Dr. John Hopkins

Prior to joining FSU's InSPIRE initiative, Dr. John A. Hopkins was the Chief Executive Officer of The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), managed by Collaborative Composite Solutions Corporation in Knoxville, Tennessee. A former senior leader for IACMI and the University of Tennessee (UT), John is credited with establishing IACMI’s national technical advisory board and research and development project process.
As CEO, he led the U.S. Department of Energy-supported public-private partnership in areas of domestic production research and development knowledge and catalyzed economic development across the U.S. advanced composites industry. The institute earned a $70 million commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, and over $180 million from other public and private partners.
Prior to his role with IACMI, John served as Director of Strategic Operations in the UT Office of the Executive Vice President. In this role, he led several statewide initiatives, including a National Science Foundation (NSF) program, TN-SCORE, consisting of more than 30 academic and industry partners focused on solar energy and energy storage research, as well as related K-12 outreach. In support of TN-SCORE and related NSF EPSCoR programs across the country, he chaired both a national conference and workshop series for innovation and entrepreneurship.
John served in several leadership roles at the UT Research Foundation, including Director of Technology Transfer, and led the organization through several restructurings to build capacity and improve processes in service of a growing the UT research enterprise. As faculty member at the University of Tennessee Space Institute, he managed funded research projects in laser materials processing sponsored by numerous industry partners and the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense.

John is a licensed engineer in Tennessee, author of 50 technical papers, and was named inventor on 11 U.S. patents, which resulted in two start-up companies. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville while supporting flight experiments on the First International Microgravity Laboratory as a NASA pre-doctoral fellow. He has an MBA from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.