DEPS Committee

The Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences (DEPS) is concerned with expanding basic knowledge in the physical sciences and engineering and applying these disciplines in the service of humankind. In support of these goals the Division Committee will articulate intellectual and strategic goals for the Division, with particular attention to the promotion of intra- and inter-division collaborations to capture interdisciplinary opportunities that are emerging or likely to emerge; ensure the quality of the Division's work, perform strategic reviews of the Division's boards, and approve board members; and provide direction on emerging issues, and review the Division's structure and operational ability to pursue these issues. The Committee will also annually review the Division's activities, reports, successes, and challenges, and articulate its vision of how the Division must evolve in the future.

Dr. Cherry Murray, Chair
Deputy Director for Science and Technology
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Dr. Peter Bickel
Professor
Department of Statistics
University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Ruth David
President and Chief Executive Officer
ANSER

Katherine Frase
Vice President, Technical and Business Strategy
IBM Software Group

Charles F. Kennel
Director, UCSD Environment and Sustainability Initiative

Lt. Gen. George K. Muellner
Retired President
Boeing Phantom Works

Mr. Cordell Reed
Retired Senior Vice President
Commonwealth Edison Company

Dr. Alton D. Romig, Jr.
Deputy Director for Integrated Technology Programs
Sandia National Laboratories

Dr. F. Stan Settles
IBM Chair of Engineering and Management
University of Southern California

Margaret Wright
Silver Professor of Computer Science
Chair, Department of Computer Science
New York University

Dr. Cherry A. Murray (NAS/NAE) is Deputy Director for Science and Technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She is the senior executive responsible for overseeing the quality of science and technology in the Laboratory's scientific and technical programs and disciplines. This includes the development of the strategic science and technology plan; development of standards for scientific research performance and program quality; and oversight of efforts to recruit, develop and retain the Laboratory's scientific, engineering and technical workforce. Dr. Murray is a nationally recognized physicist for her work in surface physics, light scattering and complex fluids. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Discover Magazine named her as one of the "50 Most Important Women in Science" in 2002. She earned her BS and Ph.D. in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She won the APS Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award in 1989 and was awarded the 2005 APS George Pake Prize.

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Dr. Peter J. Bickel (NAS) is a professor of statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. His research spans a number of areas. In his work on semiparametric models (he is a co-author of the recent book Efficient and Adaptive Estimation for Semiparametric Models) he uses asymptotic theory to guide development and assessment of such models. He has also studied hidden Markov models, which are important in such diverse fields as speech recognition and molecular biology from the point of view of how well the method of maximum likelihood performs. Recently he has become involved in developing empirical statistical models for genomic sequences. He is a co-author of the text Mathematical Statistics: Basic Ideas and Selected Topics. He is past President of the Bernoulli Society and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, a MacArthur Fellow, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Dr. Denis A. Cortese (IOM) is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mayo Clinic and a specialist in pulmonary medicine. He earned an A.B. in Biology from Franklin and Marshall College and his M.D. from Temple University Medical School. Dr. Cortese completed his residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Thoracic Diseases at the Mayo Clinic. He is involved in bronchoscopic detection, localization, and treatment of early stage lung cancer, as well as bronchoscopic treatment of lung cancer obstructing the main airways.

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Dr. Ruth David, (NAE) is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Analytic Services Inc. (ANSER). Previously Dr. David was the Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the Central Intelligence Agency. She also served in many capacities at Sandia National Laboratories where she was Director of Advanced Information Technologies when she left. Dr. David has a B.S.E.E. from Wichita State University, and a Masters and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

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Katherine Frase (NAE) is Vice President, Technical and Business Strategy, IBM Software Group. Her team is responsible for technical strategy, business strategy, business development, standards, competitive analysis and the application of advanced technologies across SWG. Prior to this role, she was VP, Technology (IBM), in which she was responsible for technical resources, recognition, assessment and strategy across IBM. In 2006, in recognition of her distinguished contributions to engineering, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Earlier IBM responsibilities included management of process development, design/modeling methodology and production for chip carrier assembly and final test for IBM silicon products. Her research interests include mechanical properties/structural interactions in composites, high temperature superconductors, solid electrolytes (fast ionic conductors), ceramic powder synthetic methods, and ceramic packaging. She chaired an IBM/Academy workshop on Lead Solder reduction actions, and in 1998 served as the Packaging Assurance manager for IBM worldwide. Dr. Frase received an A.B. in chemistry from Bryn Mawr College and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Frase is an ex officio member of the NRC's Board on Assessment of National Institute of Standards and Technology Programs and is currently the chair of the Panel of Materials Science and Engineering.

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Dr. William Happer (NAS) is a professor in the Department of Physics at Princeton University and a prominent technical consultant to industry and government. He is a specialist in laser spectroscopy, optical pumping, radio frequency spectroscopy, and magnetic resonance. He served as director of the Columbia Radiation Laboratory. Dr. Happer spent the spring of 1976 at the Max Planck Institute for Laser Research at Garching, West Germany, with the support of an Alexander von Humboldt Award. He has maintained an interest in applied physics and the impact of science and technology on public policy. He has served as a consultant to numerous firms and government agencies, including Singer-Kearfott, Litton Industries, Bendix, RCA, the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Naval Air Development Center, the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the Department of Energy. Dr. Happer has a B.S. in Physics from the University of North Carolina and a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University.

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Dr. Wesley Harris (NAE) is the Charles Stark Draper Professor and Head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on theoretical and experimental unsteady aerodynamics and aeroacoustics; computational fluid dynamics, and the government policy impact on procurement of high technology systems. Prior to this position he served as the Associate Administrator for Aeronautics at NASA. He has also served as the Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of the University of Tennessee Space Institute. Dr. Harris earned a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences from Princeton University

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Charles F. Kennel (NAS) directs the UCSD Environment and Sustainability Initiative, embracing teaching, research, campus operations, and public outreach, and is a distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences at Scripps.  Dr. Kennel was the ninth Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Vice Chancellor of Marine Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, from 1998 to 2006. His research has focused on fundamental plasma physics combined with space and astrophysics. His work has centered on basic plasma turbulence theory and collisionless shocks, the physics of the solar wind and planetary magnetospheres, and the physics of pulsar magnetospheres and active galactic nuclei. Dr. Kennel served as associate administrator for NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program, the world's largest environmental science program.  He was former Executive Vice Chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles.  He won the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the Aurelio Peccei Prize from the Italian Academy of Sciences in 1996.  Dr. Kennel received an A.B. in astronomy from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton University.

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Mr. George K. Muellner is retired Vice President and General Manager of Air Force Systems for Integrated Defense Systems.  He is responsible for all air and space systems and system-of-systems programs the company is conducting for the US Air Force.  Prior to this assignment Mr. Muellner was President of Phantom Works, Boeing's advanced research and development unit, dedicated to improving the quality, performance, and affordability of Boeing  products and services through technology development, process improvement, and new product development.  Mr. Muellner also served as Lieutenant General in the U.S. Air Force. He was Principle Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. He provided direction, guidance and formulation, review, approval and execution of plans, policies and programs relative to acquisition. He was also designated as the Air Force chief information officer..

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Mr. Cordell Reed (NAE) is retired Senior Vice President of Commonwealth Edison where he was responsible for the design, operation and management of the company's fossil and nuclear generating stations. He served as Chief Nuclear Officer for 13 years and was also responsible for the purchase of fossil and nuclear fuel. Mr. Reed has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois.

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Dr. Alton D. Romig, Jr. (NAE) is currently Senior Vice President and Deputy Laboratory Director for Integrated Technology Programs at Sandia National Laboratories. His responsibilities include the leadership and management of development and engineering activities that provide science, technology, systems, and expertise in support of US Programs in military technology; proliferation prevention; technology assessments; counterintelligence; energy science, resources, conservation, and infrastructure assurance; and homeland security. The portfolio includes support to the US Departments of Energy, Defense, State, Justice, Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, and the Nuclear Regulatory Agency. The work includes international engagement such as through the International Atomic Energy Agency. Dr. Romig has his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Lehigh University.

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Dr. F. Stan Settles (NAE) is the IBM Chair of Engineering Management and the director of the Systems Architecture and Engineering Program at the University of Southern California. His expertise is in industrial and manufacturing engineering, manufacturing management, total quality management, and strategic planning. Dr. Settles special interests are improving the systems of managing a manufacturing enterprise in either line or staff roles. He earned his undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering and Production Technology from LeTourneau College and his graduate degrees in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University.

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Margaret Wright (NAS/NAE) is Silver Professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at New York University. Her research interests include optimization, linear algebra, scientific computing, and scientific and engineering applications. She has served as the chair of the Advisory Committee for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate at the National Science Foundation and has served on several committees for the National Council, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy. She is a member of the Scientifica Council of the Mathematical Sciences Institute (MSRI), Berkeley, California. She is the co-author of two books, Practical Optimization and Numerical Linear Algebra, and Optimization, and the author or co-author of more than 40 papers in refereed journals. Dr. Wright received an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science, and a B.S. in Mathematics, from Stanford University.

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Executive Director

Peter Blair is Executive Director of the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences of The National Academies' National Research Council (NRC). He was formerly Executive Director of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, and publisher of American Scientist (1996-2001). Earlier, at the former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (1983-1996), he served as Energy Program Director and then as Assistant Director of the agency and Director of the Division on Industry, Commerce, and International Security. He received OTA's distinguished service award in 1991. Prior to his government service he was on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania (1976-1985) and Co-Founder of Technecon Analytic Research, Inc. (1978-1985). Technecon was acquired by Reading Energy Corporation in 1985. Dr. Blair is a fellow of the AAAS and holds a B.S. in engineering from Swarthmore College, an M.S.E. in systems engineering and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in energy management and policy from the University of Pennsylvania.

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George Bugliarello (NAE) serves as the Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Engineering and is University Professor at Polytechnic University. He served as President of Polytechnic University from 1973 to 1994, is an engineer and educator with a broad background ranging from civil engineering to computer languages, biomedical engineering, fluid mechanics and science policy. Dr. Bugliarello holds a Doctor of Science degree in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a minor from the Sloan School and was awarded several honorary degrees, as well as being honored by the Engineering News-Record as one of "Those Who Made Marks" in the construction industry in recognition of the creation of Metrotech. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Engineering Education, American Society of Civil Engineers, and a founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

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