Michael D. Griffin

advisory board member

Michael D. Griffin is an American physicist and aerospace engineer who served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering from 2018 to 2020. He previously served as Administrator of NASA, the U.S. space agency, from April 13, 2005, to January 20, 2009. As NASA Administrator Griffin oversaw such areas as the future of human spaceflight, the fate of the Hubble telescope and NASA's role in understanding climate change. In April 2009 Griffin, who has an academic background, was named eminent scholar and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Griffin had worked at NASA prior to serving as NASA Administrator, including as Associate Administrator for Exploration. When he was nominated as NASA chief, he was head of the Space Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. While he describes himself as a "simple aerospace engineer from a small town", Griffin has held several high-profile political appointments. In 2007 he was included in the TIME 100, the magazine's list of the 100 most influential people. Griffin's appointment as Administrator was associated with a significant shift in the direction of the agency. He began signaling intended changes at his Senate confirmation hearing.

Griffin holds seven academic degrees. He has earned a BA degree in Physics from Johns Hopkins University in 1971; a MSE degree in Aerospace Science from the Catholic University of America in 1974; a PhD degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland in 1977; a MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1979; an MS degree in Applied Physics from Johns Hopkins University in 1983; an MBA degree from Loyola University Maryland in 1990; and an MS degree in Civil Engineering from George Washington University in 1998. Griffin was also working toward an MS degree in Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University before being appointed as NASA chief.