Mark Abel

Biography

Mark Abel is the Executive Director for the Institute for Energy Efficiency (IEE) at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he is also a Distinguished Computer Science Affiliate. Mark works with IEE's faculty, students, and industry and government partners to help guide IEE's research in Energy Efficient Computing and Communications and in Energy Infrastructure. Since joining IEE, Mark has been instrumental in fostering new innovative research efforts across UCSB's campus by founding and leading the donor-funded IEE Seed Grant Programs, which have supported $1.4M in grants to 24 projects and more than 30 faculty members since 2019.

Mr. Abel joined UCSB and IEE as he retired from Intel in 2018 where he was a longtime senior director of research. His last Intel role was leading Intel’s worldwide network of academic research centers. During his Intel career, his research labs and tech transfer teams won or shared Intel’s highest honor, the Intel Achievement Award, seven times for the creation of new technologies and new businesses for Intel, including the invention and delivery of technologies that shipped in over a billion Personal Computers. Mr. Abel has served on numerous industry and academic boards.  For example, he is currently UCSB and IEE’s representative to the University Energy Institute Leadership Collaborative and is a member of the UCSB ECE Department Industry Advisory Board. Prior to his industry retirement, he also served the University of Michigan in a variety of roles including as a member of both the College of Engineering Advisory Board and the School of Information Advisory Board, as well as chairing both the Computer Science and Engineering and the EECS advisory boards. Mark is also an Affiliate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. Prior to joining Intel, Mr. Abel held research and leadership positions with Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, U S WEST Advanced Technologies and Siemens. 

Honors

Education