{"55610":{"#nid":"55610","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tom McDermott Named GTRI Interim Director","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETom McDermott, who has served as deputy director and\ndirector of research at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), has been\nnamed GTRI\u2019s interim director. McDermott will assume GTRI leadership from\ncurrent director Stephen E. Cross, who was named Georgia Tech\u2019s first executive\nvice president for research on May 1.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTom\u2019s ability to think strategically, innovate and take\ncalculated risk made him the perfect candidate for the job of interim director\nof GTRI,\u201d Cross said. \u201cHe is committed to GTRI\u2019s role as part of Georgia Tech, has\na wide and deep knowledge of the work done at GTRI and understands the\ncustomers\u2019 needs.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of McDermott\u2019s top priorities as interim director is to complete\nthe update of GTRI\u2019s strategic plan and ensure its alignment with the new Georgia\nTech Strategic Plan.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe are developing a long-term strategy that will improve\nGTRI\u2019s ability to adapt to changing financial environments and successfully expand\ninto new research areas if defense funding decreases,\u201d explained McDermott.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis strategic growth effort has already begun, with GTRI\nrecently garnering multi-million dollar contracts in the targeted areas of\ncybersecurity, human behavior modeling and autonomous unmanned vehicles. The\norganization also began the campus-wide FutureMedia\u003Csup\u003Esm\u003C\/sup\u003E initiative\naimed at engaging entrepreneurs, industry, venture capitalists and universities\nin the future of digital, social and mobile media.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile interim director, McDermott will continue in his role\nas director of research, supervising all laboratory operations and business\ndevelopment for GTRI\u2019s $200 million research program. With his help, GTRI\u2019s\nresearch awards have risen about 63 percent in the past three years. As a\nresult, the organization hired more than 200 new researchers, 100 new students\nand 100 new support staff members.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMcDermott also helped develop and implement Georgia Tech\u2019s\nnew Professional Master\u2019s Degree in Applied Systems Engineering, which began\noffering its first classes last fall. The program combines the systems\nengineering expertise of researchers in GTRI and the Georgia Tech College of\nEngineering to provide a unique program that provides both academic and\nexperiential learning.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPreviously, McDermott managed GTRI\u2019s Electronic Systems\nLaboratory (ELSYS) as its director and worked for 18 years at Lockheed-Martin\nAeronautical Systems in Marietta, Ga. He holds a master\u0027s in electrical\nengineering and a bachelor\u0027s in physics, both from Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMcDermott is looking forward to leading GTRI and building on\nits recent successes during this transition period. The timeline for the new\ndirector search will be announced by the end of May.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe have a strong\nleadership team here at GTRI already, so the number one focus of the new GTRI\ndirector should be to maintain communication and manage relationships with the\nhigher levels of the defense communities,\u201d said McDermott.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMcDermott has served as deputy director and director of research at the Georgia Tech\nResearch Institute.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The timeline for the new director search will be announced by the end of May."}],"uid":"27206","created_gmt":"2010-05-11 10:27:11","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:05:57","author":"Abby Vogel Robinson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2010-05-10T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2010-05-10T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"55611":{"id":"55611","type":"image","title":"Tom McDermott","body":null,"created":"1449175556","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:45:56","changed":"1475894491","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:41:31","alt":"Tom McDermott","file":{"fid":"190335","name":"McDermott_T_7-6-06.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/McDermott_T_7-6-06_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/McDermott_T_7-6-06_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1581164,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/McDermott_T_7-6-06_0.jpg?itok=fBh8Ul1Z"}}},"media_ids":["55611"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.gtri.gatech.edu\/","title":"Georgia Tech Research Institute"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"415","name":"Georgia Tech Research Institute"},{"id":"9271","name":"Tom McDermott"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKirk J. Englehardt\u003Cbr \/\u003EDirector of Communications, GTRI\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-407-7280\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJohn Toon\u003Cbr \/\u003EManager, Georgia Tech Research News \u0026amp; Publications\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6986\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}