M.G. Finn received a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Caltech in 1980, and a Ph.D. degree in 1986 from MIT working with Prof. K.B. Sharpless, followed by an NIH postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. J.P. Collman at Stanford University. He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1988, where his group studied and developed a variety of transition metal-mediated synthetic methods. Prof. Finn moved to the Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute in 1998, and then to the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the School of Biological Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2013. He assumed the chairmanship of the former department in 2014.
Prof. Finn’s current interests include the use of virus particles as molecular and catalytic building blocks for vaccine and functional materials development, the discovery of click reactions for organic and materials synthesis, polyvalent interactions and advanced linker technologies in drug targeting, and the use of evolution for the discovery of chemical function. He is currently the Chief Scientific Officer of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center, a joint effort of Georgia Tech, the Emory University Medical School's Department of Pediatrics, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, to bring new science and engineering to the aid of pediatric medicine. He holds the James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology.
Graduates from the Finn laboratory can be found in academic departments around the world, as well as in companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical, and materials industries. Prof. Finn was the first recipient of the annual Scripps Outstanding Mentor Award, a 2017 Arthur C. Cope Scholar award, and was Editor-in-Chief of the journal ACS Combinatorial Science from 2010 to 2020.
Dr. Kevin Maher attended medical school at University of Maryland, followed by a residency and chief residency in pediatrics, also at the University of Maryland. He attended the University of Michigan for a fellowship in pediatric cardiology. In 2004, Dr. Maher joined the Pediatric Cardiology group at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University School of Medicine. His primary clinical responsibilities are in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit at Children’s, where he serves as director of the cardiac ICU.
Dr. Maher’s research activities include heart failure in children, cardiac biomarkers, pediatric medical device development, Big Data and Analytics in Pediatrics, and application of nanotechnologies to pediatric diseases. Dr. Maher works on a number of research collaborations between Children’s of Atlanta and Georgia Tech, aiming to further develop a collaborative research environment between the institutions. He is a founding member and the clinical director of the Center for Pediatric Nanomedicine, the Co-director of the Center for Pediatric Innovation and the associate director of the Atlantic Pediatric Device Consortium (Children’s-Emory and Ga Tech programs). He is an adjunct associate professor of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech.
Dr. Maher has been an active member the American Heart Association, serving as the Atlanta Metro AHA Board president, and is currently on the national AHA Board.
Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD is a biomedical engineer at Emory and Georgia Tech and a clinical pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. His research involves developing and translating innovative micro-engineered and mHealth technologies to advance research and improve the health of children, especially those with blood diseases. One of the more recent innovations that Dr. Lam helped develop is the app AnemoCheck, which allows patients that are suspected of suffering from low blood levels of hemoglobin to test their levels by using photos of their fingernails instead of having to draw blood.
Dr. Lam earned his PhD in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkley. Prior to obtaining his PhD, Dr. Lam received his MD from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his Fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Residency in Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Lam was the principal investigator for the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineering Point-Of-Care Technologies’ Pediatric Device Consortium and received the 2019 Frank A. Oski Memorial Lectureship at the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Conference. He was also awarded the Emerging Investigator Award from the NIH, worth $5 million over the next seven years.
Leanne West, MS, is a Principal Research Scientist and the Chief Engineer of Pediatric Technologies for Georgia Tech. As Chief Engineer, she coordinates research activities related to pediatrics across campus and serves as the technical liaison for the partnership with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She is also the President of the non-profit, the International Children’s Advisory Network, which focuses on patient voice in healthcare.
Her research focuses on mobile and wireless health system and sensor development, user interfaces, system integration, and diagnostic devices. Ms. West has seen her invention of a wireless personal captioning system installed at commercial venues through her start-up Intelligent Access, LLC. She has another wearable system for identifying specific dog behaviors that has also reached the commercial market. She has received the following awards: Woman of the Year by Women in Technology in 2014, Georgia Tech’s Outstanding Achievement in Research Enterprise Enhancement Award in 2014, GTRI Innovative Research Award team member in 2014, and the Optical Society’s 2012 Paul Forman Engineering Excellence Award team member.
She was appointed to the board of the Georgia Technology Authority by the Georgia Speaker of the House, David Ralston. She was named one of Georgia’s “40 Under 40” by Georgia Trend magazine in 2004, and she was selected for the 2008 class of Leadership Georgia. Ms. West is an active participant at her organization. She was the GT Chair for the Georgia Charitable Campaign and was twice elected Chair of the Georgia Tech Executive Board, the faculty governance body of Georgia Tech.
Erin Henderson is the Research Project and Grants Manager for the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center. She handles the research projects and grants, as well as protocol assistance, and financial/accounting services for the Center. This involves working closely with Dr. M.G. Finn on the scientific side of the center, and with several departments and offices at Georgia Tech, and our partners.
Christopher Jackson is the Executive Assistant for the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center. Christopher manages the day-to-day operations of the office. He schedules and coordinates meetings, prepares and modifies documents, and many other clerical task. Christopher also maintains and updates the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center's website.
