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
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    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
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    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:

    Marilyn Brown

    Marilyn Brown

    Marilyn Brown

    Regents' Professor
    Brook Byers Professor

    Marilyn Brown is a Regents' and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy. She joined Georgia Tech in 2006 after a distinguished career at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she led several national climate change mitigation studies and became a leader in the analysis and interpretation of energy futures in the United States. 

    Her research focuses on the design and impact of policies aimed at accelerating the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies, with an emphasis on the electric utility industry, the integration of energy efficiency, demand response, and solar resources, and ways of improving resiliency to disruptions. Her books include Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), Green Savings: How Policies and Markets Drive Energy Efficiency (Praeger, 2015), and Climate Change and Global Energy Security (MIT Press, 2011). She has authored more than 250 publications. Her work has had significant visibility in the policy arena as evidenced by her numerous briefings and testimonies before state legislative bodies and Committees of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

    Dr. Brown co-founded the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance and chaired its Board of Directors for several years. She has served on the Boards of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Alliance to Save Energy, and was a commissioner with the Bipartisan Policy Center. She has served on eight National Academies committees and is an Editor of Energy Policy and an Editorial Board member of Energy Efficiency and Energy Research and Social Science. She served two terms (2010-2017) as a Presidential appointee and regulator on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power provider. From 2014-2018 she served on DOE’s Electricity Advisory Committee, where she led the Smart Grid Subcommittee.

    marilyn.brown@pubpolicy.gatech.edu

    (404) 385-0303

    Website

    Google Scholar

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biobased Materials
    • Biochemicals
    • Biorefining
    • Biotechnology
    • Energy & Water
    • Energy Generation, Storage, and Distribution
    • Energy Utilization and Conservation
    • Hydrogen Equity
    • Materials for Energy
    • Policy & Economics
    • Pulp Paper Packaging & Tissue
    • Social & Environmental Impacts
    • Sustainable Manufacturing
    • Use & Conservation
    Additional Research:
    Hydrogen Equity; ClIMaTe/Environment; Electrical Grid; Policy/Economics; Energy & Water

    IRI Connections:

    Matthew McDowell

    Matthew McDowell

    Matthew McDowell

    Associate Professor, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
    Woodruff Faculty Fellow
    IMat Initiative Lead | Materials for Energy Storage
    SEI Lead: Energy Storage

    Matthew McDowell joined Georgia Tech in the fall of 2015 as an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Prior to this appointment, he was a postdoctoral scholar in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. McDowell received his Ph.D. in 2013 from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University.

    McDowell’s research group focuses on understanding how materials for energy and electronic devices change and transform during operation, and how these transformations impact properties. The group uses in situ experimental techniques to probe materials transformations under realistic conditions. The fundamental scientific advances made by the group guide the engineering of materials for breakthrough new devices. Current projects in the group are focused on i) electrode materials for alkali ion batteries, ii) materials for solid-state batteries, iii) interfaces in chalcogenide materials for electronics and catalysis, and iv) new methods for creating nanostructured metals.

    mattmcdowell@gatech.edu

    404.894.8341

    Office Location:
    MRDC 4408

    McDowell Lab

  • MSE Profile Page
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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Conventional Energy
    • Electronic Materials
    • Hydrogen Production
    • Use & Conservation
    Additional Research:
    Batteries; Nanostructured Materials; Composites; Fabrication; Energy Storage; Thermal Systems

    IRI Connections:

    Benoit Montreuil

    Benoit Montreuil

    Benoit Montreuil

    Coca-Cola Material Handling & Distribution Chair
    Co-Director, Supply Chain & Logistics Institute
    Professor

    Benoit Montreuil is the Coca-Cola Material Handling & Distribution Chair and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. He also serves as Director of the Physical Internet Center and Executive Director of the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute. 

    Dr. Montreuil is leading the International Physical Internet Initiative, engaging academic, industry and government leaders worldwide into research and innovation projects on smart, hyperconnected and sustainable logistics, supply chains, transportation, businesses and regions. 

    His main research interests generically lie in developing concepts, methodologies and technologies for creating, optimizing, transforming and enabling businesses, supply chains and value creation networks to thrive in a fast evolving hyperconnected world. 

    He stands at the crossroads of industrial and systems engineering; operations research; computer sciences; operations, logistics, supply chain, strategic management; and sustainability science. His research builds mostly on a synthesis of optimization modeling and mathematical programming, discrete & agent-based simulation modeling, systems science & design theory. 

    Dr. Montreuil is a world-renowned scientist who has introduced in collaboration with students and colleagues an imposing set of paradigm-challenging leading edge contributions through nearly four decades of research, shared through 250 scientific publications, 250 scientific communications and numerous keynote speeches at international scientific and professional conferences. He has extensive advisory, entrepreneurial and collaborative research experience with industry and government. 

    Through his career, he has received numerous awards, recently including DC Velocity’s Rainmaker of the Year and The Physical Internet Pioneer Award for his outstanding and inspiring vision. 

    From 2000 to 2014, Dr. Montreuil has held the Canada Research Chair in Business Engineering. He is a founding member of the CIRRELT Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation. He is also past president of the College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education and its Liaison to the Board of Governors of MHI, the North American industry association of material handling, logistics and supply chain solutions and technology providers. 

    Dr. Montreuil graduated in 1978 from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). He earned a master’s and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1980 and 1982 respectively. After serving on the industrial engineering faculty of UQTR and Purdue University, from 1988 to 2014, he was a Professor of operations and decisions systems in the faculty of Business Administration at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada.

    benoit.montreuil@isye.gatech.edu

    Departmental Bio

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Hydrogen
    • Hydrogen Storage & Transport
    Additional Research:
    Hydrogen Transport/Storage

    IRI Connections:

    Benjamin Emerson

    Benjamin Emerson

    Benjamin Emerson

    Senior Research Engineer

    Ben Emerson completed his Ph. D. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in August, 2013. Since then, Ben has worked as a Research Engineer at the Ben T. Zinn Combustion Lab at Georgia Tech. Ben’s research portfolio includes projects on combustion instabilities, alternative fuels, and combustion system R&D with a core focus and motivation of cleaner combustion. Ben’s research primarily consists of three core competencies, which are experimental combustion system development, combustor diagnostics, and combustion theory and modeling. Ben’s combustion system development work spans a wide variety of applications, from small lab-scale burners to combustor rigs that test full-scale gas turbine combustor hardware. His combustor diagnostics work encompasses the state of the art optical diagnostic techniques for reacting flow field measurements and imaging, and aims to implement those techniques in both laboratory-scale and large-scale rig tests. Finally, Ben’s combustion theory and modeling work is geared towards analysis of experimental datasets, development of reduced-order engineering tools, and the development of a suite of hydrodynamic stability analysis tools. Together, these core competencies form the pillars of Ben’s research, which facilitates the design of cleaner-burning combustion systems.

    bemerson@gatech.edu

    404-385-0413

    Office Location:
    CNES, 216

    Departmental Bio

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Combustion
    • Energy
    • Hydrogen
    • Hydrogen Utilization
    Additional Research:
    Hydrogen Utilization, Hydrogen combustion in gas turbines, combustion instabilities, alternative fuels, cleaner combustion system R&D, experimental combustion system development, combustor diagnostics, and combustion theory and modeling

    IRI Connections:

    Jinho Park

    Jinho Park

    Jinho Park

    Research Scientist II

    jinho.park@gtri.gatech.edu

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Energy Storage
    • Hydrogen
    • Hydrogen Production
    • Hydrogen Utilization
    • Materials for Energy
    Additional Research:
    Hydrogen Generation, Hydrogen Utilization, Electrochemical production of green hydrogen, Design/synthesis of high-performance electrocatalysts for water electrolysis and PEMFCs, design/synthesis/characterization of functional materials for energy storage systems, energy conversion systems, fuel cells, water electrolyzers, ammonia cracking, multifunction sensors

    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role

    Ronald Chance

    Ronald Chance

    Ronald Chance

    Professor of the Practice

    Dr. Chance retired from Global Thermostat at the end of 2022, where he served as a Senior Science Advisor. He continues at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he serves as an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Chance began his career with Honeywell Corporation, holding a number of research positions including Research Manager for Electronic Materials.

    In 1986, he joined Exxon as the Director of their Polymers and Fluids Laboratory, later serving as Division Manager for their Paramins Technology division, and as Distinguished Scientific Advisor in ExxonMobil’s Corporate Strategic Research Laboratories. Dr. Chance retired from ExxonMobil in 2006 and joined the Georgia Institute of Technology as a faculty member with a joint appointment in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, continuing also as Distinguished Scientific Advisor Emeritus at ExxonMobil from 2006-2009. 

    He joined Algenol Biofuels (2009-2019) as Executive Vice President for Engineering. Dr. Chance's scientific interests are focused on CO2 capture and utilization, including Direct Air Capture, as a mitigation strategy for climate change. 

    Dr. Chance has organized several international scientific meetings and served on numerous university and industrial advisory boards. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles, edited two books, and authored over 30 patents. He was elected Fellow in The American Physical Society in 1988 and was the 2018 recipient of the Lawrence B. Evans Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, an institute level award for career achievement.

    ronald.chance@chbe.gatech.edu

    (404) 385-1931

    Office Location:
    B-H 421

    Departmental Bio

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biofuels
    • Energy
    • Hydrogen
    • Hydrogen Production
    • Hydrogen Utilization
    Additional Research:
    Hydrogen Generation, Hydrogen Utilization, Energy, CO2 capture and utilization, materials for CO2 separation, biofuels from cyanobacteria

    IRI Connections:
    IRI And Role