H. Frederick Dylla

Fred Dylla was the Executive Director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics, from April 1, 2007 - May 31, 2015. As CEO-Emeritus, Fred was contracted by AIP Publishing to continue his important work on publishing policy from 2015 through early 2019. He has served as a Visiting Research Scientist at the Wellman Laboratory for Photomedicine at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital from 2017-2019 and is currently a Visiting Scientist at the MIT’s LIGO Laboratory.

Predicated on his more than 40 years’ experience as a practicing scientist, and other professional roles that include adjunct professor, manager of multi-million dollar research facilities, and developer of consortia, Dylla became a strong advocate for the physical sciences and their fundamental contributions to society. The author of more than 190 publications, Dylla is an advocate for scientific journals and for improved access to scientific information through various business models. In 2009 Dylla helped organize and participated in the Scholarly Publishing Roundtable under the aegis of the US House Science and Technology Committee. The Roundtable developed consensus recommendations for the development of public access policies for scholarly data and publications; many of its recommendations were folded into the America COMPETES Act of 2010. Since then, Dylla has worked closely with colleagues in the publishing and librarian communities and in the federal government to implement public access projects that protect scientific integrity and the scholarly publishing enterprise.

Dylla helped found and served on the Board of CHOR, Inc., from 2013-2019, working to develop and advance CHORUS, the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States. He also served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical publishers (STM) and on the Executive Committee of the Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Prior to coming to AIP, Dylla served as Chief Technology Officer and as Associate Director at DOE’s Jefferson Lab, where he spearheaded the Free Electron Laser (FEL) program. He held various positions at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he helped develop technology for nuclear fusion reactors, particle accelerators, and materials processing. He received his Ph.D. in physics from MIT, is a Past President and Fellow of the AVS and a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Additional career details

Dylla was with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News, Virginia from 1990 to 2007. During this time, he concurrently held an Adjunct Professorship in Physics and Applied Science at the College of William and Mary. During his tenure at Jefferson Lab, Dylla served as the Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director for the Free-Electron Laser (FEL) program funded by the Office of Naval Research. He was responsible for initiating, building, and operating the FEL, which generated high-power light in many different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. In addition to providing a tool for many branches of science with applications to defense and industry, the facility’s technology continues to inspire a new generation of light user facilities under design and construction across the world.

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.

Prior committee and community involvement

Dylla served on AIP’s Governing Board in the early 1990s and again in 2004 until he joined the AIP staff in 2007. He was a member of AIP’s Corporate Associates Advisory Committee for many years and hosted the Corporate Associates’ Industrial Physics Forum at Jefferson Lab in 2002. He also served as Chair of the Physics Today Advisory Committee and as a member of the Committee on Public Policy. His committee involvement also extended to the Member Societies; he served on numerous AVS committees and was a founding member of the APS Forum of Industrial and Applied Physics. An active member in numerous local and regional technology development organizations, Dylla was also appointed by the Virginia governor to two scientific commissions; he has also served on many national advisory committees for the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation.