Dr. Charles Elachi, Director of JPL

Dr. Charles Elachi was born April 18, 1947 in Lebanon. He received a B.S. in physics from the University of Grenoble, France; the Diplome Ingenieur in engineering from the Polytechnic Institute, Grenoble in 1968 where he graduated first in the class; and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical sciences from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena in 1969 and 1971, respectively. He later received an MBA from USC (1978) and an M.S. degree in geology from UCLA (1983).

Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and vice president of California Institute of Technology, Elachi is a professor of electrical engineering and planetary science at Caltech, where he taught "The Physics of Remote Sensing" from 1982 to 2000. Elachi was principal investigator on numerous research and development studies and flight projects sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He was principal investigator for the Shuttle Imaging Radar series (SIR-A in 1981, SIR-B in 1984 and SIR-C in 1994); was a co-investigator on the Magellan imaging radar; and is presently the team leader of the Cassini Titan Radar experiment, and a co-investigator on the Rosetta Comet Nucleus Sounder experiment. He is the author of more than 230 publications in the fields of space and planetary exploration, Earth observation from space, active microwave remote sensing, electromagnetic theory and integrated optics, and he holds several patents in those fields. In addition, he has authored three textbooks in the field of remote sensing. One of these textbooks has been translated into Chinese.

In his 30-year career at JPL, Elachi played the lead role in developing the field of spaceborne imaging radar which led to Seasat, SIR-A, SIR-B, SIR-C, Magellan, SRTM and the Cassini Radar. He received numerous national and international awards for his leadership in this field.

During the late '80s and '90s, as the JPL's director of space and Earth science programs, Elachi was responsible for the definition and development of numerous flight instruments and missions for solar system exploration, the Origins program, Earth observation and astrophysics.

In the mid to late '90s, Elachi chaired a number of national and international committees which developed NASA roadmaps for the exploration of neighboring solar systems (1995), our solar system (1997) and Mars (1998).

In January 2001, Elachi was appointed to his current position as director of JPL and vice president of Caltech.

Elachi has received numerous awards, including the American Astronautical Society Space Flight Award (2005), the Bob Hope Distinguished Citizen Award (2005), NASA Exceptional Service Medal (2005), the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (1994, 2002, 2004), the Takeda Award (2002), the Wernher Von Braun Award (2002), the UCLA Department of Earth and Space Science Distinguished Alumni Award (2002), Dryden Award (2000), the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1999), the Committee on Space Research's Nordberg Medal (1996), the Nevada Medal (1995), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Medal of Engineering Excellence (1992), the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Distinguished Achievement Award (1987), the W.T. Pecora Award (1985), the NASA Exceptional Scientific Medal (1982), and the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing's Autometric Award (1982, 1980).

In 1988, the Los Angeles Times selected him as one of "Southern California's rising stars who will make a difference in L.A."

In 1989, Asteroid 1982 SU was renamed 4116 Elachi in recognition of his contribution to planetary exploration.

In 1989, at the age of 42, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. In 1993-1995 he was a member of the NAE 4th Decadal Committee. In 1995, he chaired the NAE membership committee. He served on numerous other NAE committees.

He is a fellow of IEEE and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

He was a member of the University of Arizona Engineering School Advisory Committee and the Boston University Center of Remote Sensing Advisory Council. He is a member of the UCLA Science Board of Visitors.

Elachi participated in a number of archeological expeditions in the Egyptian Desert, the Arabian Peninsula, and Western Chinese Desert in search of old trading routes and buried cities using satellite data, some of which were featured in National Geographic magazine.

He has lectured and given keynote speeches at numerous international conferences and universities inside and outside the U.S., including Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Denmark, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, China, Japan, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Monaco, Morocco and Switzerland. He also was a speaker at the Caltech Alumni Day and the Watson Lectures.

He is married to Valerie Gifford and has two daughters, Joanna and Lauren. His outside interests include skiing, woodworking, reading historic books and traveling. He is a member of the Pasadena Twilight Club and chaired the JPL United Way Campaign in 1988-1989.