The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/456562
Winter 2015 45 Kearns, who holds bachelor's and master's degrees from WPI and is now working part-time toward a PhD, is with the National Aero- nautics and Space Administration. He was recently named deputy director of the space fight systems directorate at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, where he has authority in project plan- ning and management of pro- grams and projects across the range of the space agency's missions—including a role in NASA's next manned fight program. "I've always been interested in space and airplanes—I re- member when I was 8 years old watch- ing Neil Armstrong walk out on the moon on that frst landing," he says. "My folks let me stay up to watch it." It was Kearns's frst real memory of space. "I was thinking what an adventure it was, people walking on another world," he said during a break from his busy schedule at Glenn. "Space is the greatest frontier to explore. I felt that even as a kid." His interest in aircraft and space continued in middle school and high school, which led him to thinking about engineering and technology—which led him to WPI. The fact that WPI did not have an aerospace program at the time didn't deter Kearns. He had family and friends in New England, so was familiar with the area. And one family friend personally familiar with WPI, Dave Helming '64, encouraged him to apply. "Dave raved about the great education he got and how much he liked being on campus." Kearns believed the school's rigorous engineer- ing education combined with project work would prepare him well for a career in aerospace. Looking back after almost 30 years with NASA and in private industry, he says, "I was right." LOOKING SKYWARD One of those projects was called GASCAN (Getaway Special Canister), which was designed, built, and packaged by about 250 students over a span of a de- cade and few on the space shuttle Columbia in 1991. GASCAN exper- iments included grow- ing zeolite crystals, work by chemical engineer- ing professor Al Sacco that ultimately led to Sacco's fying as a payload specialist on Columbia in 1995, where he spent 16 days in space conducting microgravity experiments. Kearns worked on GASCAN with WPI faculty members Bill Durgin and Fred Looft, and with the late Hart- ley Grandin as his advisor he participated in all phases of the project except fnal assembly. "So, I saw it pretty much from sketches on the napkin all the way to the point where all the designs were done and the equipment was being built," Kearns recalls. Joel Kearns's work has taken him around the world—to China, Russia, Japan, and Malaysia. But the results of his work have traveled much farther. Clear into outer space, in fact. And he's not done yet.