Feryal Özel

Feryal Özel

Feryal Özel

Chair; School of Physics
Professor

Feryal Ozel is the Chair and Professor in the School of Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research in astrophysics focuses on theoretical and computational studies of the properties, formation, and environments of black holes and neutron stars. She developed new techniques to determine the properties of neutron star surfaces and interiors. She made predictions of black hole images that guided the development of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and helped constrain physics beyond General Relativity.

 

Ozel is a founding member of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, a former member of the EHT Science Council and lead of the Modeling Working Group. In 2022, she led the announcement of the first image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. She was co-chair of NASA’s Next Generation Large Mission Concept Study for the Lynx X-ray Observatory and has served for three years as chair of NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, she was a Professor of Astronomy and Physics and the Associate Dean for Research at the University of Arizona

feryal.ozel@gatech.edu

Özel Group WEbsite

Google Scholar

University, College, and School/Department
Additional Research:
Astrophysics Cosmology

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Alexandria Smith

Alexandria Smith

Alexandria Smith

Assistant Professor

Alexandria Smith is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, and holds an M.M. and B.M. from Mannes the New School for Music.

Alexandria specializes in recording/mixing/mastering music that mixes different genres and experimental music. Her work has been referred to by Downbeat as “splendidly engineered.” Alexandria’s recent project as tracking/mix/mastering engineer and co-producer of Grammy-nominated bassist Mark Dresser’s Tines of Change was favorably reviewed by Downbeat, the Wire Magazine, San Diego Union Tribune, Percorsi Musical, All About Jazz, jazz-fun.de-Magazin für Jazz Musik, and more and was rated as one of the ‘Best Solo Albums of the Year’ by bestofjazz.org and best of 2023 by Downbeat. She has worked on recordings by Basher, Filera (Carmina Escobar, Natalia Pérez Turner, and Wilfrido Terrazas), Alvin Lucier, Rand Steiger, Treesearch, TJ Borden, Judith Hamann, and more. Her audio engineering work can be heard on labels such as Pyroclastic Records, Infrequent Seams, Black Truffle, New Focus Recordings, 577 Records, 1980 Records, and Blank Forms.

alexandria.smith@gatech.edu

Office Location:
Couch 209C

Personal Website

  • School of Music Profile Page
  • University, College, and School/Department
    Additional Research:
    Audio Engineering (tracking/mixing/mastering/producing)Feminist Science and Technology Studies (FSTS)Interactive MediaInterdisciplinary researchLiterary and Cultural StudiesMusic CompositionMusic Performance

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    Abigale Stangl

    Abigale Stangl

    Abigale Stangle

    Dr. Abigale Stangl is a design researcher specializing in the development of systems that promote inclusive design practices and enhance the accessibility of products and information. With expertise in human-centered design, human-computer interaction, accessibility, and sensory AI, her interdisciplinary research encompasses universal design principles and prioritizes disability-first innovation. Abigale's current research goals focus on expanding tactile media availability through in-depth investigations of tactile design practices, interaction techniques, and the optimization of multimodal and multisensory systems. She actively collaborates with individuals with disabilities, ensuring their perspectives and needs drive innovation. Abigale also cultivates students' abilities as allies and co-designers, fostering an inclusive design community that embraces diverse perspectives.

    abigale.stangl@design.gatech.edu

    Personal Website

  • School of Industrial Design Profile Page
  • Google Scholar

    University, College, and School/Department
    Research Focus Areas:
    • Collaborative Robotics
    • Privacy Engineering
    Additional Research:

    AccessibilityCreativity Computer visionInclusive Design


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    Cassie Mitchell

    Cassie Mitchell

    Cassie Mitchell

    Assistant Professor

    Dr. Cassie S. Mitchell is a research engineer, elite athlete, and mentor. She is a current member of the USA Paralympic team and research faculty in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. At age 18 Cassie was afflicted with Devics Neuromyelitis Optica, leaving her as a quadriplegic and with visual impairments. Her faith and philosophy on life has helped her to overcome the resulting challenges. She graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from GT/Emory. She enjoys mentoring high school and college students as well as new spinal cord injury patients at Shepherd Center Brain and Spinal Cord Rehabilitiation Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia.

    cassie.mitchell@bme.gatech.edu

    Office Location:
    UAW 3106

    Lab Website

  • Personal Website
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Neuroscience
    Additional Research:
    Cassie Mitchell's research goal centers around expediting clinical translation from bench to bedside using data-enabled prediction. Akin to data-based models used to forecast weather, Cassie's research integrates disparate, multi-scalar experimental and clinical data sets to dynamically forecast disease. Cassie is the principal investigator of the Laboratory for Pathology Dynamics, which uses a combination of computational, analytical, and informatics-based techniques to identify complex disease etiology, predict new therapeutics, and optimize current interventions. Cassie's research has predominantly targeted neuropathology, but her research applications in predictive medicine expand across all clinical specialties.

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    Suresh Menon

    Suresh Menon

    Suresh Menon

    Professor

    Professor Menon joined Flow Industries, Kent, Washington, as a research scientist, and in 1988, became a senior scientist and program manager for the computational fluid dynamics group in Quest Integrated, Inc. (formerly called Flow Research, Inc.). At Quest, Menon led research teams in various research projects such as the active control of combustion instability in ramjet engines, supersonic mixing studies, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft fluid dynamics, and hypersonic reentry problems. In 1992, he joined Georgia Institute of Technology as an associate professor and became a professor in 1997. He is currently the Hightower Professor of Engineering in Georgia Tech. Professor Menon is a world renowned expert in large-eddy simulation of turbulent reacting and non-reacting flows and has developed unique simulation capabilities to study pollutant formation, ozone depletion in high-altitude aircraft jet plumes and combustion in gas turbine and ramjet engines. He has been (and is currently) a principal investigator for a wide range of research projects funded by NASA, Department of Energy, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Office of Naval Research, Defense Threat Reduction Agency. His work has been (and is also) supported by many industries including General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, Solar Turbines, Boeing, Safran (France), Hyundai (S. Korea), JAXA (Japan), IHI (Japan) and Rocketdyne-Aerojet. He has published and/or presented over 395 papers. Professor Menon is a Fellow of AAAS, Associate Fellow of AIAA, and a member of the American Physical Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Combustion Institute and the Sigma Xi. He is a peer reviewer for numerous archival journals, NASA, NSF, DoD and DOE research proposals.

    suresh.menon@aerospace.gatech.edu

    (404) 894-9126

    Website

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Energy Generation, Storage, and Distribution
    Additional Research:
    Combustion

    IRI Connections:

    Jian Luo

    Jian Luo

    Jian Luo

    Professor
    BBISS Lead: Coastal Urban Flooding

    Dr. Jian Luo completed his undergraduate and M.S. studies at Tsinghua University, Beijing, where he received a B.Sc.(Eng.) and a M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering in 1998 and 2000, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in 2006 in Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, California. The research Dr. Luo is conducting involves field, theoretical, and computational investigations of flow and reactive transport in subsurface; development and application of geostatistical methods for the spatial and temporal analysis of hydrogeologic and biochemistry data; development of computational algorithms and programs to simulate subsurface flow and reactive transport, and to assess the associated uncertainty; inverse modeling to estimate flow and transport parameters under uncertainty; and use of such computational methods and models to assess subsurface contamination, and to aid the optimal design of groundwater remediation operations.

    jian.luo@ce.gatech.edu

    (404) 385-6390

    Departmental Bio

  • BBISS Initiative Lead Project - Coastal Urban Flooding in a Changing Climate
  • Research Focus Areas:
    • Energy Generation, Storage, and Distribution
    Additional Research:
    Geosystems; Water

    IRI Connections:

    Devesh Ranjan

    Devesh Ranjan

    Devesh Ranjan

    Chair, Mechanical Engineering

    Devesh Ranjan was named the Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech and took over the role on January 1, 2022. He previously served as the Associate Chair for Research, and Ring Family Chair in the Woodruff School. He also holds a courtesy appointment in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering and serves as a co-director of the $100M Department of Defense-funded University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH). At Georgia Tech, Ranjan has held several leadership positions including chairing ME’s Fluid Mechanics Research Area Group (2017 - 2018), serving as ME’s Associate Chair for Research (2019-present), and as co-chair of the “Hypersonics as a System” task-force, and serving as Interim Vice-President for Interdisciplinary Research (Feb 2021-June 2021). 

    Ranjan joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2014. Before coming to Georgia Tech, he was a director’s research fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2008) and Morris E. Foster Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at Texas A&M University (2009-2014). He earned a bachelor's degree from the NIT-Trichy (India) in 2003, and master's and Ph.D. degrees from the UW-Madison in 2005 and 2007 respectively, all in mechanical engineering. 

    Ranjan’s research focuses on the interdisciplinary area of power conversion, complex fluid flows involving shock and hydrodynamic instabilities, and the turbulent mixing of materials in extreme conditions, such as supersonic and hypersonic flows. Ranjan is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions, including the DOE-Early Career Award (first GT recipient), the NSF CAREER Award, and the US AFOSR Young Investigator award. He was also named the J. Erskine Love Jr. Faculty Fellow in 2015. He was invited to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s 2016 US Frontiers in Engineering Symposium. For his educational efforts and mentorship activity, he has received CATERPILLAR Teaching Excellence Award from College of Engineering at Texas A&M, as well as 2013 TAMU ASME Professor Mentorship Award from TAMU student chapter of the ASME. At Georgia Tech, Ranjan served as a Provost’s Teaching and Learning Fellow (PTLF) from 2018-2020, and was named 2021 Governor’s Teaching Fellow. He was also named Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Fellow for 2020-21. 

    Ranjan is currently part of a 10-member Technical Screening Committee of the NAE’s COVID-19 Call for Engineering Action taskforce, an initiative to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Shock Waves and was a former Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering.

    devesh.ranjan@me.gatech.edu

    (404) 385-2922

    Website

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Energy Generation, Storage, and Distribution
    • Nuclear
    • Thermal Systems
    Additional Research:
    Nuclear; Thermal Systems

    IRI Connections:

    Andrew Medford

    Andrew Medford

    Andrew Medford

    Assistant Professor

    Dr. Medford is interested in leveraging materials informatics, statistics, and machine learning to maximize the practical impact of fundamental atomic-scale simulations in the field of surface science and catalysis. His research areas include heterogeneous catalysis, oxide surface chemistry, density functional theory, kinetic models, uncertainty quantification, and Bayesian optimization and inference.

    andrew.medford@chbe.gatech.edu

    (404) 385-5531

    Website

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biobased Materials
    • Biochemicals
    • Biorefining
    • Biotechnology
    • Fuels & Chemical Processing
    • Hydrogen Production
    • Hydrogen Utilization
    • Materials & Manufacturing
    • Pulp Paper Packaging & Tissue
    • Sustainable Manufacturing
    Additional Research:
    Catalysis, Biochemicals, Biorefining, Chemistry, Sugars, Molecular Simulations, Computational Biology

    IRI Connections:

    Brian Magerko

    Brian Magerko

    Brian Magerko

    Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Digital Media

    magerko@gatech.edu

    Website

    University, College, and School/Department
    Research Focus Areas:
    • Platforms and Services for Socio-Technical Frontier
    • Shaping the Human-Technology Frontier
    Additional Research:
    Interactive Narrative; Serious Game Design Development; Cognitive Architechtures; Intelligent Agents; Human-Computer Interaction; Educational Media; Improvisation; Cognitive Science

    IRI Connections:

    Agata Rozga

    Agata Rozga

    Agata Rozga

    Research Scientist II

    Agata Rozga is a psychologist with expertise and 13 years of experience forging a new interdisciplinary research area at the intersection of computing and psychology called computational behavioral science. The research vision is to transform the measurement, analysis, and understanding of health-related behaviors by leveraging advances in sensing, wearable and mobile technologies, and computational analysis methods. The ultimate goal is to develop tools that can lead to better detection, monitoring, and treatment of a variety of chronic health conditions.

    One key area Dr. Rozga’s research has focused on is understanding early trajectories and predictors of social communication in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In her most recent work, she is applying novel computational methods to longitudinal measures of communication behavior to understand different pathways to language in autism, including failure to acquire spoken language by age 5. Dr. Rozga’s research has recently expanded to include a focus on Mild Cognitive Impairment, with an eye toward developing novel AI-based systems to help monitor cognitive and functional decline in everyday activities, to deliver appropriate in-situ supports, and to support care networks.

    Dr. Rozga serves as the Director of Translational Research for the Georgia Tech-led NSF National AI Institute for Collaborative Assistance and Responsive Interaction for Networked Groups (AI-CARING), and as the Programs and Research Director for the Technology Core of the Cognitive Empowerment Program at the Emory Brain-Health Center. She was previously the Head of Product for Diligent Robotics, https://www.diligentrobots.com/.

    agata@gatech.edu

    404-894-2304

    Website

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Lifelong Health and Well-Being
    • Shaping the Human-Technology Frontier
    Additional Research:
    Computational Behavioral Science; Applications of Machine Learning to Developmental Health

    IRI Connections: