Monica Blank received the B.S. degree (Electrical Engineering) from the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. in 1988, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees (Electrical Engineering) in 1991 and 1994, respectively, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
In 1994 she joined the Vacuum Electronics Branch of the Naval Research Laboratory, where she was responsible for the design and demonstration of high-power millimeter wave vacuum electronic devices for radar applications.
In 1999 she joined the gyrotron team at Communications and Power Industries (formerly Varian) where she continues her work on high-power millimeter wave gyrotron amplifiers and oscillators. Dr. Blank has received several professional awards, including the 1998 Alan Berman Publication Award at Naval Research Laboratory, the Robert L. Woods Award for Excellence Vacuum Electronics Technology in 1999, and an R&D 100 Award in 2015.
Dr. Blank has previously served several terms on IEEE Plasma Science and Applications Executive Committee, one term on the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Administrative Committee and was a Senior Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science from 2009 – 2015.
