CITRIS Director: Prof. Paul Wright

Paul K. Wright is the Director of CITRIS -- the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society. It serves four UC campuses and hosts many multi-disciplinary projects on large societal problems such as energy and the environment; IT for healthcare; and intelligent infrastructures such as: public safety, water management and sustainability.

He is a professor in the mechanical engineering department, and holds the A. Martin Berlin Chair. He is also a co-director of the Berkeley Manufacturing Institute (BMI) and co-director of the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC). From 1995 to 2005 was the co-chair of the Management of Technology Program (a joint program with the Haas School of Business).

Born in London, he obtained his degrees from the University of Birmingham, England and came to the United States in 1979 following appointments at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and Cambridge University England.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering; a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; and a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers

Research Interests:
Energy scavenging and storage; Smart materials; Design and manufacturing for micro-integration of 'intelligent objects'; Design of wireless sensor systems. Application areas include: Energy efficiency and demand response; First responder applications; Medical products. He is credited for the invention of the first open-architecture control of manufacturing systems, and in the “CyberCut/CyberBuild” project during the 1990s for the development of Internet-based CAD/CAM systems.