Hans Mark

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Hans Michael Mark (born June 17, 1929) is a former Secretary of the Air Force and a former Deputy Administrator of NASA. He is an expert and consultant in aerospace design and national defense policy. Mark is currently working in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin.

[edit] Biography

Mark was born in Mannheim, Germany on June 17, 1929. He lived in Vienna for a time before moving to the United States in 1940. After becoming an American citizen in 1945, he went on to receive a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1951 and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1954.

After completion of his doctorate, Mark stayed on at MIT as a research associate and acting head of the Neutron Physics Group Laboratory for Nuclear Science. He returned to UC Berkeley in 1955 and remained there until 1958 as a research physicist at the University's Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore. Dr. Mark then returned to MIT as an assistant professor of physics. In 1960, he again returned to the University of California's Livermore Radiation Laboratory's Experimental Physics Division. He remained there until 1964, when he became chairman of the university's Department of Nuclear Engineering and administrator of the Berkeley Research Reactor.

Dr. Mark has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses in physics and engineering at Boston University and the University of California, Davis.

In February 1969, he became director of NASA's Ames Research Center, located in Mountain View, California. In this role, he managed the center's research and applications efforts in aeronautics, space science, life science and space technology.

He subsequently served as Undersecretary of the Air Force from 1977 until July 1979, when he was promoted to Secretary of the Air Force. He remained as this position until 1981, when he was appointed Deputy Administrator of NASA by President Reagan.

Upon leaving NASA in 1984, Dr. Mark became Chancellor of The University of Texas system until 1992. He moved on to become a senior professor of aerospace engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. In July 1998, he began work at The Pentagon upon President Clinton's nomination of him as Director of Defense Research and Engineering. In 2001, he returned to The University of Texas at Austin, where he is currently holds the John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair in Engineering as a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. He currently teaches a 1 hour introductory course to incoming freshman on Aerospace Engineering. All undergraduates since 2001 have taken his course. He also teaches a history of space flight course and as well as a course focusing on the role of technology in the Cold War. Dr. Mark also holds a research position at the University of Texas' Institute for Advanced Technology.

[edit] Honors

Hans Mark is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the nation's highest honor for engineering professionals. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has received the 1999 Joe J. King Engineering Achievement Award and the 1999 George E. Haddaway Medal for Achievement in Aviation. Dr. Mark was recently honored for his contributions to the US military space program at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Astronautical Society. He received the 2006 Military Astronautics Award on November 14, 2006 at the society’s annual meeting in Pasadena, Calif.