MERE 2017 is excited to introduce Mike Massimino as our keynote speaker for this year’s event! After graduating from Columbia University with a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Mike came to MIT, earning Master’s degrees both in Mechanical Engineering and in Technology and Policy in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1992. His research at MIT focused on human control of robotic space systems, which led to two patents.
After working as a research engineer at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, an adjunct assistant professor at Rice University and an assistant professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, Mike was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1996. He completed two missions, STS-109 in 2002 and STS-125 in 2009, both Hubble Space Telescope servicing flights. During these two flights, Mike performed 4 spacewalks, totaling 30 hours and 4 minutes, and became the first person to use Twitter in space.
Mike joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University in 2014 as a Professor of Professional Practice, where he teaches an undergraduate course on space flight. In addition to his role as a university professor, Mike also serves as Senior Advisor for Space Programs at the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows including CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, and Neil deGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk. He is also the author of Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe.