H. Frederick Dylla To Succeed Marc Brodsky as Head of American Institute of Physics

H. Frederick Dylla has been selected to be the next Executive Director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics. AIP is an organization made up of ten member societies, including APS.

Photo courtesy of AIP H. Frederick Dylla

Dylla will start working at AIP on March 1, 2007. He will replace Marc H. Brodsky, who will retire on March 31 after more than 13 years at AIP's helm. Dylla will assume the role of CEO and Executive Director on the following day, April 1, 2007.

“Fred has already been an invaluable member of the AIP family,” says AIP Governing Board Chair Mildred Dresselhaus.  “His ideas and initiatives have enhanced AIP and its Member Societies for many years. As the next CEO and Executive Director, his experience, enthusiasm, and outward-looking nature will drive AIP in the right direction as we work with the rest of the scientific community to confront a future filled with challenges.”

“Having interacted with Fred over many years,” says APS Executive Officer Judy Franz, “I can attest to his ability and judgment. I look forward to working closely with him in his new position.”

“I'm honored to be selected to be the next AIP Executive Director,” says Dylla. “I am very optimistic for the outlook of the Institute to continue to grow in its role of supporting the value of physics for its Member Societies, the physics community and the world at large. I look forward to working with the Member Societies to continue to provide first-rate services and to collaborate on joint activities.”

Dylla has been with the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News, Virginia since 1990. During this time, he has concurrently held an Adjunct Professorship in Physics and Applied Science at the College of William and Mary. He received his B.S., M.S. and PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Holding a career-long interest in science education, Dylla helped to found the K-12 science education programs at Jefferson Lab. He founded similar programs at Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he held various research and management positions from 1975 to 1990. While at Princeton, he helped develop technology for nuclear fusion reactors, particle accelerators, and materials processing.

At Jefferson Lab, Dylla served as the Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director for the Free-Electron Laser (FEL) program. Dylla served on the AIP’s Governing Board in the early 1990s and rejoined the Board in 2004.  He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.  He is a founding member of the Forum of Industrial and Applied Physics, currently the largest unit of the APS. 

Outgoing CEO and Executive Director Marc Brodsky will have served AIP for thirteen and a half years when he retires at the end of March 2007. “I am pleased that AIP will be in such good hands,” says Brodsky. “Fred brings valuable managerial experience to AIP and his stature in the physics community instills confidence that AIP will continue to serve its broad constituencies well.” 

During his tenure, Brodsky oversaw dramatic changes in AIP publishing and publishing services, as nearly all editorial, production, distribution and business processes were changed to deal with electronic publishing. All the journals and magazines AIP publishes for itself and others went onto the World Wide Web, increasing access to the physics literature to more people than ever before in history. AIP outreach programs and services expanded its informational offerings for the general public to the Web and many other media outlets, including regular science news segments to over 50 million nightly viewers of local TV news programs. He also actively defended AIP’s freedom of the press rights on many fronts, including attempted government restrictions on the processing of manuscripts from certain countries and suits from some who tried to restrict knowledge gained from comparisons of journal prices.