Dr Charles Elachi, as director of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has overseen many
important missions of space exploration launched by
NASA. One of the most notable was the landing of
the rover Curiosity on Mars in 2012
Dr Elachi was born in 1947 in Lebanon, and
attended school there before he studied at universities
in France and the US. He obtained a doctorate from
the California Institute of Technology (Caltech),
and joined the JPL in 1970. He became the director
of JPL in 2001. He is also a professor in electrical
engineering and planetary science at Caltech.
Dr Elachi has received many honours for his
work, including the "Chevalier de la Légion
ďHonneur, France" (2011) and the Lebanon Order
of Cedars (2006). In 1989, Asteroid 1982 SU was
renamed 4116 Elachi in recognition of his
contribution to planetary exploration.
Dr Elachi is also Chairman of the Board of
Trustees at the Lebanese American University
(LAU). At a recent speech he gave at the Beirut
campus of LAU, he spoke about how he came to join
JPL, the challenges of the mission to Mars, and the
reasons we explore space...