Meet Dave Thompson, New Board of Trustees Chair

Image: Chris Flynn Photography for Caltech

In 1976, Dave Thompson (MS ’78), the new chair of Caltech’s Board of Trustees, participated in a summer program at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA. There, he helped with NASA’s Viking Project, which successfully landed the first spacecraft on Mars.

“We would work according to Mars time, and that didn’t always map to Earth time,” says Thompson. “I can remember the excitement surrounding the first landing, which occurred around 4 in the morning. Of course, everybody was working all night beforehand.”

That was his introduction to the Institute, where, as a graduate student, he would pursue rocket propulsion and control under the guidance of adviser Bob Cannon and collaborator Homer Joseph Stewart (PhD ’40), a co-founder of JPL. Thompson credits his Caltech education for helping to shape his entrepreneurial spirit. In 1982, he founded Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of space and rocket systems.

As he works with the Caltech Board to define priorities, Thompson sees opportunities to enhance the student experience, scale up research thrusts in areas of increasing focus, secure JPL’s future beyond the next decade, and accelerate progress in diversity and inclusion throughout the Caltech community, including the Board of Trustees.

“I’d like to see us continue to support strong investment in our people—faculty, students, postdocs—and facilities, and continue the progress we’ve made in the last decade or so with fundraising from an expanded group of contributors, even beyond the almost 15,000 individuals who contributed to the Break Through campaign,” says Thompson, who has been a Caltech trustee since 2012.

Thompson replaced David Lee (PhD ’74), who joined the board in 2000 and was elected chair in 2012. Lee will remain on the board as a senior trustee and chair emeritus and as a member of multiple standing committees. Trustees Barbara Barrett and Ronald Linde (MS ’62, PhD ’64) were elected to serve as vice chairs.