"The best scientists are consummate opportunists," says Skolnick, a systems biologist and renowned researcher who joined Georgia Tech this spring as the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Computational Systems Biology.

Skolnick and his team of 19 research scientists arrived at Tech with $1.5 million in federal funding. The former director of the Buffalo Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics at SUNY-Buffalo, Skolnick identifies the GRA as a significant competitive edge.

"We have to leverage a skill set that others don't have. Otherwise, we're just late to the party. I would argue that the last thing you want to do is 'me-too' science," Skolnick says.

"The Georgia Research Alliance and the state of Georgia are an unfair competitive advantage," which he says leverages resources "to make research realistic."

Another competitive edge he points to is Tech's collaborative environment.

"You have a great quality of life, you have great resources and there is a great university and the commitment to build. Georgia Tech has a track record of building excellence — it's not like this is the first time Georgia Tech has done this."

Skolnick is the 19th eminent scholar to be named to Tech's faculty and the 51st GRA eminent scholar. Bringing Skolnick and his team of scientists to the Institute is just what the GRA was designed for when it was founded in 1990 as a public-private partnership between Georgia research universities, businesses and the state government.

The GRA creates and sustains an innovative-driven economy, says C. Michael Cassidy, MS TASP 87, president and chief executive officer.

The alliance fuels Georgia's technology economy by drawing distinguished scholars to the state's six leading research universities, where research initiatives are converted into products, services and jobs, Cassidy says. Its success has made it a model program emulated by other states and the GRA's strategic role has been covered in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Cassidy says that from the outset the plan intended for GRA scholars to lead research and development efforts that would stimulate the economy by generating cutting-edge companies and creating high-wage jobs. Skolnick is an ideal example.

"Dr. Skolnick is an entrepreneurial scholar whose research is critical to the future health of Georgians and Americans," Cassidy says. "He has relationships with pharmaceutical and technology companies, holds three patents, has developed and licensed software to biotech companies and has founded an early-stage structural proteomics company. This is the mix of entrepreneurialism and scholarly acumen we seek in our scholars."

Tech Provost Jean-Lou Chameau, a GRA eminent scholar since 1994, observes, "Computational systems biology is a foundation for the next revolution in biomedicine. Dr. Skolnick's work is a perfect fit with the outstanding research already being conducted in nanotechnology and bioengineering here at Georgia Tech."

Skolnick uses supercomputer clusters to process large calculations and study huge amounts of DNA data produced by gene sequencing. He applied algorithm development and specific computational methods to model an entire class of protein sequences in the human genome.

GRA scholars have contributed significantly to Georgia's robust economy. Their scientific success and entrepreneurial energy have helped bring into the state nearly $300,000 a day in new federal and private research dollars. They are also the founders of new companies and work closely with established companies to develop new products and new markets.

Advances in tissue engineering by Tech professor and eminent scholar Barbara Boyan, for example, resulted in the creation of a new company to market her discovery.

The alliance has invested some $400 million to attract its eminent scholars, leverage an additional $2 billion in federal and private funding, create more than 5,000 new technology jobs, generate some 120 new technology companies and assist established Georgia companies to expand into new markets, Cassidy says.

In addition to Tech, the other GRA-affiliated research universities (in order of date founded) are the University of Georgia, Medical College of Georgia, Emory University, Clark Atlanta University and Georgia State University.

William J. Todd, IM 71, founding president of the GRA and now president of the Georgia Cancer Coalition, says the alliance has a savvy strategy.

"In order to win the World Series, a team must have a great farm system supplemented by importing the best free agents in baseball. These GRA eminent scholars are our free agents who join with our homegrown talent such as the President's Scholars to build a robust technology-based economy for Georgia," Todd says.

Tech's 19 eminent scholars are Thomas P. Barnwell, distributed engineering; Barbara D. Boyan, tissue engineering; Jean-Luc Bredas, molecular design; Skolnick; Gee-Kung Chang, optical networking; Chameau; John A. Copeland, technology transfer; Robert E. Dickinson, global environment; James Foley, telecommunications; Don P. Giddens, biomedical engineering; Russell D. Dupuis, electro-optics; William J. Koros, membrane science; Stephen C. Harvey, computational biology; Jiri Janata, electroanalytical chemistry; Nikil S. Jayant, wireless systems; Biing Hwang "Fred" Juang, advanced communications; Rick P. Trebino, ultrafast optical physics; Rao R. Tummala, bio-electronic systems; and Eberhard O. Voit.

©2006 Georgia Tech Alumni Association