Richard Gruber leads the clean tech commercialization efforts at Georgia Tech. Gruber works closely with Georgia Tech researchers helping them convert their ground-breaking research into impactful companies. His role includes cultivating relationships with constituents of the broader Atlanta area, officials in the Georgia department of economic development, the national community of business leaders, angel investors, attorneys, and venture capitalists.

In close coordination with the director of Venture Lab and the broader activities of the Office of Commercialization, led by Raghupathy Sivakumar, Gruber identifies and grows commercialization of technology innovation in key areas of business strategy, fundraising, team development, and assist with startup efforts. 

Throughout his career, Gruber has been focused on the development of energy, including infrastructure, markets, policy, stakeholder processes, structured transactions, joint ventures, energy system planning and operations, and startups. Investors in Gruber’s startups include two-time investor Ted Turner through Turner Renewable Energy.

Since 2007, he has been dedicated to clean energy power plant and technology development. As the vice president of project development at First Solar, Richard spearheaded the company’s initial buildout of a multi-gigawatt solar project platform, making First Solar one of the largest solar developers in North America.

In 2017, Gruber co-founded and served as the chief commercial officer for Merit Sustainable Infrastructure (Merit SI). Merit SI develops solar microgrids for infrastructure clients and utility scale renewable projects, and, through its subsidiary Merit Controls, develops advanced power system controls for solar, battery storage, and solar-hydrogen hybrid plants.

In his role at Georgia Tech, Gruber supports commercialization efforts across the entire energy and sustainability innovation space, from energy sources to energy carriers to consumers, and the necessary supporting supply chain and software innovations required to deliver cleaner, more affordable, and reliable, central, and distributed energy solutions. Georgia Tech researchers are encouraged to reach out to Richard Gruber with questions or ideas.

Previously an “Executive in Residence” at Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center, Gruber lives in Atlanta with his wife of 37 years. They have two daughters also in Atlanta, one a recent ISyE graduate of Georgia Tech, and one working with Delta.

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.

Dr. Ng is the Love Family Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and the School of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and was a postdoctoral scientist at Aerodyne Research Inc.

Dr. Ng’s research focuses on the understanding of the chemical mechanisms of aerosol formation and composition, as well as their health effects. Her group combines laboratory chamber studies and ambient field measurements to study aerosols and air quality using advanced mass spectrometry techniques. Dr. Ng leads the establishment of the first, high time-resolution, long-term aerosol measurement network in the U.S.: Atmospheric Science and Chemistry mEasurement NeTwork (ASCENT), for characterization of aerosol chemical composition and physical properties, and their impacts on climate, human health, and ecosystems.

Our group is primarily a surface chemistry and physics group which focuses on the use of high-powered pulsed lasers, low-energy electron scattering, micro-plasmas, mass spectrometry and ultrahigh vacuum surface science techniques. We use this "tool-set" as well as some scattering theory to unravel the details of non-thermal processes occurring under a variety of non-equilibrium conditions. Our group is based upon an interdisciplinary approach and thus our research programs span the realm of fundamental investigations in molecular physics, surface physics and chemistry, bio-physics, bio-polymer formation under pre-biotic conditions as well as working in applied areas of relevance to analytical technique developments, atmospheric chemistry, catalysis and molecular hydrogen generation.

Dr. Jennifer Hirsch is an applied cultural anthropologist recognized internationally for fostering university and community engagement in sustainability and climate action. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, she is the inaugural Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities Research & Education (SCoRE), creating a culture of collaboration in which students, faculty, and staff engage in long-term relationships with community, government, and industry partners to build sustainable communities.

Dr. Hirsch’s research and teaching interests focus on: 1) equity in the sustainable built environment; 2) grassroots sustainability innovation; and 3) community leadership in energy equity.

Dr. Hirsch is also a co-founder and lead coordinator of RCE Greater Atlanta – a Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development - officially acknowledged in 2017 by the United Nations University. She is also Adjunct Associate Professor at Georgia Tech’s School of City and Regional Planning. She serves on the faculty of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute hosted by DePaul University and on the Board of Directors of AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education).

Before coming to Georgia Tech, Dr. Hirsch worked in Chicago as Associate Director of Study Abroad at Northwestern University; as Urban Anthropology Director at The Field Museum of Natural History; and as an independent consultant with clients such as the City of Cleveland, Enterprise Community Partners, the U.S. Green Building Council, The Institute of Cultural Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Joliet Junior College. Dr. Hirsch received a Bachelor’s degree in American Culture from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena is an Assistant Professor and the Goizueta Junior Faculty Rotating Chair in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA.

His group focuses on understanding and control of crystallographic structure and effects on electronic dynamics at the nanoscale of low-cost semiconductors for optoelectronic applications. Juan-Pablo’s group works on advanced deposition techniques, with emphasis on low-cost and high throughput, as well as advanced characterization methods that include synchrotron-based mapping and imaging approaches with nanoscale resolution.

His research program at Georgia Tech has attracted funding from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, which funds cutting-edge research on new materials for solar energy conversion.

His work has been cited over 28,000 times (h-index of 59) making him a top cited researcher as recognized by the Web of Science Group, Highly Cited Researchers-cross-field (2019, 2021) and Chemistry (2020), and Nature Index, Leading early career researcher in materials science (2019).

Litchfield received both his Bachelor's and Master's Degree from Georgia Tech in Computer Engineering. Working in cybersecurity since 2012, he has worked in Cyber-Physical System security, network protocol reverse engineering, and large-scale systems vulnerability assessments.

Debra Lam is the Founding Director of the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation, a statewide public-private partnership committed to investing in innovative solutions for shared economic prosperity. She continues to lead smart communities and urban innovation work at Georgia Tech. Prior to this, she served as Pittsburgh’s inaugural Chief of Innovation & Performance where she oversaw all technology, sustainability, performance, and innovation functions of city government. Before that, she was a management consultant at a global engineering and design firm, Arup. She has received various awards, including being named one of the top 100 most influential people in digital government by Apolitcal.

She has worked and lived in the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. A graduate of Georgetown University and the University of California, Berkeley, Debra serves on the board of the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta and was most recently appointed by the U.S Department of Commerce to the Internet of Things Advisory Board.