Professors Nga Lee “Sally” Ng and Corey Wilson have been awarded Love Family Professorships in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE). These endowed professorships will provide Ng and Wilson with substantial, flexible financial support that they can use to advance innovative new research directions or in other creative academic pursuits.

Ng joined Georgia Tech in 2011 after starting her career at Aerodyne Research Inc. With a joint appointment in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, she is widely recognized as an expert in atmospheric chemistry, especially the underlying chemical mechanisms of aerosol formation and composition, as well as the health effects of aerosols. 

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, her expertise in aerosol chemistry and physics was instrumental in Georgia Tech’s campus plan to protect students, faculty and staff while working on campus. 

“Sally has conducted a large number of highly impactful research studies and has demonstrated national leadership in field of atmospheric chemistry. From her studies of indoor aerosols during the pandemic to her leadership developing a national air quality measurement network, Sally stands near the top of her field,” said ChBE Professor Christopher W. Jones, the John F. Brock III School Chair.

After Wilson starting his career at Yale University, ChBE was able to successfully recruit him to join Georgia Tech in 2016. Wilson is a widely recognized expert in protein design and engineering, and synthetic biology, in addition to genetic engineering. Since joining Georgia Tech, he has blazed a new trail in allosteric transcription factor design and transcriptional programming, an emerging field that offers the potential to transform synthetic biology, bioprocess engineering, and biosecurity as we know it. (See relevant Nature Communications journal articles: https://go.nature.com/3dryzi1, https://go.nature.com/3SPprE5).

Wilson was recently elected as a Fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineers for his efforts in developing the field of Biomolecular Systems Engineering. He has raised more than $11 million dollars to support his research program since coming to Georgia Tech (i.e., in less than six years). His recent research has focused on the development of platform technologies for living therapeutics.

“Corey’s research team has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, as funding agencies and the scientific community continue to recognize the creative new directions under development in his lab,” said Jones. “The flexibility of the funds associated with the Love Professorship will further enable Professor Wilson to explore bold new directions.”

The Love Family has been a long-standing supporter of Georgia Tech. A 1949 mechanical engineering graduate, J. Erskine Love Jr., was president and owner of Printpack. He was a lifelong supporter of his alma mater and chairman of Georgia Tech’s Centennial Campaign.

The J. Erskine Love Jr. Manufacturing Building is named in his memory, as is the Endowed Chair supporting Regents Professor Mark Prausnitz in ChBE, the Endowed Chair supporting Professor Cheng Zhu in the College of Engineering, and the Endowed Early-Career Professorship supporting Zhoumin Zhang in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. The two Endowed Professorships now held by Ng and Wilson are the latest additions to Love’s legacy and the enduring impact of the family’s philanthropy.

“The strong financial support of our alumni and friends are key ingredients in the continued success of our students, the faculty and the Institution,” Jones said.