Profile of William H. Pickering (1910-2004 )

William H. Pickering was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and moved to the United States to attend Caltech. By 1936, he had earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Physics. He then joined the Caltech faculty and by 1946 was a professor of Electrical Engineering.

During World War II, he conducted research on the absorption properties of cosmic rays with Dr. Robert A. Millikan and investigated Japanese balloon warfare techniques for the Army Air Corps.

Pickering was invited to JPL in 1944 on the basis of his experience designing telemetering devices and later headed the Corporal and Sergeant missile programs. In 1954, he succeeded Louis Dunn as Director.

During his 22 years as director, JPL also developed the first U.S. satellite (Explorer I); the first successful U.S. circumlunar space probe (Pioneer IV); sent Mariner spacecraft to Venus, Mars, and Mercury and Ranger photographic missions to the moon; landed Surveyor on the Moon and Viking on Mars; and began designing and building the Voyager spacecraft for a Grand Tour of the solar system.