Southeastern Community College Alumni Association | Distinguished Alumnus Award 1997
After graduating from BJC in 1956, Ed Stone earned a Masters Degree in Astrophysics in 1959 and a Ph.D. in Physics in 1964 from the University of Chicago. He joined the California Institute of Technology in 1964, becoming a full professor in 1976 and Vice President for Astronomical Facilities in 1988. Since his first cosmic-ray experiments on Discoverer satellites in 1961, Stone has been a Principal Investigator on nine NASA spacecraft missions and a Co-Investigator in five others. He served as Chief Project Scientist for the NASA Voyager Spacecraft Mission, coordinating eleven teams of scientists in their studies of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. In 1991 he was appointed Director of Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Stone’s colleagues
know him to be a unique blend of brilliant, multi-disciplinary scientist, teacher and intuitive manager.
“Someday, somebody is going to make it to the interstellar medium. You take it one step at a time.” – Ed Stone, New York Times, 1994
