William Hayward Pickering
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William Hayward Pickering ONZ KBE |
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Dr. William H. Pickering, JPL/NASA Photo
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
24 December 1910 Wellington, New Zealand |
| Died | 15 March 2004 (aged 93) Flintridge, California |
| Citizenship | United States, New Zealand |
| Nationality | United States, New Zealand |
| Known for | Space aeronautics pioneering |
| Awards | Magellanic Premium (1966) IEEE Edison Medal (1972) National Medal of Science (1975) Delmer S. Fahrney Medal (1976) Japan Prize (1994) Daniel Guggenheim Medal (2000) |
William Hayward "Bill" Pickering ONZ KBE (24 December 1910 – 15 March 2004) was a New Zealand-born rocket scientist who headed Pasadena, California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for 22 years, retiring in 1976. He was a senior NASA luminary and pioneered the exploration of space. Pickering was also a founding member of the United States National Academy of Engineering.
He was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 24 December 1910. Pickering attended Havelock School, Marlborough, and Wellington College. After spending a year at the Canterbury University College, he moved to the United States (where he subsequently naturalized), to complete a bachelor's degree at the California Institute of Technology ("Caltech"), and later, a PhD in Physics, in 1936. His speciality was in Electrical Engineering, and he majored in what is now commonly known in scientific vernacular as 'telemetry'.
William Pickering became involved with JPL in 1944, during the second world war.
As the Director of JPL, from 1954, Pickering was closely involved with management of the Private and Corporal missiles under the aegis of the U.S. Army.
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