Following a nationwide search, Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera has named Timothy Lieuwen the Executive Vice President for Research (EVPR). Lieuwen has served as interim EVPR since September 10, 2024. 

“Tim’s ability to bridge academia, industry, and government has been instrumental in driving innovation and positioning Georgia Tech as a critical partner in tackling complex global challenges,” said Cabrera. “With his leadership, I am confident Georgia Tech will continue to expand its impact, strengthen its strategic collaborations, and further solidify its reputation as a world leader in research and innovation.” 

A proud Georgia Tech alumnus (M.S. ME 1997, Ph.D. ME 1999), Lieuwen has spent more than 25 years at the Institute. He is a Regents’ Professor and holds the David S. Lewis, Jr. Chair in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. Prior to the interim EVPR role, Lieuwen served as executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute for 12 years. His expertise spans energy, propulsion, energy policy, and national security, and he has worked closely with industry and government to develop new knowledge and see its implementation in the field. 

Lieuwen has been widely recognized for his contributions to research and innovation. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, as well as a fellow of multiple other professional organizations. Recently, he was elected an International Fellow of the U.K.’s Royal Academy of Engineering, one of only three U.S. engineers in 2024 to receive this prestigious commendation. The honor acknowledges Lieuwen’s contributions to engineering and his efforts to advance research, education initiatives, and industry collaborations.  

He has authored or edited four books, published over 400 scientific articles, and holds nine patents — several of which are licensed to industry. He also founded TurbineLogic, an analytics firm working in the energy industry. Additionally, Lieuwen serves on governing and advisory boards for three Department of Energy national labs and was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Energy to the National Petroleum Council.  

The EVPR is the Institute’s chief research officer and directs Georgia Tech’s $1.37 billion portfolio of research, development, and sponsored activities. This includes leadership of the Georgia Tech Research Institute, the Enterprise Innovation Institute, nine Interdisciplinary Research Institutes and numerous associated research centers, and related research administrative support units: commercialization, corporate engagement, research development and operations, and research administration.  

“I am honored to step into this role at a time when research and innovation have never been more critical,” Lieuwen said. “Georgia Tech’s research enterprise is built on collaboration — across disciplines, across industries, and across communities. Our strength lies not just in the breakthroughs we achieve, but in how we translate them into real-world impact.  

“My priority is to put people first — empowering our researchers, students, and partners to push boundaries, scale our efforts, and deepen our engagement across Georgia and beyond. Together, we will expand our reach, accelerate discovery, and ensure that Georgia Tech remains a driving force for progress and service.” 

As the Los Angeles fires quickly spread starting Jan. 7, with wind gusts approaching 100 mph, scientists observed a 110-fold rise in airborne lead levels. This spike had receded by Jan. 11.  

The fires enabled the first real-time data on airborne lead, thanks to a pioneering air quality measurement network known as Atmospheric Science and Chemistry (ASCENT), a nationwide initiative funded by the National Science Foundation, operating in 12 sites across the U.S.  

ASCENT measured tiny particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5) — small enough to enter the lungs and bloodstream. Unlike typical wildfires that burn natural materials such as grass and trees, the Eaton Canyon and Palisades fires burned through infrastructures like homes, including painted surfaces, pipes, vehicles, plastics, and electronic equipment. This raised concerns about the toxicity of these particles in the air, especially since many of the buildings were constructed before 1978, when lead paint was still commonly used.  

Lead is a toxic air contaminant that poses significant health risks, particularly for children, who are more vulnerable to its neurodevelopmental effects. While chronic lead exposure is well-documented, the effects of short-term spikes, like those recorded during these fires, are less understood. 

“Our work through ASCENT,” said Sally Ng, Georgia Tech’s Love Family Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the network’s principal investigator, “has provided us with new insights into the air we breathe, with unprecedented levels of detail and time resolution. Beyond the mass concentration of PM2.5 that is typically measured, we are now able to detect a wide range of chemical components in the aerosols in real time, to better understand and evaluate to what extent one is exposed to harmful pollutants.” 

Investigators used several instruments to obtain hourly measurements at the ASCENT monitoring site in Pico Rivera, approximately 14 miles south of the Eaton Canyon fire, to assess atmospheric lead during the wildfires.  

“Our findings showcased the importance of having real-time measurements of the chemical species that comprise particulate matter,” said California Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate in atmospheric chemistry and ASPIRE researcher Haroula Baliaka. “During the LA fires, we provided the public with timely information about what they were breathing and how air quality evolved in the days that followed.”   

This research has been published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.  

Someday, your drinking water could be completely free of toxic “forever chemicals.” 

These chemicals, called PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), are found in common household items like makeup, nonstick cookware, dental floss, batteries, and food packaging. PFAS permeate the soil, water, food, and air, and they can remain in the environment for millennia. Once inside the human body, PFAS can persist for years, suppressing the immune system and increasing cancer risk.  

Georgia Tech researchers, armed with a cutting-edge machine learning (ML) model, are spearheading a multi-university initiative. Their goal? To design a better membrane that efficiently removes PFAS from drinking water, a significant source of human exposure. 

“More than 200 million Americans in all 50 states are affected by PFAS in drinking water, with 1,400 communities having levels above health experts’ safety thresholds,” noted the study’s principal investigator Yongsheng Chen, Bonnie W. and Charles W. Moorman IV Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Chen also directs the Nutrients, Energy, and Water Center for Agriculture Technology, or NEW Center. “Our research aims to provide a scalable, efficient, and sustainable solution for mitigating these toxic chemicals’ impact on human health and the environment.”  

The resulting work, funded with over $10 million in multiyear grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Science Foundation, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was recently published in Nature Communications.   

Sewage Treatment Limitations
Conventional water treatment processes are ineffective at removing PFAS. Too often, traditional cleansing methods, such as using chlorine to kill pathogens in water, create harmful byproducts. 

“Solving one problem creates another problem,” said Chen. 

He has already used ML and artificial intelligence in precision agriculture to monitor nutrient levels in plants and insists that tackling PFAS removal similarly requires new approaches. Rather than treating an entire body of water, Chen’s team first separated PFAS from the water stream. Success depended on finding the right membrane material to isolate the chemicals in the water.  

Chen relied on a team of 10 Ph.D. students and nine research scientists to perform the ML modeling. In addition to Georgia Tech, two other schools contributed people and laboratory expertise. The University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) validated the model with molecular simulations, while Arizona State University (ASU) trained it using data from scientific literature and their lab. 

“Applying machine learning to membrane separation represents an exciting frontier for environmental engineering,” said Tiezheng Tong, an associate professor of environmental engineering in ASU’s School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. 

This is another step in tackling PFAS pollution, a widespread problem that has recently received significant public attention due to PFAS’ toxic nature and the recent EPA ruling on PFAS in drinking water, he said. 

“By integrating with molecular simulation tools, we can better understand PFAS transport across nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes, pushing the boundary of fundamental science relating to membrane separation,” Tong said.