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

Blair Brettmann

Blair Brettmann
blair.brettmann@mse.gatech.edu

Blair Brettmann received her B.S. in chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin in 2007. She received her Master’s in chemical engineering practice from MIT in 2009 following internships at GlaxoSmithKline (Upper Merion, PA) and Mawana Sugar Works (Mawana, India). Blair received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at MIT in 2012 working with the Novartis-MIT Center for Continuous Manufacturing under Professor Bernhardt Trout. Her research focused on solid-state characterization and application of pharmaceutical formulations prepared by electrospinning. Following her Ph.D., Brettmann worked as a research engineer for Saint-Gobain Ceramics and Plastics for two years. While at Saint-Gobain she worked on polymer-based wet coatings and dispersions for various applications, including window films, glass fiber mats and architectural fabrics. Later, Brettmann served as a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago with Professor Matthew Tirrell. Currently, Brettmann is an assistant professor with joint appointments in chemical and biomolecular engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Assistant Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Material Science and Engineering
RBI Co-Lead: Interface of polymer science and wood-based materials
Phone
404.894.2535
Office
MoSE 31100P
Additional Research

Pharmaceuticals, polymer and fiber, printing technologies, polymers, nanocellulose applications, new materials, wet-end chemistry, manufacturing, biotechnology, cellulosic nanomaterials, chemistry, biomaterials, aerogels and hydrogels, coating, coatings and barriers, films and coatings

IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Renewable Bioproducts > Affiliated Faculty
Renewable Bioproducts > Leadership
Bioengineering and Bioscience
Renewable Bioproducts
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Materials Science Engineering

Victor Breedveld

Victor Breedveld
victor.breedveld@chbe.gatech.edu
Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies
Professor and Frank Dennis Faculty Fellow
Phone
404.894.5134
Office
Ford Environmental Science & Technology Building, Room 1222
Additional Research
Biofuels; Papermaking, Coatings & Barriers; Films & Coatings; Biomaterials; Structure and Reheology of Complex fluids; Rheology of Bioengineering Materials
IRI and Role
Manufacturing > Affiliated Faculty
Renewable Bioproducts > Affiliated Faculty
Energy > Research Community
Manufacturing
Renewable Bioproducts
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Fani Boukouvala

Fani Boukouvala
fani.boukouvala@chbe.gatech.edu

Dr. Boukouvala is originally from Piraeus, which is the port of Athens in Greece. As the daughter of an airforce pilot, she travelled a lot with her family. Her first international move was actually to the USA, where she spent one year in Montgomery, Alabama. She later on lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Crete, Greece, before returning to Athens to get her B.S Degree in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University in Athens. In 2008, she moved back to the US to obtain a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Rutgers University in NJ. She then worked as a Postdoctoral Associate in both Princeton University and Texas A&M University. In August 2016, Dr. Boukouvala returned to the South East US, as an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. 

Her research interest in Process Systems Engineering (PSE) started during her PhD years, where she worked under the supervision of Dr. Marianthi Ierapetritou, on modeling and optimization of continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing. Her background on optimization and data-driven modeling was enhanced during her years as a postdoc with the late Christodoulos A. Floudas. Dr. Boukouvala is a proud 4th generation member of the academic family tree of the father of PSE, Roger Sargent.

Assistant Professor
Phone
(404) 385-5371
Additional Research
System Design & Optimization; Energy; Sustainability
IRI and Role
Sustainable Systems > Fellow
Renewable Bioproducts > Affiliated Faculty
Energy > Research Community
Sustainable Systems
Renewable Bioproducts
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering
Research Areas
Sustainable Systems
  • Resource and Materials Use

Andreas Bommarius

Andreas Bommarius
andreas.bommarius@chbe.gatech.edu

Andreas (Andy) S. Bommarius is a professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering as well of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA.  He received his diploma in Chemistry in 1984 at the Technical University of Munich, Germany and his Chemical Engineering B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1982 and 1989 at MIT, Cambridge, MA.

From 1990-2000, he led the Laboratory of Enzyme Catalysis at Degussa (now Evonik) in Wolfgang, Germany, where his work ranged from immobilizing homogenous catalysts in membrane reactors to large-scale cofactor-regenerated redox reactions to pharma intermediates.

At Georgia Tech since 2000, his research interests cover green chemistry and biomolecular engineering, specifically biocatalyst development and protein stability studies.  His lab applies data-driven protein engineering to improve protein properties on catalysts ranging from ene and nitro reductases to cellobiohydrolases.  Bommarius has guided the repositioning of the curriculum towards Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering by developing new courses in Process Design, Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering, as well as Drug Design, Development, and Delivery (D4), an interdisciplinary course with Mark Prausnitz.

Andy Bommarius in 2008 became a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.  Since 2010, he is Director of the NSF-I/UCR Center for Pharmaceutical Development (CPD), a Center focusing on process development, drug substance and product stability, and novel analytical methods for the characterization of drug substances and excipients.

Professor
RBI Initiative Lead: A Renewables-based Economy from WOOD (ReWOOD)
Phone
404-385-1334
Office
EBB 5018
Additional Research
Biomolecular engineering, especially biocatalysis, biotransformations, and biocatalyst stability. Biofuels. Enzymatic Processing; Biochemicals; Chip Activation.
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Renewable Bioproducts > Faculty
Renewable Bioproducts > Leadership
Energy > Research Community
Bioengineering and Bioscience
Renewable Bioproducts
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Saad Bhamla

Saad Bhamla
saadb@chbe.gatech.edu

Saad Bhamla studies biomechanics across species to engineer knowledge and tools that inspire curiosity.

Saad Bhamla is an assistant professor of biomolecular engineering at Georgia Tech. A self-proclaimed "tinkerer," his lab is a trove of discoveries and inventions that span biology, physics and engineering. His current projects include studying the hydrodynamics of insect urine, worm blob locomotion and ultra-low-cost devices for global health. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Economist, CNN, Wired, NPR, the Wall Street Journal and more.

Saad is a prolific inventor and his most notable inventions includes a 20-cent paper centrifuge, a 23-cent electroporator, and the 96-cent hearing aid. Saad's work is recognised by numerous awards including a NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, CTL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, and INDEX: Design to Improve Life Award. Saad is also a National Geographic Explorer and a TED speaker. Newsweek recognized Saad as 1 of 10 Innovators disrupting healthcare.

Saad is a co-founder of Piezo Therapeutics.

Outside of the lab, Saad loves to go hiking with his partner and two dogs (Ollie and Bella).

Assistant Professor
Phone
404-894-2856
Office
ES&T L1224
Additional Research

Biotechnology; Complex Systems; Materials and Nanotechnology. The Bhamla Lab explores fundamental and applied research questions through the development of new experimental tools and techniques at the intersection of soft matter, organismic physics and global health. Ultra-fast Organismic Physics Biologists are just starting to systematically examine ultrafast motion across species (jellyfish, mantis shrimp, trap-jaw ants), some of which achieve accelerations exceeding a million g-forces in nanoseconds. At the single-cell level, the physical biology of ultra-fast motility remains poorly understood. What is the fastest motion a single cell can achieve? How do single-cell organisms amplify power and survive repeated high accelerations? These fundamental questions guide our exploration of several non-model unicellular and multicellular organisms to uncover the principles of extreme motility at cellular scales. Biological Soft Matter Our bodies are composed almost entirely of soft, wet, squishy materials. How do the fundamental principles of soft matter and complex fluids enable us to grasp dynamic processes, from the self-assembly of proteins to the stretching of a spider web? We study a spectrum of biological soft matter, from the tears on our eyes to biological foams from insects, with the goal of connecting the microscale structures (lipids, proteins) to their consequences for macroscale biological function (contact lens-eye interaction, microbiome health). As engineers, we leverage this understanding for human-health applications, ranging from diagnostics and monitoring to artificial therapeutic replacements and biomedical devices. Frugal Science and GlobalHealth Today, although information is free to anyone with internet, access to scientific tools and healthcare devices still has many barriers. How do we design and build tools that are scientifically rigorous, but cost a few cents on the dollar? Driven by the spirit of doing “frugal science”, we box ourselves in to find out of the box solutions for global challenges in science education, agriculture, and healthcare. Projects in this area include field-work, science outreach, and citizen-science initiatives. Disciplines: Biotechnology Complex Systems Materials and Nanotechnology

IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Renewable Bioproducts > Faculty
Bioengineering and Bioscience
Renewable Bioproducts
Matter and Systems > Affiliated Faculty
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Research Areas
Matter and Systems
  • Computing and Communication Technologies

David Anderson

David Anderson
david.anderson@ece.gatech.edu

David V. Anderson received the B.S and M.S. degrees from Brigham Young University and the Ph.D. degree from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in 1993, 1994, and 1999, respectively. He is currently a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. Anderson's research interests include audio and psycho-acoustics, machine learning and signal processing in the context of human auditory characteristics, and the real-time application of such techniques. His research has included the development of a digital hearing aid algorithm that has now been made into a successful commercial product. Anderson was awarded the National Science Foundation CAREER Award for excellence as a young educator and researcher in 2004 and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in the same year. He has over 150 technical publications and 8 patents/patents pending. Anderson is a senior member of the IEEE, and a member the Acoustical Society of America, and Tau Beta Pi. He has been actively involved in the

Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Phone
404.385.4979
Office
TSRB 543
Additional Research

Audio and Psycho-AcousticsBio-DevicesDigital Signal ProcessingLow-Power Analog/Digital/Mixed-Mode Integrated Circuits 

IRI and Role
People and Technology > Affiliated Faculty
Matter and Systems > Affiliated Faculty
People and Technology
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Areas
Matter and Systems
  • Computing and Communication Technologies

Cyrus Aidun

Cyrus Aidun
cyrus.aidun@me.gatech.edu

Dr. Aidun joined the Woodruff School as a Professor in 2003 after completion of a two-year period as program director at the National Science Foundation. He began at Tech in 1988 as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology. Prior, he was a research Scientist at Battelle Research Laboratories, Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University and Senior Research Consultant at the National Science Foundation's Supercomputer Center at Cornell. 

Dr. Aidun's research is at the intersection between fundamentals of the physics of complex fluids/thermal transport and applications to engineering and biotransport. He has a diverse research portfolio in fluid mechanics, bioengineering, renewable bioproducts and decarbonization of industrial processes. 

A major focus has been to understand the physics of blood cell transport and interaction with glycoproteins (e.g., vWF) with applications to cardiovascular diseases.

Professor
Phone
404-894-6645
Office
Love Building, Room 320
Additional Research
Computational analysis of cellular blood flow in the cardiovascular system with applications to platelet margination, thrombus formation, and platelet activation in artificial heart valves. Thermal Systems. Chemical Recovery; Papermaking.
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Renewable Bioproducts > Affiliated Faculty
Energy > Research Community
Bioengineering and Bioscience
Renewable Bioproducts
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

Amirali Aghazadeh

Amirali Aghazadeh
aaghazadeh3@gatech.edu

Amirali Aghazadeh is an Assistant Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and also program faculty of Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, and Bioengineering Ph.D. programs. He has affiliations with the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEAS) and Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences. Before joining Georgia Tech, Aghazaeh was a postdoc at Stanford and UC Berkeley and completed his Ph.D. at Rice University. His research focuses on developing machine learning and deep learning solutions for protein and small molecular design and engineering.
 

Assistant Professor
Phone
713-257-5758
Office
CODA S1209
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Data Engineering and Science > Faculty
Data Engineering and Science
Bioengineering and Bioscience
Matter and Systems > Affiliated Faculty
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Research Areas
Matter and Systems
  • Frontiers in Infrastructure
  • Computing and Communication Technologies

Alexander T. Adams

Alexander Adams
aadams322@gatech.edu

Alex Adams’s research focuses on designing, fabricating, and implementing new ubiquitous and wearable sensing systems. In particular, he is interested in how to develop these systems using equity-driven design principles for healthcare. Alex leverages sensing, signal processing, and fabrication techniques to design, deploy, and evaluate novel sensing technologies.

Originally a musician, Alex became fascinated by how he could capture and manipulate sounds through analog hardware and digital signal processing, which led him back to his hometown (Concord, NC). Alex completed his BS at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2014 and his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 2021 (advised by Professor Tanzeem Choudhury). Alex then became the resident Research Scientist for the Precision Behavioral Health Initiative at Cornell Tech (NYC) until the fall of 2022, when he joined the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Currently, his research focuses on the equity-driven design and the development of multi-modal sensing systems to simultaneously assess mental and physical health to enable a new class of mobile health technologies.

Assistant Professor
Office
237 TSRB
IRI and Role
Bioengineering and Bioscience > Faculty
Robotics > Core Faculty
Bioengineering and Bioscience
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Computing > School of Interactive Computing