Biography

Cherry A. Murray, who has led some of the nation’s most brilliant scientists and engineers as an executive at Bell Laboratories and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was appointed dean of Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), on July 1, 2009. She also holds the the John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professorship of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Previously, Murray served as principal associate director for science and technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., where she lead 3,500 employees in providing core science and technology support for Lawrence Livermore’s major programs. She is the current president of the American Physical Society (APS).

Before joining Lawrence Livermore in 2004, Murray had a long and distinguished career at the famed Bell Laboratories, home to creative researchers who went on to win numerous Nobel Prizes, garner tens of thousands of patents, and invent revolutionary technologies such as the laser and the transistor. She was hired into Bell in 1978 as a staff scientist, marking the beginning of a career that culminated in her position as senior vice president for physical sciences and wireless research.

Murray was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001, and to the National Academy of Engineering in 2002. She has served on more than 80 national and international scientific advisory committees, governing boards, and National Research Council (NRC) panels, including chairing the Division of Engineering and Physical Science of the NRC, and serving on the visiting committee for Harvard’s Department of Physics from 1993 to 2004.

A celebrated experimentalist, Murray is well-known for her scientific accomplishments using light scattering, an experimental technique where photons are fired at a target of interest. Scientists can then gather insights into surface physics and photonic behavior by analyzing the spray of photons in various directions from such collisions.

She is also a leader in the study of soft condensed matter and complex fluids, hybrid materials that show properties of different phases of matter. The control of suspensions, foams, and emulsions has application for the development of everything from novel drug delivery systems to “lab-on-a-chip” devices.

Among other diverse topics in condensed matter physics, Murray has studied semiconductors’ optical phenomena, nanostructures, phase transitions, and controlled self-assembly of optical materials — all critical for the advancement of quantum optics, engineered semiconductors, and tools such as optical tweezers.

Born in Fort Riley, Kan., and the daughter of a diplomat, Murray lived in the United States, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, and Indonesia as a child. She received her B.S. in 1973 and her Ph.D. in physics in 1978 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals and holds two patents in near-field optical data storage and optical display technology.

In 1989, Murray won the APS’s Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award for outstanding achievement by a woman physicist in the early years of her career, and in 2005, she was awarded APS’s George E. Pake Prize in recognition of outstanding work combining original research accomplishments with leadership and development in industry. In 2002, Discover Magazine named her one of the “50 Most Important Women in Science.”

Positions and Employment

Harvard University

• July, 2009-present: Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

• October, 2007-June 2009:  Principal Associate Director for Science and Technology
• December, 2004-October, 2007:  Deputy Director for Science and Technology

Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies

• October 2001-December, 2004:  Physical Sciences and Wireless Research Senior Vice President. 
• April 2000-October 2001:  Physical Sciences Research Senior Vice President.
• June 1997-March 2000: Director, Physical Research Laboratory.
• July 1993-June 1997: Head, Semiconductor Physics Research Department, Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies since 1996, formerly AT&T Bell Labs.
• October 1990-July 1993: Head, Condensed Matter Physics Research Department, AT&T Bell Labs.
• September 1987-September 1990: Head, Solid State and Low Temperature Physics Research Department, AT&T Bell Labs.
• July 1978-1987: Member of Technical Staff in the Physical Research Laboratory, AT&T Bell Labs.
• (1978-2004) Experimental research in surface, condensed matter and complex fluid physics, with emphasis on light scattering and imaging.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• 1974-1978: Research on ultrahigh vacuum and surface physics studying the surface phonons of porous vycor glass with Professor T. J. Greytak.

Other Experience and Professional Memberships

• 2002-2005: National Academy of Sciences Council and Executive Board

• 2004: Chair, National Academies, Keck Futures Initiative, Conference on Nano-Bio Systems

• 2006: Member, National Research Council Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy in the 21^st Century   (Rising Above the Gathering Storm)

• 2004-2008: Member, Division of Engineering and Physical Science, National Research Council

• 2008-present: Chair, Division of Engineering and Physical Science, National Research Council

• 2008-2011: Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science Board

• 2009: President, American Physical Society

Honors

• IBM Graduate Fellowship 1975-1977

• Fellow, American Physical Society, 1987

• American Physical Society Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award, 1989

• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1998

• Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 1999

• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2001

• Elected to the National Academy of Engineering, 2002

• Named by Discover Magazine as one of the top 50 women in science, 2002

• American Physical Society George E. Pake Prize, 2005

• Fellow, California Council on Science and Technology, 2006

Selected peer-reviewed publications (in chronological order)

1. “High Resolution Raman Study of Two-Roton Bound State,” C. A. Murray, R. L. Woerner, T. J. Greytak, J. Phys. C: Solid State Physics 8, L90 (1975).

2. “Intrinsic Surface Phonons in Porous Glass,” R. B. Laughlin, J. D. Joannopoulos, C. A. Murray, K. H. Hartnett and T. J. Greytak, Phys. Rev. Lett. 40, 461 (1978).

3. “Ultrahigh Vacuum Studies of Enhanced Raman Scattering from Pyridine on Silver Surfaces”, J. E. Rowe, C. V. Shank, D. Zwemer and C. A. Murray, Phys. Rev. Lett. 44, 1770 (1980).

4. “Silver-Molecule Separation Dependence of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering,” C. A. Murray, D. L. Allara and M. Rhinewine, Phys. Rev. Lett. 46, 57 (1981).

5. “Light Scattering Studies of the Ion-Acoustic Instability in a Positive Column Plasma,” R. E. Slusher, C. M. Surko and C. A. Murray, Journal of Statistical Physics 39, 755 (1985).

6. “Layering Transitions in Colloidal Crystals as Observed by Diffraction and Direct Lattice Imaging,” David H. Van Winkle and C. A. Murray, Phys. Rev. A34, 562 (1986).

7. “The Use of an Unintensified Charged-Coupled Device Detector for Low Light Level Raman Spectroscopy,” C. A. Murray and S. B. Dierker, J. Optical Society of America A3, 2151 (1986).

8. “Experimental Observation of Two Stage Melting in a Two-dimensional Screened Coulomb System,” C. A. Murray and D. H. Van Winkle, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 1200 (1987).

9. “Observation of Hexagonally Correlated Flux Quanta in Yba₂Cu₃0_7”, P. L. Gammel, D. J. Bishop, J. R. K Kwo, C. A. Murray, L. F. Schneemeyer, J. V. Waszczak, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 2592 (1987).

10. “Layering in Colloidal Fluids Near a Smooth Repulsive Wall,” David H. Van Winkle and C. A. Murray, J. Chem. Phys. 89, 3885 (1988).

11. “Comparison of Melting in Three and Two Dimensions: Microscopy of Colloidal Spheres,” C. A. Murray, W. O. Sprenger and R. A. Wenk, Phys. Rev. B, 42, 688 (1990).

12. “Observation of a Commensurate Array of Flux Chains in Tilted Flux Lattices in BSCCO Single Crystals,” C. A. Bolle, D. G. Grier, P. L. Gammel, C. A. Murray, D. J. Bishop, D. B. Mitzi and A. Kapitulnik, Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 66, 1 (1991).

13. “Translational and Bond-Orientational Order in the Vortex Lattice of the High T_c Superconductor Bi_2.1Sr_1.9Ca_0.9Cu₂0_8+d,” D. G. Grier, C. A. Murray, C. A. Bolle, P. L. Gammel, D. J. Bishop, D. B. Mitzi and A. Kapitulnik, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 2270 (1991).

14. “Magnetic Flux-Line Lattices in the Copper-Oxide Superconductors,” D. J. Bishop, P. L. Gammel, D. A. Huse and C. A. Murray, Science 255, pp 165-172 (1992).

15. “Scanning-tunneling Microscopy Study of Distortion and Instability of Inclined Flux-Line-Lattice Structures in the Anisotropic Superconductor 2H-NbSe2,”  H. F. Hess, C. A. Murray and J. V. Waszczak, Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 2138 (1992).

16. “Raman Spectra of Size Selected Silicon Clusters and Correlation with their Calculated Structures, E. C. Honea, A. Ogura, C. A. Murray, K. Raghavachari, W. O. Sprenger, M. F. Jarrold, W. L. Brown, Nature 366, 42 (1993).

17. “Colloidal Crystals,” C. A. Murray and D. G. Grier, American Scientist, 83, 238 (1995).

18. “Optical Near-Field Aperture Storage Technique (ONFAST) for High Density and Capacity Data Storage”, A. Partovi, D. Peale, M. Wuttig, C. A. Murray, G. Zydzik, L. Hopkins, K. Baldwin, W. Hobson, J. Wynn, J. Lopata, R. Chichester, L. Dhar, H. J. Yeh, D. Brown and E. Tear, Applied Physics Letters (1999).

Patents Awarded

1. "Near-Field Optical Apparatus With a Laser Having a Non-Uniform Emission Face", L. C. Hopkins, C. A. Murray, A. Partovi, D. R. Peale, H. J. Yeh, G. Zydzik, US Patent No. 5,625,617, (1997).

2. “Display Apparatus with Improved Phosphor, and Method of Making Same”, Kochanski, G. Murray, C., Wiltzius, P.  U.S. Patent No. 5,838,118  (1998).