Mark to be guest speaker at Fellows banquet

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ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  The 13th Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. Hans Mark, will be the guest speaker at the 2008 Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) Fellows Banquet June 25 at the Arnold Lakeside Club. 

Dr. Mark's experience ranges from academia and research to senior positions within NASA and the Department of Defense, including serving as Secretary of the Air Force from 1979-1981 and deputy administrator of NASA from 1981-1984. 

He was also the director of NASA's Ames research Center from 1969-1977, before being appointed undersecretary of the Air Force and director of the National Reconnaissance Office. 

As Air Force Secretary, Dr. Mark created Air Force Space Command and committed the Air Force to funding GPS. During his time as deputy administrator of NASA, he supervised the first 13 space shuttle flights and the start of the U.S.'s involvement in the International Space Station program. 

Dr. Mark was born in Mannheim, Germany, in 1929; he and his parents came to the U.S. in 1940. After becoming an American citizen in 1945, Dr. Mark earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of California at Berkley in 1951 and a doctorate degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1954. 

From 1955 to 1969, Dr. Mark was associated with the University of California at Berkeley and at Livermore, Calif. 

He served as a professor of nuclear engineering and department chairman at the University of California in Berkeley and as a research scientist and division leader at the University's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Mark led research groups working in nuclear and atomic physics and also contributed to astrophysics and to developing instrumentation used in the testing of nuclear weapons. 

In addition to his regular academic appointment, Dr. Mark has held non-tenured or adjunct appointments at the MIT, Stanford University, the University of California at
Davis and The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer in Houston. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Polytechnic University in New York and is a director of
several corporations. He served on President Ford's Science and Technology Advisory Group and on the Defense Science Board. 

Before moving to Washington, D.C., Dr. Mark was the director of the NASA-Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., for eight years. During his term as director, he supervised the management of the "Pioneer" planetary exploration program. Pioneer 10 was launched on March 2, 1972 and became the first spacecraft to fly past Jupiter and the first man-made object to leave the solar system. 

Dr. Mark was also responsible for initiating the Bell XV-15 experimental tiltrotor aircraft program which in 1996 led to the development of the first privately funded commercial venture in tiltrotor aviation, the Bell-Boeing 609. 

Prior to joining the University of Texas in September 1984, Dr. Mark was the Deputy Administrator of NASA having been appointed to that position by President Reagan in March 1981. During his term of service he oversaw the first 14 space shuttle fl flights and helped to initiate the U.S. Space Station Program. 

Dr. Mark moved to Washington, D.C., in April 1977 when he was appointed Undersecretary of the Air Force and director of the National Reconnaissance Office by
President Jimmy Carter. 

In the latter post, he was responsible for managing the U.S. satellite reconnaissance program. In April 1979, President Carter named Dr. Mark Secretary of the Air Force, a
post he held until February 1981. 

During his service as Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. Mark initiated the establishment of the U.S. Air Force Space Command which is now the U.S. Space Command with headquarters in Colorado Springs. 

In June 1998, Dr. Mark took a leave-of-absence from the University of Texas to return to the Pentagon to serve as the Director of Defense Research and Engineering. 

In that position, he was the chief technical advisor to the Secretary of Defense and the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. He returned to
his post at the university in March 2001. 

Currently, Dr. Mark is a professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, a post he has held since 1988. Since 1992, he
also holds the John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair in Engineering. 

Since 1990, he has been associated with the University's Institute for Advanced Technology as a senior research engineer. In that capacity, he works on advanced weapons systems for the U.S. Army. 

Dr. Mark was named Chancellor of The University of Texas System on Sept. 1, 1984, and served until Sept. 1, 1992. 

Dr. Mark is the author or co-author of more than 200 scholarly articles and numerous books including "Experiments in Modern Physics," "The Management of Research
Institutions," "Power and Security," "The Space Station: A Personal Journey" and "Adventures in Celestial Mechanics." 

Dr. Mark was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1976. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Helicopter Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

In 1966, Dr. Mark was named outstanding engineering teacher at the University of California in Berkeley by Tau Beta Pi. He was awarded NASA's Distinguished Service
Medal in 1972 and again in 1977. In 1981 and again in 2001, he received the Distinguished Public Service Medal from the Department of Defense. 

The U.S. Air Force bestowed the Exceptional Civilian Service Medal on Dr. Mark in 1979 and in 1984 he received the Exceptional Scientific  Achievement Medal and the Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal from NASA. 

In 2001, Dr. Mark was awarded the Gold Medal of the Department of Energy by the Secretary of Energy. 

Most recently in 2008, he was awarded the General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award by the Space Foundation Board of Directors. 

Dr. Mark holds six honorary degrees, a Doctor of Science from Florida Institute of Technology, Doctor of Engineering degrees from Polytechnic University and the Milwaukee School of Engineering, a Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Edward's University, a Doctor of Science from the Royal Military College of Science and Technology (U.K.) and a Doctor of Engineering from Tri-State University.