G.P. Li Hands Reins of CalIT2 to Athina Markopoulou
Sept. 5, 2025 - G.P. Li, the longest-serving director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CalIT2) at UCI, is handing the reins over to Athina Markopoulou, a UCI professor of electrical engineering and computer science.
G.P. stands for Guann-pyng, and in Chinese, it means someone who makes things happen and gets things done well — and peacefully. He has done that and more in his over 18 years leading CalIT2. Li founded TechPortal, the business incubator which launched 25 startups that received more than $25 million in seed funding, and he’s been co-founder or technical advisory board member to four companies that went public. He also launched the California Plug Load Research Center (CalPlug), which creates energy efficiency solutions, MicroSemi Lab where people can design, test, and make any electronic system, FABWorks where people can design and make almost any mechanical part, and the Smart Connected Worker Edge Platform which connects workers in the physical world to a digital twin. Li also co-founded the Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility (INRF) and Bio-Organic Nanosystems facility (BiON), the full-scale UCI clean room facilities devoted to micro- and nanotechnology research and development.
His colleagues say G.P. also means “Great Professor,” “Good Person,” and “Grinning Permanently” as he always comes to work with a smile. “G.P. is so nice,” said Lily Wu, UCI associate professor of chemical engineering who was a student and manager in his lab for 10 years. “He’s also one of the most hardworking people I know and is very creative with endless ideas.”
His boundless innovations have made him a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors with 40 patents and 15 pending. He’s also published more than 430 research papers on semiconductor devices, circuits, and technology, biomedical devices, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), and data driven AI-enhanced smart manufacturing. He’s an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) fellow and a UCI Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and computer science, with joint appointments in materials science and biomedical engineering.
When asked about his legacy, Li said, “I’m most proud that CalIT2 has been an enabler. That’s so critical in this generation when everything is going out of your traditional discipline, especially in artificial intelligence.” Li was a master facilitator of multidisciplinary collaboration and research that spanned the world. His next move? “It’s the perfect time to start a company and translate CalIT2’s R&D success to the marketplace,” he said. Besides teaching and research, he has ideas for three more business endeavors.
Athina Markopoulou brings strong leadership and research expertise to her new role. From 2019 to 2022, she served as the chair of the department of electrical engineering and computer science — the largest department at the UCI Samueli School of Engineering — and greatly enhanced its rankings and reputation during her term. She also upgraded internal processes and fostered community among the students, launching the Society of Graduate Electrical Engineers & Computer Scientists. She also served as the Samueli School’s associate dean for graduate and professional studies from 2022 to 2025 where she initiated reforms related to graduate student support and professional development.
She is the director of the NSF-funded ProperData Center and the Engineering+ Society Institute on AI at the UCI Samueli School of Engineering. Both are large interdisciplinary research efforts at the interface of technology and society. She is recognized as a leader in her field and is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
“With her deep and wide research and leadership experiences, Athina Markopoulou is very well positioned to excel as the next director of CalIT2,” said Pramod Khargonekar, UCI Vice Chancellor for Research. “I look forward to her creative and collaborative leadership in working with the CalIT2 community to make high impact contributions to the pressing challenges and major opportunities in computing, communications, and applications in the AI era.”
Athina Markopoulou, who shares the name of the Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare, has been leading a battle to protect personal digital data at the ProperData Center. The center is supported by a $10 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant and is a multidisciplinary collaboration between ten professors at UCI, UC Davis, USC, and Northeastern University.
For the past five years, they’ve been working to protect citizens’ online privacy through a combined technical and policy approach. The center develops privacy-enhancing technologies that can be applied on end-devices or at the network edge. These enable users to understand what personal data are collected, how they are shared and used, and how to exercise their rights under privacy laws.
“When we started in 2019, the need for personal data privacy was not as well understood,” said Markopoulou. “The users had no tools. The industry did not self-regulate and there was a gap between what the law says and how to audit or enforce it. We thought there was a need for researchers to do something about it.” The team revealed problematic data practices across web browsers, mobile devices, voice assistants, Internet-of-Things devices, and virtual and augmented reality. They created solutions and engaged with policymakers and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to use their technologies to hold companies accountable.
Markopoulou was also recently appointed as the inaugural director of the UCI Engineering+ Society Institute which aims to harness the potential of artificial intelligence for society while mitigating its risks. Their goal is to develop AI-driven systems, while providing and auditing for properties such as safety, security and privacy. With $2.5 million in funding over five years, the institute will investigate trustworthy AI models, algorithms, and various applications. They’ll also interface with partners in the social sciences, policy, and the arts to enact policy recommendations, public campaigns and technology transfer.
In a move that was prescient of her new role, Markopoulou set up her office at CalIT2 soon after she arrived at UCI in 2006 as an assistant professor and was based at the institute for ten years. “CalIT2 was my first home at UCI, and G.P. was always a supportive and generous mentor” she said. “I loved the collaborative projects, diverse groups of researchers, and modern space.” Here she launched her academic career and spun off a startup out of TechPortal called Shoelace Wireless that commercialized research to speed up the mobile internet by combining Wi-Fi and cellular networks. It was the first startup at UCI to become supported by I-CORPS, an NSF incubator program for entrepreneurs. “Much has changed since I was last here,” she said. “I’m honored and excited to come back and have the opportunity to lead CalIT2 in its next chapter.”
“Every great university needs front doors, meaning places where the innovations that take place in our labs and classrooms transition out into the world. CalIT2 is one of our most effective such front doors,” said UCI Stacey Nicholas Dean of Engineering Magnus Egerstedt. “Under Professor Li’s effective leadership, it has become a global force and a pioneer and leader in several important areas, spanning many different application domains, such as Internet-of-Things and smart systems to health and well-being technologies. I am excited about seeing this amplified further under Professor Markopoulou’s leadership, with AI and data science take center stage at CalIT2.
As CalIT2’s new director, Markopoulou believes its mission is connecting key players across universities and industries to forge and leverage developments in information technology, especially AI. “In the past, information technology (IT) meant antennas,” she said. “These days it means AI, robotics, semiconductors, and training the workforce for AI. Our portfolio should be whatever is cutting-edge in IT — these days it’s AI and whatever goes with it.”
- Natalie Tso
