Seth Marder Is Elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named Seth Marder one of its 175 fellows in the class of 2016. Marder is a professor in Georgia Tech’s Schools of Chemistry and Biochemistry and of Materials Science and Engineering, a Georgia Tech Regents’ Professor, the Georgia Power Chair of Energy Efficiency, and the founding director of the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics. He is the first NAI fellow from the Georgia Tech College of Sciences.

Marder is best known for developing a detailed understanding of the relationship between chemical structure and nonlinear optical properties of organic materials. His work has influenced how scientists think about the molecular basis of nonlinear optical responses and how chemists design optimal structures for nonlinear optical applications.

Nonlinear optical phenomena have important applications in high-speed data communications, advanced 3-D microfabrication technologies, protection of eyes and sensors from laser pulses, and generation of terahertz (THz) radiation for imaging applications.  

Research in the Marder lab revolves around materials chemistry. In the field of organic materials, Marder uses hypothesis-driven methods to design molecules with particular bulk properties derived from nonlinear optics. In the area of optical materials, activities include the design of chromophores and materials for dye-sensitized solar cells and organic photovoltaics. The Marder lab also designs dopants to enhance conductivity and other properties of electronic materials and develops materials that modify the surfaces of semiconductors to make them more stable for device fabrication.

Marder is the sixth NAI fellow from Georgia Tech. He was preceded by Georgia Tech President G. P. “Bud” Peterson, who was elected in 2012; Biing Hwang Juang, of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), elected in 2013; Russel Dean Dupuis, of ECE, and Mark R. Prausnitz, of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, both elected in 2014; and Ajeet Rohatgi, of ECE, elected in 2015.

“This latest recognition of Seth’s terrific inventiveness as a researcher makes us all extremely proud,” says College of Sciences Dean Paul M. Goldbart. “It goes hand-in-hand with his inventiveness as an educator and mentor of students and faculty, from which many of us have benefitted.”

Marder received a B.S. in Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978 and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1985. His research career has taken him to the University of Oxford, the California Institute of Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of Arizona. He moved to Georgia Tech in 2003.