Senior Staff Scientist, Advanced Technology & Systems Division
Mark A. Petrie, Ph.D., focuses on novel energetic oxidizers and fuels for solid and liquid propellants, hydrogen storage materials such as aluminum hydride (AlH3), high-nitrogen heterocycles, therapeutics for chemical nerve agent threats and new antivirals, reactive material composites, electrochromic materials, novel electrolytes, and a variety of topics related to homeland security.
Petrie has made significant advances in several areas of interest to the Department of Defense, in particular alternatives to ammonium perchlorate (AP) oxidizer and insensitive munitions. His ongoing research has advanced the field of energetic materials by providing new synthesis methodologies, identifying new targets for future basic research, and producing novel compounds that are currently being tested by the U.S. Navy.
Petrie has worked with a variety of SRI clients, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Army and many commercial clients.
Prior to joining SRI in 1997, Petrie conducted undergraduate research at the University of California, Berkeley on borazine chemistry under the direction of Prof. Neil Bartlett. At the University of California, Davis he investigated multiple bonding involving main group elements with Prof. Philip Power. Petrie was a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. He then joined the propellant chemistry group at Phillips Laboratory, Edwards Air Force Base, where he was involved in oxidizer and ionic liquid monopropellant research.
Petrie has authored and co-authored 22 publications and 5 patents. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and his B.A. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. Petrie was named an SRI Fellow in 2015.