Marla Lorraine Dowell (born 1965) is an American physicist who is Director of the NIST Communications Technology Laboratory and NIST Boulder Laboratory.

Early life and education

Dowell became interested in science and mathematics as a child. Her father is an engineer and her step-father was a physicist. Dowell was an undergraduate in physics at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. She was encouraged by her physics professors to pursue a career in research. She moved to the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

for doctoral research, where she worked under the supervision of June Lorraine Matthews. Her doctoral research considered pion single charge exchange. After earning her doctorate, Dowell joined

JILA JILA, formerly known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, is a physical science research institute in the United States. JILA is located on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. JILA was founded in 1962 as a joint institute ...

, where she worked as a postdoctoral research associate in atomic physics. Dowell has been a long-time advocate for K-12 STEM education. She earned a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

at the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...

Research and career

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical s ...

, Dowell was responsible for the NIST laser metrology program. At the start, the group focused on calibration, but under her leadership, Dowell developed a research program in laser metrology for industrial applications. Connecting fundamental research to industry needs has been a unifying theme of Dowell's career – from optical metrology for semiconductor manufacturing to solving today’s challenges with 5G deployment with new electromagnetic metrology. She has leveraged partnerships with other federal agencies to expand NIST research activities in wireless communication networks. Dowell has written about job hunting strategies for navigating transitions between different STEM disciplines. Dowell was made Director of the Communications Technology Laboratory and the NIST Boulder Laboratory Director in 2017. The National Academies have cited the strength and breadth of the NIST Communication Technology Laboratory programs under Dowell's leadership. In 2023, Dowell was elected a Fellow of SPIE.

Awards and honors

* 2000 Judson C. French Award * 2005 Department of Commerce Silver Medal * 2005 NIST Equal Employment Opportunity/Diversity Award * 2010 Arthur S. Flemming Award * 2012 Allen V. Astin Award * 2016 SPIE Women in Optics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowell, Marla Living people 1965 births 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American scientists American women physicists University of Michigan alumni University of Colorado Boulder alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni MIT Department of Physics alumni National Institute of Standards and Technology people 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists