Julia Phillips - Biography

Julia M. Phillips retired in 2015 from Sandia National Laboratories after nearly 20 years. She culminated her Sandia career by serving as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, when she led the Laboratory’s internally funded research and development program, research strategy, and intellectual property protection and deployment. Other positions at Sandia included Director of Nuclear Weapons Science and Technology Programs; Director of the Physical, Chemical, and Nano Sciences Center; and Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) at Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories.  Prior to her time at Sandia, she spent 14 years at AT&T Bell Laboratories where she performed research in thin film epitaxial electronic materials and complex oxides.

Phillips is a member of the National Science Board, member and Home Secretary 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 has chaired the APS Panel on Public Affairs (POPA), 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.  Dr. Phillips has chaired numerous advisory committees and panels including a NASEM (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine) committee that issued a report, “Reducing the Use of Highly Enriched Uranium in Civilian Research Reactors,” (National Academies Press, 2016).  She also co-chaired the POPA committee that issued a report, “Neutrons for the Nation:  Discovery and Applications while Minimizing the Risk of Nuclear Proliferation” (American Physical Society, 2018).

In 2008 Phillips received the George E. Pake Prize from the American Physical Society “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.