Mark Kushner joined Iowa State University as engineering dean in January of 2005. Dean Kushner has served on the technical staffs of Sandia National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before joining Spectra Technology where he was a Director of Electron, Atomic, and Molecular Physics. In 1986, he joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was the Founder Professor of Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. At Illinois, he also served as Assistant Dean of Academic Programs and Associate Dean of Administrative Affairs in the College of Engineering. In his present work, his research group develops computer simulations for low temperature plasmas, plasma chemistry, industrial plasma equipment and plasma surface interactions. He received a BA degree in Astronomy and a BS degree in Engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1976. His MS and Ph.D. in Applied Physics were received from the California Institute of Technology in 1977 and 1979, respectively.