Donggang Yao is a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees both from University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his B.S. degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He teaches and directs research in the broad area of polymer engineering. His current research focuses on polymer micromolding, fiber spinning, single-polymer composites, constitutive modeling, and process modeling and simulation. He has published over 60 journal papers and 80 conference papers on polymer processing. He was a recipient of NSF Career Award in 2003 for his research on polymer micromolding. He chaired the ASME Composites and Textile Engineering Technical Committee from 2009 to 2011. He currently serves as an associate editor for ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering and an editorial board member for Polymer Engineering and Science.

In May 2000, Dr. Yang earned his doctorate degree in environmental and resource engineering from the College of environmental science and forestry, State University of New York. He also held M.S. degree and B.Sc. degree in pulping and paper. He first joined IPST, the former of RBI at Georgia Tech, in 2000 as a post doctor fellow. Soon he was hired as research scientist I. In 2006, he was promoted to be research scientist II. In 2013, he was appointed to be the manager of pulping and bleaching lab. Beginning from 2016, Dr. Yang has been teaching Pulp & Bleaching Lab (ChBE4873). In 2019, he was assigned additional duty in managing chemical analysis lab. With strong educational background in wood chemistry, coupled with the acquired skills and experience in chemical analysis., Dr. Yang’s main area of interest was utilizations of natural resources, especially biomass, in a sustainable way. He also interested in the development of novel online detection and monitoring in chemical process, and providing technical services to the industries and research communities.

Wang's research is in the areas of design, manufacturing, and Integrated computational materials engineering. He is interested in computer-aided design, geometric modeling and processing, computer-aided manufacturing, multiscale simulation, and uncertainty quantification.

Currently, Wang studies integrated product-materials design and manufacturing process design, where process-structure-property relationships are established with physics-based data-driven approaches for design optimization. The Multiscale Systems Engineering research group led by him develops new methodologies and computational schemes to solve the technical challenges of high dimensionality, high complexity, and uncertainty associated with product, process, and systems design at multiple length and time scales.

Computational design tools for multiscale systems with sizes ranging from nanometers to kilometers will be indispensable for engineers' daily work in the near future. The research mission of the Multiscale Systems Engineering group is to create new modeling and simulation mechanisms and tools with underlying scientific rigor that are suitable for multiscale systems engineering for better and faster product innovation. Our education mission is to train engineers of the future to gain necessary knowledge as well as analytical, computational, communication, and self-learning skills for future work in a collaborative environment as knowledge creators and integrators. 

Krista S. Walton is the Associate Dean for Research & Innovation in the College of Engineering and Professor and Robert "Bud" Moeller Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. She received her B.S.E. in chemical engineering from the University of Alabama-Huntsville in 2000 and obtained her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 2005, working with Prof. M. Douglas LeVan. Prof. Walton completed an ACS PRF Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University in 2006 under the direction of Prof. Randall Snurr.

Her research program focuses on the design, synthesis, and characterization of functional porous materials for use in adsorption applications including carbon dioxide capture and air purification. She has published > 80 peer-reviewed articles and presented dozens of plenary lectures and invited seminars. Prof. Walton currently serves as an Associate Editor for the ACS Journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, and is the Director and Lead PI of Georgia Tech’s DOE Energy Frontier Research Center, UNCAGE-ME. Prof. Walton’s accomplishments have been recognized by many prestigious awards including the inaugural International Adsorption Society Award for Excellence in Publications by a Young Member of the Society (2013) and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2008).

Belinda Vogel joins us as the new Research Engagement Manager for the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute and the Renewable Bioproducts Institute, where she’ll strategically build corporate and industry partnerships, coordinate collaborative research opportunities, and drive innovation. 

Eric M. Vogel is currently professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Tech in August 2011, he was an associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering and electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) where he was also associate director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence and led UT Dallas's portion of the Southwest Academy for Nanoelectronics. Prior to joining UT Dallas in August of 2006, he was leader of the Semiconductors and Novel Devices Group and founded the Nanofab at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in 1998 in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and his B.S. in 1994 in electrical engineering from Penn State University. Professor Vogel's research interests relate to materials and devices for future micro-/nano-electronics. He has published over 150 journal publications and proceedings, written six book chapters and given over 75 invited talks and tutorials.

The Tong Lab tackles challenges in the interdisciplinary areas of bioresource engineering and sustainable chemistry. We develop innovative technologies for producing chemicals, materials, energy, and fuels from renewable resources.

Current research interests include:

• Functional biomaterials for high-efficiency circular economy
• Platform chemicals and hydrocarbon fuels from renewable resources
• Sustainable process control and modeling
• Nano-biomaterial synthesis and self-assembling
• Polymer degradation and recycling

Disciplines:

• Materials and Nanotechnology

• Energy and Sustainability

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.