Beril Toktay

Beril Toktay

Beril Toktay

Interim Executive Director, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems
Professor of Operations Management and Brady Family Chair
Faculty Director, Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business

Beril Toktay is Professor of Operations Management, Brady Family Chairholder. Her primary research areas are sustainable operations and supply chain management. Professor Toktay's research has been funded by several National Science Foundation grants and has received distinctions such as the 2010 Brady Family Award for Faculty Research Excellence and the MSOM Society's 2015 Management Science Best Paper in Operations Management Award. Her research articles have appeared in Management Science, M&SOM, Operations Research, Production and Operations Management and Industrial Ecology. She became a Distinguished Fellow of the MSOM Society in 2017.

Professor Toktay has taught Supply Chain Management courses at the PhD, MBA, and Executive Education levels as well as Operations Management and Operations Research courses at the PhD level. She has developed cases and pedagogical material for MBA and Executive Education audiences and co-curricular educational initiatives at the undergraduate level. She currently teaches Business Strategies for Sustainability in MBA and Executive Education programs. She's a recipient of the 2016 Ernest Scheller Jr. Award for Service Excellence and the Georgia Tech 2015 Women of Distinction Award.

Professor Toktay served as Associate Editor for M&SOM (2007-2018), POM (2009-2013), and Management Science (2011-2017), and Area Editor (Environment, Energy and Sustainability) for Operations Research (2012-2018). She co-edited the M&SOM Special Issue on the Environment. She was the President of the MSOM Society and VP of Finance of the POM Society. At Georgia Tech, she serves as the Scheller College of Business ADVANCE Professor, a role that is focused on supporting the advancement of women and underrepresented minorities in academia. She is the founding Faculty Director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business and the co-architect and Executive Co-Director of Georgia Tech's Serve.Learn.Sustain Quality Enhancement Plan.

beril.toktay@scheller.gatech.edu

404.385.0104

Office Location:
800 West Peachtree Street, N.W., Room 4426

Website

University, College, and School/Department
Research Focus Areas:
  • Logistics
  • Policy & Economics
  • Supply Chain
Additional Research:
Sustainable operations; closed-loop supply chains; supply chain management; Strategic Planning

IRI Connections:

Chris Reinhard

Chris Reinhard

Chris Reinhard

Georgia Power Chair
Associate Professor

I'm an Associate Professor of Biogeochemistry in the School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

My research explores the ways in which Earth's biosphere and planetary boundary conditions act to reshape ocean/atmosphere chemistry and climate, how these interactions have evolved over time, and how they might be engineered moving forward. The work I do is inherently interdisciplinary, and utilizes an ensemble of tools including computer models of ocean, sediment, and soil biogeochemistry, stable isotope and trace element tracers, and analysis of modern natural systems.

chris.reinhard@eas.gatech.edu

404-385-0670

Office Location:
ES&T 3104

Website

  • EAS Faculty Profile
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Climate & Environment
    • Environmental Processes
    Additional Research:
    Biogeochemistry of oxygen-deficient aqueous environmentsCarbon cycle dynamics and geoengineeringChemical evolution of Earth's oceans and atmospherePlanetary habitability and atmospheric biosignatures

    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Annalisa Bracco

    Annalisa Bracco

    Annalisa Bracco

    Associate Chair and Professor; Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

    Dr. Annalisa Bracco is a professor at Georgia Tech with extensive background in computational fluid dynamics and physical oceanography. Her research interests include coastal ocean circulation, with focus on meso- and submesoscale processes, ocean predictability and inverse dynamics, impacts of physical forcing on ecosystems, and climate model validation. Her group has been involved in field collections during the Deepwater Horizon spill (July/Aug. 2010) and was back in the Gulf in the summer of 2011.

    abracco@gatech.edu

    Website

    University, College, and School/Department
    Research Focus Areas:
    • Health & Life Sciences
    Additional Research:
    Data Mining

    IRI Connections:

    Yongsheng Chen

    Yongsheng Chen

    Yongsheng Chen

    Bonnie W. and Charles W. Moorman IV Professor

    Dr. Chen has an extensive research interests in environmental science and engineering. More specifically, he is a leading researcher in the environmental applications of nanomaterials and their potential fate, transport, transformation, bioaccumulation and toxicity in the environment. His interests in environmental nanomaterials dated back in his graduate research in 1992. He has also been active on algae based bio-renewable energy and sustainable urban development. Dr. Chen has been principle and co-principal investigators for 28 research projects (by June 2010) funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, Boeing and other organizations. The total funds are $7 million. He has also served as a review member or panel review member in the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy evaluation committee. He has also been invited to serve as an abroad review expert for the China Changjiang Scholars Program (which is to awarded to the top researchers in China). He has published more than 40 papers and two book chapters in this field.

    Dr. Chen received his Ph.D in Nankai University, China. He joined the Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering in May 2009. Till then, he was an Associate Professor Research at the Arizona State University.

    yongsheng.chen@ce.gatech.edu

    (404) 894-3089

    Office Location:
    Daniel Environmental Engineering Laboratory, Room 206

    Website

  • Civil Engineering Profile
  • University, College, and School/Department
    Research Focus Areas:
    • Clean Water
    • FEWS
    • Fuels & Chemical Processing
    • Hydrogen Production
    Additional Research:
    Biofuels; Separations Technology; Water

    IRI Connections:

    Thomas Fuller

    Thomas Fuller

    Thomas Fuller

    Professor

    Tom Fuller is Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Georgia Tech. Dr. Fuller received a BS from the University of Utah in Chemical Engineering in 1982. Dr. Fuller then served for five years in the U.S. Navy working as a Nuclear Engineer. In 1992 he obtained a Ph.D. from UC, Berkeley also in Chemical Engineering. 

    Subsequently, Dr. Fuller developed advanced lithium batteries while working as a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He then moved to United Technologies. He was responsible for technology development, design, assembly, and test of cell stacks for UTC Fuel Cells. 

    His research group at Georgia Tech is focused on durability challenges for electrochemical systems. For the last eight years Dr. Fuller has been a Technical Editor for the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. In 2009 Dr. Fuller was named a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

    tom.fuller@chbe.gatech.edu

    (404) 894-2898

    ChBE Profile

  • Website
  • Google Scholar

    University, College, and School/Department
    Research Focus Areas:
    • Energy Generation, Storage, and Distribution
    • Energy Utilization and Conservation
    • Hydrogen Utilization
    • Materials for Energy
    Additional Research:
    Electric Vehicles; Energy Storage; Hydrogen; Modeling; Materials Failure and Reliability; Energy Conversion; Energy Storage; Batteries; fuel cells

    IRI Connections:

    Carsten Sievers

    Carsten Sievers

    Carsten Sievers

    Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
    RBI Initiative Lead: Maximizing the Value of Products from Plastics Upcycling

    Sievers’ research interests are in heterogeneous catalysis, reactor design, applied spectroscopy, and characterization and synthesis of solid materials. Combining these interests he seeks to develop processes for the production of fuels and chemicals. His research program combines fundamental and applied research.

    In fundamental studies, a suite of analytical and spectroscopic techniques (e.g. IR, NMR) is used to gain knowledge on structure-reactivity relationships of heterogeneous catalysts. Moreover, surface reactions are studied on a molecular level to identify reaction pathways over different catalysts. Information obtained from these studies provides the foundation for designing innovative catalysts.

    Applied studies focus specific catalytic processes. For these projects, continuously operated flow reactor systems are designed. Different catalysts are tested for reactivity, selectivity and stability and the influence of the operating conditions is investigated. Catalyst deactivation is studied in detail to develop suitable regeneration methods or to avoid deactivation entirely by improved catalyst design. Specific projects include hydrodeoxygenation of pyrolysis oils, selective hydration of polyols, conversion of sugars into lactic acid and ethylene glycol, and selective oxidation of methane.

    An important goal of Sievers’ research is to enable technology for utilization of alternative resources in order to reduce the current dependence of oil. Among these biomass is a particularly promising candidate because it is renewable and can be produced CO2 neutral.

    Sievers has contributed to 80 peer reviewed publications on heterogeneous catalysis in petroleum refining (isobutane/2-butene alkylation, fluid catalytic cracking, hydrotreating), alkane activation, supported ionic liquid as catalysts for fine chemical synthesis, and biomass processing.  He is Director and Past President of the Southeastern Catalysis Society, former Program Chair and Director of the ACS Division of Catalysis Technology & Engineering, former Director of the AIChE Division of Catalysis and Reaction Engineering, and Editor of Applied Catalysis A: General.

    carsten.sievers@chbe.gatech.edu

    404.385.7685

    Office Location:
    ES&T 2218

    ChBE Profile Page

  • Sievers Research Group
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biobased Materials
    • Biochemicals
    • Biorefining
    • Biotechnology
    • Fuels & Chemical Processing
    • Hydrogen Production
    • Materials for Energy
    • Pulp Paper Packaging & Tissue
    • Sustainable Manufacturing
    Additional Research:
    Biomass; Biofuels; Catalysis; Advanced Characterization; Gasification; Biorefining; Lignin Upgrading; Catalysis; Energy & Water; Separation Technologies; Chemical Feedstocks; Sugars; Lignin & Hemicellulose

    IRI Connections:

    Kate Pride Brown

    Kate Pride Brown

    Kate Pride Brown

    Associate Professor

    Kate Pride Brown is an environmental and political sociologist whose research focuses on a range of issues, including environmental activism in Russia and conservation policy in the United States. She received her doctorate from Vanderbilt University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment. Her book, Saving the Sacred Sea: The Power of Civil Society in an Age of Authoritarianism and Globalization (Oxford University Press, 2018), examines the conflict between local and transnational environmentalists, multinational corporations, and the Russian government over the future of Lake Baikal, the largest, deepest and oldest freshwater lake on Earth. While she continues to study environmental issues in Russia, especially around Lake Baikal, Dr. Brown has also published research on water and energy politics and policy in the United States. She is currently studying the "nuclear renaissance" in the southeastern United States. Among other honors, she has received a Fulbright Fellowship, a Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State, and funding from the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. Her research has appeared in Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Energy Research and Social Science, Environmental Politics, Environmental Sociology, Ethnography, Memory Studies, Nature and Culture, Research in Political Sociology, Social Movement Studies, Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, Water Policy and WIREs Water.

    k.p.brown@gatech.edu

    (404) 894-0616

    Website

    University, College, and School/Department

    IRI Connections:

    Yuanzhi Tang

    Yuanzhi Tang

    Yuanzhi Tang

    Associate Co-Director for Interdisciplinary Research
    Associate Professor
    SEI Lead; BBISS Co-lead: Sustainable Resources
    SEI Lead; BBISS Co-lead: Sustainable Resources

    Yuanzhi Tang holds undergraduate degrees in Geology and Economics from Peking University, China. She earned a Ph.D. degree in Environmental Geochemistry at Stony Brook University and then continued working in the microbiology group of Prof. Colleen Hansel.

    Tang joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 2013 as an assistant professor and is now an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

    yuanzhi.tang@eas.gatech.edu

    404-894-3814

    Office Location:
    ES&T 1232

    Research Group

  • EAS Profile
  • BBISS Project - Sustainable Resources for Clean Energy
  • Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biochemicals
    • Climate & Environment

    IRI Connections:

    Jennifer Kaiser

    Jennifer Kaiser

    Jennifer Kaiser

    Assistant Professor

    In the Kaiser group, we work to improve the understanding of the emissions and atmospheric processes that influence air quality and climate. Our research focuses largely on volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are reactive organic species that are precursors to ozone and aerosol. Our work is grounded in insights from field, and aimed at understanding atmospheric composition at broad spatial and temporal scales.

    jennifer.kaiser@ce.gatech.edu

    (404) 894-2644

    Departmental Bio

  • Lab Website
  • Research Focus Areas:
    • Social & Environmental Impacts
    Additional Research:
    Climate/EnvironmentAtmospheric Chemistry, Aerosols & CloudsRemote SensingAtmospheric composition and chemistryBiogenic and anthropogenic emissionsGlobal chemistry-transport modelingIn-situ and remote sensing

    IRI Connections:

    Daniel Matisoff

    Daniel Matisoff

    Daniel Matisoff

    Professor

    Daniel Matisoff teaches and conducts research in the areas of public policy, energy policy, and corporate sustainability. His research focuses on the effectiveness and efficiency of comparative approaches to addressing environmental problems and the adoption and diffusion of energy technologies and policies. He currently is a fellow with the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainability, and is affiliated with the Strategic Energy Institute and Center for Urban Innovation. He has participated in over $4 million of sponsored research through the National Science Foundation, the European Union Center for Excellence, the German Academic Exchange Service, the Georgia Department of Transportation, and the National Electric Energy Testing Research and Applications Center. His recent research has resulted in publications in the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Environmental and Resource Economics, Energy Economics, Environmental Science and Technology, Energy Policy, and Business Strategy and the Environment, among other outlets. His current research interests include: evaluating the effectiveness of voluntary eco-labeling programs; the effectiveness of incentives for solar electricity; the adoption of smart grid technologies and policies; and the impact of large scale solar adoption on consumer rates and bills.

    matisoff@gatech.edu

    (404) 385-0504

    Website

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Energy Utilization and Conservation
    • Policy & Economics
    Additional Research:
    Building Technologies; Policy/Economics

    IRI Connections: