Biography

Mark Lee is a Principal Member of Technical Staff in the Physical & Chemical Sciences Center at Sandia National Laboratories. He earned his A.B. in Physics from Harvard and his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford. Prior to joining Sandia, Mark was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs and before that was Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Virginia. At U.Va. he won a Young Investigator CAREER Award from the NSF and a Cottrell Scholars Award from the Research Corporation. Mark’s current research spans a range from fundamental experiments probing electrodynamic response in new materials, superconductors, and semiconductors to exploiting often extraordinary physical properties found in some materials for innovative new sensing and communications devices. Mark is an author on over 60 scientific publications, holds five patents, has served on several funding agency panels, and is a member of the APS Committee on Meetings.

Statement

I bring to FIAP the somewhat unusual experience of having been a full-time principal investigator in all three major arms of physics research in the United States: university, industrial lab, and national lab. Because of this, I have an insider’ s understanding of both shared and differential concerns of physics researchers at each kind of institution. As FIAP Vice Chair, I will bring this experience to promote a stronger coupling between pure and applied physics. Within APS, FIAP is obviously the best forum to foster a fertile mix among pure and applied physicists and to keep physicists in industry connected, active, and recognized in the APS. I hope to further such interactions by organizing more joint FIAP focus sessions and symposia, especially with DMP and DCMP. In addition to technical topics, I would promote greater discussion on issues such as technology transfer from lab to market, fundamental physics discoveries arising from applied research, the funding and resource balance between basic and applied research, and physics-related career paths in industry and national labs.