Donna Shirley | |
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| Born | Donna Pivorotta 1941 |
| Occupation(s) | Aerospace and mechanical engineer, author |
| Known for | Former manager of theMars Exploration Program atNASA |
Donna Lee Shirley (née Donna Lee Pivorotta; born 1941) is a former manager ofMars Exploration at theNASAJet Propulsion Laboratory. She is the author of the bookManaging 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.[1]
Asteroid5649 Donnashirley was named in her honor.
Shirley was born inPauls Valley, Oklahoma and grew up inWynnewood, Oklahoma.[2] As a young girl, Shirley was actively involved with herGirl Scouts troop and played theoboe. Shirley was the only girl at her high school not to takehome economics. Instead, Shirley took mechanical drawing. Her interest in Mars and space exploration began when she readThe Sands of Mars byArthur C. Clarke. She began taking flying lessons at age 15 and soloed at the Pauls Valley airport the next year.[3] She earned a pilot's license at 16.[4] During her senior year in high school, she was class vice president, band vice president, and valedictorian.[3] After graduating from college, Shirley took up skiing and hiking in California.
Donna Shirley enrolled in theUniversity of Oklahoma as an engineering student, despite the fact that her advisor told her that, "... Girls can't be engineers."[3] She also studied flying at the university, qualifying for pilot's licenses in single-engine land and sea, multi-engine land, commercial, and flight instructor.[3] During Shirley's junior year at theUniversity of Oklahoma, she became engaged and decided to change her degree to professional-writing in order to graduate faster. A short time later, Shirley and her fiancé split up. She went to work as a specification writer and an aerodynamicist forMcDonnell Aircraft in Saint Louis, Missouri for about a year and eventually decided to return to OU to complete her aerospace/mechanical engineering degree.[3][5] She graduated fromUniversity of Oklahoma with a BS in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering in 1965, and from theUniversity of Southern California with a MS in Aerospace Engineering.[6]
She worked at theJet Propulsion Lab (JPL) from 1966 to 1998. When she joined JPL, she was the only woman among the 2,000 engineers who had an engineering degree. At NASA, she worked on a variety of projects and programs. She was a member of the team that designed a heat shield for a space vehicle that was destined to enter Mars' atmosphere. She served as mission analyst and later program manager for the Mariner 10 mission to Venus and Mercury. She led a research team studying aMars rover. She wasMars Exploration Program manager,[7] and led teams forMars Pathfinder andSojourner rover.[8] In 1997, she was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame, and in 1998 she was inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame.[3] In 1998, she received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[9] Shirley officially retired as manager of the Mars Exploration Program on August 21, 1998.[10][11]
In 2000 she won theWashington Award and in 2003 was inducted in theOklahoma Women's Hall of Fame. She was an associate dean of engineering for three years at theUniversity of Oklahoma between 2000 and 2003. She then went on to be the founding director of theScience Fiction Museum inSeattle.[citation needed]
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