Q&A

Dr. Adrian Ponce, Deputy Manager, Planetary Science Section, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Dr. Adrian Ponce joined JPL/NASA as a postdoctoral scholar in 2000 after receiving a Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech. In 2002 he invented the Anthrax Smoke...

Robert M. Lightfoot Jr., Director, Marshall Space Flight Center

Robert Lightfoot Jr. began his career with NASA in 1989 as a test engineer and program manager for the space shuttle engine technology testbed program and the Russian RD-180 engine...

Mark Polansky, Astronaut, Johnson Space Center

Mark Polansky enjoyed a successful 14-year career as an Air Force fighter pilot before joining NASA as an aerospace engineer and research pilot in 1992. Selected as an astronaut candidate in April...

Dr. Gary Hunter, Intelligence Systems Hardware Lead and Technical Lead of Chemical Sensors, Sensors and Electronics Branch

Dr. Gary Hunter, who joined NASA in 1990, is an expert in the design, fabrication, and testing of sensors, especially...

Robert Romanofsky, Senior Scientist, Antenna and Optical Systems Branch

Dr. Robert Romanofsky has over 75 publications and holds five patents in the fields of microwave device technology, high-temperature superconductivity, and the use of thin...

Dr. Luz Marina Calle, Lead Scientist and Principal Investigator, Corrosion Technology Laboratory, Kennedy Space Center

Dr. Luz Marina Calle earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from Ohio University and shortly thereafter became a professor of...

Starr Ginn, Deputy Branch Chief, Engineering Directorate, Aerostructures Branch, Dryden Flight Research Center

Starr Ginn decided she wanted to work for NASA after interning in their Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP)...

Jeff Ding, Aerospace Welding Engineer at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Jeff Ding introduced friction stir welding (FSW) to NASA in 1995. He currently holds 6 U.S. patents for FSW, including one for an automatic retractable pin tool that...

Gary Martin, Director, New Ventures & Communications Directorate, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

Gary Martin began his career with NASA in the Microgravity Sciences and Applications Division in 1990 where he served as Branch Chief for...

Dr. Gerard Holzmann, Senior Research Scientist at the Laboratory for Reliable Software, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

After a 23 year career at Bell Labs, Dr. Gerard Holzmann joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2003 to help create...

Allen Parker, Systems Engineer, Advanced Structures and Measurement Group, Dryden Flight Research Center

Allen Parker is a systems engineer with expertise in the areas of fiber optics and data acquisition. He is currently part of the team that...

Dr. Scott Barthelmy, Research Scientist, Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

Dr. Scott Barthelmy is the principal investigator for the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), a sophisticated instrument that...

Dr. Peter Shirron, Senior Research Scientist, Cryogenics and Fluids Group, Goddard Space Flight Center

Dr. Peter Shirron, a senior research scientist with NASA’s Cryogenics and Fluids Group, led the team of researchers credited with...

Nicholas Johnson, Chief Scientist and Program Manager for NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office, Johnson Space Flight Center

Nicholas Johnson is Chief Scientist and Program Manager for NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office. In July 2008 he...

Dr. Alexander Kashlinsky, Senior Staff Scientist, SSAI, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

Dr. Alexander Kashlinsky is a principal investigator on several NASA and NSF grants studying topics related to cosmological bulk flows, cosmic...

Dr. Drake Deming, Senior Scientist, Solar System Exploration Division, Goddard Space Flight Center

Dr. Drake Deming, former Chief of Goddard Space Flight Center’s Planetary Systems Laboratory, currently serves as Senior Scientist with...

Glenn Rakow, SpaceWire Development Lead, Goddard Space Flight Center

Glenn Rakow is the Development Lead for SpaceWire, a high-speed communications protocol for space-flight electronics originally developed in 1999 by the European Space Agency...

Dr. Woodrow Whitlow Jr., Director, John H. Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH

As Director of NASA’s John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Woodrow Whitlow Jr. controls an annual budget of approximately $650 million and...

Garrett Reisman, Astronaut, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

In March 2008, astronaut Garrett Reisman flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station, where he spent 95 days living and working in space. After...

Robert W. Moorehead, Director of Space Flight Systems, John H. Glenn Research Center

Robert W. Moorehead served as NASA’s chief investigator for the Space Shuttle Challenger accident in 1986 and managed the Space Station Freedom program from...

Dr. Jonathan Trent, Bioengineering Research Scientist, Ames Research Center

Dr. Jonathan Trent is an expert in the use of extremophile proteins to create nanoscale electronic devices. An extremophile is a life form capable of surviving in the...

Dr. Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS Principal Investigator, Ames Research Center

LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite), which will travel to the moon aboard the launch vehicle for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), will test...

Bill Thigpen, Engineering Branch Chief of NASA’s Advanced Supercomputing Division

As Engineering Branch Chief for NASA's Advanced Supercomputing Division, Bill Thigpen led the team that built and deployed the 10,240-processor Columbia...

Drew Feustel, Astronaut, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

Astronaut Drew Feustel is scheduled to fly aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery when it makes what is projected to be the final manned mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope....

Dr. David Morrison, Senior Scientist, NASA Astrobiology Institute

Dr. David Morrison is senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute and a founder of the multidisciplinary field of astrobiology. He is an expert on the risk of asteroid...

Dr. William (Bill) Farrell, Scientist, Lunar Exploration Program

Dr. William Farrell, a scientist with the Lunar Exploration Program at Goddard Space Flight Center, is an expert on the problem of lunar dust and its effects on astronauts and...

Dr. Steve Hipskind, Chief, NASA's Earth Science Division

Dr. Steve Hipskind is an expert on climate change and the effects of global warming with over 20 years of experience in atmospheric research. He currently heads up NASA's Earth Science...

Edward Austin, SOFIA Science Systems Project Manager

SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) is a joint venture between NASA and the German space agency, DLR, involving the use of a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft as an airborne...

Dr. Keith Gendreau, Physicist, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

While working on designing an X-ray navigation system for NASA's next-generation Black Hole Imager, Dr. Keith Gendreau, a physicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center,...