Michael Griffin

President Bush announced last week his intention to nominate the Applied Physics Laboratory's Michael Griffin to be the next administrator of NASA. Griffin, 55, currently heads APL's Space Department, a 600-person, $200 million unit that creates unique mission-critical spaceflight hardware, software and other products for military and civilian customers.

In an e-mail to Lab staff, APL Director Richard Roca said that "just to be considered for such a post is a tribute to Mike and his outstanding record. To be actually nominated is truly an honor."

Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Griffin was president and chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel, a CIA-funded enterprise whose mission is to identify and invest in cutting-edge solutions that serve national security interests. He also served in several positions with Orbital Sciences Corp., including CEO of Magellan Systems. Earlier in his career, Griffin served as chief engineer and associate administrator for exploration at NASA and was deputy for technology at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization.

Griffin earned a bachelor's degree in physics and later a master's degree in applied physics from Johns Hopkins. He holds a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.

His nomination has been met with enthusiastic bipartisan support, and he is expected to receive congressional confirmation.

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