NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named Cornell University Professor Mason Peck to be the agency’s chief technologist, effective in January.
Peck will be both the agency’s principal adviser and main advocate on matters of technology policy and programs. Peck will also help coordinate the agency’s technology investments.
As an engineer and consultant in the aerospace industry, Peck has worked with organizations including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.
Peck was also a guidance and control engineer and in mission operations at Boeing.
Peck joins NASA through an intergovernmental personnel agreement with Cornell, where he serves as an associate professor in the university’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
“Mason’s lifelong commitment to learning and expertise in aerospace engineering makes him ideally suited to advise and help guide the agency toward the technologies and innovations that will enable our future missions,” Bolden said. “His passion for education and his accomplishments in spacecraft design and robotics, along with his experience in the private sector, bring the skills I’ve come to depend on from my chief technologist.”
Peck has previous experience working with NASA, including as an engineer on the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites.
Peck succeeds Robert Braun, who returned to his teaching and research positions at Georgia Tech.
