Hans Michael Mark (born June 17, 1929) is a former
Secretary of the Air ForceThe Secretary of the Air Force is the civilian head of the United States Department of the Air Force, a component organization of the Department of Defense. He reports directly to the Secretary of Defense and is responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of the United States Air Force...
and a former Deputy Administrator of
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
. He is an expert and consultant in aerospace design and national defense policy. Mark is currently working in the Department of
Aerospace EngineeringAerospace engineering is the branch of engineering behind the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is broken into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...
and Engineering Mechanics at the
University of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a public research university located in Austin, Texas, United States, and is the flagship institution of The University of Texas System. The main campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol...
.
Mark was born in Mannheim, Germany. He lived in Vienna for a time before escaping the Nazi anschluss via Switzerland.
Hans Michael Mark (born June 17, 1929) is a former
Secretary of the Air ForceThe Secretary of the Air Force is the civilian head of the United States Department of the Air Force, a component organization of the Department of Defense. He reports directly to the Secretary of Defense and is responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of the United States Air Force...
and a former Deputy Administrator of
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
. He is an expert and consultant in aerospace design and national defense policy. Mark is currently working in the Department of
Aerospace EngineeringAerospace engineering is the branch of engineering behind the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is broken into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...
and Engineering Mechanics at the
University of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a public research university located in Austin, Texas, United States, and is the flagship institution of The University of Texas System. The main campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol...
.
Early life and career
Mark was born in Mannheim, Germany. He lived in Vienna for a time before escaping the Nazi anschluss via Switzerland. Before the collapse of France the Mark family moved to London where they lived during the Battle of Britain and the bombing of London. Mark's father,
Herman Francis MarkHerman Francis Mark was an Austrian-American chemist regarded for his contributions to the development of polymer science. Mark's x-ray diffraction work on the molecular structure of fibers provided important evidence for the macromolecular theory of polymer structure...
, a polymer chemist, soon took a position with a Canadian paper company, moving his family to Toronto. A short time later the family moved to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1940. After becoming an American citizen in 1945, he graduated from
New York'sNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
Stuyvesant High SchoolStuyvesant High School , commonly referred to as Stuy , is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. It is one of the most competitive public high schools in the United States, sending more students to some of the nation's most prestigious universities than...
in 1947 and went on to receive a
bachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for four years, but can range from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
from the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
in 1951 and a
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
in physics from the
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research...
(MIT) in 1954.
After completion of his doctorate, Mark stayed on at MIT as a
research associateThe title of research associate is used to denote an academic research position at a university or similar institution. A research associate usually conducts research under the supervision of a principal investigator. In contrast to a research assistant or research officer, 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
LivermoreLivermore is a city in Alameda County. The population was 73,345 at the 2000 census, but estimated by city officials to be presently in 100,000 + . Livermore is located in the Bay Area...
. 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 EngineeringNuclear engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the application of the breakdown of atomic nuclei and/or other sub-atomic physics, based on the principles of nuclear physics. It includes, but is not limited to, the interaction and maintenance of nuclear fission systems and...
and administrator of the Berkeley Research Reactor.
Mark has also taught undergraduate and
graduateA graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
courses in physics and
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
at
Boston UniversityBoston University is a private nonsectarian university located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Although chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1869, Boston University traces its roots to the establishment of the Newbury Biblical Institute in Newbury, Vermont in 1839...
and the
University of California, DavisThe University of California, Davis is a public research university located in Davis, California, and one of ten campuses in the University of California system. Commonly referred to as UC Davis, the school was originally established in 1905 as the University Farm, an extension of UC Berkeley. UC...
.
U.S. Government
In February 1969, he became director of NASA's Ames Research Center, located in
Mountain View, CaliforniaMountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city gets its name from the views of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 70,708.-Geography:...
. In this role, he managed the center's research and applications efforts in
aeronauticsAeronautics is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacture of flight-capable machines, or the techniques of operating aircraft...
,
space scienceSpace science is an all-encompassing term that describes all of the various science fields that are concerned with the study of the Universe, generally also meaning "excluding the Earth" and "outside of the Earth's atmosphere". Originally, all of these fields were considered part of astronomy...
, life science and
space technologySpace technology is technology that is related to entering space, maintaining and using systems during spaceflight and returning people and things from space....
.
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 ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
, a position he served in from July 10, 1981 to September 1, 1984.
University of Texas
Upon leaving NASA in 1984, Mark served as
ChancellorA Chancellor is the head of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as President or Rector.In most Commonwealth nations, the Chancellor is usually a titular non-resident head, often with a Pro-Chancellor as practical Chairman of the governing body ; the actual chief executive of a...
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 PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself....
upon
President ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
'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 one-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. Mark also holds a research position at the University of Texas' Institute for Advanced Technology.
Honors
Hans Mark is a member of the
National Academy of EngineeringThe United States National Academy of Engineering , a private, non-profit institution that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
, the nation's highest honor for engineering professionals. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the
American Institute of Aeronautics and AstronauticsThe American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...
. 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.
In 2008, the
Space FoundationThe Space Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports the American space industry through information and education programs. It is a resource for the entire space community - industry, national security organizations, civil space agencies, private space companies, and the military...
awarded Mark its highest honor, the General
James E. HillGeneral James E. Hill was a World War II flying ace, U.S. Air Force General, and commander in chief of the North American Air Defense Command and the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Defense Command, with consolidated headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado.-Biography:Hill was...
Lifetime Space Achievement Award. It is presented annually to recognize outstanding individuals who have distinguished themselves through lifetime contributions to the welfare or betterment of humankind through the exploration, development and use of space, or the use of space technology, information, themes or resources in academic, cultural, industrial or other pursuits of broad benefit to humanity.
Publications
Dr. Mark has written or edited eight books and published more than 180
technical reportA technical report is a document that describes the process, progress, and or results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific research problem. It might also includes recommendations and conclusion of the research...
s. His works include:
- (co-authored) Experiments in Modern Physics and Power and Security
- (co-authored) The Properties of Matter Under Unusual Conditions
- The Space Station: A Personal Journey (Duke University Press, 1987)
- The Management of Research Institutions (NASA SP-481, 1984)