Cherry A. Murray

Cherry is a long-time Xfund supporter and has been an advisor since our inception.
She is the Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy in the John A. Paulson School of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Professor of Physics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Prior to that, Cherry was dean of SEAS from 2009 to 2015.
Between 2015 to 2017, Cherry took a leave from Harvard to serve the Director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
She oversaw $5.5 billion of the Department’s competitive scientific research in the areas of advanced scientific computing, basic energy sciences, biological and environmental sciences, fusion energy sciences, high energy physics, and nuclear physics, as well as managed ten of the national laboratories.
Cherry received her B.S.
in 1973 and her Ph.D.
in physics in 1978 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Born in Fort Riley, Kansas, and the daughter of a diplomat, Cherry lived in the United States, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, and Indonesia as a child.
She has published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals and holds two patents in near-field optical data storage and optical display technology.