Russell D. Dupuis earned all of his academic degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his bachelor's degree with "Highest Honors-Bronze Tablet" in 1970. He received his master's in electrical engineering in 1971, and his Ph.D. in 1973. His alma mater has honored him with the University of Illinois Alumni Loyalty Award, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Dupuis worked at Texas Instruments from 1973 to 1975. In 1975, he joined Rockwell International where he was the first to demonstrate that MOCVD could be used for the growth of high-quality semiconductor thin films and devices. He joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1979 where he extended his work to the growth of InP-InGaAsP by MOCVD. In 1989 he became a chaired professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In August 2003, he was appointed Steve W. Chaddick Chair in Electro-Optics at Georgia Tech in ECE. He is currently studying the growth of III-V compound semiconductor devices by MOCVD, including materials in the InAlGaN/GaN, InAlGaAsP/GaAs, InAlGaAsSb, and InAlGaAsP/InP systems.

Dragomir Davidovic's research focuses on the exploration of physical properties that emerge in objects when their size approaches nanometer-scale. The objects of study are metallic or insulating particles, molecules, atomic-scale diameter wires, and droplets of one phase surrounded by another phase. Recent advances in lithography enable attachment of these objects to larger scale conducting electrodes, making it possible to explore their physical properties by electronic transport. The properties of nanoscale objects can be fundamentally different from those in bulk. As an example, whereas in bulk metals, the energy spectrum of conduction electrons is continuous, in metallic nanoparticles the spectrum is discrete. As a result, metallic nanoparticles are more like atoms than bulk metals, and nanoparticles are commonly referred to as artificial atoms.

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.

Wenshan Cai joined the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology in January 2012 as an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with a joint appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to this, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials at Stanford University. His scientific research is in the area of nanophotonic materials and devices, in which he has made a major impact on the evolving field of plasmonics and metamaterials. Cai has published more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and the total citations of his recent papers have reached approxIMaTely 10,000 within the past 10 years. He authored the book, Optical Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications, which is used as a textbook or a major reference at many universities around the world. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University in 2000 and 2002, respectively, and his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2008, all in electrical/electronic engineering. Cai is the recipient of several national and international distinctions, including the OSA/SPIE Joseph W. Goodman Book Writing Award (2014), the CooperVision Science & Technology Award (2016), and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award (2017).

Materials for membranes, sorbents, and barrier packaging applications rely upon the same fundamental principles. Thermodynamically controlled partitioning of a penetrant, such as carbon dioxide into a membrane, sorbent or barrier packaging layer is the first step in the transport process. If the material is a polymer, cooperative motions of the matrix enable diffusive motion by the penetrant. In highly rigid carbon molecular sieves and zeolites, motion of the matrix is negligible, and penetrant transport is governed by the relative size of pre-existing pores and the penetrant molecule.

Koros’s group is a leader in developing advanced materials for membranes, sorbents, and barrier applications by optimization materials to either promote or retard transport of specific components. For instance, for a chosen penetrant such as carbon dioxide, the Koros group can create a barrier, a selective membrane, or a sorbent by materials engineering. Work is also underway in the Koros group to form “mixed matrix composite” materials comprised of blends of metal organic framework or other specialty components within the matrix of a conventional polymer. This approach allows further optimization of transport properties without sacrificing the ease of processing associated with conventional polymers.

Effects due to non equilibrium thermodynamic and non-Fickian transport phenomena are additional topics his group studies. Long lived conditioning effects due to exposure of membranes and barriers to elevated concentrations of certain penetrants are typical of such non equilibrium phenomena. Protracted aging of glassy polymers, carbons, and inorganic membranes after formation or conditioning treatments also are of interest to his research group. In many cases, these effects seem to defy logic—until one realizes that an expanded set of rules governs these out-of-equilibrium materials.

Seung Woo Lee joined the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in January of 2013. Lee received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at MIT, focusing on designing high-energy and high-power density nanostructured electrodes for electrochemical energy storage devices, and synthesizing catalysts for electrochemical energy conversion of small molecules such as methanol oxidation and O2 reduction. He conducted his postdoctoral research in designing electrodes for lithium rechargeable batteries and catalysts for solar energy storage in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Chemistry at MIT.

Paul Kohl received a B.S. degree from Bethany College in 1974 and Ph.D. from The University of Texas, both in Chemistry. After graduation, Kohl was employed at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ from 1978 to 1989. During that time, he was involved in the design and processing of electronic packages for Bell system components. He created new chemical processes for silicon, compound semiconductor, and MEMS devices. In 1989, he joined the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, where he is currently a Regents' Professor and holder of the Thomas L. Gossage/Hercules Inc. Chair. He is the President of The Electrochemical Society and past Editor of Journal of The Electrochemical Society and past founding editor of Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters. Kohl's research interests include the design of new materials, processes, and packages for advanced interconnect for integrated circuits and MEMS devices. He is the past Director of the Semiconductor Research Corporation/DARPA Interconnect Focus Center. The goal of this center was to create new technological solutions for future electronic devices. Current projects include creation of new photosensitive dielectric materials for electronic packaging and the design and fabrication of MEMS packages. He also has programs in new approaches to fuel cells and lithium batteries. The new direct methanol alkaline fuel cells and hybrid alkaline/acid fuel cells have the potential reduced water management and platinum free usage. The integration of high energy density lithium batteries for self-powered integrated circuits and sensors is of interest. Many of these electrochemical devices use ionic liquids as the electrolytes, including the all-sodium battery. Ionic liquids are also being used as the absorber in a new absorption refrigeration cycle. The first ever ionic liquid/fluorocarbon absorption refrigeration cycle has been demonstrated and modeled.

Marta Hatzell is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to starting at Georgia Tech in August of 2015, she was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign. During her post doc, she worked in the Braun Research Group on research at the interface between colloid science and electrochemistry. She completed her Ph.D. at Penn state University in the Logan Research Group. Her Ph.D. explored environmental technology for energy generation and water treatment. During graduate school she was an NSF and PEO Graduate Research Fellow. 

Currently her research group focuses on exploring the sustainable catalysis and separations, with applications spanning from solar energy conversion to desalination. She is an active member of the American Chemical Society, the Electrochemical Society, ASEEP, and ASME. Hatzell was awarded the NSF Early CAREER award in 2019 for her work on distributed solar-fertilizers, attended the 2019 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium through the National Academy of Engineering, and was awarded the 2020 Sloan Research Fellowships in Chemistry.