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Schedule including this lecture.
Goddard Space Flight Center Engineering Colloquium
Date: Monday, March 10, 2003
The naming of the planned next generation space telescope after James E. Webb came as a surprise to many at NASA and in the scientific community. Some observers asked why Webb, a bureaucrat, deserved this honor. Webb was the man in charge of NASA through most of the 1960s. When President Kennedy in 1961 issued his well-known challenge to reach the moon and return safely before the end of the decade, the immediate responsibility for leading the task fell to this 54-year old administrator. The incredible success of Apollo just eight years later earned Webb an enduring place in the United States' pantheon of public executives. The lecture will explore Webb's leadership role and the critical factors of personality, organization, and political setting that made for NASA's spectacular success. Of particular interest is Webb's exceptional understanding and use of administrative power.
Dr. Lambright is Professor of Public Administration and Political Science at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, and the director of the Maxwell School’s Center for Environmental Policy and Administration. He has written or edited seven books, and approximately 250 other publications and papers in the field of science, technology, and public policy, including a biography, Powering Apollo: James E. Webb of NASA. His most recent book, which he edited, is: Space Policy in the Twenty-First Century (Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003)
Colloquium Committee Sponsor: Dr. Eugene Waluschka
Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov