Paul Wright, director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society

Paul K. Wright is the A. Martin Berlin Chair in Mechanical Engineering and director of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). CITRIS serves four UC campuses and hosts many multi-disciplinary projects on large societal problems such as energy and the environment; information technology for healthcare; and intelligent infrastructures such as public safety, water management and sustainability.

He is also a co-director of the Berkeley Manufacturing Institute (BMI) and co-director of the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC). Among his areas of research are the study of energy scavenging and storage, the development of smart materials and the design of wireless sensor systems. He is credited with the invention of the first open-architecture control of manufacturing.

Born in London, Wright 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.