Christopher J. Scolese, a UB graduate who serves as director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), will speak to engineering students April 2 at Davis Hall.

Scolese will appear as part of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering’s Leadership Seminar Series. The speech will take place at 3:30 p.m. 101 Davis Hall, North Campus.

Scolese will discuss how both civil and national security space programs have led to some of the United States’ greatest technological achievements. This includes the dawn of the space age to today, where the commercial space sector is thriving alongside government agencies.

A Western New York native, Scolese will also discuss the pivotal role the region has played in the nation’s aerospace programs, as well as its ties to NRO, which designs, builds, launches and operates the nation’s reconnaissance satellites.

Scolese received a bachelor’s degree from UB in 1978 after studying electrical and computing engineering. He served as a naval officer before joining NASA in 1987.

He spent a majority of his NASA career at Goddard Space Flight Center, where he served as director from 2012-19. In this role, he led the nation’s largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists responsible for building spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study Earth, the sun, our solar system and the universe.

Additionally, Scolese, who was awarded a SUNY honorary doctorate from UB in 2015, served as acting NASA administrator for six months in 2009.

He was appointed the NRO’s 19th director in 2019.