Assistant director since 2012, Philip Lippel’s portfolio includes issues related to the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

He is interested in the multifaceted role research universities like MIT play in the innovation ecosystem – educating tomorrow’s workforce, driving discoveries at the leading edge of science and engineering, and working with industry to transition emerging technologies to commercial scale. 

Previously, Philip has been involved with technical and policy issues nationally and internationally. He worked with industry, NGOs, and federal and state agencies on many aspects of nanotechnology from research through commercialization, first on the staff of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office and later as a consultant to trade organizations. As a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation, he worked on a variety of science communication and policy issues – including nanotechnology and science education – in NSF's Office of Legislative and Public Affairs.

Philip has also served as a member of the technical staff at Agilent Technologies, founded and led L Cubed Consulting, and was a member of the physics faculty at the University of Texas at Arlington. He was appointed as a U.S. delegate to the Working Party on Nanotechnology at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and as a U.S. expert to the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee on Information and Communication Technologies.

He received an A.B. in physics and in theatre from Williams College, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Brandeis University.