Dr. Beril Toktay is Regents' Professor and the Brady Family Chairholder in the Scheller College of Business. She serves as Executive Director of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems. A globally recognized leader in sustainable operations management, Dr. Toktay has dedicated her career to bridging academic excellence with real-world impact in sustainability research and education.

Since joining Georgia Tech in 2005, Dr. Toktay has established herself as an influential leader in sustainability scholarship and cross-institute initiatives. She founded the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business and co-created the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS). Under her leadership as Executive Faculty Co-Director, the SLS team expanded sustainability-focused academic community engagement across Georgia Tech until its 2024 institutionalization as the Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education within BBISS. Most recently, she co-chaired Georgia Tech's Sustainability Next Strategic Plan Implementation Team, under which Georgia Tech recommitted to growing BBISS, elevated and restructured the Office of Sustainability, and launched the Sustain-X startup accelerator, educational innovation and transdisciplinary research seed grant programs, the Climate Action Plan, and the Sustainability Education Curriculum Committee.

A Distinguished Fellow of the INFORMS Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society, Dr. Toktay is internationally recognized for her research in sustainable operations management spanning circular economy models and climate mitigation strategies. Her circular economy research includes developing improved Extended Producer Responsibility cost allocation mechanisms recommended for adoption by the UK government. Her climate mitigation work features in a multi-university project that identified Georgia's top twenty decarbonization solutions, catalyzing the creation of the 70-member Drawdown Georgia Business Compact facilitated by the Ray C. Anderson Center.

Dr. Toktay serves on the boards of the New York Climate Exchange, Georgia Cleantech Innovation Hub, and Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability. Her former professional service includes VP for Marketing, Communications and Advocacy at INFORMS, Department Co-Editor for "Health, Environment, and Society" at Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and Area Editor for "Environment, Energy, and Sustainability" at Operations Research. She served as the Scheller College of Business ADVANCE Professor from 2012-2020.

Dr. Toktay’s research has earned recognition including being named among the World's Top Business and Management Scientists (Research.com, 2024),the  M&SOM Best Paper Award (2021), the M&SOM Responsible Research Award (2019), and the Management Science Best Paper in Operations Management Award (2015).

Her commitment to developing the next generation of sustainability leaders earned her Georgia Tech's Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Advisor Award (2018) and recognition as a E3 Impact Award Finalist (2019) by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce for Serve-Learn-Sustain's impact on Atlanta communities. She co-developed the Carbon Reduction Challenge, an interdisciplinary program that engages undergraduate students in climate intrapreneurship and which earned top ten finalist recognition from Reimagine Education among 1,184 projects from 39 countries.

Dr. Toktay holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from MIT, an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University, and B.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Mathematics from Bogazici University.

Tequila A. L. Harris is a Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and is the director of the Highly Advanced Roll-to-Roll iManufacturing Systems (HARRiS) group. Her research focuses on investigating the fundamental science associated with manufacture of polymer thin films from fluids (e.g., solutions, dispersions, slurries, etc.) as they are coated onto permeable or impermeable surfaces to make components or devices. She explores the connectivity between thin film functionality, based on their manufacture or structure, and their life expectancy, to elucidate mechanisms by which performance or durability can be predicted. In addition to conducting computational analysis, developing analytical models and running experiments, Harris also develops new manufacturing technologies to fabricate thin films, in wide area or discrete patterns. Target applications are well-suited for a variety of industries including food, energy, electronic, and environmental systems to name a few. In conjunction with her research activities, she is committed to the education, mentoring, and advisement of students towards scholarly achievements. She has published over fifty peer-reviewed articles. Harris has several awards including the National Science Foundation's young investigator CAREER Award and the Lockheed Inspirational Young Faculty Award.

Professor Kurfess began his academic career at Carnegie Mellon University where he rose to the rank of Associate Professor. In 1994, he moved to the Georgia Institute of Technology where he rose to the rank of Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. In 2005, he was named Professor and BMW Chair of Manufacturing in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research. In 2012, he returned to Georgia Tech as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the HUSCO/Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control.

During 2012-2013, Dr. Kurfess was on leave serving as the Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President of the United States of America. In this position he had responsibility for engaging the Federal sector and the greater scientific community to identify possible areas for policy actions related to manufacturing. He was responsible for coordinating Federal advanced manufacturing R&D, addressing issues related to technology commercialization, identifying gaps in current Federal R&D in advanced manufacturing, and developing strategies to address these gaps. During  2019-2021 he was on leave serving as the Chief Manufacturing Officer and the Founding Director for the Manufacturing Science Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he was responsible for strategic planning in advanced manufacturing.

Professor Kurfess has served as a special consultant of the United Nations to the Government of Malaysia in the area of applied mechatronics and manufacturing, and as a participating guest at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in their Precision Engineering Program. He has testified in a number of patent cases, including testifying at the International Trade Commission (ITC). He is currently the President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and also serves on the Board of Governors of ASME. He is the CTO of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) and serves on its Board of Directors. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), and on the Board of Trustees of the MT Connect Institute. He served on the Board of Directors for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and was the President of SME in 2018. He is an appointed member of the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Advisory Committee for Nuclear Security, and an appointed member of the Department of the Navy Science and Technology Board.

His research focuses on the design and development of advanced systems targeting the automotive sector (OEM and supplier) including vehicle and production systems. He has significant experience in high precision manufacturing and metrology systems. He has received numerous awards including a National Science Foundation (NSF) Young Investigator Award, an NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship Award, the ASME Pi Tau Sigma Award, SME Young Manufacturing Engineer of the Year Award, the ASME Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award, the ASME Gustus L. Larson Award, an ASME Swanson Federal Award, and the SME Education Award. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the AAAS, the SME and the ASME.

My research focuses on engineering-driven machine learning methodologies for real-world problems in manufacturing and healthcare. The objective is to develop new models that combine learning methods with domain knowledge, in order to improve (i) efficiency, performance, and interpretability of the learning models; and (ii) productivity, scalability, and security of the engineering systems. 

Research areas: Additive Manufacturing, Bio-manufacturing, Healthcare, Machine Learning, Statistics.

Location:
Jialei Chen, Ph.D.
Department of Statistics, University of Georgia 

Melkote began at Tech in 1995 as an Assistant Professor. Prior to this, he was a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he conducted research in Machining and Machine Tools Systems in the group led by the Late Professor Richard E. DeVor and Professor Shiv G. Kapoor

Dima Nazzal is a Principal Academic Professional in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. She is responsible for project-based learning in the Industrial Engineering undergraduate curriculum, including the capstone senior design course, and the cornerstone junior design course. She is also research director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, she was Director of Research and Development at Fortna, Inc., an Engineering Design and Consulting company. 

Research: Her research focuses on modeling, design, and control of discrete event logistics systems, including healthcare delivery systems, manufacturing systems, and distribution systems. Her recent work has focused on election voting systems, higher education response to COVID-19, understanding and driving higher childhood vaccination rates in developing countries, modeling of collaborative robots in distribution systems; scheduling and dispatching policies in semiconductor manufacturing, and energy systems development. She has worked with companies, non-governmental organizations, and healthcare providers, including ExxonMobil, Emory University, Samsung, Emory University, Gates Foundation, and Walt Disney World. See here for relevant publications. 

Teaching: Dr. Nazzal enjoys teaching courses in manufacturing, warehousing, and facility logistics system design and operations, as well as advising senior design teams. She is the recipient of multiple teaching awards including the Georgia Tech Women in Engineering Outstanding Teacher Award in 2015, and the Most Outstanding Faculty Member Award from the University of Central Florida IIE Student Chapter in 2011. 

She received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2006, her M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida, and her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Jordan.

Leon McGinnis is a Professor Emeritus in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. 

Dr. McGinnis's research focuses on fundamental representation issues in discrete event logistics systems, on performance assessment models, and on the development of integrated computational tools. He has been a leader in developing and administering industry-focused and interdisciplinary education and research programs at Georgia Tech. He helped establish the Material Handling Research Center in 1982 and managed one of five research programs over the next decade. He also helped establish the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems Program in 1983, which received a LEAD Award from ASME for excellence in graduate-level interdisciplinary manufacturing education, and served as Director from 1988 to 1998. As CIMS Director, he lead a team that competed for and won a $1 million TRP grant, resulting in the establishment of the Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Institute within the Manufacturing Research Center. In 1994, he led a team of Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering faculty to win over $2 million in grants from the W. M. Keck Foundation to create the Keck Virtual Factory Lab as a focal point for IE systems design and control research.

The Institute of Industrial Engineers has recognized Dr. McGinnis with the Outstanding Publication Award, the David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award, and the Fellow Award. He has given the Inyong Ham Lecture at Penn State, the Jones Lecture at Dartmouth, and the Schantz Lectures at Lehigh. 

Dr. McGinnis enjoys teaching students how to think like industrial engineers, particularly in developing and using mathematical and computational models to support design of facilities and control systems. 

He received his BS in IE from Auburn University, and MS and PhD in IE from North Carolina State University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Georgia.

Jye-Chyi (JC) Lu is a professor in in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech (GT).

Dr. Lu is active in promoting research, education and extension-service programs with focus on engineering statistics and analytics areas. Dr. Lu received a Ph.D. in statistics from University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1988, and joined the statistics faculty of North Carolina State University, where he remained until 1999 when he joined GT-ISyE. He has 82 journal publications in engineering and statistics journals. Twenty seven Ph.D. students has graduated under his supervision.  His research has been supported by many NSF awards and industry grants. He serves as an associate editor (AE) for the Journal of Quality Technology and had served as AEs for Technometrics and IEEE Transactions on Reliability.  He is a Fellow in the American Statistical Association, and has been INFORMS Quality, Statistics and Reliability section chair.