Commission Members
Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge, Jr.
Chairman
Pete Aldridge is a 42-year veteran of aerospace technology leadership, serving the Nation for more than 18
years in the Department of Defense, most recently as the Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology, and
Logistics. His DoD career began as an operations research analyst. Later he became Under Secretary and then
Secretary of the Air Force under President Reagan. Aldridge was previously chief executive officer of The
Aerospace Corporation, and president of McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems Company. He earned his B.S.
in aeronautical engineering from Texas A&M University and an M.S. in aeronautical engineering from Georgia
Tech.
Carleton S. Fiorina
Carleton Fiorina serves as chairwoman and chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard, which she joined in July
1999. Her roots are deep in technology, having served in senior executive leadership positions at AT&T and
Lucent Technologies. She holds B.A.'s in philosophy and history from Stanford; a B.A. in business administration
from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland as well as an M.S. from MIT's Sloan
School.
Michael P. Jackson
Michael Jackson is senior vice president for AECOM Technology Corporation. He is the former U.S. Department of
Transportation Deputy Secretary. Before coming to DOT, Jackson was chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin
Corp.'s intelligent-transportation systems unit. From 1993 to 1997 Jackson was senior vice president with the
American Trucking Associations. He had been chief of staff to then-DOT Secretary Andrew Card from 1992 to 1993.
Jackson graduated with honors from the University of Houston and received a Ph.D. in political science from
Georgetown.
Laurie Ann Leshin
Laurie Leshin is the director of Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies and the Dee and John
Whiteman Dean's Distinguished Professor of geological sciences at the University. Her research focuses on
understanding the formation and evolution of our solar system and its planets. She currently leads a team that
is designing a potential mission to Mars for collection of mars soil samples. She is widely published in her
field of study. Her Ph.D. is from California Institute of Technology.
General Lester L. Lyles, (Retired)
General Lyles was in the US Air Force for more than 35 years, rising from the Air Force ROTC program to become a
4-star general, commander of the Air Force Materiel Command. The command conducts research, development, test
and evaluation, and provides acquisition management and logistics support necessary to keep Air Force weapon
systems at-the-ready. Lyles holds a B.S. from Howard University, Washington, D.C., and an M.S. in mathematics
and nuclear engineering from New Mexico State University.
Paul D. Spudis
Paul Spudis is a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. His specialty is
the geology of the moon. He has also studied the geology of Mars, Mercury, and many other worlds. He was the
deputy leader of the science team for the Clementine lunar mission in 1994. Spudis remains active with NASA and
National Academy of Sciences committees. His B.S. in geology is from Arizona State University; an M.S. from
Brown University, and his Ph.D. is from Arizona State University.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil Tyson is an astrophysicist and the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.
His professional research interests include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of
the Milky Way. Tyson served on the Commission on the Future of the US Aerospace Industry in 2001. He
earned his B.A. from Harvard and his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Columbia University.
Robert S. Walker
Robert Walker is chairman and chief executive officer of The Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, a
firm specializing in telecommunications and technology issues. Walker served in the U.S. Congress from 1977 to
1997, representing his home state of Pennsylvania. While in Congress he was the Chairman of the House Science
and Technology Committee, with NASA oversight. Walker served as the Chair of the Commission on the Future of
the US Aerospace Industry in 2001. He obtained a B.S. from Millersville University and an M.A. from the
University of Delaware.
Maria T. Zuber
Maria Zuber is the E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and leads the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. Zuber has been involved
in more than half a dozen NASA planetary missions aimed at mapping the moon, Mars, Mercury, and several
asteroids. She received her B.A. in astrophysics from the University of Pennsylvania and her Sc. M and Ph.D.
in geophysics from Brown University. She has taught at Johns Hopkins University and served as a research
scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Steven G. Schmidt
Executive Director
Steven Schmidt is the Special Assistant to the NASA Administrator. He served as the Executive Secretary for
Management on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and as the Executive Assistant for the International
Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force. Before coming to NASA, Schmidt worked for the Rockwell
International Corporation and the US Air Force. He earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Fresno State
and an M.A. in Public Administration from Syracuse University.
