Mark J. Polking

Dr. Mark Polking is a technical staff member in the Advanced Materials and Microsystems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. His current research interests include IV–VI semiconductors, thermoelectrics, new qubit approaches, chalcogenide materials, and active photonic devices. His broader interests include heteroepitaxy, multifunctional semiconductors, ferroelectrics, materials for advanced computing, and energy conversion technologies. 

Polking was previously a principal scientist at Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), where he led programs on the development of epitaxial IV-VI semiconductors.  This work led to the development of new materials and concepts for solar energy conversion and infrared detection.  Prior to joining PSI, Polking served as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. 

Polking has authored or coauthored numerous papers on ferroelectrics, nanocrystal synthesis, nanoplasmonics, quantum emitters, and advanced electron microscopy. His work has been published in journals such as "Nature Materials," "Physical Review Letters," and "Journal of the American Chemical Society." 

Polking earned a BS degree in materials science from Cornell University and MS and PhD degrees in materials science from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Fellow. In his PhD work, Polking developed syntheses for new ferroelectric nanomaterials and examined ferroelectricity in individual nanocrystals at the atomic scale.