About Peter Fiske
Peter S. Fiske is co-founder and VP for Business Development and Finance of RAPT Industries, a technology start-up in Fremont, California and Freeport, Pennsylvania. Prior to starting RAPT, Fiske led a research team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In 1996 Fiske was awarded a White House Fellowship and served one year in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Special Projects. Fiske received his Ph.D. in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University in 1993 and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley in 2002.
As a scientist, Peter led a research group in the Physics and Advanced Technologies Directorate of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His group developed new experimental diagnostic techniques in condensed matter physics and materials science and also utilized 2- and 3D hydrodynamic models to simulate shock phenomena in solids and fluids. He is the author of 20 technical articles, most in international peer-reviewed journals including Science. From 1998 to 1999 he served as a member of Laboratory Director Bruce Tarter's Long Range Strategy Project, a group of leaders tasked with identifying critical technology areas for the laboratory's future. In this role he has focused on technology spin-off and start-up strategies for the Laboratory.
Dr. Fiske is also a nationally-recognized author and lecturer on the subject of leadership and career development for young scientists and engineers. He is the author of To Boldly Go: A Practical Career Guide for Scientists (AGU Press, 1996). A new edition, Put Your Science to Work was published in December of 2000. From 1996 to 2000 he wrote the career advice column Tooling Up, read by over 60,000 scientists and engineers monthly and has lectured on the subject of career development for scientists to over 8,000 young scientists and engineers in the US and the UK. Presently, he writes the monthly column Opportunities on AAAS’s website ScienceCareers.org.
