Media Advisory: Former NASA chief to visit UB on Monday

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Charles Bolden, who led NASA for more than seven years during Barack Obama’s presidency, will touchdown on Buffalo on Monday.

The retired astronaut and decorated Marine Corps veteran will visit the University at Buffalo, where he is expected to discuss his career, meet students and administrators, and learn about the region’s rich aerospace and aviation history.

News media are invited to UB as Bolden tours engineering laboratories and meets students.

When: 10:15 a.m.-11 a.m.

Where: 333 Hochstetter Hall on UB’s North Campus.

Additionally, news media are invited to Bolden’s lecture at 7 p.m. at 101 Davis Hall on North Campus. Due to limited space, the lecture is not open to the public.

Media planning to cover either event are asked to please contact Cory Nealon, UB’s office of communications, at 716-645-4614 or cmnealon@buffalo.edu.

UB connections to NASA

UB alumni Ellen Shulman Baker and the late Gregory Jarvis served as astronauts. Jarvis died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986.

Other UB alumni hold leadership positions at NASA, including Chris Scolese, director of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Jeff Umland, former chief mechanical engineer for Mars Curiosity rover and now leading a new Mars mission; and Dexter Johnson, chief of the structural dynamics branch at NASA Glenn Research Center.

UB students are building small satellites to track space debris that NASA and the Air Force plans to send into space.

Each year, UB students compete with top universities nationwide in a simulated rover competition.