Valerie Thomas is the Anderson-Interface Chair of Natural Systems and Professor in the H. Milton School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, with a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy. 

Dr. Thomas's research interests are energy and materials efficiency, sustainability, industrial ecology, technology assessment, international security, and science and technology policy. Current research projects include low carbon transportation fuels, carbon capture, building construction, and electricity system development. Dr. Thomas is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the American Physical Society. She has been an American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellow, a Member of the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board, and a Member of the USDA/DOE Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee. 

She has worked at Princeton University in the Princeton Environmental Institute and in the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, and at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy.

Dr. Thomas received a B. A. in physics from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cornell University.

The Strategic Energy Institute is excited to welcome Scott McWhorter as a 2023 Distinguished External Fellow. Scott will co-lead the concept development, visioning, partnership, and preliminary capture activities for Georgia Tech on the Department of Commerce Tech Hubs (“Hubs”) and expand Georgia Tech’s hydrogen activities and stature.

Scott is not new to the Georgia Tech campus and has previously worked with Dan Campbell of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) on developing trace organic optical sensors based on evanescent waveguides. More recently, Scott worked with David Sholl (professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech through 2021), to develop the RAPID (Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment) Institute and then through his work with Southeast Hydrogen Energy Alliance (SHEA), started working with Comas Haynes of GTRI on hydrogen, where they brought together the ecosystem that was responsible for at least three hydrogen hub efforts in the South East.

Scott's work related to energy in his own words: 
My career has always related to energy even when I didn’t notice it. I started out in DNA microchips where we tried to understand the various aspects of fluidics (mass transport, thermal, and surface science) that influenced efficient separations. Using the tools from those efforts I transitioned into optical sensor development to monitor trace gases from the gas-solid catalyst interface in a fuel cell electrode to an unknown-unknown contaminant that might cause a failure mode in a weapons system. Over the past decade, my work in energy has focused namely on building partnerships in industrial manufacturing consortia (ManufacturingUSA Institutes) where I helped form both CESMII and RAPID and then focusing on developing technologies to solve the hydrogen storage and delivery challenges through either more efficient, energy dense solid-state storage or using electro magnetics to efficiently provide heat to catalysts to decompose a hydrogen carrier or plastic.

Dr. Medford is interested in leveraging materials informatics, statistics, and machine learning to maximize the practical impact of fundamental atomic-scale simulations in the field of surface science and catalysis. His research areas include heterogeneous catalysis, oxide surface chemistry, density functional theory, kinetic models, uncertainty quantification, and Bayesian optimization and inference.

Tim Lieuwen is the executive vice president for research (EVPR) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In this role, he oversees the Institute’s $1.37 billion portfolio of research, economic development, and sponsored activities. This includes leadership of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the Enterprise Innovation Institute, nine interdisciplinary research institutes (IRIs), and related research administrative support units.

In his 25-plus years at Georgia Tech, Lieuwen earned his master's and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering (1996 and 1999, respectively) and has held multiple leadership positions. He has been the executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) since 2012 and began serving as the interim chair of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering in 2023.

Lieuwen has received numerous honors and recognition for his work in clean energy systems and policy, national security, and regional economic development. Additionally, he has been awarded the titles of Regents’ Professor and the David S. Lewis, Jr. Chair in AE. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Seung Woo Lee joined the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in January of 2013. Lee received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at MIT, focusing on designing high-energy and high-power density nanostructured electrodes for electrochemical energy storage devices, and synthesizing catalysts for electrochemical energy conversion of small molecules such as methanol oxidation and O2 reduction. He conducted his postdoctoral research in designing electrodes for lithium rechargeable batteries and catalysts for solar energy storage in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Chemistry at MIT.

Paul Kohl received a B.S. degree from Bethany College in 1974 and Ph.D. from The University of Texas, both in Chemistry. After graduation, Kohl was employed at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ from 1978 to 1989. During that time, he was involved in the design and processing of electronic packages for Bell system components. He created new chemical processes for silicon, compound semiconductor, and MEMS devices. In 1989, he joined the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, where he is currently a Regents' Professor and holder of the Thomas L. Gossage/Hercules Inc. Chair. He is the President of The Electrochemical Society and past Editor of Journal of The Electrochemical Society and past founding editor of Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters. Kohl's research interests include the design of new materials, processes, and packages for advanced interconnect for integrated circuits and MEMS devices. He is the past Director of the Semiconductor Research Corporation/DARPA Interconnect Focus Center. The goal of this center was to create new technological solutions for future electronic devices. Current projects include creation of new photosensitive dielectric materials for electronic packaging and the design and fabrication of MEMS packages. He also has programs in new approaches to fuel cells and lithium batteries. The new direct methanol alkaline fuel cells and hybrid alkaline/acid fuel cells have the potential reduced water management and platinum free usage. The integration of high energy density lithium batteries for self-powered integrated circuits and sensors is of interest. Many of these electrochemical devices use ionic liquids as the electrolytes, including the all-sodium battery. Ionic liquids are also being used as the absorber in a new absorption refrigeration cycle. The first ever ionic liquid/fluorocarbon absorption refrigeration cycle has been demonstrated and modeled.