Steven D. Pearson has been named deputy manager of the Avionics Department
in the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala.

Pearson also has been appointed to the federal government’s Senior Executive
Service — the personnel system that covers most of the top managerial,
supervisory and policy positions in the executive branch of the federal
government.

He will assist in leading more than 200 NASA team members who work on
research, design, development, testing and verification of advanced flight
and ground support avionics systems. These systems include all of the
electrical and electronic hardware and software necessary for avionics
architectures and their associated flight and ground support.

Since 1999 Pearson has served as manager of the Engineering Technology
Development Office and chief technologist in the Engineering Directorate.

He began his career at NASA in 1979 as an engineering co-op student at the
Marshall Center. Pearson joined the agency full-time as an electrical
engineer in 1981 and became the team lead for the Electromagnetic
Compatibility and Lightning Safety Protection Team in 1991. He was named
branch chief for the Electromagnetics and Aerospace Environments Branch in
1993 and program manager of NASA’s Space Environments and Effects program in
1995 — an effort that identifies effects from the harsh environments of
space, and development of ways to control or alleviate the problems.

Pearson is a second-generation NASA employee. His father, Pete was a
mechanical engineering technician at the Marshall Center during the Apollo
and Skylab era.

Pearson received NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal in July 2003 for
development of state-of-the-art advanced technologies in support of NASA
programs and projects.

In 2002, Pearson was named an Associate Fellow in the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, the nation’s largest society devoted to the
advancement of aviation, space and defense. The institute also recognized
Pearson in 1998 with its Holger Toftoy award for outstanding technical
management in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. Pearson represents
the Marshall Center on the institute’s Technical Committee on Management.

Pearson, a Huntsville native, received his bachelor’s degree in engineering
from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1981. He earned his
master’s degree in engineering management from the Florida Institute of
Technology in Huntsville in 1986.