Biographies

C. William McCurdy

Dr. C. William McCurdy is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Davis, and the Leader of the Atomic, Molecular and Optical Sciences program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Professor McCurdy received his BS from Tulane University in 1971 and his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1976. Professor McCurdy's research group develops and applies ab initio computational methods to electron-molecule scattering and photoionization and to the interaction of femtosecond and attosecond pulses of UV and X-ray radiation with atoms and molecules. He served on the Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences Advisory committee from1998-2016 and has also served on the Fusion Energy Advisory Committee (2000-2002). He has been a member of the Committee on Atomic, Molecular and Optical Sciences (CAMOS) of the National Research Council (1994-1997) and organized the NSF workshop on Computation as a Tool for Discovery in Physics in 2001. His honors include fellowships with the National Science Foundation, the American Physical Society, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; the Ohio State Distinguished Scholar Award; and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.

William A. Barletta

Dr. William A. Barletta is an Adjunct Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, former Director of the U.S. Particle Accelerator School (USPAS), and the inaugural director of the Korean Accelerator School. Professor Barletta received his PhD in experimental high-energy physics from the University of Chicago in 1971. His research interests include free electron laser physics for ultra-fast synchrotron radiation science; the design of colliders and high intensity linacs and cyclotrons for high energy and nuclear physics; ion beam technology for nanofabrication of integrated circuits; and compact plasma-based neutron and gamma sources for medicine, research and security applications. Professor Barletta served a term as Chair of the American Physical Society’s (APS) Panel on Public Affairs, the Division of Physics of Beams, and the Forum on International Physics. He has been an active member of the APS Committee on Minorities, the Committee on International Scientific Affairs, and the Physics Policy Committee. His honors include fellowship with the American Physical Society and election as Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Bologna Institute.

Robert Jaffe

Dr. Robert Jaffe is the Jane and Otto Morningstar Professor of Physics and a MacVicar Faculty Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He served as the Director of MIT's Center of Theoretical Physics for six years. Professor Jaffe received his AB in Physics from Princeton University in 1968 and his MS and PhD from Stanford University in 1971 and 1972. He is best known for his research on the quark substructure of matter and quantum vacuum energies. Professor Jaffe has received numerous teaching awards at MIT, including the Physics Department’s Buechner Teaching Prize in 1997 and 2009. He is the co-author of a new textbook The Physics of Energy. A member of the Brookhaven National Laboratory Science and Technology Steering Committee from 1998 to 2008, Professor Jaffe chaired the committee from 2005 through 2008. He was elected to a term on the American Physical Society’s Panel on Public Affairs in 2008 and served as Chair during 2014. Professor Jaffe is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society.

E. Dan Dahlberg

Dr. E. Dan Dahlberg is a Professor of Physics at the University of Minnesota and the Director and PI of the Magnetic Microscopy Center at the University. He was the primary developer and leader of the highly acclaimed University of Minnesota’s outreach program, The Physics Force. Professor Dahlberg received a BS and MA in Physics from UT Arlington in 1970 and 1972 and a Ph.D. in Physics from UCLA in 1978. His active research program involves efforts in both noise in magnetic dots and films and spin transport in magnetic tunnel junctions. His honors include fellowships with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society; College of Science and Engineering Distinguished Professor, Distinguished University Teacher, and Outstanding Instructor Award, all at the University of Minnesota; George Taylor/ IT Alumni Society Award for Teaching; Distinguished Alumnus for the College of Science at UTA; University of Minnesota Outstanding Community Service Award; George Taylor Distinguished Service Award; Nicholson Medal of the American Physical Society 2013; and Elected Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE Magnetics Society for 2010.

Mark Doyle

Dr. Mark Doyle has been with the American Physical Society since 1996 and is now Chief Information Officer. As CIO, he oversees and manages all IT-related aspects of APS, including the systems associated with its journals, membership, meetings, and programs. Mark is currently the Co-chair of the CHORUS Technical Working Group. He also serves on NISO's Standing Committee for JATS: Journal Article Tag Suite and ORCID’s Publications and User Facilities Working Group. In the past, he has sat on the editorial board of ALPSP's journal "Learned Publishing," served on a variety of CrossRef Technical Working Groups, the original NLM Advisory Panel on the NLM DTD, as well as a variety of earlier ORCID working groups. He came to APS after working for two years on the development of the arXiv.org e-print archive, then located at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received a Ph.D. in high energy physics (string theory) from Princeton University in 1992 and held a postdoctoral position at The Rockefeller University until 1994. He also holds a B.S. in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University. He became a Fellow of APS in 2008.

Francis Slakey

Dr. Francis Slakey is the Chief Government Affairs Officer of the American Physical Society. He received his Ph.D. in physics in 1992 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In addition to his technical publications, he has published widely in the popular press, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Slate, and Scientific American. He has given more than 150 invited talks including to the National Academy of Sciences, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, West Point, the Library of Congress, TEDx, and Microsoft. He has also served in advisory positions for a diverse set of organizations, including the National Geographic, the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Panel on Solutions to Sustainability, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He served as the Upjohn Lecturer on Science and Public Policy at Georgetown University where he founded the GU Program on Science in the Public Interest. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Explorers Club, a MacArthur Scholar, and a Lemelson Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution.

Dr. Slakey became the 28th American to summit Mt. Everest in an unguided environmental expedition that was the subject of the movie "Beyond the Summit," and described in his international best-selling adventure memoir “To The Last Breath.” He is the first person in history to both summit the highest mountain on every continent and surf every ocean. In recognition of his adventures, as part of the 2002 Olympic Games, he carried the Olympic torch from the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Mark Elsesser

Dr. Mark Elsesser is the Manager of Science Policy at the American Physical Society (APS). Prior to joining APS, Mark served as Science and Technology Policy Fellow, supported by the California Council on Science and Technology, in the office of Assemblymember Ken Cooley of the California State Legislature. Mark is a chemical engineer by training, graduating summa cum laude with a B.S.E. from the University of Michigan and receiving his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.