Marilyn Brown is a Regents' and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy. She joined Georgia Tech in 2006 after a distinguished career at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she led several national climate change mitigation studies and became a leader in the analysis and interpretation of energy futures in the United States. 

Her research focuses on the design and impact of policies aimed at accelerating the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies, with an emphasis on the electric utility industry, the integration of energy efficiency, demand response, and solar resources, and ways of improving resiliency to disruptions. Her books include Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), Green Savings: How Policies and Markets Drive Energy Efficiency (Praeger, 2015), and Climate Change and Global Energy Security (MIT Press, 2011). She has authored more than 250 publications. Her work has had significant visibility in the policy arena as evidenced by her numerous briefings and testimonies before state legislative bodies and Committees of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

Dr. Brown co-founded the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance and chaired its Board of Directors for several years. She has served on the Boards of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Alliance to Save Energy, and was a commissioner with the Bipartisan Policy Center. She has served on eight National Academies committees and is an Editor of Energy Policy and an Editorial Board member of Energy Efficiency and Energy Research and Social Science. She served two terms (2010-2017) as a Presidential appointee and regulator on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power provider. From 2014-2018 she served on DOE’s Electricity Advisory Committee, where she led the Smart Grid Subcommittee.

Tim Lieuwen is the executive vice president for Research at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In this role, he oversees the Institute’s $1.4+ billion portfolio of research, economic development, and sponsored activities. This includes leadership of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the Enterprise Innovation Institute, 11 interdisciplinary research institutes (IRIs), and related research administrative support units.

In his 25-plus years at Georgia Tech, Lieuwen earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering (1996 and 1999, respectively) and has held multiple leadership positions. He has been the executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) and served as the interim chair of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering in 2023.

Lieuwen has received numerous honors and recognition for his work in clean energy systems and policy, national security, and regional economic development. Additionally, he has been awarded the titles of Regents’ Professor and the David S. Lewis, Jr. Chair in AE. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Dr. Christopher “Scott” McWhorter is Lead for Federal Energy Strategy and National Laboratory Partnerships and a Senior Research Engineer within the Strategic Energy Institute (SEI) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In this role, he leads Georgia Tech’s federal energy strategy, national laboratory engagement, and large-scale interdisciplinary research development efforts, helping position the Institute to compete for transformative federal research investments across the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Commerce, and other federal agencies. He works closely with faculty, industry, national laboratories, and government stakeholders to develop strategic partnerships, advance technology commercialization, and expand Georgia Tech’s research portfolio in energy, manufacturing, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, and national security. 

Dr. McWhorter brings more than twenty-five years of experience spanning national laboratories, federal government, academia, and technology startups. His technical expertise encompasses hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, advanced energy storage materials, critical minerals and supply chains, grid modernization, advanced manufacturing, sensors and spectroscopy, technology commercialization, and strategic energy policy. Throughout his career, he has led the development and management of multidisciplinary research programs valued at hundreds of millions of dollars while helping organizations secure more than $750 million in competitive federal funding. 

At Georgia Tech, Dr. McWhorter has played a leading role in developing major institutional initiatives focused on hydrogen, critical minerals, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and federal research partnerships. He serves as Co-Principal Investigator on a $20 million Department of Defense program focused on the manufacturing science of galvanic aluminum-based hydrogen generation technologies and has led numerous efforts to connect Georgia Tech researchers with federal agencies, national laboratories, industry partners, and regional innovation ecosystems. He previously served as Interim Managing Director of the Georgia Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing (Georgia AIM) initiative and Interim Executive Director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing 4.0 Consortium, where he expanded industry engagement and strengthened partnerships across the manufacturing sector. 

Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Dr. McWhorter served in multiple executive and scientific leadership roles at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), including Director of Strategic Programs, Division Director for Energy Science and Technology, Director of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program, and Senior Advisory Scientist. He managed research portfolios exceeding $75 million annually and led multidisciplinary organizations of more than 65 scientists, engineers, and technical staff. During his tenure, he significantly expanded SRNL’s clean energy research portfolio, helped establish the laboratory’s Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative, and played a central role in the formation of several Manufacturing USA institutes, including the RAPID Manufacturing Institute and CESMII Smart Manufacturing Institute. 

Dr. McWhorter served as a Science and Clean Energy Technical Advisor for the Hydrogen Storage Program at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office. In that role, he provided technical leadership for a research portfolio exceeding $20 million annually, contributed to national hydrogen storage strategies and performance targets, guided funding opportunity development, and supported the advancement of next-generation hydrogen storage technologies. His work helped shape DOE research priorities that continue to influence the commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell systems today. 

Dr. McWhorter’s research contributions span hydrogen storage materials, advanced energy systems, critical minerals recovery, spectroscopy and sensing technologies, advanced materials characterization, and microfluidic systems. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, invited chapters, and patents, including foundational contributions to hydrogen storage technologies, energy systems analysis, optical sensing platforms, and advanced materials processing. His recent work has focused on critical minerals recovery from mining and industrial waste streams, domestic supply chain resilience, and the integration of advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence technologies to strengthen U.S. energy and industrial competitiveness. 

In addition to his research and leadership activities, Dr. McWhorter is a recognized national leader in hydrogen and clean energy deployment. He serves as Chairman of the Board of the Southeast Hydrogen Energy Alliance (SHEA), where he has helped build one of the nation’s largest regional hydrogen stakeholder networks and advance strategies supporting hydrogen infrastructure, workforce development, and commercialization across the Southeastern United States. He also serves on numerous advisory boards and technical review panels for federal agencies, manufacturing institutes, universities, and industry organizations. 

Dr. McWhorter earned a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Louisiana State University and completed an ORISE Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Savannah River National Laboratory. Throughout his career, he has been recognized for excellence in research leadership, business development, technology transfer, and strategic program development, receiving multiple laboratory and national awards for advancing clean energy innovation and commercialization. His work continues to focus on accelerating the development and deployment of technologies that strengthen U.S. energy security, manufacturing competitiveness, and economic prosperity. Selected Recent Publications: 1. Tang, Y.; McWhorter, S. Kaolin Tailings Are Georgia's Hidden Gateway to Critical Minerals in AI Era. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 19, 2025. https://www.ajc.com/opinion/2025/12/kaolin-tailings-are-georgias-hidden-gateway-to-critical-minerals-in-ai-era/ (accessed 2026-06-01). 2. Tang, Y. and McWhorter, S. "How the US Can Mine Its Own Critical Minerals — without Digging New Holes." The Conversation, 30 July 2025, https://theconversation.com/how-the-us-can-mine-its-own-critical-minerals-without-digging-new-holes-252609. 3. Grady, C., McWhorter, S., Sulic, M., Sprik, S.J., Thorton, M.J., Brooks, K.P., Tamburello, D.A., Design Tool for Estimating Adsorbent Hydrogen Storage System Characteristics for Light-Duty Fuel Cell Vehicles. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 47, 29847, 2022. 4. Zidan, R., McWhorter, S., Enabling a Flexible Grid with Increased Penetration of DER: Techno-economic Analysis of Metal Hydride Thermochemical Energy Storage Integrated with Stirling Engine for Grid Energy Storage Applications. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.2172/1632839.

Marta Hatzell is a professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to starting at Georgia Tech in August of 2015, she was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign. During her post doc, she worked in the Braun Research Group on research at the interface between colloid science and electrochemistry. She completed her Ph.D. at Penn state University in the Logan Research Group. Her Ph.D. explored environmental technology for energy generation and water treatment. During graduate school she was an NSF and PEO Graduate Research Fellow. 

Currently her research group focuses on exploring the sustainable catalysis and separations, with applications spanning from solar energy conversion to desalination. She is an active member of the American Chemical Society, the Electrochemical Society, ASEEP, and ASME. Hatzell was awarded the NSF Early CAREER award in 2019 for her work on distributed solar-fertilizers, attended the 2019 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium through the National Academy of Engineering, and was awarded the 2020 Sloan Research Fellowships in Chemistry.