Michael D. Griffin

Michael Douglas "Mike" Griffin ( born 1 November 1949 in Aberdeen, Maryland, United States) is an American physicist. From 13 April 2005 to 20 January 2009, he was head of the U.S. space agency NASA.

Griffin has studied physics (Bachelor and Master of the Johns Hopkins University), air and space technology (Master of the Catholic University of America, and in 1977 a doctor from the University of Maryland), Electrical Engineering ( Master of the University of Southern California), Business Administration (Master of Loyola College) and Civil Engineering (Master of the George Washington University).

Griffin was from 1986 for five years Deputy Technical Director for the SDI program in the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization in Defense of the United States and worked from August 1991 to 1994 at the NASA Chief Engineer and Director of Research (Associate Administrator for Exploration). Before he joined in 1995 as Vice President for Orbital Sciences Corporation, a space company in Dulles (Virginia), he stood before in Texas as general manager of Space Industries International.

Then Griffin was Head of In-Q -Tel in Arlington (Virginia), a company founded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency 1999 Company to explore new technologies. From April 2004, he spent a year as director of the Space Department of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in Laurel (Maryland).

March 11, 2005 Griffin was proposed by U.S. President George W. Bush as head of NASA. On April 13, he was confirmed by the Senate and appeared a day later than 11th Administrator of NASA in the footsteps of Sean O'Keefe. Formally, Griffin was sworn in on 28 June 2005 by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.