Andrew Gerber Takes Reins of Georgia Tech Research Institute

This month, Andrew Gerber flew south from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to take the role of director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and senior vice president of Georgia Tech. 

Gerber comes to Tech from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, where he served as associate head of the Air and Missile Defense Technology Division responsible for programs in air and ballistic missile defense.

“I am truly honored and tremendously excited to have the opportunity to help shape what I believe is a very bright future for GTRI and Georgia Tech,” Gerber said. “Both are clearly on the rise, and I look forward to working with the entire GTRI and Georgia Tech community to perform the highest quality research for our government and industry sponsors, and to continue to build strong bonds among GTRI, Georgia Tech, and the local Atlanta community.”

Gerber joined the Lincoln Laboratory as a staff member in 1988. In 1991, he took an assignment at the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands, where he was responsible for space surveillance programs and later served as leader of the ALTAIR radar. He returned to Lincoln Laboratory in 1996 as assistant leader of the Air Defense Techniques Group, where he helped build the Laboratory’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense program.

In 1997, he became an Intergovernmental Personnel Act appointee with the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Theater Surface Combatants. In September 2001, he once again returned to the Laboratory as assistant head of the Sensor Systems Division and became head of the Sensor Systems Division in 2002. In 2004, he took up his most recent position as associate head of the Air and Missile Defense Technology Division. 

He holds degrees from Duke University and Yale University.

“Andy’s leadership, management, and communication skills are impressive,” said Steve Cross, executive vice president for research at Georgia Tech and interim director of GTRI. “This is something we made a high priority in the position description and this search. I look forward to working very closely with him. It also seems fitting Andy is the new director, given his formal education as a physicist, since GTRI has its roots in the School of Physics and many of the early directors were physics professors.”

GTRI was established in 1934 and is made up of more than 1,900 staff, 15 locations, eight laboratories, and annual contract awards exceeding $330 million.