Abstract: As a university, NC State sits at a focal point where technology and people come together to innovate, learn, and have impact. We have tremendous strengths as a nation. Our university and national laboratory systems are the scientific and innovation envies of the world. Connecting these assets with people to address manufacturing challenges is our goal. Particularly as manufacturing is going through a transition to advanced manufacturing - leveraging IT, communications, advanced materials and new processes, we have an opportunity to continue our growth.

Short Bio: Mark Johnson, Ph.D., serves as the Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). AMO is focused on creating a fertile innovation environment for advanced manufacturing, enabling vigorous domestic development of new energy-efficient manufacturing processes and materials technologies to reduce the energy intensity and life-cycle energy consumption of manufactured products.

Previously, Mark served as a Program Director in the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) where he had the longest tenure in that post—from ARPA-E’s formation in 2010 to mid-2013. At ARPA-E, Mark led initiatives to advance energy storage and critical materials, as well as projects in small business, advanced semiconductor, novel wind architectures, superconductors and electric machines.

He also served as the Industry and Innovation Program Director for the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center. This is a National Science Foundation Gen-111 Engineering Research Center targeting the convergence of power electronics, energy storage, renewable resource integration and information technology for electric power systems.

Mark joins EERE on assignment from North Carolina State University, where he is an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. His research has focused on crystal growth and device fabrication of compound semiconductor materials with electronic and photonic applications. Mark also taught in the Technology, Entrepreneurship and Commercialization program jointly between the NC State Colleges of Management and Engineering. In addition to his academic career, Mark is an entrepreneur and early stage leader in Quantum Epitaxial Designs (now International Quantum Epitaxy), EPI Systems (now Veeco) and Nitronex (now GaAs Labs).

Mark has a bachelor’s degree from MIT and a Ph.D., from NC State, both in Materials Science and Engineering.