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Steve Roy
MSFC, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 256/544-0034)

May 15, 2003

RELEASE: 03-077

THREE-TIME SHUTTLE ASTRONAUT DR. JAN DAVIS WINS AWARD FOR
COMMUNICATING PROMISE OF ENGINEERING AND SPACE EXPLORATION

Three-time Space Shuttle astronaut and engineer Dr. Jan Davis has
received a national award for her passionate communication of the
excitement and wonders of space exploration and engineering.

As director of the Flight Projects Directorate at NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., Davis leads a team of
engineers and scientists pioneering science operations onboard the
International Space Station, as well as other space projects. She
also spends a great deal of time communicating the excitement of the
construction of the Space Station-the world's most unique space
laboratory. 

The American Association of Engineering Societies recently presented
Davis with the Norm Augustine Award for Outstanding Achievement in
Engineering Communications, citing her as a rare individual who can
speak with passion about engineering so the public has a better
understanding of engineering and a better appreciation for how
engineers improve our quality of life. 

Established in 1998, the award bears the name of one of the greatest
leaders in the engineering profession, Augustine, who served as the
first president of Lockheed Martin Corp. when it was formed in 1995,
and later became chief executive officer, vice chairman, and chairman
of the firm. He retired in 1997.

Davis, who oversees more than 1,400 civil service and contract
workers, leads a directorate responsible for payload and science
operations for the Space Station, training crews to operate Space
Station science experiments and operating the control center for
those experiments. 

Other support provided by her directorate for the Space Station
includes production of eight EXPRESS racks to house experiments, as
well as design and production of the Regenerative Environmental
Control and Life Support System, which provides the Station crew with
a comfortable environment in which to live and work.

Her directorate also oversees Nodes 2 and 3 - Space Station
connectors for international laboratories in space -- and three
Multipurpose Logistics Modules, or "moving vans," that will carry
laboratory racks via the Space Shuttle to and from the Station. The
directorate is also responsible for the Chandra X-ray Observatory
Program Office, overseeing operations of the world's most powerful
X-ray telescope.

Davis, who grew up and went to school in Huntsville, began her career
at the Marshall Center in 1979 as an aerospace engineer. She worked
on several major NASA programs and projects, including Hubble Space
Telescope and its later servicing mission, the Chandra X-ray
Observatory, and the Shuttle. Selected to join the astronaut corps in
1987, she spent more than 670 hours in space over the course of her
three Shuttle flights. 

In 1998, Davis became director of the Human Exploration and
Development of Space Independent Assurance Office for NASA
Headquarters, in Washington, D.C., providing safety oversight for all
human space flight programs.  She returned to Marshall in 1999 as
deputy director of the Flight Projects Directorate and was named
director of the directorate in January 2001. 

Davis, a 1971 graduate of Huntsville High School, earned a bachelor's
degree in applied biology in 1975 at the Georgia Institute of
Technology in Atlanta, and a bachelor's degree in mechanical
engineering in 1977 from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. She earned
her master's and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering in 1983
and 1985, respectively, from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
In 2001, she was elected to both the Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame
and the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame.

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