Merrick L. Furst, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, runs commercialization and new venture creation and directs undergraduate programs and faculty development in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. He recently founded the anti-botnet startup, Damballa, Inc. Prior to GT he was a professor at UC Berkeley, president of the International Computer Science Institute at Berkeley and CEO of Essential Surfing Gear, Inc., which grew to 53 employees before being sold in 2000. He also helped establish a new high school in San Francisco. Earlier he was professor and associate dean in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon. Dr. Furst is known for seminal research in algorithms, complexity theory and Artificial Intelligence. Merrick co-invented probabilistic circuit analysis and planning graphs, which are considered among the most influential breakthroughs in the field of Artificial Intelligence planning.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Lipton's professional career has been primarily in academia. He has held faculty appointments at Yale University, the University of California at Berkeley and Princeton University before joining the faculty in the college of Computing at Georgia Tech. In addition to his computer science academic appointments, Dr. Lipton was the founding director of a computer science research laboratory for the Panasonic Corporation and is currently a chief consulting scientist at Telcordia (formerly known as Bellcore). Dr. Lipton's research is primarily, but not exclusively focused on theory. In a recent paper which explored the power of automata-based proof systems, he explored one way to address the NP=co-NP questions which considered the length of proofs of tautologies in various proof systems. In this joint work with A. Viglas he considered proof systems defined by appropriate classes of automata. Dr. Lipton found that is general, starting from a given class of automata, it was possible to define a corresponding proof system in a natural way. One new and more powerful proof system was based on the class of push down automata. In this work, Dr. Lipton presented an exponential lower bound for oblivious read-once branching programs that resulted in a proof system more powerful than oblivious regular resolution. Dr. Lipton has also made important contributions in the areas of program testing, software engineering and most recently, DNA computing. This latter area combines molecular biology and computer science. It is generally acknowledged that Dr. Lipton was one of the original pioneers in the field of DNA computing, along with Len Adleman.

Steven W. McLaughlin received the B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1985, the M.S.E. degree from Princeton University in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1992, all in electrical engineering. From 1992-1996 he was on the Electrical Engineering faculty at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He joined the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech in September 1996 where he is now the Ken Byers Professor of ECE. He was previously Deputy Director of Georgia Tech Lorraine--the European Campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology--in Metz, France. He was the first Georgia Tech recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) where he was cited by President Bill Clinton "for leadership in the development of high-capacity, nonbinary optical recording formats." He also received the National Science Foundation CAREER award for this work. He received (with Dr. David Warland at UC-Davis) the Information Storage Industries Consortium Technical Achievement Award in 2002 for "pioneering work in the development of multilevel optical disk storage technology." From 1999-2003 he was also the Principal Scientist for Calimetrics where this work was commercialized (Calimetrics was acquired by LSI Logic in 2005). He received the Friend of the Graduate Student Award in 2002 from the Georgia Tech Graduate Student Association. His research interests are in the general area of communications and information theory. He has published more than two hundred papers in journals and conferences and holds twenty-six US patents. He has served as the research and thesis advisor to more than fifty students at the bachelors, masters, doctoral and post-doctoral levels. In 2005, he was President of the IEEE Information Theory Society and he is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Dr. Richard Fujimoto is a Regents' Professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received the Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of California (Berkeley) in 1980 and 1983 (Computer Science and Electrical Engineering) and B.S. degrees from the University of Illinois (Urbana) in 1977 and 1978 (Computer Science and Computer Engineering). He has been an active researcher in the parallel and distributed simulation community since 1985. Among his current activities he is the technical lead concerning time management issues for the DoD High Level Architecture (HLA) effort. He is an area editor for ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation, and has also been chair of the steering committee for the Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation, (PADS) since 1990. He also served as a member of the Conference Committee for the Simulation Interoperability Workshop.

Richard Barke's research interests focus on the roles of politics within science, and of science within politics. He teaches courses on American government, regulatory policy, research policy and management, and science and technology policy. With Prof. Gena Abraham (Civil Engineering), he has taught an interdisciplinary seminar on "Bridging Engineering and the Liberal Arts: Designing Progress." Dr. Barke has written about topics such as how scientists translate scientific findings into policy recommendations, the regulation of scientific research (such as human subjects and nanotechnology), the treatment of risk and uncertainty in policy making, the political behavior of scientific disciplines, the impact of university curricula on the organization and advancement of scientific knowledge, and the politics of science budgeting in Congress. A recent article on "Reconciling Scientists' Beliefs about Radiation Risks and Social Norms: Explaining Preferred Radiation Protection Standards," with Carol Silva and Hank Jenkins-Smith ( Risk Analysis , 2007), used survey data to argue that scientists employ a precautionary principle in interpreting uncertain scientific data, with important implications for science advice to policymakers. In "Balancing Uncertain Risks and Benefits in Human Subjects Research" (in Science, Technology, and Human Values, 2009) he found that uncertainty in the characterization of research risks and benefits provides negotiating space that allows experts and laypersons to reach agreements. He also is the author of Science, Technology, and Public Policy (CQ Press) and co-author of Governing the American Republic (St. Martins). Current and recent projects include a study of how political theory can inform our understanding of how interests and ideas are represented in science policymaking and, with support from the National Science Foundation, how the risks and benefits of emerging nanotechnology are translated across the realms of scientific, popular, and policy discourse (with Lisa Yaszek, Alan Porter, and Jud Ready). From 1998 to 2005 Dr. Barke served as associate dean in Georgia Tech's Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. His earlier positions include visiting scholar at the University of Ghent, Belgium; consultant with the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government; and consultant with the Center for Growth Studies, Houston Area Research Center. Dealing with various aspects of science and technology policy, his research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Army Environmental Policy Institute, and the US Departments of Energy and Commerce. Dr. Barke has received the Georgia Tech Faculty Advisor of the Year Award and the ANAK Society award for his outstanding service to the Institute and to the student body through teaching, research, advisement, and involvement in campus life. In 2008 he received the Georgia Tech Outstanding Service Award and the Student Government Association's Professor of the Year Award.

Dr. Raymond P. Vito is the Vice Provost for Graduate and Undergraduate Studies, after serving as the associate dean of Engineering for Academic Affairs. He received his bachelors and masters degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He began teaching Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech in 1974 as an assistant professor. Prior to that, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at McMaster University, Canada. Dr. Vito's research interest is in the mechanical determinants of rupture of atherosclerotic plaque. Plaque rupture is important in stroke and heart attack because it precipitates the formation of a thrombus (blood clot) which then breaks away and causes an obstruction of flow. Experiments and modeling are used to determine what compositional factors predispose a plaque to rupture. Dr. Vito collaborates with people interested in detecting vulnerable plaque using magnetic resonance imaging and with others who want to intervene with drugs or genetic manipulation to reduce the likelihood of plaque rupture. His current research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Dr. Vito was named an American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Fellow in 2006.

Dr. Ludovice's research activities emphasize the use of computer simulation to elucidate the relationship between atomic level structure and properties of synthetic and biological macromolecules. Insight from computer simulations can more efficiently guide experimental efforts to save millions of dollars on development costs. Particular emphasis is placed on the characterization of fundamental ordering and energetic phenomena that are indicative of superior properties. Dr. Ludovice is currently focusing his efforts in a number of areas including transmembrane proteins, relaxation and gas diffusion in polymer glasses and polymers for microelectronics applications. He is also developing new simulation protocols to more efficiently model highly viscous systems.

Michael Hoffmann is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy. His research focuses on the ways in which creativity, cognitive change, and learning can be stimulated by argument visualization: individually, collaboratively, and online in the interactive AGORA-net: Participate - Deliberate! This research is based on Charles S. Peirce's concept of "diagrammatic reasoning." He is interested in collaborative knowledge creation; problem-based learning; how to cope with complexity; logical argument mapping; frame-based conflicts; ethical decision making; theories of justice; semiotics; epistemology; and American Pragmatism. Hoffmann also serves as Director of the Philosophy Program at Georgia Tech and Director of the AGORA Project.

Mark Guzdial is a Professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Mark is a member of the GVU Center, the Cognitive Science program, and the EduTech Institute. He received his Ph.D. in education and computer science (a joint degree) at the University of Michigan in 1993, where he developed Emile, an environment for high school science learners programming multimedia demonstrations and physics simulations. He was the original developer of the CoWeb (or Swiki), which is now one of the most widely used Wiki engines in Universities around the world. He is the inventor of the Media Computation approach to learning introductory computing, which uses contextualized computing education to attract and retain students. Mark is the Director of the NSF-sponsored alliance to broaden participation in computing, "Georgia Computes!"

Dr. Braunstein teaches health informatics and is involved in research aimed at wider and deeper adoption of health information technology to improve the quality and efficiency of care delivery. He was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Patient Care Technologies, Inc. ("PtCT"), an ATDC Graduate company, a 1998 Inc 500 company, and a leading provider of electronic patient record and care management systems to the home care industry. PtCT was acquired by MEDITECH in 2007. He received his BS degree from MIT in 1969 and his MD degree from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in 1974. After an internship at Washington University he joined the faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy at MUSC until he left in 1978 to co-found PROHECA, an early developer of clinical pharmacy systems. PROHECA was acquired by National Data Corporation (NDC) in 1981 and was the seed for NDCHealth. At NDC he ran what was then the NDC Healthcare Division for five years and was the company's President and COO for three years until he left in 1990 to co-found PtCT. He is the author of over fifty papers; articles and book chapters devoted to various aspects of clinical automation. His most recent publication is "Searching for the Holy Grail: Integrated Electronic Medical Records and Beyond", a chapter he co-authored for the book "e-Healthcare: Harness the Power of Internet e-Commerce and e-Care", edited by Douglas E. Goldstein and published by Aspen. He is Senior Adviser for health information technology to Focus, LLC, an investment banking firm that provides a range of services tailored to the needs of emerging growth and middle market businesses from offices across the country. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of the Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures (GATV) -- a corporation that supports the Advanced Technology Development Center, a technology incubator operated by the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also a past Chairman of the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region and of the Atlanta Chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum. He won a 1996 Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Southeast Region, received a 1995 Innovation in Medical Management Award from the American Society of Physician Executives and received the 2006 Founder's Award from the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, a family physician and co-author of the book "Your Body, Your Health."