Zhiqun Lin is currently Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focuses on nanostructured functional materials (NanoFM). An extensive list of materials currently under investigation in his group includes polymer-based nanocomposites, block copolymers, polymer blends, conjugated polymers, quantum dots (rods, tetrapods, wires), magnetic nanocrystals, metallic nanocrystals, semiconductor metal oxide nanocrystals, ferroelectric nanocrystals, multiferroic nanocrystals, upconversion nanocrystals, thermoelectric nancrystals, core/shell nanoparticles (nanorods), hollow nanocrystals, Janus nanocrystals, nanopores, nanotubes, hierarchically structured and assembled materials, and semiconductor organic-inorganic nanohybrids.

The goal of his research is to understand the fundamentals of these nanostructured materials. His group intends to create these nanostructures in a precisely controllable manner and to exploit the structure-property relationships in the development of multifunctional materials for potential use in energy conversion (e.g., solar cells, photocatalysis, and hydrogen generation) and storage (e.g., batteries), electronics, optics, optoelectronics, magnetic materials and devices, nanotechnology, and biotechnology.

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.

Materials for membranes, sorbents, and barrier packaging applications rely upon the same fundamental principles. Thermodynamically controlled partitioning of a penetrant, such as carbon dioxide into a membrane, sorbent or barrier packaging layer is the first step in the transport process. If the material is a polymer, cooperative motions of the matrix enable diffusive motion by the penetrant. In highly rigid carbon molecular sieves and zeolites, motion of the matrix is negligible, and penetrant transport is governed by the relative size of pre-existing pores and the penetrant molecule.

Koros’s group is a leader in developing advanced materials for membranes, sorbents, and barrier applications by optimization materials to either promote or retard transport of specific components. For instance, for a chosen penetrant such as carbon dioxide, the Koros group can create a barrier, a selective membrane, or a sorbent by materials engineering. Work is also underway in the Koros group to form “mixed matrix composite” materials comprised of blends of metal organic framework or other specialty components within the matrix of a conventional polymer. This approach allows further optimization of transport properties without sacrificing the ease of processing associated with conventional polymers.

Effects due to non equilibrium thermodynamic and non-Fickian transport phenomena are additional topics his group studies. Long lived conditioning effects due to exposure of membranes and barriers to elevated concentrations of certain penetrants are typical of such non equilibrium phenomena. Protracted aging of glassy polymers, carbons, and inorganic membranes after formation or conditioning treatments also are of interest to his research group. In many cases, these effects seem to defy logic—until one realizes that an expanded set of rules governs these out-of-equilibrium materials.

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).

Tom Fuller is Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Georgia Tech. Dr. Fuller received a BS from the University of Utah in Chemical Engineering in 1982. Dr. Fuller then served for five years in the U.S. Navy working as a Nuclear Engineer. In 1992 he obtained a Ph.D. from UC, Berkeley also in Chemical Engineering. 

Subsequently, Dr. Fuller developed advanced lithium batteries while working as a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He then moved to United Technologies. He was responsible for technology development, design, assembly, and test of cell stacks for UTC Fuel Cells. 

His research group at Georgia Tech is focused on durability challenges for electrochemical systems. For the last eight years Dr. Fuller has been a Technical Editor for the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. In 2009 Dr. Fuller was named a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

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. Deo came to Georgia Tech in August 2007 as an Assistant Professor of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering. Prior, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the Materials Science and Technology Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He studied radiation effects in structural materials (iron and ferritic steels) and nuclear fuels (uranium dioxide). He also obtained research experience at Princeton University (Mechanical Engineering), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories.

The research in Chen Group is cross-disciplinary, bridging mechanical engineering, chemistry, and materials science, focusing on electrochemical energy storage related materials and devices, as well as functional and structural metals/alloys. The technical expertise of the group include development and application of advance in situ characterization methods for energy storage devices, computation-aided materials design and novel synthesis methods for nanostructured materials.

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.