SUMMER 2009 / Volume 8 - Issue 4
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Carl Walz, '77, Director for Advanced Capabilities, NASA
Alumni Association Member Profile
Carl Walz is the director of advanced capabilities at NASA Headquarters’ Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. He is responsible for a broad range of research and technology activities. He also served as an astronaut and is a veteran of four space flights, logging a total of 231 days in space. Prior to NASA, Carl was a flight test engineer and manager at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Kent State University and a master’s degree in physics from John Carroll University.
Why Kent State
It is a large university with a small university feel. It has a great reputation and offered a range of excellent programs from the arts and sciences to technology. I also was interested in the Air Force ROTC program.
Kent State person who influenced you
Dr. Gelerinter, one of my physics professors. I worked in his laboratory for a semester, preparing and measuring liquid crystal samples. This experience gave me the necessary research skills and set me apart from others in graduate school and during my first job with the Air Force working as a research scientist.
Something most people don’t know about me
I sang and played keyboard in a band called the Fabulous Blue Moons in high school and college. I continued my musical career in Houston playing with the astronaut band Max Q.
Most significant life accomplishment
My training for and flight on the International Space Station. It was an investment of five years of my life to prepare for and conduct the mission. It was a grand adventure to live off planet Earth for six-and-a-half months. Also, I was there from the beginning, helping in ground testing of the initial modules, to building and maintaining it in orbit, to conducting early scientific research.
Why I joined the Alumni Association
To remain part of the university and its future growth. To assist in positioning Kent State as a great university for the state of Ohio, and the nation as a whole.
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