Academic/Campus Speakers
Sports Speakers
Academic/Campus
Tom Akins, IE ’74
Executive Director, Division of Professional Practice
Biography
Addressable topics
1. International Work Experiences
2. Undergraduate Student Marketability/Career Trends
Dr. Gisele Bennett
Director, Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory
Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): Usage in tracking passports and other goods
Dr. Terry C. Blum
Director of the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship, and Tedd Munchak Chair
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Servant Leadership
2. Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship: Leadership Development Programs
3. The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem at Georgia Tech: Technological and Social Entrepreneurship
Ioannis Brilakis
Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Sensing and Analyzing Construction Data
2. Tracking Technologies for the Job Site
3. 3D Reconstruction and Recognition for As-Built Building Information Modeling
Amy Bruckman
Associate Professor, School of Interactive Computing
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Online communities
2. Educational applications of the Internet
3. Social implications of the Internet
John Carter, IE ’69
President and Chief Operating Officer, Georgia Tech Foundation
Biography
Addressable topic
1. The Georgia Tech Foundation Investment Strategy: Where Does Your Money Go?
John-Paul Clarke
Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Creating a Conflict Free, Energy Efficient, Environmentally Friendly Air Transportation System – The Science and Engineering Behind the Future of Air Transportation
2. Understanding the Airline Industry – They Aren’t as Crazy as You Think
Rick Clark
Director, Undergraduate Admission
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Georgia Tech Admissions and national and institutional trends
2. General information about the Admissions process, i.e. tips or advice for alums who have children nearing college age
3. Training alumni to recruit for GT
4. Overview of Today’s Georgia Tech, i.e. campus and student updates
Kim Cobb
Assistant Professor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Biography
Addressable topics
1. The Science of Climate Change
2. Undergraduate Research: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
3. The Carbon Reduction Challenge: Activating the Next Generation
Dr. Ken Cunefare
Professor, The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. What the Future Holds for Automobiles, Internal Combustion Engines and Fuel Economy
2. Shakes, Rattles and Rolls: Acoustics and Vibrations in Engineering and Life
3. Student Engineering Competition Teams: How to Provide Hands-On Experience in a Theory-Driven Educational Setting
Reginald DesRoches
Professor and Associate Chair, Civil & Environmental Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Fixing America’s Crumbling Infrastructure
2. Natural Hazard Mitigation in the Southeastern US
3. GT Research on the Next Generation Sustainable Infrastructure Systems
4. Disaster Resilient Infrastructure Systems
Charles A. Eckert
J. Erskine Love, Jr. Institute Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. The chalk dot: Creativity and science
2. Novel solvents for sustainable technology
3. Industry and university research partnerships
Jim Fetig
Associate Vice President, Institute Communications and Marketing
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Branding and Communications Initiatives at Georgia Tech
2. What’s Next at Tech: Looking Ahead to Tech’s Future
James Foley
Steven Fleming Chair in Telecommunications
Professor and Interim Dean, College of Computing
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Computer graphics
2. Information visualization
3. Human computer interaction
4. Management of R&D
Aris Georgakakos
Director, Georgia Water Resources Institute
Head, Environmental Fluid Mechanics & Water Resources Program
Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Water Resources Planning and Management: Balancing Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability
2. 2007 Georgia Drought: Waste Not, Want Not.
Don Giddens, BS AE ’63, MS AE ’65, DR AE ’66
Dean of the College of Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Changing the Conversation: Improving the Public Understanding of Engineering
2. Georgia Tech’s Biomedical Research: From Molecules to Mankind
3. Nanotechnology: How the tiniest things imaginable will make a big difference in our everyday lives
4. The Georgia Tech Battle Against Cancer and Heart Disease
David Gottfried
Senior Research Scientist, Nanotechnology Research Center
Web site
Addressable topics
1. Nanotechnology: What is the Big Deal about Small Things?
Major General George Harrison
USAF (RET.)
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Electronic warfare
2. Georgia Tech Research Institute and current research topics
3. Research and Development at Georgia Tech: Impacting the World Around Us
Tom Horton, IM 68
Chief of Staff, Georgia Tech Research Institute
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Research and Development at Georgia Tech: Impacting the World Around Us
2. It’s a Great Time to be a Jacket… Poets, Bricks and Leprechauns
Joseph B. Hughes
Chair, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Reconstruction of New Orleans: If We Build it Will They Come?
Joe Irwin, IM ’80
President, Georgia Tech Alumni Association
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Georgia Tech and the Higher Education Landscape
Ellis Kirby, ME ’91
Director of Support Services, GTRI
Biography
Addressable topics
1. GTRI
2. Choosing Georgia Tech As Your School
3. Career Experiences from a Georgia Tech Graduate
Margaret E. Kosal
Professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs/Ivan Allen College
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Al Qa’eda and WMD Terrorism
2. Is Small Scary? Nanotechnology and Security
3. Biotechnology, Biosecurity, and Contentious Research: Synthetic Polio to Designer Organs
Renu Kulkarni, MgtSci ’85
Head, Future Media
Biography
Addressable topics
1. The future of social, digital, and multimedia; what’s next in digital media (calling it Future Media)
2. Open Innovation: The role being ‘open’ and ‘closed’ plays in the end to end innovation cycle (from ‘Pain’ to ‘Proof’ to ‘Profit’).
3. Forging Strategic Alliances and Partnerships to drive short and long term mutual wins
Tim Lieuwen, MS ME ’97, DR ME ’99
Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Domestic coal and foreign oil: What are options and challenges for meeting our needs for energy without killing ourselves or overheating the planet?
2. Combustion, flames, and fire – A look into the science and technology of the stuff that makes the world go ‘round.
Dr. Charles Liotta
Chair of School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Sustainability and Green Chemistry
William Long
Professor and Chair, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs
Biography
Addressable topics
1. The Global Institute: Georgia Tech International Initiatives
Dr. Pete Ludovice
Associate Professor of Chemical and Bio molecular Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. The role of humor in technical innovation, communication and education
Dr. Gary S. May, EE ’85
Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Status and outlook for the School of ECE
2. Georgia Tech: Students, Faculty, Programs & Facilities
Dr. Jud Ready, BS MatE ’94, MS MetE ’97, DR MatE ’00
Senior Research Engineer & Adjunct Professor, Georgia Tech Research Institute
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Nanotechnology: More famous than H1N1
2. Nanotechnology: Good for what ails you!
3. Methods to Harvest & Deliver Energy via Nanotechnology
4. Saving the World via Applied Nanotechnology!
5. Yellow Jacket Flying Club: “When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” – Leonardo da Vinci
Steve Salbu
Dean and Stephen P. Zelnak, Jr. Chair, College of Management
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Georgia Tech’s Fast Growing Management School
Dene Sheheane, MGT ’91
Executive Director, Government and Community Relations
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Georgia Tech’s Economic Impact on the State of Georgia
2. Georgia’s Legislative Support for Higher Education
Sam Shelton, ME ’61
Founding Director, Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Alternative Energy Technology Innovation: The Coming Economic Boom
2. Energy at a Crossroads: Technology’s Response
Gary B. Schuster
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Vasser Woolley Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Science in the 21st century: The promise and the challenge.
2. The revolution in biology and medicine: Brave new world?
3. If research is the answer, what is the question?
Anderson D. Smith
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Regents Professor of Psychology
Biography
Addressable topics
1. There are Three Major Changes with Aging: The First is Memory, but the Other Two I Forget
2. What’s Happening at Georgia Tech: Undergraduate Initiatives
Deborah Smith
Associate Vice Provost of Enrollment Services, Admissions
Biography
Addressable topics
1. The state of recruitment and admissions at Georgia Tech
2. Georgia Tech Today and Tomorrow: An Update on Student Life and Admission
Joel Sokol
Associate Professor, ISYE
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Picking the Winners: Mathematical Modeling for the NCAA Tournament
2. Voting Theory and the Major League Baseball Draft
3. How should Alliances be Structured? Achieving Fairness and Feasibility in the Airline Industry
Marilyn Somers
Founder/Director, Georgia Tech Living History
Alumni Association
Biography
Addressable topics
1. Georgia Tech History in general
2. Traditions and Legends
3. Tech’s Early Football and historic games
Orson Swindle, IM ’59
Former FTC Commissioner, LtColonel, USMC (ret)
Addressable topics
1. Politics: Advisor to McCain campaign 2008, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce (1985-1989; Reagan-Bush) and former Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission (1998-2005; Clinton & Bush). Both Presidential Appointments.
2. Prisoner of War Experience in Vietnam. Flew over 200 fighter missions in Vietnam. Shot down November 11, 1966 and was a POW for over 6 years.
Miller Templeton, BS Phys ’61, MS NE ’63
Director of the Office of International Education, Retired
Director of Recreation Georgia Tech, Retired
Addressable topics
1. Georgia Tech on the Appalachian Trail
William J. Todd, IM ’71
Director
Georgia Cancer Coalition
Addressable topics
1. 21st Century Medicine: The Cutting Edge of Cancer Treatment and Predictive Health
2. The Joint Georgia Tech and Emory biomedical program
Jimmy Trimble, MGT ’91
Director of Private Banking, Fidelity Bank
Biography
Addressable topics
1. The Credit Crisis: Why it Happened and What’s Next
Howard Wertheimer, BS Arch ’81, M Arch ’85
Director, Capital Planning and Space Management
Addressable topics
1. Georgia Tech Campus Master Plan and Landscape Master Plan
2. Sustainability
3. Thinking Green: GT Implementing Sustainable Technology
4. GT campus project updates (i.e. Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons)
5. Successful business development/rainmaking skills for design and constructions firms
For athletic speakers contact Gary Lanier, GT Athletic Association, at glanier@at.gtaa.gatech.edu
