Former Director Office of Science

Dr. Cherry A. Murray is the former Director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. She was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday, December 10, 2015 as the. Murray previously was the Dean of Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences; and Professor of Physics. Murray served as principal associate director for science and technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 2004-2009 and was president of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2009. Before joining Lawrence Livermore, Murray was Senior Vice President of Physical Sciences and Wireless Research after a 27 year long career at Bell Laboratories Research. 

Murray was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001, and to the National Academy of Engineering in 2002. She has served on more than 100 national and international scientific advisory committees, governing boards and National Research Council panels and as a member of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. She is currently chair of the National Research Council Division of Engineering and Physical Science. 

As an experimentalist, Murray is known for her scientific accomplishments in condensed matter and surface physics. She received her B.S. in 1973 and her Ph.D. in physics in 1978 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  She has published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals and holds two patents in near-field optical data storage and optical display technology.