Monday morning: Space phenomenon imitates art
Monday afternoon: Most detailed image of the Crab Nebula
Monday evening: A Glowing Pool of Light
Tuesday morning: The Cat's Eye Nebula
Tuesday afternoon: Young stars sculpt gas with powerful outflows
Tuesday evening: Space Movie Reveals Shocking Secrets of the Crab Pulsar
Wednesday morning: The Eskimo Nebula
Wednesday afternoon: The Spirograph Nebula
Wednesday evening: The Cartwheel Galaxy
Thursday morning: The Clearest View of Mars Ever
Thursday afternoon: The Glowing Eye of NGC 6751

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Scott Hubbard, Mars Czar and former Director of NASA Ames Research Center and visiting professor at Stanford University will discuss the Mars Program, the Columbia Shuttle accident, and business management and technology at NASA and SETI.

Space research and exploration has been a regular news feature for the last few decades. But how much do you really know about:
- America's current mission to Mars;
- the goals and initiatives of the SETI institute;
- the business skills you need to successfully manage an operating budget of $700 million and lead over 2500 scientists, engineers, and business people;
- and what it takes to manage the transition of an eminent research organization in the face of mounting criticism and budget cuts?

Scott Hubbard, former Director of NASA Ames Research Center and the "Mars Czar" is in a unique position to tell us since he has done all these things and more!

Register online
Date. Thursday, June 22nd, 2006
Time. 5:30pm-6:30pm Reception with appetizers. 6:30-8:00pm Discussion
Place. SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, CA 94043
Registration. $20 per person for WCNC members and their accompanied guests; $40 for non-member alumni and other guests. If available, tickets after 6:00pm 06/20/2006 will be $10 additional. All sales final.

From 2002 to 2006, Scott Hubbard directed NASA Ames, with management responsibility for 3,000 employees and an annual operating budget of $700 million. In leading the development of the NASA Research Park, he spearheaded partnerships between government, academia and industry, including an unprecedented research and development collaboration with Google.

In 2003, Hubbard served as NASA's sole representative on the board investigating the Columbia disaster and directed testing and analysis that definitively showed the cause of the space shuttle's loss. As NASA's "Mars czar," he restructured the Mars program in 2000 in the wake of the loss of the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter, which led to the success of Mars Odyssey and the rovers Spirit and Opportunity. He also managed the highly productive Lunar Prospector Mission, which orbited the moon for a year to map lunar resources, gravity and magnetic fields and which found evidence of water ice at the poles.

As an academic scholar, entrepreneur and organizational leader, Scott Hubbard has a truly multi-dimensional business perspective. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to listen to and interact with one of the bay area's most accomplished individuals in space technology and research. Scott Hubbard will share his insights on the challenges of managing a large science-based organization, and the nature of the unique leadership qualities and critical decision-making required of that role.

Scott Hubbard
Scott Hubbard currently holds the Carl Sagan Chair for the study of life in the universe at the SETI Institute and is a visiting scholar in the Electrical Engineering department at Stanford University. From 2002 to 2006, he was the Director of the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, where he managed over 3000 people with an operating budget of $700 million.

In addition to conceiving the Mars Pathfinder mission, he also managed the highly successful Lunar Prospector mission and was awarded seven NASA medals including NASA's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal for the Columbia Accident Investigation. He attended Vanderbilt University where he studied physics and astronomy, and was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa by the Polytechnic University of Madrid.