Jet Propulsion Laboratory

As Chief Mission Concept Architect at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mark Adler is currently responsible for the conception, design, and cost estimation for proposed new space missions across the lab. In past lives at JPL, Mark was the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit Mission Manager from launch through the first extended mission, and he was the Lead Mission Engineer on Cassini-Huygens. Though his work seems like a hobby to Mark, he also enjoys flying small planes, amateur theatre, and writing about himself in third person.

AMY ELLEN POLK. Amy is a systems engineer for Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Washington, D.C. where she is part of a 10-person team that advises the U.S. Department of Transportation on Intelligent Transportation (ITS) issues. Her areas of specialization within ITS include evaluation techniques, automated enforcement, and highway-rail grade crossing safety. Previously, she has held positions at Nissan Research & Development Center, the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation's Guidestar program. Amy holds masters degrees in both urban planning and computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan. Amy has been a member of ITE since 1993, and served as Vice Chair of Technical Committee 96-5 on Automated Enforcement. In this capacity, she was one of the principal authors of the Informational Report Automated Enforcement in Transportation, which won the "Product of the Year" Award in 2000 from the Traffic Engineering Council. She also was a member of Technical Committee 96-4 on Traffic Operations At or Near Highway-Railroad

Dr. Ayanna Howard, Ph.D., is a robotics engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. At 11 years old, she was inspired by the television program, "The Bionic Woman" to enter the field of robotics. Read about this "dream come true"!

B. Vincent McKoy, Ph.D., is Professor of Chemistry, at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He serves as an advisor to the Institute for Defense Analysis, Innotech, Inc., Jet Propulsion Laboratory and as an advisor for Polaroid from 1993-1994 and Barnes Engineering Company from 1981-1985. Dr. McKoy was a Yale University Fellow, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and received the Governor-General's (of Canada) Medal for Academic Excellence in 1960. Dr. McKoy has written 300 journal articles and has made over 120 conference presentations.

Mr. Wiberg is an engineer with the applied technology office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also has experience as a city councilman when residing in Utah .

Frank was born in Kortijk, Belgium. He moved to the US in 1983 with his parents and sister. He received both his Bachelors and Ph.D. in physics at the University of California, Irvine. Frank married Jessica in 1994, and they had their son Cameron in 1996. Since 1998, Frank has worked at Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Space Interferometry Mission. He is currently the Instrument System Engineer, and assists with costing and planning of the Instrument.

Gerrard Panahon is SFVYD's Treasurer. He has been active in the community for several years and was inspired to come out from the depths of the political radar at the California Democratic Party Convention in San Diego earlier this year. Gerrard looks forward to working with Young Democrats toward a future fit for our children. Gerrard is employed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; he completes his MBA studies next year.

Jim Graf received a BSE from Princeton University in 1972 and an MS from Colorado State University in 1976. He has been employed in various space-related developments for 28 years, ranging from the development of ion thruster technology to the management of the Quick Scatterometer Mission, an Earth orbiting satellite that was ready to launch within one year of formal go-ahead. He is the recipient of NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal and an Aviation Week's 1999 Laurel for Space. Currently, he is the manager of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project.

Jim Lewis is the Trombone player and founding member of SGS. He studied jazz under Bill Watrous and is a regular on the L.A. jazz scene. He started as a session player in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and is a graduate of the University of Alabama Jazz Program. In Alabama, he led several groups throughout the early 90's and appeared as a guest soloist with Gene Bertencini. He moved to L.A in September of 2001 and, immediately after 9/11, was sent to Afghanistan for 18 months as a Special Forces Team Leader with his National Guard unit. Upon his return in 2003, Jim focused his attention on starting SGS and currently performs in many of the local rehearsal bands around town. Jim works full time as an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and spends much of his free time coordinating activities for SGS.

Jim Plaxco has held a life long interest in astronomy, space exploration, and computer graphics. His interest in space exploration is embodied on the Internet with his Astrodigital family of web sites, for which he is the creator and webmaster. His introduction to computer art came in 1983 with a graduate level course in Computer Graphics. He subsequently combined his interest in image processing and computer graphics with his interest in space exploration and planetary science by creating his own graphics to serve as illustrations for his presentations. Jim created the "Mars Art Gallery" as an outgrowth of his presentation "Mars As Art" in which he explores the techniques of image processing and its application to images returned to Earth by the various robotic missions to Mars including Mariner 9, the Viking orbiter and lander missions, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, and the Mars Exploration Rovers. Jim is also a Solar System Ambassador for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). As such he makes frequent presentations on a variety of space related subjects in the northern Illinois area.

Ken Klaasen is the Stardust-NExT deputy Principal Investigator. His primary responsibility is inflight calibration of the onboard camera system and characterization of its performance. He is also the team lead for development of the Tempel 1 encounter science observation sequence. Klaasen is a Principal Engineer on the staff of the Instrument Systems Implementation and Concepts Section at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has over 35 years of experience in solar system exploration using remote sensing instrumentation. His primary areas of interest and expertise are in payload system engineering, instrument calibration, experiment planning, and mission operations. His scientific research interests include the global properties of various planets, satellites, asteroids, and comets with particular emphasis on their photometric properties. He has been involved in many solar system exploration missions including Mariner 10, Viking Orbiter, Galileo, Cassini, and Deep Impact.

Leo Bister and his wife, Rosie, were high school sweethearts and have celebrated 25 years together. Rosie serves as an office manager at Oakmont Elementary School in Claremont. Leo has worked as an electrical engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 25 years and currently is managing the development of the flight electronics for the next Mars rover mission. They have three children. The Bisters have been attending Grace for 15 years. During that time, Leo has served as a leader for the mid-size and small group ministries and has also regularly served as a sound technician for the worship services. Before coming to Grace, he and Rosie served as leaders of their church's junior high youth group. Leo's spiritual gifts are wisdom/discernment, leadership, mercy, and hospitality. His vision for Grace is to see our congregation fall more deeply in love with Christ, and for that love to be the source of energy for all of our ministry activities.

From the Apollo missions to the present, Dr. Marcia Neugebauer has been a pioneer in solar wind research. At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she is a co-investigator in the Genesis mission to collect samples of the solar wind and return them to Earth for analysis. Read more about Dr. Neugebauer's cutting-edge work in her autobiographical article from The Journal of Geophysical Research, "Pioneers of Space Physics: A Career in the Solar Wind."

Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies and applications on the Internet and other platforms for the company. Widely known as a "Father of the Internet," Vint is the co-designer with Robert Kahn of TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture of the Internet. In 1997, President Clinton recognized their work with the U.S. National Medal of Technology. In 2005, Vint and Bob received the highest civilian honor bestowed in the U.S., the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It recognizes the fact that their work on the software code used to transmit data across the Internet has put them "at the forefront of a digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and entertainment." From 1994-2005, Vint served as Senior Vice President at MCI. Prior to that, he was Vice President of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), and from 1982-86 he served as Vice President of MCI. During his tenure with the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 1976-1982, Vint played a key role leading the development of Internet and Internet-related data packet and security technologies. Since 2000, Vint has served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and he has been a Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 1998. He served as founding president of the Internet Society (ISOC) from 1992-1995 and was on the ISOC board until 2000. Vint is a Fellow of the IEEE, ACM, AAAS, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Engineering Consortium, the Computer History Museum and the National Academy of Engineering. Vint has received numerous awards and commendations in connection with his work on the Internet, including the Marconi Fellowship, Charles Stark Draper award of the National Academy of Engineering, the Prince of Asturias award for science and technology, the Alexander Graham Bell Award presented by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf, the A.M. Turing Award from the Association for Computer Machinery, the Silver Medal of the International Telecommunications Union, and the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, among many others. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA and more than a dozen honorary degrees.

Kathryn Marshall is an editor at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. Prior to JPL, Kathryn held management positions at a number of LA-based technology companies including Styleclick.com, Xdrive Technologies, CreSenda Wireless, and HealthAllies.com. She started her career at OPNET Technologies, where she spent four years documenting software products. Kathryn has studied screenwriting at ULCA and AFI and has completed several spec scripts for television. She also enjoys traveling, rollerblading, and playing tennis. Kathryn holds a B.S. in Technical Writing from Carnegie Mellon University.

Dwight Duston Ph. D., Chairs the Scientific Advisory Board and is the Chief Technology Officer of The Egg Factory, LLC. Dr. Duston has ten years of experience as a creative innovator, scientist, and technologist as a research physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. In addition, he has over fifteen years of experience in technology assessment, and management during his tenure as Assistant Deputy for Technology in the Defense Department's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, where he was responsible for managing more than $400M per year in research and development. He has been responsible for catalyzing the transition of more than 300 defense technologies into the commercial market. Dr. Duston has served as an adjunct on advisory boards for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Business Week, Innotech, Inc., NASA, and the National Institutes for Health. In addition, he is an adjunct fellow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Technology Management.