Profile of Bruce C. Murray (1931- )

Bruce C. Murray earned his Ph.D. in Geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1955, was a geologist for Standard Oil from 1955-1958, served in the US Air Force, and then joined the Caltech faculty in 1960. He succeeded Dr. Pickering in April 1976 as JPL Director.

During his time at Caltech, Murray was a member of the Mars Television Teams on Mariner 4, Mariners 6 and 7, and Mariner 9. He was the Television Team leader for the Mariner 10 flyby of Venus and Mercury.

During his tenure as JPL Director, Viking landed on Mars and the Voyager spacecraft encountered Jupiter, Saturn and nearby moons. Seasat orbited Earth to study the seas. Murray resigned from JPL in 1982.

In 1979, Murray, the late Carl Sagan and Louis Friedman founded The Planetary Society (TPS). He serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of TPS and is Professor Emeritus of Planetary Science and Geology at Caltech, where he still teaches courses in planetary surfaces and supervises graduate student research.