Leon McGinnis, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Leon McGinnis is a Professor Emeritus at Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering. Dr. McGinnis received the BSIE from Auburn University, and the MSIE and PhD from North Carolina State University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Georgia.

Dr. McGinnis has been a leader in developing and administering industry-focused and interdisciplinary education and research programs at Georgia Tech. He helped establish the Material Handling Research Center in 1982 and managed one of five research programs over the next decade. He also helped establish the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems Program in 1983, which received a LEAD Award from ASME for excellence in graduate-level interdisciplinary manufacturing education, and served as Director from 1988 to 1998. As CIMS Director, he lead a team that competed for and won a $1 million TRP grant, resulting in the establishment of the Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Institute within the Manufacturing Research Center. In 1994, he led a team of Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering faculty to win over $2 million in grants from the W. M. Keck Foundation to create the Keck Virtual Factory Lab as a focal point for IE systems design and control research.