Dr. John W. Lyons
Army Research Laboratory U.S. Department of Defense

Dr. John W. Lyons, director of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), is a physical chemist with degrees from Harvard College and Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

Lyons served in research and development positions with the Monsanto Company for 18 years. In 1973, he joined the Commerce Department's National Bureau of Standards (NBS) at Gaithersburg, Md. At NBS, Lyons was the first director of the Center for Fire Research and in 1978, he became the first director of the National Engineering Laboratory, a unit that came to include about half of the NBS programs. In 1990, Lyons was appointed by President George Bush to be the ninth director of NBS, by that time renamed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

In September 1993, he was appointed the first permanent director of ARL. At ARL, Lyons manages a broad array of science and technology programs: digitization/communications science, armor/armaments, soldier system, air and ground vehicle technology, and survivability/lethality analysis.

Lyons has published four books and more than 60 papers. He holds a dozen patents. He has served on many boards and commissions, most recently the National Commission on Superconductivity, the National Critical Technologies Panel, and the Federal Advisory Commission on Consolidation and Conversion of Defense Research and Development Laboratories. In 1993, he chaired the Blue Ribbon Committee on Research and Public Services for the Board of Regents, University of Maryland System.

Lyons was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1985. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Washington Academy of Science, as well as member of the American Chemical Society and Sigma Xi.

Lyons is married to the former Grace Hanley; they live in Mt. Airy, Md. They have four children and eight grandchildren.

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