Dr. Steven W. McLaughlin is the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Georgia Tech. He serves as the chief academic officer of the Institute and provides leadership to all academic and related units, including the colleges, the library, and professional education.
Dr. McLaughlin received a B.S.E.E. degree from Northwestern University, an M.S.E. degree from Princeton University, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan. He joined the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech in September 1996. From 2017-2020, he served as the Dean of the College of Engineering and the Southern Company Chair. From 2012-2017, he served as the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. From 2007-2012, he was Vice Provost for International Initiatives and Steven A. Denning Chair in Global Engagement.
In 2014, Dr. McLaughlin co-founded CREATE-X, a campus-wide effort to instill entrepreneurial confidence in students and help them launch companies. In its first three years, the program has successfully launched 72 student-led companies and engaged 1,500+ students in the principles and practice of evidence-based entrepreneurship.
In 2011, Dr. McLaughlin was awarded the honor Chevalier dans l'Ordre Nationale de Merite (Knight of the French National Order of Merit), the second-highest civilian award given by the Republic of France. He was the first Georgia Tech recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (P.E.C.A.S.E.), where he was cited by President Clinton "for leadership in the development of high-capacity, nonbinary optical recording formats." He is a past President of the IEEE Information Theory Society and is a Fellow of the IEEE.
Dr. McLaughlin's research interests are in the general area of communications and information theory. His research group has published in the areas of forward error correction and equalization in wireless communications, magnetic/optical data storage, data security, and privacy. His group has published over 250 papers in journals and conferences and holds 36 U.S. patents.