NASA Ames Center Director Receives Arthur C. Clarke Award

WASHINGTON — The director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, S. Pete Worden, was recognized Tuesday by The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation for his leadership in space exploration.

Worden has written or co-written more than 150 scientific technical papers in astrophysics, space sciences and strategic studies. He also served as a scientific co-investigator for two NASA space science missions. Before becoming Ames center director, he was a research professor of astronomy, optical sciences and planetary sciences at the University of Arizona. His primary research was on the development of large space optics for national security and scientific purposes, and near-Earth asteroids.

“I am truly honored to receive the 2010 Arthur C. Clarke Foundation’s Innovator’s Award,” Worden said. “This prestigious award recognizes technology trailblazers whom I personally admire, and I am proud to be considered among them.”

The award recognizes initiatives or new inventions with recent impact or particular promise for satellite communications and society. “Like Sir Arthur, Pete Worden was ‘in at the beginning’ of countless courageous departures – among them the Strategic Defense Initiative, the revitalization of civil space exploration and Earth monitoring, and programs to get mankind at a working distance from Near Earth Objects,” The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation’s Chairman Tedson J. Meyers said.

For Worden’s biography, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/about/centerdirector.html   

For more information about NASA Ames, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ames   

For more information about The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, visit: http://www.clarkefoundation.org