Richard Simmons is currently a Principal Research Engineer and Fellow at Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) where he directs cross-cutting energy projects with an emphasis on clean electric power, vehicle efficiency and alternative fuels. Simmons is also director of the Energy Policy and Innovation Center (EPICenter) whose objective is to perform research and outreach in energy policy and innovation with a distinctively regional perspective. He is also a part-time instructor in Georgia Tech’s Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, with a specialization in design, mechatronics and thermal systems. 

Simmons received his BS from Georgia Tech, and MS and Ph.D. from Purdue, all in Mechanical Engineering. He is a licensed professional engineer (PE) with more than 20 years of RD&D experience in automotive, advanced materials, and alternative energy and fuels. 

From 2009 to 2012, he served a prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science S&T (Science and Technology) Policy Fellowship at the U.S. Department of State, providing technical analysis on international policy issues related to renewable energy. He has recently authored numerous publications including an open-access eBook entitled “Understanding the Global Energy Crisis” (Purdue Press, 2014), several book chapters and journal articles related to advanced energy technologies, transportation energy technology, and future energy policy strategies.

As Director of Activities for three of Tech's Interdisciplinary Research Institutes: the Strategic Energy Institute, the Renewable Bioproducts Institute, and the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, I'll help bring together researchers from different disciplines to address topics of strategic importance. Each interdisciplinary research group mobilizes faculty to address the needs of external stakeholders (federal, state, and local entities, corporations, foundations, and communities) by fostering an Institute-wide innovation ecosystem around a specific focus.

A principal research scientist, Conwell is SEI’s director of planning and operations since 2020. In this role, she oversees strategic and annual planning within SEI and partners with campus researchers and units to create and execute strategic programs and events. Most recently, she led the development of a new five-year action plan and launched a signature initiative to build energy-focused research partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions.  

Before her role at SEI, Conwell was managing director of the $40 million NSF-NASA Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE) in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where she oversaw daily operations, fostered collaborations between 12 universities and other partners, and developed outreach and educational programs. Annually, she worked with more than 80 faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and students and advised on key opportunities to maximize the center's impact. She served as a key leader within CCE’s management team and, in 2020, she was awarded Georgia Tech’s prestigious Outstanding Achievement in the Research Enterprise Award for her leadership.

Conwell holds a B.S. in molecular biology and chemistry from Westminster College in Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Georgia Tech. She has authored several peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and grants on her research in DNA biophysics and non-viral gene delivery, and was a postdoctoral recipient of the NIH Ruth Kirschstein National Research Service Award. During her time at Georgia Tech, Conwell has served as a member of the Research Faculty Senate and the Faculty Executive Board, and she was selected as a member of the fifth Leading Women at Georgia Tech cohort.

The Strategic Energy Institute is excited to welcome Scott McWhorter as a 2023 Distinguished External Fellow. Scott will co-lead the concept development, visioning, partnership, and preliminary capture activities for Georgia Tech on the Department of Commerce Tech Hubs (“Hubs”) and expand Georgia Tech’s hydrogen activities and stature.

Scott is not new to the Georgia Tech campus and has previously worked with Dan Campbell of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) on developing trace organic optical sensors based on evanescent waveguides. More recently, Scott worked with David Sholl (professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech through 2021), to develop the RAPID (Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment) Institute and then through his work with Southeast Hydrogen Energy Alliance (SHEA), started working with Comas Haynes of GTRI on hydrogen, where they brought together the ecosystem that was responsible for at least three hydrogen hub efforts in the South East.

Scott's work related to energy in his own words: 
My career has always related to energy even when I didn’t notice it. I started out in DNA microchips where we tried to understand the various aspects of fluidics (mass transport, thermal, and surface science) that influenced efficient separations. Using the tools from those efforts I transitioned into optical sensor development to monitor trace gases from the gas-solid catalyst interface in a fuel cell electrode to an unknown-unknown contaminant that might cause a failure mode in a weapons system. Over the past decade, my work in energy has focused namely on building partnerships in industrial manufacturing consortia (ManufacturingUSA Institutes) where I helped form both CESMII and RAPID and then focusing on developing technologies to solve the hydrogen storage and delivery challenges through either more efficient, energy dense solid-state storage or using electro magnetics to efficiently provide heat to catalysts to decompose a hydrogen carrier or plastic.