Person is deceased
Stephen Pearse has been a groundbreaking technology leader and entrepreneur for 45 years. He is currently a member of the Hertz Foundation board of directors. He is a managing director at Yucatan Rock investments, and served as Chairman for these boards: Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation (Appointed by DOE secretary, Vice Chair), Cyras (sold … Read more
Douglas Wickert is the Commander, 412th Test Wing, Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), California. He leads a wing of nearly 8,000 personnel in the developmental test and evaluation of the B-21, B-1, B-2, F-35, F-22, F-16, T-7, C-17, C-5, KC-46, KC-135, KC-10, and other emerging technologies. Additionally, Brig Gen Wickert is the Installation Commander responsible … Read more
Arnold J. Levine, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, renowned for his groundbreaking discovery of the p53 tumor suppressor protein, a critical molecule in cancer prevention. Dr. Levine earned his Bachelor of Arts in biology from Harpur College, SUNY, and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He … Read more
Joseph Prescott, Ph.D., is the Deputy Director of the Biosafety Level-4 Laboratory (BSL-4) at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany, where he leads the Comparative Immunology of Risk Group-4 Viruses Group. With over two decades of experience, Dr. Prescott is a leading expert in the study of the world’s most pathogenic viruses, including Ebola, … Read more
Michael Koeris is the Office Director, Biological Technologies Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Koeris joined DARPA as the director of the Biological Technologies Office in April 2024. His research and teaching focus on all aspects of chemistry, manufacturing, and control for microbiome medicines, as well as advanced cell and gene therapy approaches. Before … Read more
Gigi Kwik Gronvall is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is an immunologist by training. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led the Center’s ongoing efforts to track the development … Read more
Erica Goldman is the Director of Day One and Policy Entrepreneurship at the Federation of American Scientists. Erica has served in various roles spanning the boundaries between science and policy throughout her career. She has a diverse background that includes science writing, science policy, and academic research and her passions lie in making connections between … Read more
David VadeLinde was an American electrical engineer who was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick from 2001 to 2006. After growing up in St. Albans, West Virginia, where he played football, David attended Carnegie Mellon University on a Hertz Fellowship. This school, “Carnegie Tech” at the time, would not have been within reach for him without the scholarship, … Read more
Hans Witsenhausen was a Retired Researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories who made enduring contributions to control theory and information theory. Witsenhausen earned his undergraduate degree from the Université Libre de Bruxelles before completing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at MIT, where his fellowship began in 1965. He is best known for the Witsenhausen counterexample (1968), … Read more
Guy Weyl was born in Strasbourg, France. He came to America with his family at the beginning of World War II and they became American citizens. Homesick for France, Guy returned to attend the prestigious Physics and Chemistry School of Paris in 1960. After his graduation, he returned to the U.S. to begin his career … Read more
Robert Weis was associate professor of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, where he contributed to biochemistry and nucleic acid research. Weis earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan before completing his Ph.D. in chemistry at Stanford University, where his fellowship began in 1982. His research investigated the structure and function of RNA … Read more
Andrew Weiner held the Scifres Family Distinguished Professorship of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, where he was a world leader in ultrafast optics and optical signal processing. Weiner earned his undergraduate degree before completing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at MIT, where his fellowship began in 1979. His research at Purdue produced foundational … Read more
Daniel L. Weinreb was a software engineer at Google who made foundational contributions to the Lisp programming language and its machine environment during the formative years of MIT’s AI Laboratory. Weinreb enrolled at MIT at age 16, earning his B.S. in computer science and electrical engineering in 1979. As an undergraduate, he and Mike McMahon … Read more
Arthur Walstead is a Hertz Fellow who completed his Ph.D. in plasma physics at the University of California, Davis/Livermore program, where his fellowship began in 1973.
James Van Vechten was professor emeritus of Materials Science at Oregon State University, where he contributed foundational theories of semiconductor defect physics. Van Vechten completed his Ph.D. in solid state physics at the University of Chicago, where his fellowship began in 1968. His research produced the Harrison-Van Vechten model of semiconductor properties and the Van … Read more
Faith Van Nice was a Hertz Fellow who completed her Ph.D. in chemistry at MIT, where her dissertation examined the effect of ortho-hydrogen concentration on nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rates of carbon monoxide at low temperature. She passed away shortly after completing her studies.
Richard Van Konynenburg was a Hertz Fellow who completed his doctoral work in applied science at the University of California, Davis/Livermore program, where his fellowship began in 1963.
Arthur L. Turner was a materials scientist at Dominion Engineering, Inc. who earned his doctorate at the California Institute of Technology for research examining how stress and temperature affect the velocity of dislocations in pure iron single crystals — foundational work in understanding how metals deform at the atomic scale. He earned his Hertz Fellowship … Read more
Rory Thompson was a Hertz Fellow who completed his doctoral work in meteorology at MIT, where his fellowship began in 1967.
Eric Swartz was a Hertz Fellow who completed doctoral work in mathematical physics at Cornell University, where his fellowship began in 1980. He passed away shortly after completing his studies.
Robert Strong was a vice president of Customer Support at Epise Corporation. Strong earned his undergraduate degree before completing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at MIT, where his fellowship began in 1965. He subsequently built a career in technology industry management, reaching a senior customer-facing role before his passing.
Alan M. Stolzenberg was an associate professor of chemistry at West Virginia University, where he spent more than three decades building a research program in inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry centered on iron porphyrins and their relationship to biological catalysis. Born in Pittsburgh, Stolzenberg graduated from the University of Chicago in 1976 before earning his doctorate … Read more
Mark Sobolewski was an Electrical Engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he contributed to precision measurement and superconducting electronics research. Sobolewski earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton University before completing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University, where his fellowship began in 1985. His research at NIST focused on … Read more
David E. Skinner was a group leader at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where his work bridged theoretical chemistry and high-performance computing. He subsequently joined LBNL’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), where he served as a group leader on performance analysis and user support for the … Read more
Arnold J. Sierk was a staff scientist and Fellow of the American Physical Society at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) who spent more than four decades advancing the theoretical understanding of nuclear fission. Born Nov. 10, 1946, in Batavia, N.Y., he grew up on a dairy farm in Darien Center before earning his undergraduate degree … Read more
Krishna V. Shenoy, PhD, was the Hong Seh and Vivian W. M. Lim Professor of Engineering. He was with the Departments of Electrical Engineering (EE) and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering (BioE), Neurobiology and Neurosurgery in the Schools of Engineering (SOE) and Medicine (SOM) at Stanford University. He was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) … Read more
Albert M. Sekela was an electrical engineer who earned his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University in 1971, supported by a Hertz Fellowship, with a thesis on aluminum-gallium arsenide heteroface solar cells — early research in III-V compound semiconductor photovoltaics that preceded commercial development of high-efficiency solar technology by decades.
Charles H. Seiter was a physical chemist who earned his doctorate at Caltech for research applying nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to model membrane systems. Seiter received his Hertz Fellowship in 1969 and earned his doctorate in physical chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, where his dissertation examined NMR linewidth behavior in lipid bilayer model … Read more
Trudy Schafer was Program Director and Advocate at the League of Women Voters of California, working on civic education and advocacy for democratic participation. Schafer earned her undergraduate degree before completing her Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Chicago, where her fellowship began in 1969. She subsequently built a career in civic advocacy … Read more
Tom Sathre worked as a Senior Scientific Programmer at Lockheed Martin. Tom graduated with two Master’s Degrees in computer science and mathematics from Texas A&M University and a Master’s Degree in physics from UC Davis, California. His first employment was with Lockheed Aerospace in California and England for ten years. He was hired by Martin … Read more
Craig L. SanPietro was the founder of Craden Peripherals which manufactured specialized computer equipment ranging from automated parking systems to dedicated printers for banking applications, where Craden printers became the national standard. On his journey to becoming a founder and CEO, Craig also designed a replacement disk drive controller for IBM, returned to his alma … Read more
Wayne Ruhter was a Hertz Fellow who completed his doctoral work in nuclear physics at the University of California, Davis/Livermore program, where his fellowship began in 1973.
Paul Rubbert was a leader in the development of the field of computational fluid dynamics. Paul grew up and attended university in Minnesota, obtaining bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical engineering. He worked at the Boeing Airplane Company in Seattle before attending MIT for his PhD in aerodynamics engineering, received in 1965. He then worked … Read more
Joseph (Joe) Polchinski, PhD, is a permanent member of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and a professor of physics at University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1975, he received his BS in physics from the California Institute of Technology, and in 1980 as a Hertz Fellow, his PhD in physics from University of California, … Read more
Stephen Pohlig was a Senior Technical Staff Member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where he contributed to advanced signal processing and communications systems research. Pohlig earned his undergraduate degree before completing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University, where his fellowship began in 1974. He is best known for the Pohlig-Hellman algorithm, co-developed with Martin … Read more
Alf J. Piwinskii was a geologist and geophysicist who earned his doctorate in geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago in 1966, supported by a Hertz Fellowship, with a thesis examining batholithic feldspars of the Sierra Nevada in California — contributing to the understanding of igneous petrology and crustal composition in the western United States.
Oberdan William Otto was a physicist and a stalwart of the Scottish Country Dancing and Round Dancing communities. Oberdan grew up in Palo Alto, California and graduated from California Institute of Technology in 1969 and from Stanford University in 1973, where he earned a PhD in Applied Physics. For most of his career he developed … Read more
Richard “Rick” Osgood Jr. was the Higgins Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics at Columbia University, where he spent more than four decades as a pioneer in laser science, surface chemistry, and photonics. He joined Columbia’s faculty in 1981 and was named Higgins Professor in 1988. He created and directed … Read more
Marshall Onellion was an experimental condensed matter physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After completing his BS in mathematics and physics at West Virginia University in 1972, Onellion served in the U.S. Air Force until he was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain in 1979. He then began graduate studies in physics at … Read more
Richard Nielsen was a Hertz Fellow who completed his doctoral work in mechanical engineering at Caltech, where his fellowship began in 1966.
Bruce J. Nelson was a computer scientist at Xerox PARC whose invention of the remote procedure call (RPC), developed during his doctoral work at Carnegie Mellon University, became one of the foundational protocols of modern distributed computing. Nelson earned his undergraduate degree at Harvey Mudd College, then completed a master’s degree at Stanford University and … Read more
Dennis A. Nagy is an executive partner at SmartCore Business Solutions who earned his MIT undergraduate degree and his UC Berkeley doctorate in structural engineering before moving into technology consulting. His dissertation examined system identification and optimization procedures in structural mechanics — developing computational methods to infer the physical properties of structures from observed response … Read more
Steven Moosman was the Deputy Director at United States Air Force.
Alan K. Miller is the founder of Cool it! Earth, where he is developing new methods to mitigate global warming. He has been a research professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford; and a senior staff engineer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company where he was the VARTM subject matter expert and served as … Read more
Russell Merrill was founder of Executive Management & Technology, a consulting firm, following a career in geophysical sciences. Merrill earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas before completing his Ph.D. in geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, where his fellowship began in 1968. He combined scientific training with business leadership in executive … Read more
Richard Medley was a Hertz Fellow who earned his undergraduate degree from the United States Naval Academy before completing his Ph.D. in electronics engineering at MIT, where his fellowship began in 1980.
William March was a Hertz Fellow who completed his doctoral work in civil engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, where his fellowship began in 1977.
Francis Lee was an inventor, entrepreneur, and professor emeritus of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and was responsible for several notable achievements that have contributed to the United States’ technological prowess. He was among the second group of scientists awarded the Hertz Fellowship in 1964. Francis was the … Read more
Richard Lampson was a Hertz Fellow who earned his undergraduate degree from South Dakota State University before completing his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Chicago, where his fellowship began in 1966.
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