1996 Dr. Edward C. Stone

The Frontiers of Space – Technology and the Search for Life Elsewhere

Dr. Edward C. Stone is director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a vice president and David Morrisroe Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Since his first cosmic-ray experiments on the Discoverer satellites in 1961, Dr. Stone has been a principal investigator on nine NASA spacecraft missions and a co-investigator on five other NASA mission. As a co-investigator, he developed high resolution instruments for measuring the isotopic and elemental composition of energetic cosmic ray muclei. Since 1972 he has served as the project scientist for the Voyager Mission and, following the launch in 1977 of the twin Voyager spacecraft, he coordinated the efforts of 11 teams of scientists in their studies of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Dr. Stone has been the recipient of many distinguished awards, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (in 1986 and 1996); the Aviation Week and Space Technology Aerospace Laureate Award; the National Space Club Science Award; the American Philosophical Society Magellanic Award; the National Medal of Science Award from President Bush, the COSPAR Award for Outstanding Contribution to Space Science, and in 1996 an asteroid was named after him.

He has received honorary degrees from Washington University at St. Louis, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago.

Dr. Stone earned his Master of Science (1959) and Ph.D. (1964) degrees in physics from the University of Chicago. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the California Council on Science and Technology.