August 31, 2015
Michael Watkins joins ASE/EM as a professor and as the new director of the school’s Center for Space Research.
Before coming to the Cockrell School, Watkins served as manager of the Science Division at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, as well as the project scientist for the GRACE and GRACE Follow-On Missions. He was previously the mission manager for the Curiosity Rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, and was also the manager of the Navigation and Mission Design Section at JPL.
His engineering research interests include estimation theory, precise orbit determination and space navigation. His scientific research focuses on the acquisition and use of global maps of mass variability, derived from measurement of the gravity field, to better understand the earth's complex hydrosphere and cryosphere and their evolution.
Watkins was an originator of the GRACE mission concept when he was a graduate student at the Cockrell School. He is a pioneer in the development and use of gravity data in science applications, which has been extended to include the GRAIL lunar gravity mission and now the GRACE Follow-On mission set to launch in 2017. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering from UT Austin.
What attracted you to UT Austin?
I came back to UT Austin because it is a clear world leader in the type of research I conduct and has close connections to NASA and space missions, which is important for me. There was a great opportunity to return to UT Austin and help develop a new generation of faculty, researchers and students that was too good to pass up.
What do you enjoy most about engineering or your specific field?
I like the “end-to-end” nature of it — that I can be part of designing a space mission, building it and then using the data for science.
What are your favorite hobbies?
My hobbies are playing tennis and reading, especially history.
