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Group photo outside the Microdevices Laboratory building
Above: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Microdevices Laboratory has, since 1989, been a key player in JPL’s dedicated efforts to create and deliver high-risk, high-payoff technology for NASA’s planetary, astrophysics, and Earth science missions. From the beginning, MDL has cultivated an environment that values and promotes leadership, vision, and innovation while inventing, improving, and implementing new technologies that drive NASA’s ongoing quest to probe the mysteries of the universe. This is accomplished via the talent, dedication, and hard work of MDL’s scientists, researchers, and staff, along with sustained and insightful investments in infrastructure and equipment.

Knowledge Center

Thanks to the vision, commitment, and support of JPL management and especially the JPL Office of the Chief Scientist and Chief Technologist, the MDL remains healthy and active. MDL’s vitality is documented by various metrics. Over the last few years the average numbers per year are: just under 50 refereed journal papers, 40-50 published conference papers, 10s of NASA New Technology Reports, 5-8  awarded patents and many awards or other signs of prestigious external recognition.

Visiting Committee

Meeting every two years to review the ongoing work at MDL and make valuable suggestions for future directions, they have acknowledged that MDL is a key national asset with unique state-of-the-art capabilities and staff well-focused on space applications of micro- and nano-technologies.

The Visiting Committee, consisting of a broad spectrum of highly talented and accomplished individuals, has recognized the leadership, vision, and innovation of MDL. The committee’s inputs have been of tremendous value in the pursuit of the highest quality research and development programs targeted toward the key scientific and technical goals of interest to NASA and our other sponsors.

Knowledge Center

Visiting Committee

DR. THOMAS L. KOCH

Committee Chair, Dean of College of Optical Sciences and Professor of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona

DR. PAULA GRUNTHANER

Committee Co-Chair, Retired, Manager of Mission System Concepts Section and former Manager of the MDL Microdevices Section, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

DR. MARK G. ALLEN

Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering; Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics; Inaugural Scientific Director, Singh Center for Nanotechnology, University of Pennsylvania

DR. ERIC R. FOSSUM

Associate Provost in the Office of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer (OETT), Director of the PhD Innovation Program at the Thayer School of Engineering, and the John H. Krehbiel Senior Professor for Emerging Technologies at Dartmouth College

DR. OLIVIER GUYON

Astronomer and Optical Scientist at the Subaru Telescope and Professor of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona

DR. ALEXANDER G. HAYES

Director, Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science; Director, Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility, Associate Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University

DR. KATHERYN B. HELEAN

Director, Center for Microsystems Engineering, Science, and Applications (MESA), Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque

DR. PAUL G. LUCEY

Professor, Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii

DR. SUSAN M. LUNTE

Ralph N. Adams Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry; Director, Adams Institute for Bioanalytical Chemistry; Director, NIH COBRE Center for Molecular Analysis of Disease Pathways, University of Kansas

DR. WHITNEY MASON

Deputy Director, Strategic Technology Office (STO), DARPA

DR. CAROLYN MERCER

Chief Technologist, Science Mission Directorate, NASA

DR. PAMELA S. MILLAR

Program Director, NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO)

DR. VENKATESH NARAYANAMURTI

Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy; Engineering and Applied Sciences and Physics, Emeritus, Harvard University

DR. DAVID A. PAIGE

Professor of Planetary Science, University of California, Los Angeles

DR. ALBERT P. PISANO

Dean, Jacobs School of Engineering, University of California, San Diego

DR. NATALIE ROE

Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Science, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

DR. JONAS ZMUIDZINAS

Former JPL Chief Technologist, former Director of JPL’s Microdevices Laboratory, Director of the Caltech Optical Observatories and Merle Kingsley Professor of Physics, California Institute of Technology

Visiting Committee

Former Members

DR. EUSTACE DERENIAK

Former Chair (2008–2015), Professor Emeritus of Optical Sciences and Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona

DR. JOHN TUCKER

Former Chair (2008–2015), Professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) and IEEE, Microwave Theory and Techniques Society

DR. BARBARA WILSON

Former Co-Chair, Retired Chief Technologist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

DR. SANJAY BANERJEE

Director of Microelectronics Research Center and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin

DR. DEBORAH CRAWFORD

Vice President for Research, George Mason University

DR. JED HARRISON

Department Chair and Professor of Chemistry, University of Alberta

MR. GILBERT HERRERA

Director of the Laboratory for Physical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

DR. WILLIAM HUNT

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

MR. GEORGE KOMAR

Retired Program Director, NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO)

DR. GREGORY KOVACS

Chief Technology Officer at SRI International and Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering and courtesy appointment to the Department of Medicine, Stanford University

DR. OSKAR PAINTER

John G Braun Professor of Applied Physics and Physics, Fletcher Jones Foundation Co-Director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute, California Institute of Technology

DR. REGINA RAGAN

Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Irvine

DR. RONALD REAGO

Director of Communications, Electronic Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC), Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD)

DR. DAVID SANDISON

Director of the Center for Microsystems Science, Technology & Components, Sandia National Laboratories

DR. AXEL SCHERER

Neches Professor of Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics and Physics, California Institute of Technology and Director of the Caltech Global Health Initiative

DR. MEIMEI TIDROW

Chief Scientist for Focal Plane Arrays at the U.S. Army RDECOM CERDEC Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD)

DR. ROBERT J. TREW

National Science Foundation Director, Electrical, Communications, and Cyber-Systems Division Distinguished Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University Fellow, IEEE2 and AAAS3

DR. GEORGE UGRAS

Adams Capital Management General Partner Board Member, Rafter, Inc., Fotomoto, Inc., Luminescent Technologies, Inc., Next IO, Inc., and Twelvefold Media, Inc.

DR. ROBERT WESTERVELT

Director of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Integrated Quantum Materials and Mallinckrodt Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics, Harvard University

DR. NAI-CHANG YEH

Professor of Physics, Fletcher Jones Foundation Co-Director, Kavli Nanoscience Institute, California Institute of Technology

MDL Annual Reports

Beginning in 2007, MDL issues a review of its accomplishments detailing the contributions to JPL and NASA that MDL has made and is continuing to make. As the reports become available in an electronic format, they are posted here.

These documents require the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download here if you do not have this application installed.



Latest Annual Reports (Interactive Versions)

All Annual Reports (Downloadable PDF Versions)

Publications

Patents

Awards & External Recognition

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