Editors’ Note: This feature appears as it was published in the winter 2019 edition of UT Dallas Magazine. Titles or faculty members listed may have changed since that time.
Distinguished alumnus James Reilly BS’77, MS’87, PhD’95 is high above Earth during one of his three space missions.
The U.S. Senate confirmed former astronaut James F. Reilly BS’77, MS’87, PhD’95 as the next director of the U.S. Geological Survey.
As head of the USGS, he oversees the collecting, monitoring and analyzing of natural resource conditions, issues and problems.
Reilly, who earned three degrees in geosciences from UTD, worked as an oil and gas exploration geologist — spending the equivalent of 22 days in deep-submergence vehicles conducting research and overseeing projects in the oceans — before he was selected for NASA’s astronaut program in 1994.
As a mission specialist, Reilly spent a total of 853 hours in space, including five spacewalks lasting more than 31 hours during which he helped assemble the International Space Station. His first space mission was in 1998, with additional trips in 2001 and 2007.
“Jim Reilly has worked in the three most hostile places — Antarctica, the deep sea and outer space,” said Dr. Richard Mitterer, professor emeritus of geosciences, who has known Reilly since he was an undergraduate and supervised his doctoral research project. “He is an excellent scientist, a team player who interacts well with others, a proven leader and an outstanding person.”
