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Biography of Dr. Cherry A. Murray
(Term expires: April 29, 2027)
Cherry Murray, Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy and Professor of Physics, Emerita, John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University.
She obtained B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research interests evolved from experimental condensed matter and surface physics to nanotechnology, innovation, R&D of telecommunications networks, to science, technology, national security and energy policy, science diplomacy and global sustainable development.
From 1978 to 2004, Murray held research and executive positions at Bell Laboratories, eventually becoming Senior Vice President for Physical Sciences and Wireless Research. She then served at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as Principal Associate Director for Science and Technology from 2004 to 2009. She was dean of Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences from 2009 until 2014.
Murray served as the Director of the US Department of Energy Office of Science, from 2015 until 2017, overseeing $6 billion in competitive scientific research as well as the management of 10 national laboratories. She was a professor at Harvard until her retirement in 2019, when she moved to University of Arizona as Professor of Physics and Deputy Director of Research at Biosphere2 until July 2025.
A member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, past co-chair of the InterAcademy Partnership, past Chair of the Board of Governors of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, and past co-chair of the United Nations 10-Member Group, Murray has received the US National Medal of Technology and Innovation as well as the American Physical Society Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award and George E. Pake Prize. She is co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences Report Review Committee and a member of the National Academy of Engineering Council.