Dr. George Bollas is the Pratt & Whitney Endowed Chair Professor in Advanced Systems Engineering with the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department at UConn. He is the Director of the Pratt & Whitney Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering and the Associate Dean of Research for the UConn College of Engineering. His laboratory pursues a balanced approach to information theory for the design, optimization, control, operation, and maintenance of cyber-physical systems, with extensive applications to energy, chemical industry, traditional manufacturing, naval and the aerospace industry. Dr. Bollas is the recipient of the NSF CAREER and ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator awards; the UConn Mentorship Excellence award; the UConn College of Engineering Dean’s Excellence award; AIChE Teacher of Year award; and the Chemical & Biomolecular Department Service award. He was a member of the 2016 Frontier of Engineering Education of the NAE and was elected as member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering in 2020. In 2024 he was elected to serve as a US Fulbright Scholar in Greece. He has partnered with over 100 industry professionals and executives in generating and managing funding that exceeds $40M leading to joint R&D, technology, patents, and professional training programs. He manages a portfolio of over $7M in research projects, while his Institute manages active research funding that totals over $50M.