Marla Lorraine Dowell | |
|---|---|
 Dowell, NIST photograph, 2022 | |
| Born | 1965 (age 58–59) |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Colorado Boulder |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Communications Technology Laboratory JILA NIST |
| Thesis | Pion single charge exchange in three body nuclei at intermediate energies (2005) |
Marla Lorraine Dowell (born 1965) is an American physicist who is Director of the CHIPS Metrology Program and NIST Boulder Laboratory.
Dowell became interested in science and mathematics as a child. [1] Her father is an engineer [1] and her step-father was a physicist. [2] Dowell was an undergraduate in physics at the University of Michigan. [3] She was encouraged by her physics professors to pursue a career in research. [1] She moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for doctoral research, where she worked under the supervision of June Lorraine Matthews. [4] Her doctoral research considered pion single charge exchange. [5] After earning her doctorate, Dowell joined JILA, where she worked as a postdoctoral research associate in atomic physics. Dowell has been a long-time advocate for STEM education. [6] She earned a Master of Business Administration at the University of Colorado Boulder. [1]
At National Institute of Standards and Technology, Dowell was responsible for the NIST laser metrology program. At the start, the group focused on calibration, but under her leadership, Dowell developed a research program in laser metrology for industrial applications. [7] Connecting fundamental research to industry needs has been a unifying theme of Dowell's career – from optical metrology for semiconductor manufacturing to solving today’s challenges with 5G deployment with new electromagnetic metrology. [8] She has leveraged partnerships with other federal agencies to expand NIST research activities in wireless communication networks. [9]
Dowell has written about job hunting strategies for navigating transitions between different STEM disciplines. [10] She has been a long-time supporter of educational and career development opportunities, serving on both the APS Committee on Careers & Professional Development as well as SPIE Education and Outreach Committee.
In 2017, Dowell became director of the Communications Technology Laboratory and the NIST Boulder Laboratory. [11] The National Academies have cited the strength and breadth of the NIST Communication Technology Laboratory programs under Dowell's leadership. [12] [13] In June 2023, Dowell joined CHIPS for America as director of the CHIPS Metrology Program, where she will expand and advance NIST’s efforts to deliver a robust measurement science foundation for the semiconductor industry. [14]
In 2023, Dowell was recognized by the President of the United States as a Distinguished Executive for her extraordinary and lasting contributions to scientific research and achievements as a leader in the NIST Community. [15] Dowell is a Fellow of SPIE. [16]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical science laboratory programs that include nanoscale science and technology, engineering, information technology, neutron research, material measurement, and physical measurement. From 1901 to 1988, the agency was named the National Bureau of Standards.
Naomi J. Halas is the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and professor of biomedical engineering, chemistry, and physics at Rice University. She is also the founding director of Rice University Laboratory for Nanophotonics, and the Smalley-Curl Institute. She invented the first nanoparticle with tunable plasmonic resonances, which are controlled by their shape and structure, and has won numerous awards for her pioneering work in the field of nanophotonics and plasmonics. She was also part of a team that developed the first dark pulse soliton in 1987 while working for IBM.
SPIE is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It organizes technical conferences, trade exhibitions, and continuing education programs for researchers and developers in the light-based fields of physics, including: optics, photonics, and imaging engineering. The society publishes peer-reviewed scientific journals, conference proceedings, monographs, tutorial texts, field guides, and reference volumes in print and online. SPIE is especially well-known for Photonics West, one of the laser and photonics industry's largest combined conferences and tradeshows which is held annually in San Francisco. SPIE also participates as partners in leading educational initiatives, and in 2020, for example, provided more than $5.8 million in support of optics education and outreach programs around the world.
SEMATECH was a not-for-profit consortium that performed research and development to advance chip manufacturing. SEMATECH involved collaboration between various sectors of the R&D community, including chipmakers, equipment and material suppliers, universities, research institutes, and government partners. The group was first funded by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency until 1997 and later by member dues.
The University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences, considered the largest institute for optics education in the United States, is dedicated to research and education in optics with an emphasis on optical engineering. The college offers more than 90 courses in optical sciences, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Optical Sciences and Engineering, Masters and Doctoral degree programs in Optical Sciences, as well as a dual master's degree in Optical Sciences and Business Administration. The college also offers comprehensive distance learning courses leading to a Professional Graduate Certificate or a master's degree and markets non-credit short courses on DVD to optics professionals.
The International Dennis Gabor Award (1993-2010) was awarded by the NOVOFER Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for scientific achievements with practical applications. It was named after the Nobel Prize winner Dennis Gabor.
Jun Ye is a Chinese-American physicist at JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the University of Colorado Boulder, working primarily in the field of atomic, molecular, and optical physics.
Katharine Blodgett Gebbie was an American astrophysicist and civil servant. She was the founding director of the Physical Measurement Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and of its two immediate predecessors, the Physics Laboratory and the Center for Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, both for which she was the only Director. During her 22 years of management of these institutions, four of its scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 2015, the NIST Katharine Blodgett Gebbie Laboratory Building in Boulder, Colorado was named in her honor.
Alexandra Boltasseva is Ron And Dotty Garvin Tonjes Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, and editor-in-chief for The Optical Society's Optical Materials Express journal. Her research focuses on plasmonic metamaterials, manmade composites of metals that use surface plasmons to achieve optical properties not seen in nature.
Marija Strojnik Scholl is a Slovene astrophysicist currently working as a distinguished professor at the Optical Research Center in León, Mexico. She is best known for developing an autonomous system for optical navigation based on CCD technology which is currently used in nearly all commercial aircraft and numerous spacecraft, including in the NASA Cassini mission.
Carmiña Londoño emeritus Deputy Division Director of the Electrical Communications and Cybersystems Division at the National Science Foundation. She previously spent 13 years at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she led the Global Standards and Information Group. Dr. Londoño spent two terms on the Board of Directors of SPIE, and the SPIE's Director's Award in 2019.
Michelle Povinelli is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southern California (USC) and Fellow of the OSA and SPIE. Povinelli's research in nanophotonics focuses on the behavior of light inside complex materials.
Heather Jean Patrick is an American physicist. She is a researcher and project lead at National Institute of Standards and Technology. Patrick's research focuses on applications of scattering and reflectance measurements, advanced light sources, and robotics to the characterization and metrology of optical materials.
Katarina (Kat) Cicak is a physicist. She is a researcher in the advanced microwave photonics group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Leonard Hanssen is an American physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He is the project leader for infrared spectrophotometry in the Sensor Science Division of the Physical Measurement Laboratory. Hanssen is responsible for the realizing and maintaining NIST's scales for spectral reflectance, transmittance, and emittance of materials at infrared wavelengths. He is an expert in infrared spectrophotometry and integrating sphere design and applications.
Shouleh Nikzad is an Iranian-American electronic engineer and research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She leads the Advanced Detector Arrays, Systems, and Nanoscience Group. Her research considers ultraviolet and low-energy particle detectors, nanostructure devices and novel spectrometers. Nikzad is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Inventors and SPIE.
Muriel Thomasset, is a French physicist who specializes in optics. In 2003, she received an Irène Joliot-Curie Prize.
Makenzie Lystrup is an American planetary scientist and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of SPIE, best known as a prominent voice in civil space projects and science policy. Lystrup is the director of the Goddard Space Flight Center. She has previously served as the vice president and general manager for civil space at Ball Aerospace.
Pascal Del'Haye is a German physicist specializing in integrated photonics. He is heading the Microphotonics Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light.
Tara Michele Fortier is a Canadian physicist and Project Leader in the Time and Frequency Division at National Institute of Standards and Technology. Her research considers precision optical and microwave metrology. She was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2022 and awarded the SPIE Harold E. Edgerton Award in High-Speed Optics in 2023.