What Tony Freeman, Ph. D. loves most about what he has achieved in his 41-year career is having had the opportunity to synthesize ideas from multiple and diverse directions into innovative space missions, program architectures and enterprise solutions to do what no-one has been able to do before. He has been fortunate enough to do this three times – once as the Earth Science Formulation lead at the jet Propulsion Laboratory, again leading JPL’s Innovation Foundry role as a champion for JPL’s SmallSat missions, and currently as Formulation lead for Planetary Science. Shaping the future of space exploration through architecting at this level is a heady exercise — especially at this time of rapid change in the space business. Being strategic about developing new projects, and innovative in how new capabilities are infused, seeds the ground for missions and measurements that can achieve transformative science during the coming decades.
Dr. Freeman is the most senior formulation leader at JPL, with experience spanning multiple directorates, and a proven track record of success in building programs consisting of directed and competed NASA missions. He has managed concept development and successful proposal campaigns, led science mission proposals that received the highest possible evaluation, and overseen strategic road-mapping efforts. He has mentored most of JPL’s other senior formulation leads. As a highly creative individual he is passionate about what’s next in space exploration.
In a technical career spanning 41 years, he has authored over 300 original research contributions, and is still active in publishing his ideas. He is a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers for his work on calibration of Synthetic Aperture Radar systems.
Dr. Freeman is a native of Manchester, England. He has a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. in astrophysics, both from the University of Manchester.