Jim Bilbro, an engineer with more than 30 years of experience in the
nation’s space program, has been named assistant director for technology at
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

In the newly created position, Bilbro will guide the Marshall Center in
finding, developing and using the latest technology in accomplishing the
goals of Marshall’s space exploration programs. He will find methods to
enhance the capability of Marshall’s scientists and engineers, and identify
critical areas for investments.

Since 1999, Bilbro has served as special assistant to the Director of the
Marshall Center for space optics, working as a liaison to NASA Headquarters
in Washington, D.C., to achieve long-term planning goals for the Center.
A native of Kim, Colo., Bilbro sees his new position as a logical step in an
evolutionary process that began with his early fascination with the space
program.

“As a kid,” Bilbro said, “I even kept a scrapbook of stories about the
program and Dr. Wernher von Braun,” the Marshall Center’s first director.
“But growing up on my father’s cattle ranch, it was sometimes hard to
imagine myself actually someday working for NASA.”

Fate – or luck – intervened. One day, Bilbro, an engineering student at
Colorado State University in Fort Collins, was introduced by an engineering
professor to Dr. Fritz Krause, of the Marshall Center.

That introduction led to the beginning of Bilbro’s NASA career, when he
joined the Marshall Center as a co-op in 1968 in the Fluid Mechanics
Research Office.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering that same year,
Bilbro took military leave from NASA to serve as a U.S. Army sergeant with
the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam.

He returned to the Marshall Center in 1971 as a research engineer, working
mainly to develop the coherent laser radar which tracks aircraft wake wind
spirals or vortices. Later, he began specializing in optics, especially for
X-ray telescopes such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the world’s most
powerful X-ray telescope.

In 1988, Bilbro was named senior technical expert in Marshall’s Optics
Branch, developing lightweight optics that are less expensive to launch than
traditional mirrors. In 1990, he became the Optics Branch chief. From 1993
to 1998, he served as deputy chief, and then chief, of Marshall’s Optics and
Radio Frequency Division. He is credited with establishing the Space Optics
Manufacturing and Technology Center – a world-class facility that develops,
manufactures and tests components for sophisticated optical systems for
space exploration. In 1998, he was named assistant director of the Marshall
Astrionics Laboratory, working on rocket guidance and control systems.

Bilbro earned a master’s degree in engineering from the University of
Alabama in Huntsville in 1977. He completed the doctorate of optical
sciences program at University of Arizona in Tucson in 1983.

During his NASA career, Bilbro has authored or co-authored more than 70
technical papers and served on the editorial boards of the trade journals
Applied Optics and Optical Engineering. He was recently elected
vice-president of the International Society for Optical Engineering – which
has more than 15,000 members in more than 80 countries. After serving as
vice-president in 2003, he will assume the role of Society president in
2004.

Recognized for his exceptional contributions to human spaceflight programs,
Bilbro has received more than 60 NASA awards in his career, including the
Exceptional Service Medal twice — in 1990 and in 1998.

A 1962 graduate of Kim, Colo., High School, Bilbro grew up on a cattle ranch
15 miles north of Kim. He is the son of the late James and Thelma Bilbro.
He is married to Peggy Hale Bilbro, formerly of Fort Collins, Colo. The
couple has three children.

The Marshall Center is carrying out its vision of being the world leader in
space transportation systems. With its rich history spanning more than four
decades, Marshall remains one of NASA’s largest field centers, occupying
over 1,800 acres and employing more than 2,700 civil servants. More than
23,000 contractor personnel are engaged in work for the Center, which has an
annual budget of more than $2.3 billion.