Gerry Walberg, PhD ME 1974
Dr. Gerry Walberg received his Ph.D. from NCSU in Mechanical Engineering in 1974. In his 32 year career at NASA Langley, Dr. Walberg held positions from researcher, to Deputy Director for Space. The author of 48 research publications, He played a lead role in the development of the Apollo Heat Shield,and of rigorous radiatively-coupled flow field analyses that were used in designing the reentry vehicles for the Pioneer Venus and Galileo missions. He was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal “for contributions to the success of the nation’s planetary probe and manned space missions” and is a Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. Following retirement from NASA, he taught at the George Washington University and at North Carolina State University where he was a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He taught graduate and undergraduate courses and was the Director of the Mars Mission Research Center where he led the space mission analysis program. In 1999 Dr. Walberg retired from teaching and formed Walberg Aerospace, a research company specializing in aerothermodynamics and space mission analyses.. Here he contributed to the NASA Revolutionary Aerospace Concepts Program and carried out reentry safety analyses for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission.
