I started my career in space sciences as a mechanical engineer for NASAs EUVE project while completing my undergraduate studies. I continued on the EUVE project post graduation. I have always been interested in building things and my life long interest is in scientific understanding of the world around us. Working as an engineer developing vehicles for scientific exploration is a perfect fit for these two passions. I came to work at JPL in 1990 and led the science instrument integration efforts for the Cassini mission to Saturn. After the launch of Cassini I started work on the Genesis mission in project system engineering and worked on this mission to return solar wind samples to Earth. I worked on Genesis through launch in 2001. I was a member of the spacecraft development team on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from 2001 through August 2005. Following the launch of MRO, I went to work for three years on the spacecraft design for the Mars Science Laboratory with its Rover Curiosity. Im currently working on an Earth science mission to improve climate modeling accuracy and weather prediction by measuring Earths soil moisture from space.
