Adam D. Steltzner, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Steltzner joined JPL in 1991 and has since worked on many projects including Cassini, Mars Pathfinder and the Mars Exploration Rovers. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis ('90), MS in Applied Mechanics from Caltech ('91) and PhD from UW Madison in Engineering Physics ('99). He enjoys the wilderness camping, off-road vehicle engineering, music, food, and wine. He is currently leading the team developing the engineering systems to safely land the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft on Mars in 2010.

Dwight Streit, Northrop Grumman Space Technology. Streit is vice president, Microelectronics Technology and Technical Development, for Northrop Grumman Space Technology. He is a member of the NAE, a fellow of the IEEE and AAAS, and a member of the NASA Space Foundation Technology Hall of Fame. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from UCLA in 1986, and was the UCLA Engineering Alumnus of the Year in 2003.

David W. Thompson, Orbital Sciences Corporation. Thompson co-founded Orbital in 1982 and has led the company from start-up to over $1 billion in annual revenue in 2007. He is a member of the NAE and a fellow of AIAA and AAS. His degrees are in aeronautics and astronautics from M.I.T. and Caltech and business administration from Harvard.

Sergio Pellegrino, Caltech. Pellegrino has worked on lightweight and deployable structures for over 20 years. From 1983 to 2007 he was on the faculty at the University of Cambridge. He joined Caltech in 2007. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and AIAA. He received his Laurea in Civil Engineering from the University of Naples in 1982 and his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1986.