Fred W. Leslie

Fred Weldon Leslie is an American scientist who flew on the NASA STS-73 Space Shuttle mission as a payload specialist.

Leslie was born December 19, 1951, in Ancón, Panama. He is an instrument rated commercial pilot with more than 900 hours in various aircraft. Leslie graduated from Irving High School, Irving, Texas, in 1970, then received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering science from The University of Texas in 1974, and a Masters Degree and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in meteorology with a minor in fluid mechanics from the University of Oklahoma in 1977 and 1979, respectively. Leslie served on the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee, he is a member of the American Meteorological Society, Tau Beta Pi, Chi Epsilon Pi, and the United States Parachute Association. He holds a World Record as a participant in the 200 person freefall formation set October 1992.

After Leslie earned his Ph.D. in 1979, he served as a post doctoral research associate at Purdue University studying fluid vortex dynamics. In 1980, he worked for the Universities Space Research Association as a visiting scientist at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC).