Chris Jones was born in suburban Detroit, Michigan in July of 1973. After his primary and secondary schooling and 14 years living Troy, Michigan, he enrolled as a chemical engineering student at the University of Michigan. In route to earning a BSE in chemical engineering, Chris carried out research on transition metal carbide and nitride catalytic materials under the direction of Levi Thompson. After graduating in 1995, Chris moved to Pasadena, California, to study inorganic materials chemistry and catalysis under Mark E. Davis at Caltech. There he earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering in 1997 and 1999, respectively. Subsequently, he studied organometallic chemistry and olefin polymerization under the direction of both Davis and John E Bercaw at Caltech. He started as an assistant professor at Georgia Tech in the summer of 2000 and was promoted to associate professor in July 2005. In May, 2005, he was appointed the J. Carl and Sheila Pirkle Faculty Fellow, followed by a promotion to professor in July 2008. He was named New-Vision Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in July 2011. In 2015, he became the Love Family Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and in 2019 the William R. McLain Chair. Chris was named the associate vice president for research at Georgia Tech in November 2013. In this role, he directed 50% of his time on campus-wide research administration with a primary focus on interdisciplinary research efforts and policy related to research institutes, centers and research core facilities. In 2018, he served as the interim executive vice-president for research, before returning full time to his research and teaching roles in chemical and biomolecular engineering in 2019.

Jones directs a research program focused primarily on catalysis and CO₂ separation, sequestration and utilization. A major focus of his laboratory is the development of materials and processes for the removal of CO₂ from air, or “direct air capture” (DAC). In 2010 he was honored with the Ipatieff Prize from the American Chemical Society for his work on palladium catalyzed Heck and Suzuki coupling reactions. That same year, he was selected as the founding Editor-in-Chief of ACS Catalysis, a new multi-disciplinary catalysis journal published by the American Chemical Society. In 2013, Chris was recognized by the North American Catalysis Society with the Paul E. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis and by the American Society of Engineering Education with the Curtis W. McGraw Research Award. In 2016 he was recognized by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers with the Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering, distinguishing him as one of the top academic chemical engineers under 45. In 2020, after ten years building and leading ACS Catalysis, he was selected as the founding Editor-in-Chief of JACS Au by an international editorial search committee commissioned by the ACS. Dr. Jones has been PI or co-PI on over $72M in sponsored research in the last seventeen years, and as of December 2020, has published over 300 papers that have been cited >28,000 times. He has an H-Index of 82 (Google Scholar).

Ching-Hua Huang, Ph.D., is the Turnipseed Family Chair and Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Huang received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Huang’s expertise includes environmental chemistry, advanced water/wastewater treatment technology, contaminants of emerging concern, sustainable water reuse, waste remediation and resource recovery. Huang has supervised many research projects sponsored by various agencies, and has published more than 170 peer-reviewed journal papers, book chapters and conference proceeding papers. She is the Associate Editor of the American Chemical Society's Environmental Science & Technology Water and the Editorial Advisory Board member of Environmental Science & Technology. 

Fedorov's background is in thermal/fluid sciences, chemical reaction engineering as well as in applied mathematics. His laboratory works at the intersection between mechanical and chemical engineering and solid state physics and analytical chemistry with the focus on portable/ distributed power generation with synergetic CO₂ capture; thermal management of high power dissipation devices and electronics cooling; special surfaces and nanostructured interfaces for catalysis, heat and moisture management; and development of novel bioanalytical instrumentation and chemical sensors. Fedorov joined Georgia Tech in 2000 as an assistant professor after finishing his postdoctoral work at Purdue University.

Dr. Chen has an extensive research interests in environmental science and engineering. More specifically, he is a leading researcher in the environmental applications of nanomaterials and their potential fate, transport, transformation, bioaccumulation and toxicity in the environment. His interests in environmental nanomaterials dated back in his graduate research in 1992. He has also been active on algae based bio-renewable energy and sustainable urban development. Dr. Chen has been principle and co-principal investigators for 28 research projects (by June 2010) funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, Boeing and other organizations. The total funds are $7 million. He has also served as a review member or panel review member in the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy evaluation committee. He has also been invited to serve as an abroad review expert for the China Changjiang Scholars Program (which is to awarded to the top researchers in China). He has published more than 40 papers and two book chapters in this field.

Dr. Chen received his Ph.D in Nankai University, China. He joined the Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering in May 2009. Till then, he was an Associate Professor Research at the Arizona State University.