AIAA congratulates longtime JPL official and AIAA Associate Fellow, David Gallagher, who was named director of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, effective 2 June. He will be the lab’s 11th director, succeeding Laurie Leshin who announced her departure from JPL earlier this month.
Gallagher had been serving as associate director for Strategic Integration at JPL. He brings extensive experience to the role during his 36 years at the lab. He has been director and deputy director for Astronomy, Physics, and Space Technology and manager of JPL’s Advanced Optical Systems Program Office; he also managed the Spitzer Space Telescope. He also led the team that built and tested the Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 (WF/PC-2)—a critical instrument that corrected the spherical aberration on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Gallagher has been an influential voice within AIAA, including serving as deputy chair of the Corporate Member Strategic Advisory Committee. In that role, he championed a workforce development initiative in 2022 to combat “the great resignation” as the aerospace community faced a fierce battle for talent. The effort sought to mobilize the AIAA Board of Trustees and all AIAA members to sell the unique features of working in the aerospace industry to attract top talent. He commented in Aerospace America, saying, “To do this well, AIAA can serve not only as the thought leader on this subject, but also the catalyst for action. Together, AIAA members can lead our community through this tough time, tackling this challenge and building a resilient workforce.” Sounds like words the Institute continues to live by.
Read Gallagher’s full column in Aerospace America, “Reframing the Great Resignation.”
