On December 31st the Boulder Daily Camera announced that President Obama had named Margaret Murnane to fill the position of chairwoman of the National Medal of Science. Murnane is the Chair of the Board of KM Labs, a Boulder laser company she and her husband, Henry Kapteyn, started in 1994. In addition she is a JILA Fellow and a Professor of Physics and ECE at the University of Colorado.
The National Medal of Science is a program administered by the National Science Foundation. It is awarded annually to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science and engineering. In late October Murnane was also awarded the Royal Dublin Society’s Irish Times Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence for her work in the field of laser physics. Murnane was the first woman to receive this prestigious award.
Murnane is the second woman scientist from Colorado’s photonics cluster to be recognized by the Obama administration within the past three years. The first was Kristina Johnson, who served as the undersecretary for Energy at the DOE for about 18 months. Johnson grew up in Denver and was director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Optoelectronics Computing Systems Center at CU. Johnson has over 40 patents and helped form multiple startups in Colorado. During her tenure at CU, she and her staff worked with the Business Advancement Center and the private sector to form the Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA). For the past 13 years the group has promoted the cluster of companies which produce precision optics, lasers, optical instruments, and modeling and simulation software.
The achievements of both women have raised Colorado’s standing as a global leader in science and engineering.
©Copyright 2011 by CBER.