Ann Fite Whitaker is a retired American physicist who worked for many years at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

on the effects of space environments on materials. Although she trained to become an astronaut, she never went to space.

Early life and education

Whitaker is originally from

Plainville, Georgia Plainville is a city located in Gordon County, Georgia. The population of Plainville was 313 at the 2010 census, up from 257 at the 2000 census. History Plainville was incorporated in 1903. The name is a transfer from Plainville, Connecticut. ...

, and was educated at Calhoun High School (Georgia) and

Berry College Berry College is a private liberal arts college in the Mount Berry community adjacent to Rome, Georgia. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Berry College was founded on values based on Christian pri ...

, near

Rome, Georgia Rome is the largest city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia metropolitan area, Rome, Georgia, metropolitan statisti ...

. Graduating in 1961, at the height of the

Space race The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...

, she became one of the first women to earn a physics degree at the college. She began graduate study with a fellowship to

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

in Tuscaloosa, but left school for a position at NASA. Later, while working at NASA, she earned a master's degree in physics at the

University of Alabama in Huntsville The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is a public research university in Huntsville, Alabama. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and comprises nine colleges: arts, humanities & social science ...

and an Ph.D. in materials engineering at

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

, completed in 1989 with a dissertation on the effects of oxygen plasma on polymers.

Career and later life

Scientists in Training - GPN-2002-000213

Whitaker joined NASA's

Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center, MSFC's first ...

in 1963. Her initial research there concerned she effects of space environments on

lubrication Lubrication is the process or technique of using a lubricant to reduce friction and wear and tear in a contact between two surfaces. The study of lubrication is a discipline in the field of tribology. Lubrication mechanisms such as fluid-lubric ...

and, later in the 1960s, on the

crawler-transporter The crawler-transporters, formally known as the Missile Crawler Transporter Facilities, are a pair of tracked vehicles used to transport spacecraft from NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) along the Crawlerway to Launch Complex 39. They were ...

used to move

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with multistage rocket, three stages, and powered with liquid-propellant r ...

rockets before their launch. In the 1970s, she became a candidate payload specialist for space missions, and in 1974, she was one of four women chosen to perform a simulated

Spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...

science mission, although she never went to space herself. She became, successively, chief of the Physical Sciences Branch, Engineering Physics Division, and Project and Environmental Engineering Division at the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1977, 1984, and 1993, respectively. In 2001, after additional roles as deputy director of the Space Sciences Laboratory and director of the Materials, Processes and Manufacturing Department, she was named head of the Science Directorate at the

Recognition

Berry College gave Whitaker their 1978 Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement. In 2001 the Auburn University Department of Materials Engineering gave Whitaker their Outstanding Alumni Award; she became only the second recipient, after the award was founded in 1994. She was elected as a Fellow of the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...

(AIAA) in 2002. She was the recipient of the 2003–2004 Hermann Oberth Award of the Alabama–Mississippi Section of the AIAA. She is also a recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the

NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal The NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal (abbreviated EEAM) was established by NASA in 1981 to recognize unusually significant engineering contributions towards achievement of aeronautical or space exploration goals. This award is given ...

, and the Women in Science and Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitaker, Ann Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American condensed matter physicists American women physicists Berry College alumni University of Alabama in Huntsville alumni Auburn University alumni NASA people Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics