During my research career I have observed “new” material systems develop and offer promise of wondrous device performance improvements over the current state of the art. Many of these promises have been kept, resulting in numerous new devices that could never have been dreamed of just a few short years ago. Other promises have not been fulfilled, due, in part, to a lack of understanding of the key limitations of these new material systems. Regardless of the material in question, one fact remains true: Without a detailed understanding of the electrical and optical interaction of electronic and photonic “particles” with the material and defect environment around them, novel device development is clearly impeded. It is not just a silicon world! Modern electronic/optoelectronic device designs (even silicon based devices) utilize many diverse materials, including mature dielectrics such as silicon dioxide/nitrides/oxynitrides, immature ferroelectric oxides, silicides, metal alloys, and new semiconductor compounds. Key to the continued progress of electronic devices is the continued development of a detailed understanding of the interaction of these materials and the defects and limitations inherent to each material system. It is my commitment to insure that new devices are continuously produced based on complex mixed family material systems.

Brendan Saltaformaggio, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with a courtesy appointment to the School of Computer Science. His research interests lie in computer systems security, cyber forensics, and the vetting of untrusted software. Saltaformaggio serves as the director of the Cyber Forensics Innovation (CyFI) Laboratory. The CyFI Lab's mission is to further the investigation of advanced cyber crimes and the analysis and prevention of next-generation malware attacks, particularly in mobile and IoT environments. This research has led to numerous publications at top cyber security venues, including a Best Paper Award from the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS’15) and a Best Student Paper Award from the 2014 USENIX Security Symposium. Originally from New Orleans, Saltaformaggio earned his B.S. with Honors in Computer Science from the University of New Orleans in 2012. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science at Purdue University in 2014 and 2016, respectively, during which Saltaformaggio was honored with the 2017 ACM SIGSAC Doctoral Dissertation Award as well as two fellowships: the 2016 Symantec Research Labs Graduate Fellowship and the inaugural Emil Stefanov Memorial Fellowship in Computer Science.

Vincent Mooney is an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests include system level design, hardware-software co-design, synthesis of reconfigurable architectures, logic synthesis, application-specific design, low-power architectures, modeling and compiler. He attended Yale University as an undergraduate and earned his Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering in 1991. He then went to San Sebastian, Spain where he attended the University of Navarra and earned a Certificate of Graduate Study in 1992. Mooney continued his graduate education at Stanford University where he earned a MS in Electrical Engineering in 1994, a MA in Philosophy in 1997, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1998. Mooney joined Georgia Tech's faculty in 1998.

Frank Li is an incoming Assistant Professor, joining Georgia Tech ECE in Fall 2020. His research interests span network and software security, Internet measurements, and human factors in security, with a particular focus on improving security operations in practice. This work has led to top-tier conference publications, as well as Best Paper Awards at the ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC’14) and the USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS’19). Before joining the Georgia Tech ECE faculty, he currently serves as a Visiting Researcher at Facebook. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley (2019) and a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT (2013). During his graduate studies, he was supported by NSF GRFP and NDSEG fellowships, and received the Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. He hails originally from Minnesota and remains an ardent (yet often disappointed) fan of the Vikings and Timberwolves.

Manos Tentzeris was born and grew up in Piraeus, Greece. He graduated from Ionidios Model School of Piraeus in 1987 and he received the Diploma degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Magna Cum Laude) from the National Technical University in Athens, Greece, in 1992 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1993 and 1998. He is currently a Professor with the School of ECE, Georgia Tech and he has published more than 550 papers in refereed Journals and Conference Proceedings, 4 books and 23 book chapters, while he is in the process of writing 1 book. He has served as the Head of the Electromagnetics Technical Interest Group of the School of ECE, Georgia Tech. Also, he has served as the Georgia Electronic Design Center Associate Director for RFID/Sensors research from 2006-2010 and as the GT-Packaging Research Center (NSF-ERC) Associate Director for RF research and the leader of the RF/Wireless Packaging Alliance from 2003-2006. Also, Dr. Tentzeris is the Head of the A.T.H.E.N.A. Research Group (20 students and researchers) and has established academic programs in 3D Printed RF electronics and modules, flexible electronics, origami and morphing electromagnetics, Highly Integrated/Multilayer Packaging for RF and Wireless Applications using ceramic and organic flexible materials, paper-based RFID 's and sensors, inkjet-printed electronics, nanostructures for RF, wireless sensors, power scavenging and wireless power transfer, Microwave MEM 's, SOP-integrated (UWB, mutliband, conformal) antennas and Adaptive Numerical Electromagnetics (FDTD, MultiResolution Algorithms). He was the 1999 Technical Program Co-Chair of the 54th ARFTG Conference and he is currently a member of the technical program committees of IEEE-IMS, IEEE-AP and IEEE-ECTC Symposia. He was the TPC Chair for the IMS 2008 Conference and the Co-Chair of the ACES 2009 Symposium. He was the Chairman for the 2005 IEEE CEM-TD Workshop. He was the Chair of IEEE-CPMT TC16 (RF Subcommittee) and he was the Chair of IEEE MTT/AP Atlanta Sections for 2003. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a member of MTT-15 Committee, an Associate Member of European Microwave Association (EuMA), a Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy, and a member of Commission D, URSI and of the the Technical Chamber of Greece. He is the Founder and Chair of the newly formed IEEE MTT-S TC-24 (RFID Technologies). He is one of the IEEE C-RFID DIstinguished Lecturers and he has served as one IEEE MTT-Distinguished Microwave Lecturers (DML) from 2010-2012. His hobbies include basketball, swimming, ping-pong and travel.

Stephen E. Ralph is a Professor with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. He received the BEE degree in Electrical Engineering with highest honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1980. He received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 1988 for his work on highly nonequilibrium carrier transport in semiconductor devices. He is currently the director of the Georgia Electronic Design Center, a cross-disciplinary electronics and photonics research center focused on the synergistic development of high-speed electronic components and signal processing to enable revolutionary system performance. He is also the founder and director of the new Terabit Optical Networking Consortium, an industry led communications and information technology consortium. Prior to Georgia Tech he held a postdoctoral position at AT&T Bell Laboratories and was a visiting scientist with the Optical Sciences Laboratory at the IBM T. J. Watson research center. He has widely published in peer-reviewed journals and conferences and holds more than 10 patents in the fields of optical communications, optical devices and signal processing. His current research focuses on high-speed optical communications systems including modulation formats, coherent receivers, microwave photonics, integrated photonics and signal processing. Ralph is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Electronic Devices. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA).