Donna Shirley

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Donna Lee Shirley (born 1941 ) is a former Mars exploration manager at NASA's Mars Exploration Program Jet Propulsion Laboratory . She is the author of the book: Managing Martians: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman's Lifelong Quest to Get to Mars — and of the Team Behind the Space Robot That Has Captured the Imagination of the World .

In her honor, the asteroid 5624 was named after her ("Shirley").

Life

youth

She was born in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma and grew up in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. As a young girl she was actively involved in the US Girl Scout Troop and played the oboe . Shirley was the only girl in her high school not taking a home economics class. Instead, she chose mechanical drawing. Her interest in Mars and space exploration began when she read The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke . She started taking flying lessons at the age of 15 and obtained her pilot's license at 16. For her senior year in high school, she was the class vice president and parting speaker.

education

Donna Shirley enrolled at the University of Oklahoma as an engineering student despite her career counselor telling her, "... girls can't be engineers." She also took flight courses at the university and acquired a pilot's license for single-engine land and sea, multi-engine agricultural and commercial machines and a license as a flight instructor. She got engaged during Shirley's junior year at the University of Oklahoma and decided to switch to professional writing studies to expedite her graduation. A short time later, she separated from her fiancé. She worked for about a year as a specification writer and aerodynamicist for McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in Saint Louis , Missouri , and eventually decided to return to the University of Oklahoma to complete her aerospace / mechanical engineering degree . She graduated from the University of Oklahoma in aerospace and mechanical engineering and from the University of Southern California in aerospace engineering in 1965 .

Career

She worked at Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL) from 1966 to 1998. When she came to JPL, she was the only woman among 2000 engineers. At NASA, she worked on a variety of projects and programs. She was part of the team working on the heat shield for a spacecraft that was about to enter the Martian atmosphere . She served as a mission analyst and later as a program manager for the Mariner 10 missions to Venus and Mercury . She led a research team that examined a Mars rover . She was the manager of the Mars Exploration Program, leading teams for Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner Rover . In 1997 she was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame, and in 1998 into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame. Shirley officially retired as director of the Mars Exploration Program on August 21, 1998.

She won the Washington Award in 2000 and was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 2003. Between 2000 and 2003, she served as the Assistant Dean of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma for three years. She then was founding director of the Science Fiction Museum and the Hall of Fame of the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle . After retiring from the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in 2004, she became President of Managing Creativity, a platform where she shared her strategies for harnessing the collective creativity of groups to develop ideas and implement them more efficiently and effectively Presents products. She has become a well-known educator, speaker and consultant who draws on her previous work experience.

On October 13, 2016, the OU School of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering (AME) presented Shirley with the Annie Oakley Award . The Annie Oakley Society at the OU describes itself as a group of female leaders and philanthropists who "... like Annie Oakley, play a vital role in shaping our communities and creating new horizons." Shirley received special praise for doing she inspires and excites women to work in engineering .

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donna Shirley Biography . Academy of Achievement. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Bill Moore: Shirley, Donna L. . Oklahoma Historical Society . Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ Donna Shirley: Inventor of the Week . WITH . 2002. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  4. ↑ Juliana Nykolaiszyn: Oral history interview with Donna Shirley . In: Inductees of the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame Oral History Project . March 14, 2011. Accessed April 16, 2015.
  5. ^ Misc Information For James Shirley Branch: Donna Lee Shirley . Shirleyassociation.com. July 4, 1997. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  6. ↑ Mars Global Surveyor Arrival press kit (PDF) NASA . September 1997. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  7. ↑ Shirley, Donna L. (1941-) . Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  8. ^ "Mars Exploration Program Manager Donna Shirley to Retire." Press Release by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. August 20, 1998. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  9. ↑ Managing Creativity
  10. ↑ Former AME Board Member and Educator Donna Shirley Receives the Annie Oakley Society Award , AME Blog, October 24, 2016, In: blogs.ou.edu (accessed July 19, 2020)
personal data
SURNAME Shirley, Donna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shirley, Donna Lee (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American aerospace engineer and author
DATE OF BIRTH 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Pauls Valley , Oklahoma