Applied Photonics Co-Founder Named Dean of SMU Engineering School

Applied Photonics co-founder Dr. Marc Christensen has been named dean of Southern Methodist University’s Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering after serving as its interim dean since July 2012.

Christensen, who joined SMU in 2002, will continue as the engineering school’s Bobby B. Lyle Professor of Engineering Innovation and as a research professor in the department of physics in the university’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. He served as chair of the electrical engineering department from 2007 to 2012.

In 2008, he was recognized at SMU for outstanding research with the Gerald J. Ford Research Fellowship, and in 2011 he was the recipient of the Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor Award.

“Dr. Christensen has been setting a strong example of collaborative leadership, innovative research and commitment to students since he began his career at the Lyle School in 2002,” said SMU President R. Gerald Turner. “That he has become dean in little more than a decade is testament to both his achievements and his high expectations for the Lyle School and for himself.”

Christensen received his bachelor’s degree in engineering physics from Cornell University, and his master’s degree in electrical engineering and doctorate in electrical computer engineering from George Mason University. He also is a graduate of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education Management Development Program.

He served as a staff member and technical leader in BDM’s Sensors and Photonics group (now part of Northrop Grumman Mission Systems) during his undergraduate and graduate studies, and co-founded free-space optical interconnection module company Applied Photonics in 1997.

In 2007, DARPA identified him as a “rising star in microsystems research” and selected him to be one of the first DARPA Young Faculty Award recipients.

He has co-authored more than 100 journal and conference papers, and has two patents in the field of free-space optical interconnections, one patent pending in the field of integrated photonics, and four pending in the field of computational imaging.

For more information, visit: www.smu.edu