Optics Expert Garners Chief Scientist Post at ARL

Dr. Joseph Mait, a fellow of both the Optical Society (OSA) and SPIE, was recently named chief scientist of the US Army Research Lab (ARL).

Mait has worked at ARL since 1988 in various roles, including group leader for basic research in optics and Sensors Directorate Associate for Science and Technology. He is also a senior technical researcher and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Maryland.

In his new role, Mait’s goal is to assist the ARL director in fulfilling his vision for the lab.

“A key element of this is realizing the lab’s discovery and innovation potential, while fostering connections between the lab and the Army community,” said Mait, who is also an ARL fellow.

Looking to the future, Mait said he expects the way the lab conducts business will change.

“I am talking less about tools than I am mindset. If we have achieved an open and empowering, relevant and accountable environment, I expect to see a more fluid transfer of ideas and technology between ARL and its technical partners, domestic and international, in academia and industry and between ARL and its Army compatriots,” he said.

Since January 2009, Mait has been editor-in-chief of Applied Optics. He is also a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a member of numerous national honorary societies.

He received his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia, and was an assistant electrical engineering professor there early in his career. He earned his Master of Science in electrical engineering, and his Ph.D., at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Mait has also held visiting positions at the Institute for Applied Optics at Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, and the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

For more information, visit: www.arl.army.mil