Paul M.A. Baker, Ph.D., is the Senior Director, Research and Strategic Innovation at the Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP), and Chief Operating Officer, Center for the Development and Application of Internet of Things Technologies (CDAIT). He is also a Principal Research Scientist with the School of Public Policy. Previously he was the Associate Director of the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U). Aside from exploring the diffusion innovation and policy in IoT, recent research projects include innovation driven workforce development, mapping the role of intermediaries in innovation networks, usability of voting technologies, implementation of accessible technologies. His work in policy studies include barriers to the adoption of wireless technologies by people with disabilities, teleworking and people with disabilities; social media innovation, online collaboration and virtual communities. He is also involved in international policy research and collaborative policy networks, especially as it relates to issues of technology and usability policy, workforce development and innovation diffusion. 

Baker holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from George Mason University, a Master’s degree in Theological Studies from Emory University, M.P. in Urban Planning from the University of Virginia, and an M.A. in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University. He has served on a variety of national boards and panels, and as a grant proposal reviewer for U.S. Department of Education, the Academy of Finland, the Israel Science Foundation, and the NTIA, US Department of Commerce. He serves also on editorial boards and as a reviewer for 15 journals. His co-edited (with Jarice Hanson and Jeremy Hunsinger) volume, “The Unconnected: Social Justice, Participation, and Engagement in the Information Society” was published in 2013.

Paul Diederich is a systems support engineer responsible for the day-to-day IT operations supporting our users. He also helps create IT solutions and played a key role in creating the Protected Health Data Infrastructure at IPaT. Paul graduated from Kennesaw State University with a bachelor's degree in Information Security Assurance. Prior to Georgia Tech, Paul did freelance IT providing technical support to individuals and companies including medical offices. He also worked at Mesa Community College as a media technician while he lived in Arizona.

Faith Sumpter (she/her/hers) joins the IPaT team as the program and operations manager. Faith joins the team from Georgia Tech’s Institute Diversity department where she provided support for several programs including Employee Resource Groups, Inclusive Leaders Academy, and Transformative Narratives. Prior to that position, she worked within student activities, orientation, and leadership programs at UNC Asheville, Chattahoochee Technical College, and Agnes Scott College. Faith received a bachelor of arts in Spanish from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, and a master of arts in higher education and student affairs from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT. Outside of work, she is an active member of her community and serves as the member-at-large for diversity and inclusion for the Wesleyan College Alumnae Association Board of Managers.

Marcia Chandler has been with Georgia Tech for more than 15 years, with assignments in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the Tennenbaum Institute before joining IPaT. Her responsibilities include purchasing and p-card administration, travel and expense processing, student hiring and HR actions, and asset management. She also assists researchers with Georgia Tech’s rigorous research faculty promotions process and coordinates IPaT Research faculty promotions peer review committee activities. Finally, she compiles and edits the IPaT Weekly Highlights. A native of Florida, Marcia holds a master’s degree in public administration from Kennesaw State University, a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Florida A&M University, and she is a 20+-year member of the Grammy award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

Dr. Abdel-Khalik joined the Georgia Tech faculty as the Georgia Power Distinguished Professor in 1987.  He was appointed to his current position as the Southern Nuclear Distinguished Professor in 1993.  He served as Associate Director of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering between 1990 and 1992 and as the Georgia Tech Secretary of the Faculty between 2002 and 2006.  He served as a member of the USNRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) between 2006 and 2012, including two years as Chairman (2009-2011).  Prior to joining the Georgia Tech faculty, Dr. Abdel-Khalik served as a faculty member in the Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics Department (1976-1987) and as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Chemical Engineering (1973-1975) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Dr. Abdel-Khalik also served as a Senior Engineer at Babcock and Wilcox Nuclear Power Generation Division (1975); as a Guest Research Scientist at the Nuclear Research Center in Karlsruhe, Germany (1979); and as an Invited Professor at EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland (1982).

Dr. Abdel-Khalik currently serves as a member of the External Advisory Boards for the School of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue University and the Mechanical Engineering Department of King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  He also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for Badr University in Cairo, Egypt.

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.