Six members of the College of Engineering faculty and staff have been awarded Institute Research Awards. These honors are presented by the the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and signify outstanding achievements of Georgia Tech staff as both mentors and researchers.      

Material Sciences and Engineering professor Zhong Lin Wang received the award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Innovation. This award is presented to the faculty member recognized as working at the forefront of discovery, and whose research results have had a demonstrable impact. Wang’s research has made groundbreaking contributions to the synthesis, characterization, and fundamental understanding of physical properties of nanostructures. His innovation of a two-stage power management and storage system could dramatically improve the efficiency of triboelectric generators that harvest energy of human motions. Wang will receive $10,000 toward his research.      

Gary Spinner was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Research Enterprise Enhancement award. This honor is awarded to a staff member who consistently betters Georgia Tech’s research program but is not a traditional researcher. Nominated by faculty, this person excels in areas such as securing of funding or the application and deployment of research. Spinner is the senior assistant director of lab operations in the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, and he will be awarded $5,000 toward his efforts.    

Hang Lu, Love Family Professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was granted the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Advisor award. This is given in recognition of the achievements of a faculty member's doctoral students who completed all degree requirements from 2011 to 2015. Along with thesis advising, Lu researches biological micro-electro-mechanical systems and microfluidic devices. Lu will receive $10,000 toward her efforts.    

The Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development award was given to Krishendu Roy, Ravi Bellamkonda, and Robert Guldberg. Krishendu Roy is the Robert A. Milton Chair in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. The Krish Roy Lab focuses on development of new biomaterial-based strategies for gene/drug delivery and stem cell engineering. Ravi Bellamkonda, chair of the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, is head of the Bellamkonda Neurological Biomaterials and Cancer Therapeutics Laboratory. Robert Guldberg holds the Petit Director's Chair in Bioengineering and Bioscience and is a professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. His lab was established to create strategies and enable technologies for the functional restoration of damaged or degenerated musculoskeletal tissues with a focus on bone and cartilage. All will be collectively awarded $25,000 toward research efforts.