Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, PhD, has diverse experience as a geologist, pilot, astronaut, administrator, businessman, writer and U.S. senator. He trained as a geologist at Caltech, as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oslo and at Harvard University, receiving his PhD in geology in 1964 based on earlier field studies in Norway. Senator Schmitt received Air Force jet pilot wings in 1965 and Navy helicopter wings in 1967.Selected for the Apollo Scientist-Astronaut program in 1965, Senator Schmitt served as Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 17, the last Apollo mission to the moon. His studies on the Valley of Taurus-Littorow on the moon in 1972, as well as his earlier scientific work, made Senator Schmitt one of the leading experts on the history of the terrestrial planets.After organizing and directing the activities of the Scientist-Astronaut Office and of the Energy Program Office for NASA, Senator Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate from his home state of New Mexico in 1976, and served one term.As Senator, he served on the Senate Commerce, Banking, Appropriations, Intelligence and Ethics Committees. In his last two years in the Senate, Senator Schmitt was chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space and of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. He has served as a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the Army Science Board, Interior's National Strategic Materials Advisory Committee, and several NASA advisory committees.Senator Schmitt consults, speaks and writes on a wide range of business, public and government initiatives, particularly in the fields of space, defense, biomedicine, geology, energy, technology and policy issues of the future. He is a director of several corporations and foundations. |