CLAS Alumnus Named NASA's Chief Engineer
WASHINGTON, July 17, 2007 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- NASA
Administrator Michael Griffin has named Michael Ryschkewitsch as the
agency's chief engineer. He succeeds Christopher Scolese, who Griffin
selected as NASA's associate administrator on July 11.
As chief engineer, Ryschkewitsch is responsible for the overall review and technical readiness of all NASA programs. The Office of the Chief Engineer assures that the agency's development efforts and missions operations are being planned and conducted on a sound engineering basis with proper controls and management of technical risks.
Since October 2005, Ryschkewitsch served as the deputy center director for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Previously, he was director of the Applied Engineering and Technology
directorate at Goddard. He joined the center in 1982 as a cryogenics
engineer to work on the Cosmic
Background Explorer mission. Between
those jobs, Ryschkewitsch held several management positions and
supported projects from the first servicing mission of the Hubble
Space Telescope in 1993 to the Aeronomy
of Ice in the Mesosphere mission
launched in April 2007.
Ryschkewitsch earned his bachelor's degree in Physics from
the
University of Florida, Gainesville,
in 1973 and a doctorate from Duke
University, Durham, N.C., in 1978. He has received numerous group
achievement awards throughout his career. Ryschkewitsch was awarded the
NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership,
the Robert Baumann Award for contributions to mission
success, and the NASA Engineering and Safety Center Leadership Award.
Credits
Writer
Buffy Lockette
