Dr. Gerald Lopez is the Director of Operations and Business Development and the inaugural Center Associate Director at the University of Pennsylvania Singh Center for Nanotechnology, a nationally recognized center of excellence that provides open access to nanotechnology infrastructure under the auspices of the United States National Science Foundation National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI). His role manages the Center’s day-to-day operations alongside his expert staff, forming and executing business strategies to foster collaboration and to continuously improve the Center’s management of its 100+ publicly available nano-enabling tools and over 400+ users. His professional experience in academia and the semiconductor industry encompasses lithography process development and tooling as a former manager at the Singh Center; technical sales and support in computational lithography at GenISys, Inc.; his software engineering career at SITA; his former nanotechnology consultancy, Helio Nano, LLC; and his time as a graduate researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  As such, he has developed a deep network of professional colleagues in academia, industry and government and serves as an advisory board member in the private sector and non-profits. Dr. Lopez co-founded and is the Board Chair for the Meeting for Advanced Electron Beam Lithography (MAEBL), an annual workshop aimed to connect an esoteric community of geographically disparate electron beam lithographers, which includes researchers, students, process engineers, tool owners, and lab managers, spanning several countries intersecting academic, industry and government labs worldwide. Moreover, he serves in the leadership for the International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication (EIPBN), where he presided and navigated the organization as conference chair in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, Dr. Lopez plays a role in the US mid-Atlantic consortium, known as MASH, the Mid-Atlantic Semiconductor Hub, to elevate the region’s relevance in the CHIPS and Science Act and recently represented the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as part of a US/Canadian delegation to Taiwan to strengthen ties with the island. He is passionate about education, mentorship, and connecting the next generation to nano-enabled opportunities through workforce development. Dr. Lopez received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his B.S. in Computer Engineering cum laude from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, as a Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Scholar and Janice A. Lumpkin Scholar