George T. Whitesides

George Thomas Whitesides is CSO (Chief Space Officer)[1] and was long time CEO of Virgin Galactic,[2] a firm developing commercial space vehicles at the Mojave Air and Space Port. He studied in Newton North High School. He was previously Chief of Staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a position to which he was named after serving on the NASA transition team for the incoming Obama administration.

George Whitesides
Alma materPrinceton University
King's College, Cambridge
TitleChief Space Officer Virgin Galactic

Career

From 2004 to 2008, Whitesides served as the Executive Director of the National Space Society.[3] He is the co-creator of Yuri's Night.[4]

He has served as Senior Advisor to Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism company.[5]

Whitesides was the Chairman of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Working Group of COMSTAC, the advisory committee for the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Division. He was a board member of Astronomers Without Borders and the Space Generation Foundation.

He has served as a coach for Zero Gravity Corporation's parabolic flight service.

Early life and education

George Whitesides attended Princeton University, graduating from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He served for four years on Princeton's Board of Trustees upon graduation. He has an MPhil in Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing from King's College, Cambridge. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Tunisia.

Personal life

George is married to Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides. His father is George M. Whitesides, a professor of chemistry at Harvard University.

References
  1. "Virgin Galactic changing CEOs, bringing on Disney's Michael Colglazier". cnbc.com. July 15, 2020. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
  2. "Virgin Galactic Snags NASA Chief of Staff as CEO". socalTECH.com. May 17, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
  3. "George Whitesides". National Space Society. May 16, 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
  4. Hidalgo-Whitesides, Loretta; Whitesides, G. "About : what is yuri's night?". Yuri's Night. Archived from the original on 2008-04-13. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
  5. Galactic, Virgin (21 June 2007). "Virgin Galactic Appoints George Whitesides as Senior Advisor". NASASpaceflight. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 2008-03-22.


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