France Córdova Named Founding Chair of AIP Foundation, Will Help American Institute of Physics Reach Ambitious Goals, New Levels of Impact

Foundation will maximize charitable support for AIP’s efforts to advance, promote, and serve the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity

WASHINGTON, October 1, 2020 -- France Córdova, former director of the National Science Foundation, NASA chief scientist, and president of Purdue University, has been appointed as the first chair of the newly formed AIP Foundation.

The American Institute of Physics Board of Directors approved the establishment of the AIP Foundation to support the charitable, scientific, and educational mission of AIP by amplifying philanthropic support of the Institute. This action creates a supporting charitable foundation to bolster and innovate funding models for AIP programs and activities, supporting the Institute’s overarching strategy of advancing the physical sciences with a unifying voice of strength from diversity.

“I am very excited to join AIP in their philanthropic efforts to support and grow initiatives serving physics and the physical sciences,” said Córdova. “Collecting and archiving the oral histories of the Center for History of Physics, preserving the rare books of the Niels Bohr Library & Archives, and encouraging a future generation of physicists in the Society for Physics Students are inspiring examples of AIP’s efforts to contribute to scholarship, research, and broadening participation in science.”

The AIP Foundation is already hard at work, raising support for a jointly endowed professorship at the University of Maryland, the AIP Professorship in the History of the Natural Sciences, and emergency scholarships for physics and physical science undergraduate students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I was drawn to AIP because of its compelling mission to advance, promote, and serve the physical sciences for the good of humanity,” said executive director Tanya Easton. “It has been an honor to help launch the AIP Foundation at a time when support for science is declining but when it has become more important than ever in our world. I look forward to meeting and working with many AIP friends and supporters in the months ahead as we build support for the great work of AIP.”

The foundation will deepen and strengthen donors’ support of the impactful work of AIP that it needs to thrive by driving engagement and growing the AIP community and the philanthropic support. In particular, the foundation will focus initially on AIP efforts to deepen and share the heritage of the physical sciences, motivate and encourage a new generation of scientists, help attract and inspire new partners, and support AIP priorities through critical funding opportunities.

“We are immensely proud to have the support of Dr. Córdova and the leadership of the AIP Foundation Board of Trustees that she chairs,” said Michael Moloney , CEO of AIP. “The establishment of this new foundation, under France’s leadership, is a key element of our efforts to underpin all that AIP does now and into the future, as well as being a core strategy to support and grow our work with the student, archiving, and history communities.”

The mission of the AIP Foundation is to maximize charitable support for AIP’s efforts to advance, promote, and serve the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity. The scope of fundraising includes support for the Center for History of Physics, the Niels Bohr Library & Archives, the Society for Physics Students, and the physics honorary society Sigma Pi Sigma.

AIP Foundation Board of Trustees

France Córdova, founding chair

Córdova has been a leader in science, engineering, and education for more than four decades. She has a distinguished career in both higher education and government, serving in five presidential administrations and at several universities and three federal agencies. Her contributions in multi-spectral research on X-ray and gamma ray sources and space-borne instrumentation have made her an internationally recognized astrophysicist. She was the first woman to become president of Purdue University, and the first Latina chancellor of the University of California, Riverside. Formerly, she was vice chancellor for research at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In 2014, she was confirmed as the 14th director of the National Science Foundation. Córdova served as chair of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution and on the board of trustees of the Mayo Clinic. She also served as NASA’s chief scientist (first woman and youngest person to hold this position) and is a recipient of the agency’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal. She received her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and her doctorate degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology.

Merc Mercure

Co-founder of Ball Brothers Research Corporation, the predecessor of Ball Aerospace and Technologies, Inc. Co-founder and CEO of CDM Optics, Inc., purchased by OmniVision Technologies, Inc. Past Director of several publicly traded Companies, including Ball Corporation. Presently a director of several private companies as well as not-for-profit organizations.

Sandeep Giri

Google Machine Learning and AI. Career focus on technology development, materials engineering, fundamental analysis of manufacturing viability, and building end-to-end infrastructure. Firsthand experience solving audacious engineering problems in multiple industries and multiple countries, including Project LOON, a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, delivering connectivity to people in unserved and underserved communities around the world. Master’s degree from Stanford University in materials science and engineering; bachelor’s degree from Coe College, physics and mathematics.

Nancy Greenspan

A health economist and in the 1980s. Began a writing career as the co-author of four books with her husband, the late child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan. She is the author of two biographies, “The End of the Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born” (Basic Books, 2005) and the recently published “Atomic Spy: The Dark Lives of Klaus Fuchs” (Viking, May 2020). She has served on the boards of numerous environmental organizations and committees and boards of the American Institute of Physics.

Ray Johnson

Operating partner with Bessemer Venture Partners. International business and strategy consultant. Served as the senior vice president and chief technology officer of the Lockheed Martin, chief operating officer for Modern Technology Solutions, and in executive positions with Science Applications International Corporation, including as senior vice president and general manager of the Advanced Concepts Business Unit. Full Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and a fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Holds doctorate and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oklahoma State University.

John Kent

A clinical medical physicist at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for more than 38 years, and a diplomate of the American Board of Radiology in Therapeutic Radiological Physics, a Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and a Fellow in Physics of the American College of Radiology. Recipient of the 2009 Gold Medal Award from the Indiana Radiological Society. Has served on the AIP Investment Advisory Committee since 1996.

Michael Moloney

Ninth CEO of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), a federation that provides the means for its 10 Member Societies to broaden their impact and achieve results beyond their individual missions and mandates, and an independent institute that advances the discipline of the physical sciences. Previously Moloney served as the director for Space and Aeronautics at the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, where he spent more than 15 years working on over 100 reports across a diverse set of scientific, engineering, and technical fields. Moloney, originally from Ireland, and spent seven years as an Irish foreign service officer. He earned his doctorate degree in physics from Trinity College Dublin.

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ABOUT AIP FOUNDATION

AIP Foundation is an independent not-for-profit corporation, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization, with the American Institute of Physics Inc. (AIP) as the sole member of the corporation. AIP Foundation was launched in 2020 to generate philanthropic support to deepen and share the history and importance of the physical sciences throughout the world, and to motivate and encourage a new generation of scientists. AIP Foundation provides support to three areas within AIP, focused on History Programs, Library, and Student Programs.

ABOUT AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS

The American Institute of Physics advances, promotes and serves the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity. AIP offers authoritative information, services, and expertise in physics education and student programs, science communication, government relations, career services for science and engineering professionals, statistical research in physics employment and education, industrial outreach, and the history of physics and allied fields.

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For more information:
Larry Frum, AIP Media
+1 301-209-3090
media@aip.org