Whitney Mason, Ph.D., is director of the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency where she has established foundational technology thrusts in photonics, quantum components and a new thrust she calls organics. In this last thrust, the office is driving innovative research into materials and tools to create organic circuits which co-mingle photonic and electronic components with biology resulting in the development of new materials, more rapid manufacturing, improved system performance and sustainment, as well as applications that utilize the combination of organic and inorganic materials, e.g., biological computing.

Previously Whitney Mason was the deputy director in the agency’s Strategic Technology Office (STO) from 2022 – 2023, and program manager in MTO from 2017 - 2022. As a program manager, her research interests include imaging sensors that offer multifunctional capabilities. In particular, she is interested in novel device structures, optics, and electronics that enable new capabilities compared to current state-of-the-art imaging systems. Whitney Mason joined DARPA from the Army C5ISR Center, formerly the Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, where she was the director of the Science and Technology Division within the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate at Fort Belvoir, Va. In that role, she led a team of scientists and engineers in the pursuit of new and improved focal plane array materials and devices; advanced read-out circuits; and enhanced optical materials and designs, lasers, and image processing.