Baratunde A. Cola is a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his degrees from Vanderbilt University and Purdue University, all in mechanical engineering, and was a starting fullback on the Vanderbilt football team as an undergrad. Cola has received a number of prestigious early career research awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers (PECASE) in 2012 from President Obama for his work in nanotechnology, energy, and outreach to high school art and science teachers and students; the AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science in 2013; and the 2015 Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In addition to research and teaching, Cola is the founder and CEO of Carbice Corporation, which sells a leading thermal management solution for the global electronics industry.

Morris Cohen received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2003 and 2010, respectively, and served as a research scientist until August 2013. From September 2012 until August 2013, Dr. Cohen was appointed as AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation. 

In Fall 2013, he joined the faculty in the School of ECE. He is a winner of the NSF CAREER Award in 2017, the ONR Young Investigator Award in 2015, and was chosen for the Santimay Basu Prize in 2014, an award given once per 3 years to an under-35 scientist by the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). 

Dr. Cohen is interested in the natural electricity of the Earth, including lightning, the electrically charged upper atmosphere, and the radiation-filled space environment. He uses radio waves at low frequencies measured all around the world to understand them, and develops resulting practical applications. His group also works on novel techniques to generate low frequency waves with nonconventional electrically-short antennas. He is an author of more than 60 journal publications. He employs a “flipped classroom” model in some of his courses to make the experience more active and engaging. 

He enjoys hiking, cooking, and traveling the world for work and play with his family.

Gerald Wayne Clough is President Emeritus of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and former Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. A graduate of Georgia Tech in civil engineering, he was the first alumnus to serve as President of the Institute. 

The Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, which officially opened its doors in August 2011, is named in his honor. Clough has garnered many other awards and honors, including the title of President Emeritus, two Norman Medals, eight honorary degrees, and membership in the National Science Board.

After earning his doctorate, Clough began his academic career as an assistant professor at Duke University in 1969. He joined the faculty at Stanford University in 1974 first as an associate professor and then later as full professor. In 1982, he joined the faculty of Virginia Tech as a professor of civil engineering and served as head of their Department of Civil Engineering for seven years. In 1990, Clough became dean of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering. Clough continued his research and instruction of graduate students at Virginia Tech in addition to his administrative responsibilities. Clough's research focused on geotechnical engineering, including earthquake studies, numerical analysis, soil structure interaction, in-situ testing, and underground openings. In 1993, he became provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Washington. Clough cofounded the United States Universities Council of Geotechnical Engineering Research (USUCGER), and served as the organization's first president during 1993.

Paige Clayton is an Assistant Professor in the School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Tech. She is also affiliated with the CREATE Economic Development Research Center at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. Dr. Clayton joined Georgia Tech in 2020 after completing her Ph.D. in Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a concentration on entrepreneurship and innovation, regional economic development, and science and technology policy. At the University of North Carolina, Dr. Clayton received the Nancy W. Stegman Fellowship and the Dissertation Completion Fellowship. During her PhD, she held visiting positions at SKEMA Business School (Sophia Antipolis, France) and at UCLA’s Department of Geography. 

Dr. Clayton’s research focuses on regional patterns of economic development and how entrepreneurship and innovation influence local economies. Key themes include entrepreneurial support organizations, social network analysis, entrepreneurial ecosystems, university technology transfer, research & development, and institutions, and the connections between these factors which help support local entrepreneurship and innovation. Her research has been published in Research Policy, Industrial & Corporate Change, Academy of Management Perspectives, the Journal of Technology Transfer, Industrial Labor & Relations Review, International Regional Science Review, and the Oxford Handbook on Entrepreneurship and Collaboration, among others. 

Paige is an alumna of Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy and a native Atlantan.

Professor Citrin earned a B.A. from Williams College (1985) and a M.S. (1987) and a Ph.D. (1991) from the University of Illinois, all in physics, where his dissertation was on the optical properties of semiconductor quantum wires. Subsequently, he was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany (1992-1993) and Center Fellow at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science at the University of Michigan (1993-1995). Dr. Citrin was an assistant professor of physics and materials science at Washington State University (1995 to 2001).

Professor Citrin joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2001 where his work focuses on terahertz technology and nanotechnology. He is a recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and of a Friedrich Bessel Award from the Alexander Von Humboldt Stiftung. In addition, he is Project Coordinator on Nonlinear Optics and Dynamics at Georgia Tech-CNRS UMI 2958 located at Georgia Tech-Lorraine. Professor Citrin’s research in terahertz imaging is featured in the Georgia Tech press release, ”Imaging Technique Unlocks the Secrets of 17th Century Artists"; a list of some media placements from the press release may be found at http://photonics.georgiatech-metz.fr/node/33.

Research interests: 

• Terahertz nondestructive testing of materials
• Terahertz characterization of art and cultural heritage
• Chaos and nonlinear dynamics in external-cavity semiconductor lasers
• Nanophotonics
• High-speed electronic, photonic, and optoelectronic devices
• Nonlinear optical properties of semiconductor materials and devices

Edmond Chow is a Professor in the School of Computational Science in the College of Computing. He previously held positions at D. E. Shaw Research and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His research is in developing and applying numerical methods and high-performance computing to solve large-scale scientific computing problems and seeks to enable scientists and engineers to solve larger problems more efficiently using physical simulation. Specific interests include numerical linear algebra (preconditioning, multilevel methods, sparse matrix computations) and parallel methods for quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, and Brownian/Stokesian dynamics.  Chow earned an Honors B.A.Sc. in systems design engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada, in 1993, and a Ph.D. in computer science with a minor in aerospace engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1997. Chow was awarded the 2009 ACM Gordon Bell prize and the 2002 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

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.

Dr. Chance retired from Global Thermostat at the end of 2022, where he served as a Senior Science Advisor. He continues at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he serves as an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Chance began his career with Honeywell Corporation, holding a number of research positions including Research Manager for Electronic Materials.

In 1986, he joined Exxon as the Director of their Polymers and Fluids Laboratory, later serving as Division Manager for their Paramins Technology division, and as Distinguished Scientific Advisor in ExxonMobil’s Corporate Strategic Research Laboratories. Dr. Chance retired from ExxonMobil in 2006 and joined the Georgia Institute of Technology as a faculty member with a joint appointment in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, continuing also as Distinguished Scientific Advisor Emeritus at ExxonMobil from 2006-2009. 

He joined Algenol Biofuels (2009-2019) as Executive Vice President for Engineering. Dr. Chance's scientific interests are focused on CO² capture and utilization, including Direct Air Capture, as a mitigation strategy for climate change. 

Dr. Chance has organized several international scientific meetings and served on numerous university and industrial advisory boards. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles, edited two books, and authored over 30 patents. He was elected Fellow in The American Physical Society in 1988 and was the 2018 recipient of the Lawrence B. Evans Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, an institute level award for career achievement.

Mr. Caravati is a Principal and Founder of Applied Plasma Arc Technologies, LLC and a Senior Research Scientist and Professional Geologist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the applied research arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of Dayton, Ohio, and a Master of Science in Geology-Hydrogeology track from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. He earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration (International Business) from the Stetson School of Business and Economics at Mercer University in Atlanta. He began work with GTRI in 2002.

Mr. Caravati served as a Hydrogeologist, Project Manager, and Project Director for a wide range of water resources and water quality projects in the United States, Mexico and England. He has led numerous water resource investigations that included delineating watersheds using aerial imagery and GIS tools, well installation and testing programs, monitoring and field data collection programs, and developing ground water flow and contaminant transport models for predictive studies. Since 2008, he served as Director of the Environmental Safety and Occupational Health Programs at GTRI, and as Program Manager for environmental engineering research for a global services provider. Mr. Caravati also served as a research lead in Georgia Tech’s Plasma Arc Research Facility. 

Mr. Caravati’s areas of research include the design and prototyping of dry sanitation systems; testing of chemical and biological sensor systems for environmental applications; modeling of renewable energy systems for rural areas; water supply and wastewater studies for sustainability and energy efficiency; and water resource investigations for rural watersheds in developing countries. He serves as a Research Advisor to Georgia Tech’s Engineering Students Without Borders chapter, and in 2007 he led or participated in projects in Angola, Bolivia, and Yellowstone National Park, and served in an advisory capacity for projects in Kenya, Japan, Korea, Guam, and Ireland.