Michael Massimino is a professor of Professional Practice in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University’s The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia Engineering and Master of Science degree in both Mechanical Engineering and Technology and Policy, as well as his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After working as an engineer at IBM, NASA Headquarters and McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, along with academic appointments at both Rice University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Massimino was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1996. A veteran of two space flights, the fourth and fifth Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions in 2002 and 2009, Massimino has many accomplishments, including a team record for the number of hours spacewalking in a single space shuttle mission and the first person to tweet from space. He has also received a number of awards, including two NASA Space Flight Medals, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the American Astronautical Society’s 2009 Flight Achievement Award. He is also the holder of two patents and author of several papers.
Back at his alma mater, Columbia, Massimino is teaching an undergraduate course, Introduction to Human Space Flight, which harnesses his years of academic and professional experience. He is also working with The Art of Engineering, a course in which all first-year engineers attend design lectures and work on engineering projects with socially responsible themes.
When not in academia or at NASA, Massimino has made several television appearances, including a recurring role as himself on the CBS hit comedy The Big Bang Theory. In addition, he frequently appears in specials on the Science, National Geographic and Discovery Channels, along with national and cable news. He is also a favorite guest on many of the late-night talk shows, including The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, where he has appeared as a guest five times.