Award is one of highest recognitions for government service
work
Three executives from NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., have been honored
with 2003 Presidential Rank Awards - one of the highest
recognitions for government service work. They were among a group
of federal senior executives recently honored in Washington.
Dr. Martin Weisskopf, project scientist for NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory at the Marshall Center, received a Presidential Rank
Award for Meritorious Senior Executives. Robert L. Sackheim,
assistant center director and chief engineer for space propulsion,
and Stephen Beale, director of procurement, each were honored with
the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives for service
at the Marshall Center.
The Presidential Rank Award is a prestigious honor given to a
select group of senior federal executives who have provided
exceptional service to the American people over an extended period
of time. Executives who have demonstrated strength, integrity,
industry and commitment to the public trust are nominated for the
award by the head of their agency. A panel of private citizens
evaluates the candidates, selecting only those who, through their
personal conduct and results-oriented leadership, qualify for
referral to the President who makes the final designation.
Weisskopf has dedicated more than 25 years of his career to
Chandra, the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. Since its
launch in 1999, the Chandra observatory has helped scientists
better understand the structure and evolution of the universe,
generating the most sensitive or "deepest" X-ray exposure ever
made, shedding new insight on planets including Mars and Jupiter,
finding an X-ray ring around the Crab Nebula, and making numerous
discoveries involving supermassive black holes. Weisskopf, who
started with NASA in 1977, also serves as chief scientist for X-ray
Astronomy in the Space Sciences Department at the Marshall Center.
The Chicago native earned his bachelor's degree in physics from
Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and his doctorate in physics from
Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.
Sackheim has served as assistant center director and chief
engineer for space propulsion at the Marshall Center since joining
NASA in 1999. In his position, he supervises all NASA space
propulsion research and development activities - from Space Shuttle
propulsion elements and conventional rockets, to innovative
kerosene and liquid oxygen engines intended to launch
next-generation spacecraft to orbit, to alternative propulsion
technologies meant to carry them deep into the Solar System and
beyond. Born in New York City, Sackheim earned his bachelor's
degree in chemical engineering from the University of Virginia in
Charlottesville, and his master's degree in chemical engineering
from Columbia University in New York. He has completed his doctoral
coursework in chemical engineering at the University of California
in Los Angeles, where for nine years he taught a professional-level
engineering course on spacecraft design and propulsion.
Beale started his career with Marshall in 1972 and has led the
Center's Procurement Office since 1997, overseeing all stages of
Marshall's contracting process, including solicitation, evaluation,
negotiations, awarding and contract management, both at Marshall
and at associated contractor plants. He manages all procurement
activities and supervises over 900 active contracts, grants, and
cooperative agreements currently valued at over $31 billion. As
procurement director, Beale manages 130 civil service and 40
contract employees. A native of Birmingham, Ala., he earned his
bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Alabama in
Tuscaloosa, and his master's degree in business administration from
Alabama A&M University in Huntsville. He has completed the
program for Senior Executive Fellows at Harvard University's John
F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass.
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