Materials Science Seminar: Giving Students an EDGE: Preparing for the U.S. Semiconductor Industry’s Moonshot

Marla Dowell

Executive Director

EDGE Consortium

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marla-dowell/

Marla Dowell is Executive Director of the EDGE Consortium, a national network of leading research universities dedicated to transforming semiconductor-related education and workforce development through its core pillars: Recruit, Retrain, and Retain. Led by Dartmouth and Indiana University, the consortium—which also includes Brown University, UC Berkeley, the University of Rochester, the University of Washington, and Olin College of Engineering—aims to align educational programs with industry needs, promote an innovative workforce, and expand the engineering talent pipeline. In her role, Dowell works closely with universities, STEM educators, industry leaders, and other partners to attract new students to engineering, upskill the existing workforce, and ensure a steady stream of skilled professionals in the semiconductor field. A longtime advocate for education and career development, Dowell has dedicated more than 30 years of her life to public service, forging collaborations across academia, industry, and government to advance STEM research and innovation. Prior to leading EDGE, she served as Director of the CHIPS Metrology Program at the US Department of Commerce and held several leadership roles at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), including as Director of the NIST Boulder Laboratory, where she expanded research opportunities for early-career scientists and engineers through academic partnerships. She also served as chief of the Applied Physics Division and Director of the NIST Communications Technology Laboratory.