George T. Whitesides

George Thomas Whitesides is the Executive Director of the National Space Society [cite web | title = George Whitesides | publisher = National Space Society | date = Tue, May 16, 2006 | url = http://www.nss.org/about/bios/whitesides.html | accessdate = 2007-02-04 ] . He is also the co-creator of Yuri's Night [cite web | last = Hidalgo-Whitesides | first = Loretta | coauthors = Whitesides, G. | title = About : what is yuri's night? | publisher = Yuri's Night | url = http://www.yurisnight.net/2007/page.php?p=http://www.yurisnight.net/2007/content/2_1_about.php | accessdate = 2007-02-04] .

He is Senior Advisor to Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism company. [cite web | last = Galactic | first = Virgin| title = Virgin Galactic Appoints George Whitesides as Senior Advisor | publisher = NASASpaceflight | date = 21 June 2007 | url = http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=8503&posts=3&start=1 | accessdate = 2008-03-22]

Whitesides is the Chairman of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Working Group of COMSTAC, the advisory committee for the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Division. He is a board member of Astronomers Without Borders and the Space Generation Foundation.

He is a coach for Zero Gravity Corporation's parabolic flight service.

Personal

George is married to Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides [cite web | last = Hanlon | first = Michael | title = Virgin to offer first space holidays | publisher = Daily Mail | date = 27 July 2005 | url = http://www.thisistravel.co.uk/travel/news/Virgin-to-offer-firstspaceholidays-article.html?in_article_id=44710 | accessdate = 2007-02-04] , and they plan to be the first couple to honeymoon in space [cite web | title = Space Love | date = 14 February 2007 | url = http://www.spacelove.org/ | accessdate = 2007-02-16] . His father is George M. Whitesides, a professor of chemistry at Harvard University. His brother is the lead singer of The Joggers, a Portland, Oregon-based band.

George attended Princeton University, graduating from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He served for four years on Princeton's Board of Trustees upon graduation. He has an MPhil in Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing from Cambridge University, where he was a member of King's College. He was Fulbright Scholar in Tunisia.

References