Professor Bonnie J. Dunbar
John and Bea Slattery Chair
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Texas A&M University

In 1969, the first human, Neil Armstrong, stepped on the surface of the Moon. He did so at a time when most of the technologies required to do so were in their infancy. Computers were not every desk. Cell phones were a distant vision, and communication, navigation and weather satellites did not exist. An International Space Station was the subject of Science Fiction and visionaries. The Apollo program not only propelled the US in the second half of the 20th century, it created new laboratories, new technologies, new graduate degrees and a workforce which expanded this knowledge into the 21st Century globally, manifesting itself through new companies and enterprises. The Artemis program plans to return the United States to the Moon as early as 2024. However, new challenges still remain. What are they and how will solving them pave our way to human exploration of Mars? Why does it matter? Dr. Dunbar will describe some of the Apollo events which affected her own academic and professional pathway and explain how similar circumstances for the Artemis Program will help to steer the future for engineering, science, and the 21st Century workforce.

About the speaker...

Dr. Dunbar is a retired NASA astronaut, engineer and educator, currently with Texas A&M Engineering as a Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) John and Bea Slattery Chair in the Department of Aerospace Engineering.
Dunbar, who is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, came to Texas A&M from the University of Houston where she was an M.D. Anderson Professor of Mechanical Engineering. There she provided leadership in the development of a new integrated university science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) center and was Director of the Science and Engineering Fair of Houston. She also taught the Mechanical Engineering “Introduction to Engineering” course, and directed the SICSA Space Architecture and Aerospace graduate programs. She has devoted her life to furthering engineering, engineering education, and the pursuit of human space exploration.
Dunbar worked for The Rockwell International Space Division Company building Space Shuttle Columbia and worked for 27 years at NASA, first as a flight controller; then as a mission specialist astronaut, where she flew five space shuttle flights, logging more than 50 days in space. She then served for 7 years as a member of the NASA Senior Executive Service (SES). Her management experience included assistant NASA JSC director for university research; deputy director for Flight Crew Operations; Associate Director for ISS Mission Operations development, and as NASA headquarters deputy associate administrator for the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLMSA).
After retiring from NASA, Dunbar became president and CEO of The Museum of Flight in Seattle, where she established a new Space Gallery and expanded its K12 STEM educational offerings. She has also consulted in aerospace and STEM education as the president of Dunbar International LLC, and is an internationally known public speaker.
Dunbar holds bachelor and master degrees in ceramic engineering from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in mechanical/biomedical engineering from the University of Houston.
She is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Royal Aeronautical Society. She has been awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal five times, the NASA Exceptional Leadership Medal and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Dunbar was elected into the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and to the US National Academy of Engineering. In 2013 she was selected into the Astronaut Hall of Fame, in 2016, she was inducted into the Omega Alpha Association (OAA) Systems Engineering Honor Society. From 2017 to 2018, Dr. Dunbar served as the President of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE).