Curriculum Vitae

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Mark A. Mentzer, PhD                                                    

18168 Robbins Lane, Onancock, VA 23417

443-350-3705

markmentzer@hotmail.com

 

 

Professional Profile

Eager to motivate and enrich students using a unique combination of education experience coupled with technical background in science and mathematics

• Taught several years in Maryland and Virginia public schools, plus two years at a private college prep school

• Served as adjunct assistant Professor at Penn State University for seven years

• Taught for Technology Training Corporation for many years

• Associate Professor, Online graduate engineering courses at UMUC

• Wrote curricula for MBA programs and health care MBAs

• Dedicated to enthusiastic and dynamic teaching as a means of creating and nurturing a lifelong love of learning

• Familiar with Blackboard, Sakaii, and Banner online learning systems

• Multidisciplinary tutor for all ages through WyzAnt

• Implemented Berlitz courses in global business environment

•      87 classified and open literature publications

•      2 books sole author; 1 co-authored book

•      27 patent disclosures; 14 issued patents

 

Education, Honors, and Certifications

PhD      1986     Electrical Engineering       University of Delaware

MA        2018     Math Education                 Western Governors University

MAT      2016     Mathematics                      University of MD University College

MS        2012     Biotechnology                    Johns Hopkins University                          

MAS     1983     Business Administration     Johns Hopkins University           

MSEE   1981     Electrical Engineering        University of Delaware              

BA        1979     Physics, Music                    Franklin & Marshall College

 

    

•     Two Level-III Defense Acquisition University (DAU) Certifications: Science

      and Technology Manager, 2009; Test and Evaluation, 2010

•     Member  Army Acquisition Corps, 2009 to present

•     26 DAU courses in government logistics, including Harvard Business

      School negotiation skills and technical leadership courses, 2008 to 2011

•     Certified Test Director, 2010

•     Certified Contracting Officer Representative, 2010

•     Westinghouse School of Applied Engineering Science; Radar Engineering,

      1982 to 1984

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Key Qualifications

•      Seven+ years adjunct assistant professor at Penn State University

•      Two+ years as director and professor in the MBA program at Lebanon

       Valley College of Pennsylvania

•      Five years as evening tutor and consultant through WyzAnt tutoring

•      Full-time mathematics teacher

•      Part-time Associate Professor, University of Maryland University College

    

Public teaching profile:

     http://www.wyzant.com/Tutors/MD/PrincessAnne/8057128/

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Awards

•     US Army Community Service Awards- SBIR and robotics contest judge

•     Army On-the-Spot Award for high-speed photography

•     Armstrong Laboratory Award for Scientific Excellence

•     Chief Liaison Scientist, U.S. Army ARRADCOM Research Consortium

•     SPIE Service Citation

•     Two Westinghouse Engineer of the Year Awards

•     Best Paper Award, Government Microcircuit Applications Conference

•     I.R. 100 Award

•     Ferranti Commendation for Managerial Excellence

•     Framatone Tiger Team Award

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Contributions and Achievements

     During my 36-year career, I have developed a wide range of sensors and instrumentation. I operated an aerospace defense company, managed an optical-assembly manufacturing company, and led global-product development in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. I taught graduate engineering and physics for seven years at Penn State and have presented frequently at trade shows and conferences. And I have two books that are widely distributed, with more than six thousand copies sold in print and electronic media.

     I improved instrumentation and data-collection methodologies and applied my skills to a variety of Army missions. I have focused in five areas: biosensors, THz frequency spectroscopy, X-ray cineradiography, fiber-sensor velocimetry, and high-brightness imaging. By applying my expertise in optical engineering, solid-state physics, biochemistry and molecular biology, I have proposed and executed several dozen winning program plans and proposals. And I have frequently consulted for other branches and directorates regarding imaging and sensors. Examples of my contributions include:

 

•     I convinced NSRDEC to use my test methodology for their Maxillofacial Protection Program. They also adopted my metrics for down selecting mandibles. And to feed the down selection, Natick then funded our testing to collect the necessary data. ($350K funds received). (ARL-TR-6224) 

•     I extended SLAD analysis and test capabilities by securing and executing more than $2M in funded programs. I accomplished this through two director’s research initiatives, a DSI, two SLAD methodology research initiatives (MRIs), and nine additional projects funded by SLAD. For determining how best to address brain injury, I expanded collaborations between SLAD, WMRD, USAMRMC and WRAIR by presenting my mTBI theories and sharing ideas for modeling and testing of material systems using my sensors. I effected technical discourse across several directorates, resulting in our collaborative DSI award with WMRD and HRED.

•     By designing X-ray systems with improved temporal control of flash I greatly improved resolution in measuring deformations of helmet material and clay backing.  This made it possible to use deformation as an evaluation method, needed for characterizing ballistic events in terms of energy transfer, and for synchronizing sensor outputs to better understand energy propagation. My system is now in use at SLAD. (ARL-TR-6341)

•     For high-speed videography and laser-illumination systems, I designed lithium-polymer power systems and bomb-proof housings with optimized shock damping. My designs have made it possible to see through debris and fireballs and, by eliminating tethers, also made possible high-rate imaging aboard vehicles moving at highway speeds. My systems are used inside vehicles undergoing live-fire explosives tests, and for testing aircraft panels.

•     I developed algorithms for scoring active protection systems (APSs) that ATEC has incorporated into their method of evaluation.

•     I developed five SBIR topics that were funded at a total of $2.6M. Because of how effectively I had mastered the entire process, ARL’s SBIR office enlisted me to advise others on structuring SBIR programs.

•     I was appointed by the Navy to the OSD S&T working group on multispectral test as chair of the subcommittee on RF and microwave testing. I later switched to chairing the subcommittee on behind-armor blunt trauma (BABT).

 •     As a consultant for the National Research Council (NRC), I resolved industry concerns about testing and instrumentation for BABT. I conducted industry sensing sessions and reported issues to the NRC, which incorporated my recommendations into their report to Congress.

Employment

Career Overview

My accomplishments as a successful technical leader and multidisciplinary contributor led several employers to offer a progression of opportunities with ever-increasing authority, responsibility, and remuneration. With this background, I now routinely contribute effective processes, programs, and products. And for this phase of my career I am honored to serve our students, applying my skills in service to the mission of education.

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•     2018 to present, The Salisbury School, Salisbury, MD; Upper School Mathematics Teacher

•     2017 to 2018, Nandua High School, Onley Virginia; high school math teacher; teach Algebra 1/2, Geometry, Algebra, Functions, Data and Analysis, Trigonometry

•     2015-2017, Broadwater Academy, Exmore VA; full-time math and science teacher; taught AP Calculus AB and BC, Honors Biochemistry and

Molecular Genetics, Honors Advanced Physics, Pre-Calculus, Marine Technology, Engineering and Robotics, and Mathematics for Engineering and the Life Sciences; coached math and robotics teams; math team and individual student took second place at Eastern Shore Math Competitions; robotics team placed 18th at National Robotics Competition; served as Director, Center for Integrated Math and Science, coordinating math and science curricula for grades 6-12

•     2014-2015, Crisfield High School; MD; full-time high school mathematics teacher; taught College Math, Algebra II, Pre-Calculus, AP Calculus AB; taught evening GED class 3 nts/wk; coached Math Team; conducted Math Club 5 nts/wk.

•     2012-Present, WyzAnt Tutoring, Teaching, and Coaching; Chicago;

Private Academic Tutor; Assist 6th graders through graduate students in a variety of subject areas; Tutor for test preparation, including HSA, MSA, PSAT, SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT

•     2014, Somerset County School District; MD; Substitute Teacher; Taught in nearly every school in the district, in a wide variety of academic disciplines; served as long-term mathematics substitute for Washington High School and Academy, Princess Anne MD.  Taught Geometry, Applied Geometry, Algebra I and II, Pre-calculus, HSA Prep, and bridging math

•     2013-2015, Bishop & Associates Inc. (Industry Analysts); Chicago; Director, Renewable Energy, Medical, and Military; Analyze industry trends and data, formulate industry analysis reports, publish articles for several trade publications (worked from home)

•     2011–2014, ARL, APG, MD; research scientist designing sensors and instrumentation, leading director’s strategic initiative (DSI) research in neurosciences and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI)

•     2008‒2011,  ATC, APG, MD; optical engineer, engineering team leader for 11 technical personnel, Plans and Operations, Technical Imaging Division

•     2007‒2008, Advanced Systems International (ASI) Technologies, Inc.; Lancaster, PA; co-founder/director of engineering

•     2001‒2007, William P. Strube, Inc.; Marietta, PA; president and general manager

•     2000‒2001, Lucent Bell Laboratories/InLight Communications; Allentown, PA and Fremont, CA; Optical microelectromechanical systems (MOEMS) technology, director, business development/vice president

•     1996‒2000, FCI Framatome Electronics Group Inc.; Valley Green, PA and Paris, FR; global business director, fiber optic products

•     1990‒1996, BURLE Industries, Inc. (RCA New Products Division); Lancaster, PA; director, application engineering, image and display tube products

•     1987‒1996; taught eight different courses at Penn State (adjunct assistant professor) for seven years; directed MBA program at Lebanon Valley College for two years

•     1984‒1990, Ferranti International Corp.; Lancaster, PA & Edinburgh, UK; director, advanced development group

•     1981‒1984, Westinghouse Defense and Electronics Systems Center (DESC); Baltimore, MD; senior supervisory engineer (six months out of graduate school)

Achievements and Impact

Biosensor Inventions for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI), 2008 to present

     I developed an mTBI sensor to accurately correlate biomechanical data to biomedical, and to identify thresholds for neuronal injuries. I abstracted from the literature the relationship of neuronal injuries to their insult thresholds, and calibrated my sensor outputs to these injury modalities. This has made it possible to identify Soldiers in the field who will require treatment and to predict from specific injuries received what would be the most appropriate therapies. Having seen my sensor, MRMC encouraged me to design a field-portable diagnostic for biomarkers, which I did as a lab-on-a-chip microfluidic assay that detects protein biomarkers. For Soldiers with injuries detected by my sensor system, my assay chip allows further diagnosis.

I successfully presented my mTBI sensor concepts and received DSI and SLAD development funding. Next I submitted invention disclosures for my sensor designs and received the highest rating (“PO”) from ARL’s invention evaluation committee. ARL then filed regular and provisional patent applications, both domestically and abroad (Docket No. ARL 11-33). As a result, ARL is now positioned to license my emergent biosensor technologies to industry.

     My sensors have been demonstrated to function as intended and are in calibration testing at Encapsula Nanosciences. I proved the concept for my sensor for such neurological damages as diffuse axonal injury and axon-glia dysfunction. I validated my sensor by designing a sensor-test chamber that uses a fluid-percussive injury apparatus and showed that my sensor replicates injury-based biomarker medical data from the literature. I then correlated this data to my sensor output, thus providing accurate assessment of injuries.

IMPACT:  My sensor illuminates the relationship between injury thresholds and WMRD’s blast testing of neuronal tissue cultures. This also makes it possible to relate injury thresholds to HRED’s electrophysiological measurements of human function. With WMRD I related computational cellular and molecular models to injury prediction based on my sensor metrics. This is the basis for more accurate injury prediction, and for relating my sensor data to models for tissue damage.

 

Improvements to Aircraft Safety, 2000–2007

     Because of TWA 800 and explosions of two military aircraft, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) asked me to evaluate two potential causes of those tragedies: chafing of wiring harnesses that might cause sparking, and nitride deposits on fuel probes that might cause arcing. For the wiring harnesses I came up with redesigns; and for the probes I revised maintenance schedules. Then I also invented probes that use optical waveguides and thus eliminate the potential for explosion. [U.S. patents 7,573,565; 7,710,567; 7,671,539; 6,831,290; and World Patent WO 2004/008086].

IMPACT:  My improved wiring harnesses and maintenance schedules are in use on all large aircraft for commercial aviation except the 777, as well as for some models of C130s and KC135s. As to my probe, it is currently being qualified by the system integrator for Boeing and Airbus to be used for several commercial and military aircraft.

 

International Business Development and Leadership, 1996–2000

     As global business director for the French conglomerate Framatome (aka FCI), I managed 284 employees. I directed engineering-development centers in Tokyo, Iwaki City, Brussels, Paris, Grenoble, Kansas City, Valley Green, and Juarez, and I standardized on optimized practices. I founded my management approach upon cultural awareness and sensitivity, social customs, regional business practices, and communication strategies. My leadership approach earned me awards from my senior management, who took my advice to have Berlitz incorporate my approach into two internal courses for the company: How to Do Business in Mexico and How to Do Business in Japan. During this time, I also personally developed new optical connectors and manufacturing processes, and received several patents.

     My new assembly processes and lower-cost facilities (including the new plant in Mexico, which I established) allowed FCI to capture one third of the global market. I obtained customer qualification of 43 product lines in my Mexican facility in one fiftieth of the time typically required, giving us a year’s head start over our competition. In this way, my contributions raised our annual sales from $2.2M to $42M in four years, and we became Lucent’s largest supplier at more than $40M annual sales.

IMPACT: I produced huge growth and profitability, and hundreds of new jobs. This stimulated the French government to buy out the company, where my product line remains an industry leader (second only to Tyco in gross revenues) in component sales to the global networking industry.

 

Optical Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MOEMS), 1986-2001 

     Developments in the telecommunication markets of the mid-80’s created great demand for higher-performance MOEMS networks and switches. When I was at Westinghouse, I had developed the first practical MOEMS packages. Then, while a business-unit manager for Lucent, I was contacted by a former Israeli finance minister who provided the venture capital with which I started a company, where I further developed MOEMS. At my start-up I developed processes for releasing and actuating mirrors. Because this led to greatly improved yields and practicability for the MOEMS industry, it made possible the commercialization of reconfigurable switches. We eventually sold the company for $15.5M.

     I designed MOEMS to couple detectors to waveguides and lasers, and IBM adopted my MOEMS package in their LiteBus system to connect computers to laser arrays. The adopting by XROS Corp. of a mirror actuation system of my design led Northern Telecom to buy them out for $8.6B. 

     In another MOEMS application, I produced a subsystem for wavelength division multiplexing, which I coupled to my MOEMS optical switch. This raised switching rates by more than a factor of one hundred. My significant innovations here were packing efficiency, backplane connectivity, and the transceiver that allowed the system to operate at very high bandwidth. My customer, Sycamore Networks, adopted my entire MOEMS package, demonstrating superior switching and routing capability. By performing an industry demonstration of the integrated MOEMS system, Sycamore achieved an IPO of $14.4B, which was the largest in history for an internet-related company. [See “Sycamore shares soar in stunning debut” http://news.cnet.com/2100-1033-231775.html last accessed 30 April, 2013.] 

IMPACT:  My MOEMS subsystems, under license to Lucent, Nortel, and Corvis, strengthened their competitiveness in huge global markets with bandwidths enabling emerging subscriber area networks. My multi-fiber array connectors overcome such challenges as stability during temperature cycling and tolerance of alignment, thereby meeting the several demanding standards applicable in telecommunication and avionics markets. My optical transceiver packages are used in IBM’s LiteBus line of parallel optical devices. [U.S patents 6,422,761; 6,447,171]

 

Computer Memory Chip Inventions, 1981–1986

     The mission of the Trident missile required that it be hardened against nuclear effects, to which most electronics of the early 1980s were highly vulnerable. To meet this need more reliably and at lower space, weight and power, I developed a nonvolatile memory that allowed missiles to quickly recover critical state. By inventing thin-film memory employing stable magnetization domain states, I achieved random-access addressing of memory cells as well as fabrication using standard semiconductor processes. My inventions produced huge improvements in reliability, power consumption, speed, and cost, over the alternative plated-wire and core memories.

     Within six months of starting my first job out of school, I became supervisor of 12, and I was selected twice consecutively from more than 2,000 engineers and physicists as Westinghouse DESC’s engineer of the year. I took my project from proof of concept to high-volume production in two years, roughly one third the time typically required. I was awarded several patents for my innovations in memory technology.

IMPACT:   My crosstie random-access memory (CRAM) intellectual property represents a significant contribution to the Trident missile program. This IP suite [U.S. patents 4,722,073 and 4,841,480, plus additional disclosures and process technology] was purchased from Westinghouse by IBM Corp., which is using my thin-film concepts in their idle-mode flash memory, which is coming to market shortly. This memory will reduce start-up time for personal electronic devices.

 

Pioneering Work in Integrated Optics, 1980–2010

     In the early 1980s, engineers incorporating optical subsystems into electronics encountered problems with integratability, compatibility, and manufacturability. I developed techniques to monolithically integrate optical componentry by altering materials via ion implantation, molecular-beam epitaxy, and metal organic chemical-vapor deposition. ARRADCOM adopted my algorithms and optical devices for programmable logic functions to extend the versatility of fire control systems. This afforded signal processing in operating environments too harsh for existing electronics. I developed optical design software and conducted tutorial-lecture tours. My software was used by Ft. Monmouth and Ft. Belvoir Night Vision and Electro-Optic Laboratory in designing directional couplers as well as electro- and acousto-optic modulators. 

IMPACT:  My work contributed to the early success of the field of integrated optics. By improving manufacturing processes, I was able not only to achieve working devices, but to obtain several per chip. My integrated optical signal processing not only improved bandwidth capacity by a factor of more than 100, but allowed multiple optical-logic functions on a common substrate. This benefited the system designer by increasing yields and lowering development costs. A representative example was the Air Force’s use of my acousto-optic correlators for analog-signal analysis in the AN/AVQ-23 PAVE SPIKE laser designator. My modulators and geodesic lens designs were used in Harry Diamond Laboratory convolvers for radar-signal processing, where they outperformed electronic systems in both resolution and bandwidth.

 

Computer Skills

•     Microsoft Windows® Office Suite, UNIX

•     Proficient in molecular biology software, including “ohmic” data structures, Perl,

      SQL, JAVA platforms.

•     Familiar with Blackboard and Sakai education delivery systems

 

Professional Affiliations

•     National Neurotrauma Society

•     American Association for the Advancement of Science

•     Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

•     International Society for Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineering

•     Optical Society of America

•     National Council for Teachers of Mathematics