William F. Readdy, Associate Administrator for Space
Flight at NASA Headquarters in Washington, today named Rex D.
Geveden as the new Deputy Director of the agency’s Marshall
Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Ala. Geveden will
succeed David King, who became Center Director on June 15.
“I’m very pleased Rex Geveden is joining NASA’s senior
leadership team,” said NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe.
“Selecting the right people to lead NASA into the future is
essential. Rex has proven his capability by successfully
taking on the management of tough programs like the Gravity
Probe-B and meeting all challenges. In fact, the spacecraft
was shipped last week to the launch site.”
As Program Manager for Gravity Probe B (GP-B) since 1996,
Geveden led a government, industry and university team in
developing a sophisticated payload designed to test two
features of Einstein’s General Relativity theory.
Geveden has been serving as Deputy Director of the Science
Directorate at Marshall where he leads 600 government,
industry and university employees in scientifically diverse
research and development projects in space science, materials
science, biotechnology, earth science and space optics.
“Rex’s record of accomplishments and the fact that he is held
in high esteem by his peers and customers in industry,
academia, NASA Headquarters, and Marshall make him an
excellent choice for the position of Deputy Center Director,”
added Readdy. “Marshall has an important role in the agency’s
science missions and Rex’s science background adds the
science dimension to the Center Deputy role.”
Geveden was the first NASA employee to achieve the highest
level of certification in the Agency’s Project Management
Development Process.
Geveden also was Project Manager for the Lightning Imaging
Sensor (LIS) and Optical Transient Detector (OTD) flight
experiments. The OTD was delivered as a completed instrument
in only nine months and operated successfully on orbit for
five years, producing the first global database that included
cloud-to-cloud lightning events. Geveden also was Chief
Engineer for the Waves in Space Plasmas (WISP) and the Laser
Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS) experiments.
“As a trusted and respected member of the Marshall senior
management team, I look forward to working closely with Rex
in his new capacity to build a great future for Marshall and
NASA,” said Dave King, Marshall Center Director. “Rex is a
proven leader and motivator of people whose personal
character and program management capability exemplify the
highest ideals of NASA.”
Geveden served as Manager of the Microgravity Science and
Applications Department at MSFC, where he led a team of 350
scientists, engineers and project managers in a national
space research program in materials science and
biotechnology. His organization delivered the first and many
of the early payloads to the International Space Station.
Geveden joined NASA in 1990. He earned a bachelor’s degree in
Engineering Physics and a master’s degree in Physics from
Murray State University in Kentucky, and is currently
pursuing doctoral studies in Materials Engineering at Auburn
University in Alabama. He has received many awards throughout
his NASA career, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership
Medal and the Silver Snoopy Award.
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