Oliver Brand, the executive director of the Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN), passed away on April 13, 2023. He was a valued researcher, leader, colleague, and friend.

Described by friends and colleagues as a true gentleman scholar, Brand made a lasting impact on those he met.

“Oliver was a gentle soul. He led IEN with empathy and advocated vigorously for his team,” said Chaouki Abdallah, executive vice president for research at Georgia Tech. “When asked to participate in large research initiatives, he was inclusive and effective. He knew when to lead, and when to support. Our recent successes in capturing large semiconductor funding are largely due to Oliver’s expertise and his leadership. I will miss him.”

“Oliver was beloved by staff, students, and faculty alike at Georgia Tech and around the world. He was a delightful person who made every occasion brighter with his kindness, dedication, passion, and intellect,” added Julia Kubanek, vice president of interdisciplinary research at Georgia Tech. “His research contributions have been far-reaching, exemplifying true transdisciplinarity. He advocated tirelessly for the career interests and needs of researchers, especially his students as well as the research faculty and staff of IEN. He made IEN a true family and we will miss him enormously.”

Brand spent more than 20 years as a member of the Georgia Tech faculty and officially began his role as executive director of IEN in 2014. In addition to leading IEN, he was a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), the director of the Coordinating Office for the NSF-funded National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) as well as director of the Southeastern Nanotechnology Infrastructure Corridor, one of the 16 NNCI sites.

“Oliver's impact at Georgia Tech and ECE was exceptional, as very few individuals in any academic setting can match the magnitude of his influence,” said Arijit Raychowdhury, the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair of ECE. “While he was undoubtedly a distinguished figure in the research community, Oliver was equally renowned at ECE as a mentor and educator. He had a unique ability to instill his enthusiasm for learning and exploration in you, motivating you to strive for excellence not just professionally, but more importantly as a friend and human being.”

Brand was passionate about supporting and connecting those doing basic and applied research in the areas of electronics and nanotechnology, and under his direction, IEN grew to include more than 200 faculty members at Georgia Tech from multiple colleges and departments.

"During his tenure as executive director of IEN, Oliver skillfully guided the significant expansion of Georgia Tech's world-class research programs, core facilities, and educational activities in electronics and nanotechnology,” said Michael Filler, associate director for research programs in IEN. “He was instrumental in securing the coordinating office for the NSF-supported National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure. Most importantly, Oliver was cherished by the IEN community for his unassuming yet effective approach to team building and his unwavering commitment to supporting others."

“As director of IEN, Oliver’s leadership put Georgia Tech at the international forefront in nanotechnology and user facilities,” added Eric Vogel, executive director of the Institute for Materials and former deputy director of IEN. “While Oliver’s professional impact was immense, I will most remember that he was good to everyone he interacted with."

Brand was a leading researcher in the area of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and, in particular, the development of micro-scale physical, chemical, and biological sensors. He used his expertise in this area to help create the NIH-funded Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies (ACME POCT), a center focused on the development and translation of microsystems-engineered technologies including microchip-enabled devices, MEMs-based sensors, microfluidics, and smartphone-based systems. ACME POCT was instrumental in developing accurate Covid-19 tests as part of the NIH’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative, which was critical in slowing the spread of the virus.

“Oliver was a true pioneer in the field of microsystems engineering and nanotechnology. In more recent years, his interest expanded to the development of sensors for medical applications, and I had the good fortune of partnering with him on multiple collaborations,” said Wilbur Lam, a professor in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and Brand’s co-director of ACME POCT. “During the last several years, thanks in large part to Oliver’s leadership, our Center served as the national test validation center to verify the performance of Covid-19 diagnostics for the NIH and FDA, and Oliver and our team helped the entire country in ‘testing the tests’ to combat the global pandemic.”

In a 2022 article published by the New York Times, Bruce Tromberg, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Engineering, called Brand and the rest of the team “absolutely heroic” for their contributions to the Covid-19 pandemic. The team also received the Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development Award at the annual Georgia Tech Faculty and Staff Honors Luncheon in the spring of 2022 for their work in this area.

Throughout his career, Brand co-authored more than 120 publications in scientific journals and conference proceedings. He received the 2011 ECE Distinguished Mentor Award and the 2012 ECE Richard M. Bass/Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Teacher Award, which is determined by the vote of the ECE senior class. He also served as general co-chair of the 2008 IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, co-editor of the Wiley-VCH book series Advanced Micro and Nanosystems, was a member of the editorial board of Sensors and Materials, a co-recipient of the 2005 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award, and a senior member of IEEE.

He is survived by his beloved wife, Claudia, and his children Marina and Tim. He will be deeply missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him.

Krishnendu “Krish” Roy, biomedical engineering professor and founding director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), is leaving Georgia Tech to accept a leadership post at Vanderbilt University.

In a news story published today, Vanderbilt announced it has hired Roy as its next Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering.

“It is hard to part ways with the place and people you love,” said Roy, Regents’ Professor and Robert A. Milton Endowed Chair in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

“I am excited about the incredible opportunities at Vanderbilt, but at the same time, sad to leave my Georgia Tech and CMaT family behind,” Roy added. “I am profoundly grateful for all the support I have received over the years from the administrators, faculty, staff, and students at Georgia Tech.”

A pioneer in the field of immunoengineering – particularly in the development and use of biomaterials and cellular engineering tools to solve biomedical problems – Roy came to Georgia Tech in 2013 from the University of Texas-Austin. He’ll begin his new role at Vanderbilt on August 1.

Roy also is director of the Marcus Center for Cell Characterization and Manufacturing (MC3M), Center for Immunoengineering, and a researcher in two interdisciplinary research institutes at Georgia Tech – the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB), and the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN).

Two teams from Georgia Tech have been awarded a combined $15 million from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for basic research projects as part of the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. MURI seeks to fund research teams with creative and diverse solutions to complex problems and is a major part of the DoD’s research portfolio.

Alper Erturk (Lead PI), Carl Ring Family Chair and professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and Yuhang Hu, associate professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, were awarded $7.5 million for their project, Bio‐Inspired Material Architectures for Deep Sea (BIMADS). Randall Engle, professor in the School of Psychology, was awarded the same amount for his project titled Understanding and Building Overall Cognitive Capability Through Attention Control.

Erturk and Hu’s interdisciplinary project will explore the fundamental science behind the biological characteristics that allow deep sea fish to adapt and survive in high pressure ocean environments. They will then translate those findings to engineer bioinspired materials needed to realize the Navy’s advanced capabilities in deep sea environments.

“In the deep ocean, marine organisms have evolved to thrive in high pressure environments, and adapt to pressure changes while remaining functional,” Erturk said. “Our goal for this project is to discover, test, and translate biological mechanisms into synthetic materials and structures that can dynamically adapt to high pressures in the ocean.”

Specifically, the researchers will test and explore the origins of the biological mechanisms (both molecular and macroscopic) that underlie the ability for deep sea snailfish to adapt to high pressures, pressure changes, and pressure differentials across material interfaces. Using findings from the biological studies, the researchers will design synthetic materials and structures that will then be evaluated in high pressure chambers.

“Knowledge gained from these studies will provide insight toward the design of structures spanning from atmospheric dive suits to robotic fish for the deep ocean,” Hu said.

BIMADS brings together experts in marine biology, bioengineering, biomimetic materials, chemistry, mechanochemistry and multiphysics chemomechanical modeling, hydrogel synthesis, biohybrid material fabrication, and the design, mechanics, and dynamics of architected structures. In addition to Erturk and Hu, the team also includes Anna Balazs and Lance Davidson from the University of Pittsburgh, John Costello from Providence College, Shashank Priya from the University of Minnesota, and Andrew Sarles from the University of Tennessee.

Attention Control in Naval Training

Engle’s project will explore the brain’s mechanisms of attention control and investigate methods to potentially improve it or reduce its decline.

“We want to better understand the role that controlling attention and individual differences in that ability has in real-world, complex tasks such as flying a plane, driving a car, or even studying for a physics test,” Engle said. “We expect this work will help the Navy identify job trainees who are best able to attend to complex tasks, and also help to mitigate the effects of fatigue and mind wandering common to those tasks.”

According to Engle, the Navy trains about a thousand air traffic control professionals each year and spends over $100,000 per candidate. But nearly a quarter of candidates fail training, leading to significant financial waste.

Engle’s work with air traffic control trainees showed that current evaluations used to select candidates for training only predicts a small percentage of success. Engle found that, by using his measures of ability to control attention in evaluations, the Navy could more than double predictive success in candidate training. In addition, researchers found that Engle’s measures appeared to have less adverse impact and bias against women and minority candidates.

Engle’s collaborative research team includes researchers from MIT, the University of Chicago, Purdue University, and Michigan State University. Each team member is studying a different aspect of attention control.

Professor Omer Inan is set to take the stage at the upcoming TEDxAtlanta 2023: We Rise event on May 19.

As the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chair in bioscience and bioengineering in Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Inan designs clinically relevant medical devices and systems and translates them from the lab to patient care applications. In his talk, Inan will be discussing his groundbreaking research on wearable healthcare technologies and the potential they hold for revolutionizing the field.

Inan is a member of the prestigious Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows (elected in 2022) for his “outstanding contributions to the non-invasive assessment of the mechanical aspects of cardiovascular health and performance using wearable devices.” Additional achievements include an Academy Award for Technical Achievement from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Oscars, 2021), the Georgia Power Professor of Excellence for the College of Engineering (2019), and the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program award (NSF CAREER, 2018).

TEDxAtlanta 2023: WE RISE brings together an impressive group of participants from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. The speakers include entrepreneurs, activists, educators, artists, scientists, and many other changemakers who have risen above challenges to make a positive impact on the world.

The event's participants will share their stories and insights on how they have overcome adversity, embraced innovation, and challenged the status quo to make a difference in their communities and beyond. Through their talks, they will inspire and empower attendees to rise above their own challenges and take action towards creating a better future for all.

TEDxAtlanta 2023: WE RISE will take place on Friday, May 19 from 9 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. at the Rialto Center for the Arts (80 Forsyth Street Northwest Atlanta, GA 30303). Learn more and purchase tickets at tedxatlanta.com.