Harry Charles to Head Tech Services Department at Johns Hopkins APL

Harry Charles has been named to head the Technical Services Department at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., after serving as assistant department head for engineering for the past seven years.

His appointment was announced by APL Assistant Director for Operations Ruth Nimmo, who called Charles an “accomplished researcher and inventor [whose] combination of experience and skills will serve the department and the Laboratory very well in the future.”

In his new position, Charles will oversee all aspects of the department’s three areas of operations: engineering, design and fabrication; plant services; and information services.

Charles says he will work to streamline present services and develop new ones, while continuing to keep costs in line. “We want to build a highly skilled, diverse work force with the flexibility needed to meet current and future Laboratory requirements.”

After earning a doctorate in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, Charles joined APL in 1972, working in the Engineering Facilities Division and then the Technical Services Department, moving to increasing levels of responsibility. He chairs both the Lab’s Engineering Board and the Principal Professional Staff Selection Committee. He serves on the Lab’s Science and Technology Council, Software Engineering Steering Committee, and the Counterproliferation Business Area IRAD Committee.

Author of more than 200 technical papers, Charles is a Fellow of both the IEEE and the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS), which has presented him the Daniel C. Hughes award and a Special Life Member award. He holds six patents and has made more than 30 invention disclosures.

Charles developed curriculum for eight graduate-level electrical engineering and applied physics courses for the JHU Whiting School of Engineering, and serves as the program chair for applied physics for the Whiting School Part-Time Programs. Winner of an Outstanding Teaching award, he has taught more than 1,300 students over the past 24 years.