W. Jud Ready

W. Jud Ready

W. Jud Ready

Associate Director of External Engagement
Principal Research Engineer, Georgia Tech Research Institute
Adjunct Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering

W. Jud Ready is the Deputy Director, Innovation Initiatives for the Georgia Tech ‘Institute for Materials.’  He has also been an adjunct professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech and a principal research engineer on the research faculty of Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) for over a dozen years. Prior to joining the Georgia Tech faculty, he worked for a major military contractor (General Dynamics) as well as in small business (MicroCoating Technologies). He has served as PI or co-PI for grants totaling ~$17M awarded by the Army, Navy, Air Force, DARPA, NASA, NSF, NIST, industry, charitable foundations and the States of Georgia and Florida. His current research focuses primarily on energy, aerospace, nanomaterial applications, and electronics reliability.

jud.ready@gtri.gatech.edu

404.407.6036

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Research Focus Areas:
  • Materials and Nanotechnology
  • Nanomaterials
  • Renewable Energy
Additional Research:
Materials Failure and Reliability; Carbon Nanotubes; Integrated photonics; Photovoltaics; Solar

IRI Connections:

Samuel Graham

Samuel Graham

Samuel Graham

Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair, Woodruff School Mechanical Engineering
Professor, School Mechanical Engineering
Director, Electronics Manufacturing and Reliability Laboratory

Samuel Graham is the Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also holds an appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech and a joint appointment with the Energy and Transportation Science Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. His research focuses on the packaging and reliability of electronic devices ranging from wide bandgap semiconductors to flexible organic electronics and wearable sensors. His is a member of the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics at Georgia Tech and a co-founder of the Heat Lab which provides thermal solutions for electronics packaging.

sam.graham@me.gatech.edu

404.894.2264

Office Location:
Love 339

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  • Electronics Manufacturing and Reliability Laboratory
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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Conventional Energy
    • Flexible Electronics
    • Micro and Nano Device Engineering
    • Miniaturization & Integration
    Additional Research:
    Heat Transfer; Nanostructured Materials; Electronic Systems, Devices, Components, & Packaging; Materials Failure and Reliability; Thermal Systems

    IRI Connections:

    Susan Burns

    Susan Burns

    Susan Burns

    Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
    Associate Chair for Finance & Administration; School of Civil & Environmental Engineering

    Susan E. Burns, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE is a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and associate chair for administration and finance at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Burns earned a B.C.E. in civil engineering (1990), an M.S. in civil engineering (1996), an M.S. in environmental engineering (1996), and Ph.D. in civil engineering (1997), all from Georgia Tech. After completing her Ph.D., Professor Burns joined the faculty at the University of Virginia where she served for over seven years. In 2004, she joined the faculty at Georgia Tech as an associate professor. 

    Burns' research focuses on applications in geoenvironmental engineering, with particular emphasis on the productive reuse of waste materials including dredged sediments, fly ash, and biomass fly ash, treatment of highway stormwater runoff using engineered materials, erosion control of soils on highway rights-of-way, interfacial behavior of organic- and inorganic-coated soils, the transport and behavior of microbubbles in otherwise saturated porous media, and the hydraulic conductivity and consolidation properties of fine-grained soils using seismic piezocone penetration testing (SPCPT). Funding for her research group has come from federal, state, and industry sources, including a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in 2000. Burns has also received major funding from the US Department of Energy, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Department of Education, the Virginia Transportation Research Council, the Georgia Department of Transportation, Southern Company, and other industrial sources. 

    Burns is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award (ASCE), the Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award (ASCE), the Alumni Board of Trustees Teaching Award (University of Virginia), and the David Harrison III Award for Undergraduate Advising (University of Virginia). She was awarded a University Teaching Fellowship (University of Virginia), and was named a Class of 1969 Teaching Scholar (Georgia Tech) and a Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow (Georgia Tech). Most recently, she was selected as the recipient of the 2012 CEE appreciation award (CEE, Georgia Tech) and a 2012 Class of 1934 Teaching Effectiveness Award. She was elected Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2013. 

    Burns has served as the president of the United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER), an organization of approximately 400 professors of geotechnical engineering in the US and abroad (www.usucger.org). She is a past member of the National Research Council's (NRC) Standing Committee on Geological and Geotechnical Engineering, and a past member of the NRC's Committee on Assessment of the Performance of Engineered Waste Containment Barriers. She has chaired the American Society of Civil Engineers/GeoInstitute Geoenvironmental Engineering Committee, and is a past member of the GeoInstitute Awards Committee, and the Transportation Research Board's Committee on Physicochemical Phenomena in Soils. Additionally, she served as an editorial board member for ASCE's Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. She served on the organizing committee for the International Symposium on Deformational Characteristics of Geomaterials (IS Atlanta 2008) and the Fifth International Conference on Scour and Erosion, and served as the editor for proceedings at both conferences. 

    At Georgia Tech, Burns has chaired the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering's graduate committee, served on the School's statutory advisory committee, served as the graduate coordinator for the Geosystems Group, and served as the group leader for the geosystems group in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She was the School's associate chair for undergraduate programs for five years before taking over as associate chair for finance and administration in 2018. At the Institute level, she has served as a member of the Academic Senate and General Faculty Assembly and the Student Academic and Financial Affairs Committee.

    susan.burns@ce.gatech.edu

    404.894.2285

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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Energy Generation, Storage, and Distribution
    • Materials and Nanotechnology
    Additional Research:
    Geosystems; Geomaterials; Materials Design; Nanocomposites; Transport of Microbubbles

    IRI Connections:

    Satish Kumar

    Satish Kumar

    Satish Kumar

    Professor Emeritus, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
    Professor Emeritus, School of Materials Science and Engineering

    Satish Kumar is currently an Associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. He joined Georgia Tech in 2009 as an Assistant Professor. Prior, he worked at IBM Corporation where he was responsible for the thermal management of electronic devices. Kumar received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette in 2007. He received his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge in 2003 and B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati in 2001. His research interests are in electro-thermal transport in carbon nanotube, graphene, and 2D materials based electronic devices, AlGaN/GaN transistors, thermal management, and thermo-electric coolers. He is author or co-author of over 70 journal or conference publications. His contributions to his research field have been recognized by Purdue Research Foundation Fellowship in 2005, 1969 Teaching Fellow from Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning Center at Georgia Tech, 2012 Summer Faculty Fellow from Air Force Research Lab, 2014 Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award, and 2014 DARPA Young Faculty Award.

    satish.kumar@me.gatech.edu

    404.385.6640

    Office Location:
    Love 123

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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Advanced Composites
    • Bioengineering
    • Biotechnology
    • Combustion
    • Electronic Materials
    • Electronics
    • Micro and Nano Device Engineering
    • Miniaturization & Integration
    • Semiconductors
    • Thermal Systems
    Additional Research:
    Compund SemiconductorsComputational mechanicsCarbon NanotubesBio-Devices

    IRI Connections:

    Rosario Gerhardt

    Rosario Gerhardt

    Rosario Gerhardt

    Professor and Goizueta Foundation Faculty Chair, School of Materials Science and Engineering

    Rosario A. Gerhardt joined the faculty of Georgia Tech as associate professor in January 1991.  She was promoted to full professor in 2001.  Prior to coming to Georgia Tech she worked as an assistant research professor at the Center for Ceramics Research at Rutgers University from 1986-1990 and as a post-doctoral research associate at Rutgers for two years and at Columbia University in New York City for one year.  She also worked as an ASEE/NASA Faculty Fellow at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL during summer 1995 and as a visiting professor at the Center for Nanomaterials Science (CNMS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, TN during the 2007-2008 academic year. She regularly interacts with researchers at various industrial companies and national laboratories. Her research work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA and various industrial companies.

    Gerhardt's research focuses on determining structure-property-processing relationships in a wide range of materials. Most recently, her research group has focused on making and characterizing polymer and ceramic composites containing conducting and semiconducting nanofillers and on the synthesis and assembly of nanoparticles into thin films useful for use as transparent electrodes, solar cell components, microwave heatable inserts, conductive paper, etc. Over the years, she has worked with a variety of ceramic materials such as dielectric insulators, ionic conductors and ceramic superconductors in bulk and thin film form, as well as with intrinsic conducting polymers. Her work also extends onto non-electronics related materials such as fiber and particulate reinforced composites and metallic alloys that are used for wear applications and as components in the hot-sections of gas turbine engines. Most of her work has dealt with the electrical and microstructural characterization of materials using impedance and dielectric spectroscopy, resistivity measurements, and structural characterization via microscopic techniques such as optical, SEM, TEM and AFM, and x-ray and neutron scattering methods. More recently, her group has also added various optical spectroscopy techniques to their repertoire of characterization methods (FTIR, UV-Vis and Raman).

    Gerhardt is a fellow of the American Ceramic Society (ACeRS) and a member of the Materials Research Society(MRS), the IEEE/Dielectrics Division and Instrument and Measurement Division, the Metallurgical Society(TMS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Society for Non-Destructive Testing (ASNT), the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society(IMAPS) and the Microscopy Society of America(MSA). She is also a member of Sigma Xi, Keramos and Tau Beta Pi. She has been active as an executive officer of the Electronics Division of the American Ceramic Society, having served as Chair of that division during the 2000-2001 year and on other capacities since then. She also serves as the faculty advisor for the Student Chapter of ACeRS and MRS at Georgia Tech and has been co-organizer of numerous symposia both at ACerS, MRS and other societies. She is a member of the National Research Council Associateship Panel Review Program. She is the author or co-author of over 200 refereed publications and has served as research advisor to more than 40 graduate students. Gerhardt and one of her students recently received one of the 2011 ASNT fellowship awards. 

    One of Gerhardt’s long term research goals is to establish that electrical measurements can be used as a non-destructive method for microstructural characterization at all length scales. She was the leading organizer of a symposium series on the same subject at the Materials Research Society Meetings during the 1995, 1997 and 2001 Fall Meetings from which three proceedings books were published (MRS Proc. Vols. 411, 500 and 699). In addition, she teaches a graduate course at Georgia Tech (MSE7140) where she covers the theory and applications of impedance spectroscopy from the microstructural point of view.  She is currently writing a textbook on this subject, which is due to be published in 2013.  She is also the editor of a recent book entitled “Properties and Applications of Silicon Carbide” that was published by In-Tech publications in 2011

    rosario.gerhardt@mse.gatech.edu

    404.894.6886

    Office Location:
    Love 168

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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biobased Materials
    • Biochemicals
    • Biorefining
    • Biotechnology
    • Electronic Materials
    • Pulp Paper Packaging & Tissue
    • Sustainable Manufacturing
    Additional Research:
    Advanced Characterization; Ceramics; Conducting Polymers; Plasmonics; Nanostructured Materials; Printing Technology; Nanocellulose Applications; Films & Coatings; Biomaterials

    IRI Connections:

    Akanksha Menon

    Akanksha Menon

    Akanksha Menon

    Assistant Professor

    Dr. Akanksha Menon is an Assistant Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. Prior to this, she was a Rosenfeld Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she performed research on hybrid membrane-thermal desalination processes using solar energy, and she also contributed to the development of thermal energy storage materials. Dr. Menon completed her Ph.D. at Georgia Tech, where she focused on developing semiconducting polymers and new device architectures for thermoelectric energy harvesting. She holds a bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University at Qatar, as well as a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech.

    Her research group at Georgia Tech is working on technologies for the water-energy nexus.

    akanksha.menon@me.gatech.edu

    Akanksha Menon Profile

    Research Focus Areas:
    • Combustion
    • Energy
    • Renewable Energy

    IRI Connections:

    Preet Singh

    Preet Singh

    Preet Singh

    Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering
    Associate Chair of Graduate Studies, School of Materials Science and Engineering

    Prior to joining MSE in July 2003 Professor Singh was a faculty member in Corrosion and Materials Engineering Group at The Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST) since 1996.  While in IPST Singh worked on fundamental as well as applied research projects related to the corrosion problems in the pulp and paper industry. From 1990 to 1996, he was a Senior Research Associate at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, working on various materials and corrosion related research projects, including damage accumulation in metal matrix composites (MMCs), Environmental sensitive fracture of Al-alloys MMCs, and High temperature oxidation of Nb/Nb5Si3 composites. He received the Alcan International's Fellowship in 1988-90 to work on "Effects of Low Melting Point Impurities on Slow Crack Growth in Al Alloys,"  He has published over 50 papers in reputed scientific journals and conference proceedings. He is active member of NACE, TMS, TAPPI and has co-organized a number of international symposiums.

    Reliable performance of the materials is very important for any industrial process and especially for the chemical process industry for the manufacture of a high quality product. Material selection is generally based on the required material properties, low initial capital investment, and minimum maintenance. Changes in the process parameters to improve products can often lead to higher corrosion susceptibilities of the plant materials. Moreover, with increase in capital cost, there is pressure to extend the life of existing plant equipment beyond its original design life. Corrosion and Materials Engineers are also playing a key role in selecting, maintaining, and modifying materials for changing needs for every industry. Corrosion Science and Engineering research includes understanding the basic mechanisms involved in material degradation in given environments and using that knowledge to develop a mitigation strategy against environment-induced failures

    preet.singh@mse.gatech.edu

    404.894.6641

    Office Location:
    IPST 246

    Corrosion and Materials Lab

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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biobased Materials
    • Biochemicals
    • Biorefining
    • Biotechnology
    • Materials and Nanotechnology
    • Pulp Paper Packaging & Tissue
    • Renewable Energy
    • Sustainable Manufacturing
    Additional Research:
    Composites; fracture and fatigue; stress corrosion; Materials Failure and Reliability; Biofuels; Chemical Recovery; Environmental Processes; Sustainable Manufacturing; Energy & Water; Corrosion & Reliability

    IRI Connections:

    J. Carson Meredith

    J. Carson Meredith

    J. Carson Meredith

    Executive Director of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute
    Professor and James Harris Faculty Fellow, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

    Meredith is the Executive Director of the Georgia Tech Renewable Bioproducts Institute, and the James Harris Faculty Fellow in ChBE.

    Meredith's group researches the surfaces and interfaces of advanced materials. Their work aims to apply fundamentals of polymer, surface and colloid science to find new ways to engineer materials useful to society and industry. In particular, projects emphasize the utilization of renewable components and sustainable processing to achieve circular manufacturing and use of plastics, composites, foams and coatings, among others. Many of these materials are critical for food security, energy efficiency, and are closely connected to greenhouse gas reduction.

    carson.meredith@chbe.gatech.edu

    404.385.2151

    Office Location:
    ES&T 1212

    ChBE Profile Page

  • The Meredith Group
  • Renewable Bioproducts Institute
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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biobased Materials
    • Biochemicals
    • Biorefining
    • Biotechnology
    • Materials and Nanotechnology
    • Pulp Paper Packaging & Tissue
    • Sustainable Manufacturing
    Additional Research:
    Catalysis; Cellulosic Nanomaterials; Separation Technologies; Nanocellulose Applications; Aerogels & Hydrogels; Films & Coatings; Coatings & Barriers; Biomaterials

    IRI Connections:

    Dennis Hess

    Dennis Hess

    Dennis Hess

    Professor Emeritus, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

    Dennis Hess’s research interests are in thin film science and technology, surface and interface modification and characterization, microelectronics processing and electronic materials. His group focuses on the establishment of fundamental structure-property relationships and their connection to chemical process sequences used in the fabrication of novel films, electronic materials, devices, and nanostructures. Control of the surface properties of materials such as dielectrics, semiconductors, metals, and paper or paper board by film deposition or surface modification allows the design of such surfaces for a variety of applications in microelectronics, packaging, sensors, microfluidics, and separation processes.

    dennis.hess@chbe.gatech.edu

    (404) 894-5922

    ChBE Profile Page

  • Hess Group
  • University, College, and School/Department
    Research Focus Areas:
    • Biobased Materials
    • Biochemicals
    • Biorefining
    • Biotechnology
    • Electronic Materials
    • Miniaturization & Integration
    • Pulp Paper Packaging & Tissue
    • Sustainable Manufacturing
    • Use & Conservation
    Additional Research:
    Electronics; Thin Films; Surfaces and Interfaces; plasma processing; Papermaking; Coatings & Barriers; Films & Coatings; Biomaterials

    IRI Connections:

    Mark Losego

    Mark Losego

    Mark Losego

    Associate Professor, MSE Faculty Fellow, and Dean’s Education Innovation Professor
    IMS Initiative Lead, AI for Chemicals and Materials Discovery

    Mark D. Losego is an associate professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. The Losego research lab focuses on materials processing to develop novel organic-inorganic hybrid materials and interfaces for microelectronics, sustainable energy devices, national security technologies, and advanced textiles. The Losego Lab combines a unique set of solution and vapor phase processing methods to convert organic polymers into organic-inorganic hybrid materials, including developing the science to scale these processes for manufacturing.  Prof. Losego’s work is primarily experimental, and researchers in his lab gain expertise in the vapor phase processing of materials (atomic layer deposition, physical vapor deposition, vapor phase infiltration, etc.), the design and construction of vacuum equipment, interfacial and surface science, and materials and surface characterization. Depending on the project, Losego Lab researchers explore a variety of properties ranging from electrical to electrochemical to optical to thermal to sorptive to catalytic and more.

    losego@gatech.edu

    404.385.3630

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  • Research Focus Areas:
    • Biobased Materials
    • Biochemicals
    • Biorefining
    • Biotechnology
    • Electronic Materials
    • Pulp Paper Packaging & Tissue
    • Sustainable Manufacturing
    Additional Research:
    Catalysis; Cellulose Nanomaterials; Coatings; Coatings and Barriers; Corrosion & Materials Engineering; Corrosion and Reliability; Energy; Films and Coatings; Microporous Materials; Nanocellulose Applications; Nanomaterials; New Materials; Polymers; Vapor Phase Processing

    IRI Connections: