Monica Blank is an American electrical engineer whose research focuses on

gyrotron High-power 140 GHz gyrotron for plasma heating in the Wendelstein 7-X fusion experiment, Germany. A gyrotron is a class of high-power linear-beam vacuum tubes that generates millimeter-wave electromagnetic waves by the cyclotron resonance of e ...

s and their use in generating

millimeter-wave Extremely high frequency (EHF) is the International Telecommunication Union designation for the band of radio frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum from 30 to 300 gigahertz (GHz). It is in the microwave part of the radio spectrum, between t ...

radiation for applications including

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

and

nuclear magnetic resonance Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical phenomenon in which nuclei in a strong constant magnetic field are disturbed by a weak oscillating magnetic field (in the near field) and respond by producing an electromagnetic signal with a ...

. She works for Communications & Power Industries (formerly part of Varian, Inc.) in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

Education and career

Blank majored in electrical engineering at the

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily a ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, graduating in 1988. She went to the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

for graduate study in electrical engineering, earned a master's degree in 1991, and completed her Ph.D. in 1994. From 1994 to 1999 she worked at the

Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Located in Washington, DC, it was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, appl ...

in its Vacuum Electronics Branch. She moved to Varian in 1999. In 2021, she became chair of the Vacuum Electronics Technical Committee of the

IEEE Electron Devices Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office i ...

Recognition

Blank has been a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Nuclear & Plasma Sciences Society. She was named an

IEEE Fellow , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and ot ...

, in the 2020 class of fellows, "for development of gyrotron oscillators and amplifiers". She was the recipient of the IEEE 2020 Plasma Science and Applications Award, given at the 2020 International Conference on Plasma Sciences, "for outstanding technical contributions to the development of high-power, high-frequency gyrotron amplifier and oscillator sources for spectroscopy, radar, fusion, and industrial applications".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blank, Monica Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American electrical engineers American women electrical engineers Catholic University of America alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Fellows of the IEEE