speaker-info

Dr. Mark Johnson

Director, Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Clemson University

Prof. Johnson has been an educator, an entrepreneur and a government official. At Clemson University he is the Director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Thomas L. Hash Chair for Sustainable Development, Professor Johnson works at the intersection of science and technology innovation, public policy, and economic development related to the sustainable use of energy in manufacturing and advancement of manufacturing as the foundation of economic growth in the 21st Century.   Prior to Clemson, he was on the faculty of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State University.   While at NC State he was also the Director of Technology for the Technology, Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) Program, a joint graduate program between the Colleges of Engineering and Management.   He was the first Director of Industry and Innovation Programs for the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center, a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center.  Earlier in his academic career, he was a DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) recipient for his work on semiconductor materials and devices.

From 2010-2013, Mark was a Program Director during the start of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) in US Department of Energy.   His portfolio a ARPA-E focussed on grid-level energy storage, rare-earth materials and advanced electric power systems. From 2013-2017 Mark was the Director of Advanced Manufacturing for the US Department of Energy, serving in both the Obama and Trump administrations.   Under his leadership, the Advanced Manufacturing Office introduced their first strategic plan in nearly a decade and built significant congressional support for focused R&D as well as public-private partnerships, all related to technology innovation in US manufacturing.

Earlier in his career, Mark was a principal in (at least) three different venture backed start-up businesses within the semiconductor industry: Quantum Epitaxial Designs (later merged with IQE International); EPI System (later merged with Veeco); and Nitronex (later merged with M/A Com).

My Sessions

Skills Priorities for Leadership in Advanced Computing for Competitiveness