Date: February 13th 2007

Feb 12, 2007

David Mould/Bob Jacobs Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1898/1600

RELEASE: 07-38

PLANETARY SCIENTIST SELECTED TO LEAD MISSION DIRECTORATE

WASHINGTON - NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announced Monday that Dr S Alan Stern will be the agency's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, effective April 2 Stern succeeds Dr Mary L Cleave who announced her retirement

Stern joins NASA from the Southwest Research Institute's Space Science and Engineering Division, Boulder, Colo , where he has been serving as executive director of the Space Science and Engineering Division

As chief executive of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Stern will direct a wide variety of research and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather, the solar system and the universe beyond In addition, he will manage a broad spectrum of grant-based research programs and spacecraft projects to study Earth and the universe

Stern is a planetary scientist and an author who has published more than 175 technical papers and 40 popular articles His research has focused on studies of our solar system's Kuiper belt and Oort cloud, comets, satellites of the outer planets, Pluto and the search for evidence of solar systems around other stars He has worked on spacecraft rendezvous theory, terrestrial polar mesospheric clouds, galactic astrophysics and studies of tenuous satellite atmospheres, including the atmosphere of the moon

Stern has a long association with NASA, serving on the NASA Advisory Council and as the principal investigator on a number of planetary and lunar missions, including the New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission He was the principal investigator of the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, which flew on two space shuttle missions, STS-85 in 1997 and STS-93 in 1999

He has been a guest observer on numerous NASA satellite observatories, including the International Ultraviolet Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope, the International Infrared Observer and the Extreme Ultraviolet Observer

He holds bachelor's degrees in physics and astronomy and master's degrees in aerospace engineering and planetary atmospheres from the University of Texas, Austin In 1989, Stern earned a doctorate in astrophysics and planetary science from the University of Colorado at Boulder

He is an instrument-rated commercial pilot and flight instructor, with both powered and sailplane ratings Stern and his wife have three children

For more information about NASA and its suite of science programs, visit the Internet at:

http://science hq nasa gov/

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/[list]/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/list/[list]

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at: