Mary Lou Jepsen is the founding CIO of One Laptop per Child (OLPC), an organization whose mission is to provide low-cost, mesh-networked laptops to children in developing countries. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Studio Art and Electrical Engineering and her Ph.D. in Optical Sciences from Brown University. She also earned a master’s degree in Holography from the MIT Media Lab. Her Ph.D. thesis combines rigorous theoretical coupled-wave analysis combined with lab work, during which she creates large-scale, embossed surface-relief diffraction gratings with liquid crystal-filled grooves with high diffraction efficiency in un-polarized illumination.
Her broader strength is in innovative technology management and she also has experience in:
| software | wireless |
| manufacturing | education |
She won the Edwin Land Medal for 2011 from the Optical Society. She has been named to numerous "top" lists in computing by Fast Company and Laptop Magazine and IEEE Spectrum and others. She is the "foursquare" mayor of Carnegie's Restaurant and Bar in Taipei, Taiwan.