Jay Bookbinder

Dr. Jay Bookbinder is the director of Programs and Projects at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. Bookbinder has more than 30 years' experience in instrument and mission design and development, satellite integration and testing, and space mission operations for both astrophysics and heliophysics missions. He has led or overseen technology development efforts across a broad range of subjects, including ultra-precise and stable optics, high-resolution X-ray mirror fabrication, contamination control, and a solar simulator to replicate the conditions the Parker Solar Probe would experience at its closest approach to the Sun. Bookbinder earned his bachelor's from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, and his master's and doctorate in Astrophysics from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His hobbies include sailing, sporting clays, billiards, mineral collecting, African art, cooking, archery, travel, theatre, and jewelry design.