Margaret Kosal

Margaret Kosal

Margaret Kosal

Professor
Director, Sam Nunn Security Program
Editor-in-Chief, Politics and the Life Sciences

Margaret E. Kosal's research explores the relationships among technology, strategy, and governance. Her research focuses on two, often intersecting, areas: reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and understanding the role of emerging technologies for security. Her work aims to understand and explain the role of technology and technological diffusion for national security at strategic and operational levels. In the changing post-Cold War environment, the most advanced military power no longer guarantees national or international security in a globalized world in which an increasing number of nation-states and non-state actors have access to new and potentially devastating dual-use capabilities. The long-term goals of her work are to understand the underlying drivers of technological innovation and how technology affects national security and modern warfare. She is interested in both the scholarly, theoretical level discourse and in the development of new strategic approaches and executable policy options to enable US dominance and to limit the proliferation of unconventional weapons. On the question of understanding the impact of emerging technology on national and international security her research considers what role will nanotechnology, cognitive science, biotechnology, and converging sciences have on states, non-state actors, balance of power, deterrence postures, security doctrines, nonproliferation regimes, and programmatic choices. Through examination of these real applications on the science (benign and defensive) and potential (notional) offensive uses of nanotechnology, she seeks to develop a model to probe the security implications of this emerging technology. The goal of the research is not to predict new specific technologies but to develop a robust analytical framework for assessing the impact of new technology on national and international security and identifying policy measures to prevent or slow proliferation of new technology - the next generation “WMD” - for malfeasant intentions. Kosal is the author of Nanotechnology for Chemical and Biological Defense (Springer Academic Publishers, 2009), which explores scenarios and strategies regarding the benefits and potential proliferation threats of nanotechnology and other emerging sciences for international security. She is also Director of the Sam Nunn Security Fellows Program and Co-Director of the Program on Emerging Technology within the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy (CISTP).  Kosal was recently appointed Adjunct Scholar to the Modern War Institute at the US Military Academy/West Point. From 2012-2013, she as a senior advisor to the Chief of Staff of the US Army as part of his inaugural Strategic Studies Group (SSG). Before joining the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, she was Science and Technology Advisor within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Kosal also served as the first liaison to the Biological and Chemical Defense Directorate at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). She has been recognized for her leadership across the U.S. federal government, specifically for efforts to coordinate across the DoD as part of the interagency Nonproliferation and Arms Control Technology Working Group, reporting to the National Security Council (NSC), and as member of the interagency federal group charged with leading the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). Kosal was nominated to and led the U.S. involvement in the NATO Nanotechnology for Defense Working Group. Her awards include the 2015 CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, 2014 Georgia Tech Junior Faculty Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, 2012 Ivan Allen Jr Legacy Award, 2010 INTAGO Faculty Award, CETL Class of 1969 Teaching Scholar, the OSD Award for Excellence, 2007 UIUC Alumni Association Recent Alumni Award, the President’s Volunteer Service Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Defense Policy Fellow, and the Society of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines Dissertation Research Award. Currently, she serves on the editorial board of the scholarly journals Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, the Journal of Strategic Security, the Journal of Defense Management, and Global Security: Health Science and Policy. Education: Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign B.S., Chemistry, University of Southern California Awards and Distinctions: Senior Adjunct Scholar to the Modern War Institute at the U.S. Military Grand Challenges Faculty Fellow, AY2015-2016 & AY 2016-2017 2015-2016 CETL Class of 1969 Teaching Scholar 2015 CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award Gold Star Award in Recognition of the Highest Level of Accomplishment in Research, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Dean Griffith Teaching Recognition – “Thank a Teacher” Award 2014 Georgia Tech Junior Faculty Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award Ivan Allen Jr. Legacy Faculty Award, 2012 INTAGO Faculty of the Year, 2010 Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence, 2007 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Recent Alumni Award, 2007 President’s Volunteer Service Award, 2007 American Associatio for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Fellowship, 2005-2007 American Chemical Society’s Chemical and Engineering News Top 2002 Supramolecular Chemistry research paper Areas of Expertise: Biotechnology Emerging Technology Military Nanotechnology National Security Nonproliferation Nuclear Weapons Terrorism US Foreign & Defense Policy

margaret.kosal@inta.gatech.edu

404-894-9664

Office Location:
Habersham 303

Website

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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Cybersecurity Public Policy
    • Delivery & Storage
    • Policy & Economics
    Additional Research:

    Defense / National Security; Cyber Technology; Policy/Economics


    IRI Connections:

    Ajeet Rohatgi

    Ajeet Rohatgi

    Ajeet Rohatgi

    Regents Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
    John H. Weitnauer, Jr. Chair, College of Engineering
    Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar

    Ajeet Rohatgi received the B.S. (E.E.) degree from Indian Institute of Technology in 1971, the M.S. (Materials Engineering) from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1973, and the Ph.D. in Metallurgy and Materials Science from Lehigh University in 1977. He joined the Westinghouse Research and Development Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1977 and became a Westinghouse Fellow while working on the science and technology of photovoltaic and microelectronic devices. Rohatgi joined the ECE faculty at Georgia Tech in 1985 and started a program on photovoltaics, which has become one of the best in the country. He has become an internationally recognized leader in photovoltaics. He is the founding director of the first university-based DOE Center of Excellence in Photovoltaic Research and Education. He is the author of more than 300 publications and holds 10 U.S. patents. Rohatgi has received numerous awards and distinctions from professional societies and Georgia Tech. He is the founder and CTO for Suniva.

    ajeet.rohatgi@ece.gatech.edu

    404.894.7692

    Office Location:
    VL W121

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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Electronic Materials
    • Materials for Energy
    • Renewable Energy
    • Semiconductors
    Additional Research:

    silicon devices; solar cells; dielectrics; Compund Semiconductors; solar energy


    IRI Connections:

    Gleb Yushin

    Gleb Yushin

    Gleb Yushin

    Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering

    Gleb Yushin is a Professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and a Co-Founder of several companies, including Sila Nanotechnologies, Inc.. For his contributions to materials science, Yushin has received numerous awards and recognitions, including Kavli Fellow Award, R&D 100 Award (Y-Carbon's application), Honda Initiation Grant Award, National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, and several distinctions from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), such as Nano 50 Award. Dr. Yushin has co-authored over 30 patents and patent applications, over 100 invited presentations and seminars and over 100 publications on nanostructured Electronic Materials related applications, including papers in Science, Nature Materials and other leading journals. His current research is focused on advancing energy storage materials and devices for electronics, transportation and grid applications.

    gleb.yushin@mse.gatech.edu

    404.385.3261

    Office Location:
    Love 371

    YUSHIN GROUP

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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Energy
    • Energy Generation, Storage, and Distribution
    • Energy Storage
    • Materials & Manufacturing
    • Materials and Nanotechnology
    • Materials for Energy
    • Miniaturization & Integration
    • Nanomaterials
    Additional Research:

    CharacterizationMeasurementsPhotovoltaicsPolymersProcessing, Fabrication, & ManufacturingSynthesis


    IRI Connections:

    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:

    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:

    Lauren Garten

    Lauren Garten

    Lauren Garten

    Assistant Professor

    Lauren Garten joined the School of Material Science and Engineering as an assistant professor in Fall 2021. Her group focuses on developing new materials for energy and electronic applications, particularly at the nexus between ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, electronics, and photovoltaics. 

    Lauren received her B.S. in ceramic engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. She then went on to earn a Ph.D. in material science from the Pennsylvania State University for her work on ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and dielectric synthesis and characterization with Prof. Susan Trolier-McKinstry. She then became a post-doc at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory working on metastable materials for energy applications. After a very short stint as a material scientist at Sandia National Laboratory, she won the NRC Research Associateship from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Math which was hosted at the U.S. Naval Research Lab (NRL). She then received the Jerome and Isabella Karle Distinguished Scholar Fellowship from NRL to work on lead-free multiferroic materials and devices.

    lauren.garten@mse.gatech.edu

    404-894-5748

    Office Location:
    Pettit 210

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    Research Focus Areas:
    • Advanced Materials
    • Electronics
    • Energy Harvesting
    • Energy Storage
    • Nanomaterials
    • Solar
    Additional Research:

    Electronics, Energy Harvesting, Energy Storage, Solar


    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:

    Mark Losego

    Mark Losego

    Mark Losego

    Professor, MSE Faculty Fellow, and Dean’s Education Innovation Professor

    Mark D. Losego is a 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

    Research Website

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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:

    Natalie Stingelin

    Natalie  Stingelin

    Natalie Stingelin

    Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

    Previously a professor of organic functional materials at the Department of Materials, Imperial College of London, Natalie Stingelin joined Georgia Tech in 2016. She focuses her research on the broad field of organic functional materials, including organic electronics; multifunctional inorganic/organic hybrids; smart, advanced optical systems based on organic matter; and bioelectronics. Associate Editor of the Journal of Materials Chemistry, she has published more than 130 papers and 6 issued patents. She is a co-investigator of the newly established EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Large Area Electronics, and she leads the EC Marie-Curie Training Network 'INFORM' that involves 11 European partners. She was awarded the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining's Rosenhain Medal and Prize (2014) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) President's International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) Award for Visiting Scientists (2015).

    natalie.stingelin@mse.gatech.edu

    404.894.5192

    Office Location:
    ES&T L1220

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    University, College, and School/Department
    Research Focus Areas:
    • Nanomaterials
    Additional Research:

    Organic electronics; Bioelectronics


    IRI Connections: