Frank L. Schutz has been appointed Deputy Assistant Laboratory Director of JPL's Office of Space Science and Instruments, succeeding Raymond L. Heacock, who retired January 31.
The appointment, announced recently by JPL Director Dr. Lew Allen, is effective immediately.
With 20 years of service at the Laboratory, Schutz has carried out many key line and management responsibilities in the research and development of space science instruments. Most recently, he was manager of JPL's program in Planetary Astrophysics and Microgravity Instruments.
Prior to that position, Schutz had worked in various other capacities, such as assistant manager of the Earth and Space Sciences Division and deputy manager of the Observational Systems Division.
He has managed a variety of projects, including the Modular Containerless Processing Facility (MCPF), the Caltech/MIT Laser Interferometer Gravity Wave Observatory (LIGO), and the Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS) experiment. He also lectures on management at the Caltech Industrial Relations Center.
Schutz, 59, was born in Milwaukee, Wis., and attended the College of San Mateo, Calif. He received 22 Appointment a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1960.
A member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a resident of La Caada, Calif., Schutz is married, with seven children and eight grandchildren.
Heacock, 62, who has retired after 36 years of service at JPL, served in many positions during his tenure, including spacecraft systems manager from 1970-77 and project manager from 1979-81 of the Voyager mission, which culminated in last summer's flyby of Neptune.
In recent years, Heacock had been manager of JPL's Special Programs Office, overseeing projects such as the Wide Field/Planetary Camera, designed for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and the Microwave Limb Sounder instrument for the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) mission.
He also was manager of the Mariner Mark II spacecraft series that will be used in future NASA missions to explore the outer planets of the solar system.
Heacock was a key participant in some of the earliest JPL projects, such as the Sergeant missile projects of the mid-1950s. He later participated in the Ranger and Surveyor missions to the Moon, and Mariner interplanetary missions to explore Mars, Venus and Mercury. 33 Appointment
Among his awards, Heacock received the James Watt International Gold Medal Award for the Voyager spacecraft in 1980 and NASA's Distinguished Service Medal in 1981.
Born in Santa Ana, Calif., Heacock attended Santa Ana College and completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering in 1952 and 1953, respectively, from the California Institute of Technology.
Heacock is married, with five children, and resides in La Crescenta, Calif.
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