The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is proud to announce the appointment of Kenneth W. Allen, Ph.D., as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Allen, who assumed this position Aug. 15, provides executive leadership for the Office of the CTO (OCTO), including stewardship of GTRI’s independent research and development (IRAD) portfolio with an annual operating budget of nearly $25 million. He will also serve on the GTRI Executive Council (EC) where he will collaborate with other EC members on the development and oversight of GTRI’s technology strategy.

“I am thrilled to welcome Ken as GTRI’s new CTO,” said Tommer Ender, Interim Director of GTRI and Senior Vice President for the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). “Ken is a visionary leader with deep technical expertise, an innovative mindset, and a strategic perspective that will support GTRI in fulfilling its core mission to enhance Georgia’s economic development, serve national security, improve the human condition and educate future technology leaders.”  

Over his career, Allen has served in a variety of leadership roles within GTRI’s Advanced Concepts Laboratory (ACL) as a Project Director, Chief Engineer for the Electromagnetics Division, Division Chief for the Signals and Systems Division in an interim capacity, and as a Laboratory Chief Scientist. 

Since 2020, Allen has served as the ACL Chief Scientist where he has had oversight of the lab discretionary IRAD portfolio, and helped shape the technology vision with the leadership team. As the ACL Chief Scientist, he has served in the OCTO as part of the Chief Scientist Council where he has provided stewardship and technical oversight to GTRI’s IRAD portfolio. He has also managed a portfolio of sponsored projects focused on electromagnetic metastructures with applications for advanced apertures, engineered materials, and measurement science for the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC).

“I am honored to be selected as GTRI’s new CTO,” said Allen. “Throughout my career at GTRI, I have had the privilege of working alongside exceptional colleagues to develop innovative solutions for government and industry partners. As CTO, I look forward to building on GTRI’s remarkable record of innovation and achievement by continuing to seek opportunities to address tomorrow’s challenges.”

Allen has more than 50 publications in electromagnetics spanning radio frequency (RF) to electro-optical and infrared imaging (EO/IR), and holds patents and patents pending on advanced radome technologies, metasurfaces, and mid-wave infrared focal plane arrays. Allen is also an Adjunct Faculty member in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and is a Georgia Tech Professional Education instructor and course administrator for Electromagnetic Materials and Measurements and Radar Cross Section Reduction.

Allen holds a Ph.D. in Optical Science and Engineering, an M.S. in Applied Physics, and a B.S. in Physics – all from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Writer: Anna Akins 
Photo: Sean McNeil 
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 3,000 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $919 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.