engineering (1996), and Ph.D. in civil engineering (1997), all from Georgia Tech. After completing her Ph.D., Professor Burns joined the faculty at the University of Virginia where she served for over seven years. In 2004, she joined the faculty at Georgia Tech as an associate professor. 

Burns' research focuses on applications in geoenvironmental engineering, with particular emphasis on the productive reuse of waste materials including dredged sediments, fly ash, and biomass fly ash, treatment of highway stormwater runoff using engineered materials, erosion control of soils on highway rights-of-way, interfacial behavior of organic- and inorganic-coated soils, the transport and behavior of microbubbles in otherwise saturated porous media, and the hydraulic conductivity and consolidation properties of fine-grained soils using seismic piezocone penetration testing (SPCPT). Funding for her research group has come from federal, state, and industry sources, including a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in 2000. Burns has also received major funding from the US Department of Energy, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Department of Education, the Virginia Transportation Research Council, the Georgia Department of Transportation, Southern Company, and other industrial sources. 

Burns is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award (ASCE), the Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award (ASCE), the Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award (University of Virginia), and the David Harrison III Award for Undergraduate Advising (University of Virginia). She was awarded a University Teaching Fellowship (University of Virginia), and was named a Class of 1969 Teaching Scholar (Georgia Tech) and a Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow (Georgia Tech). Most recently, she was selected as the recipient of the 2012 CEE appreciation award (CEE, Georgia Tech) and a 2012 Class of 1934 Teaching Effectiveness Award. She was elected Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2013. 

Burns has served as the president of the United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER), an organization of approximately 400 professors of geotechnical engineering in the US and abroad (www.usucger.org). She is a past member of the National Research Council's (NRC) Standing Committee on Geological and Geotechnical Engineering, and a past member of the NRC's Committee on Assessment of the Performance of Engineered Waste Containment Barriers. She has chaired the American Society of Civil Engineers/GeoInstitute Geoenvironmental Engineering Committee, and is a past member of the GeoInstitute Awards Committee, and the Transportation Research Board's Committee on Physicochemical Phenomena in Soils. Additionally, she served as an editorial board member for ASCE's Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. She served on the organizing committee for the International Symposium on Deformational Characteristics of Geomaterials (IS Atlanta 2008) and the Fifth International Conference on Scour and Erosion, and served as the editor for proceedings at both conferences. 

At Georgia Tech, Burns has chaired the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering's graduate committee, served on the School's statutory advisory committee, served as the graduate coordinator for the Geosystems Group, and served as the group leader for the geosystems group in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She was the School's associate chair for undergraduate programs for five years before taking over as associate chair for finance and administration in 2018. At the Institute level, she has served as a member of the Academic Senate and General Faculty Assembly and the Student Academic and Financial Affairs Committee.

Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Associate Chair for Finance & Administration; School of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Phone
404.894.2285
Additional Research

Geosystems; Geomaterials; Materials Design; Nanocomposites; Transport of Microbubbles

IRI and Role
Energy > Research Community
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Marilyn Brown

Marilyn Brown
marilyn.brown@pubpolicy.gatech.edu

Marilyn Brown is a Regents' and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy. She joined Georgia Tech in 2006 after a distinguished career at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she led several national climate change mitigation studies and became a leader in the analysis and interpretation of energy futures in the United States. 

Her research focuses on the design and impact of policies aimed at accelerating the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies, with an emphasis on the electric utility industry, the integration of energy efficiency, demand response, and solar resources, and ways of improving resiliency to disruptions. Her books include Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), Green Savings: How Policies and Markets Drive Energy Efficiency (Praeger, 2015), and Climate Change and Global Energy Security (MIT Press, 2011). She has authored more than 250 publications. Her work has had significant visibility in the policy arena as evidenced by her numerous briefings and testimonies before state legislative bodies and Committees of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

Dr. Brown co-founded the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance and chaired its Board of Directors for several years. She has served on the Boards of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Alliance to Save Energy, and was a commissioner with the Bipartisan Policy Center. She has served on eight National Academies committees and is an Editor of Energy Policy and an Editorial Board member of Energy Efficiency and Energy Research and Social Science. She served two terms (2010-2017) as a Presidential appointee and regulator on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power provider. From 2014-2018 she served on DOE’s Electricity Advisory Committee, where she led the Smart Grid Subcommittee.

Regents' Professor
Brook Byers Professor
Phone
(404) 385-0303
Additional Research
Hydrogen Equity; ClIMaTe/Environment; Electrical Grid; Policy/Economics; Energy & Water
IRI and Role
Sustainable Systems > Core Faculty
Data Engineering and Science > Faculty
Energy > Hydrogen Group
Energy > Research Community
Sustainable Systems
Data Engineering and Science
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts > School of Public Policy
Research Areas
Sustainable Systems
  • Climate Science, Solutions, and Policy
  • Global Sustainable Development