Julia M. Phillips

Julia M. Phillips served as vice president and chief technology officer for Sandia National Laboratories, retiring from the Laboratories in 2015 after nearly 20 years. During her tenure she led the laboratory’s internally funded research and development program, research strategy and intellectual property protection and deployment. She began her career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, performing fundamental research on thin films of technological interest.

Phillips is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Materials Research Society (MRS), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the American Physical Society (APS). She has served on the NAE Council and AAAS Board of Directors, and chaired the APS Panel on Public Affairs, the APS Topical Group on Energy Research and Applications, and the APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics. She also served as president of the MRS.

In 2008 Phillips received the George E. Pake Prize from APS for her leadership and pioneering research in materials physics for industrial and national security applications. She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Materials Research, Journal of Applied Physics, and Applied Physics Reviews. She has edited books, written book chapters, and authored more than 100 journal publications, 12 major review articles, and 45 refereed conference proceedings publications. She also holds five patents, along with the following degrees: B.S. Physics, College of William and Mary; M.S. Applied Physics, Yale University; Ph.D. Applied Physics, Yale University.

Phillips was appointed to the National Science Board in 2016, and reappointed in 2022, and recently chaired the AIP expert panel which authored Peril and Promise: Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Physical Sciences.