DR. HANS M. MARK

Hans M. Mark was the 13th secretary of the Air Force.

He born in Mannheim, Germany in 1929. He came to the United States in 1940, and became a U.S. citizen in 1945. He attended primary and secondary schools in New York City, earned a bachelor of arts in physics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1951, and his doctor of physics in 1954, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Active in teaching since 1952, Mark taught courses in physics and engineering at Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley and Davis and Stanford University. Concurrently, he was active in research and held a number of administrative appointments. Following completion of his graduate studies, Mark remained at MIT as a research associate and acting head of the Neutron Physics Group, Laboratory for Nuclear Science, until 1955. He then returned to the University of California as a research physicist at the Berkeley campus, then at the university's Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore, where he served until 1958.

After two years as an assistant professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mark returned to the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore to continue physics research and to head the Laboratory's Experimental Physics Division (1960-1964). During that period he was an associate professor (1961-1966) and then professor of nuclear engineering (1966-1969) at the University of California's Berkeley campus. He served as chairman of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and administrator of the Berkeley Research Reactor from 1964 to 1969.

In 1969, Mark accepted the position of director of the Ames Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. As director he managed the center's research and applications efforts in aeronautics, space science, life science and space technology. He also continued his association with the academic community, first as a lecturer in applied science at the University of California, Davis campus, from 1969 to 1973, and since 1973, as a consulting professor of engineering at Stanford University.

Mark has also been a consultant to government, industry and business. He served as a consultant for the Institute for Defense Analyses (1958-1961); the National Science Foundation (1966-1969); the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (1969-1976); the vice president of the United States (1974-1976); The President's Advisory Group on Science and Technology (1975-1976) and the Defense Science Board (since 1975).

Mark has written extensively; his articles have appeared in a number of professional and technical journals. He also co-authored a volume on "Experiments in Modern Physics," served as co-editor of "The Properties of Matter Under Unusual Conditions," and was a co-author of "Power and Security."

His major scientific accomplishments include contributions to the precise determination of the wave lengths of nuclear gamma rays, to the development of X-ray astronomy, to various fields of nuclear instrumentation and to the development of more accurate atomic wave functions.

Prior to his appointment, he was undersecretary of the Air Force.