NEWS RELEASE
P.O. Box 92957, Los Angeles, California 90009-2957, Web Site: www.aero.org
The Aerospace Corporation Announces
Selection of New Trustee and Vice President
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (Dec. 10, 2004) — The Aerospace Corporation has announced the
election of Dr. M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell of Stanford University to the board of trustees and the
elevation of Gary P. Pulliam to the new position of vice president of Civil and Commercial
Operations. These actions were taken Dec. 9 by the board at its quarterly meeting at the firm’s
headquarters in El Segundo, Calif.
Paté-Cornell is professor and chair of the Department of Management Science and
Engineering at Stanford, as well as a senior fellow (by courtesy) of the Stanford Institute for
International Studies. She joined the Stanford faculty in 1981 after serving as an assistant
professor of civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She became a
professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management in 1991,
and has been a department chair since 1997. In 1999 she was named the Burt and Deedee
McMurtry Professor in the School of Engineering. She is a member of the Stanford Academic
Senate and chairs the Stanford Committee on Research.
Pulliam advances from general manager of the Civil and Commercial Division. The
newly named Civil and Commercial Operations organization will continue to support agencies
such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. Specific programs and activities include support to the
International Space Station and space shuttle return-to-flight operations, and satellite acquisition
and operations support for NOAA, among others. The organization also has supported the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Explorer Rover Program, as well as other JPL programs and
government space and science activities. Pulliam’s organization is based at the company’s
Washington, D.C., office.
Pulliam joined Aerospace in 1994 as principal director of Government Operations after
serving for five years as chief of staff for U.S. Representative Earl Hutto of Florida. He was
appointed general manager in charge of non-Defense Department business in 1997. He has
continued to handle government relations responsibilities while managing increasingly important
civil and commercial programs.
During a 20-year career in the Air Force, Pulliam served as a pilot and instructor and held
assignments at the Aeronautical Systems Center in Dayton, Ohio, as well as at the Pentagon,
where he was deputy chief of the Weapons Division in the office of the Air Force Legislative
Liaison, with responsibility for representing all Air Force weapons programs to Congress. He
holds master’s degrees from Clemson University and the University of Arkansas and attended
Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Senior Managers in Government Program.
Paté-Cornell is regarded as a world leader in research related to engineering risk analysis
and risk management. Risk analysis models and processes she and colleagues at Stanford have
developed have been applied to NASA space shuttle tiles and other complex problems in the
areas of space, industry, medicine and national security. Paté-Cornell has served as a consultant
to various industrial firms, government organizations and panels, including the Columbia
Accident Investigation Board. She earned a master’s degree in operations research and a Ph.D. in
engineering-economic systems, both from Stanford, and holds advanced degrees from French
universities as well.
She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1995 and is a member of its
council. Since 2001 she has served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and
since 2002 on the advisory council of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is chair of the
board of advisors of the Naval Postgraduate School. She formerly served on the Army Science
Board, NASA Advisory Council and Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. She was elected to
the French Académie des Technologies in 2003. She is past president and a fellow of the Society
for Risk Analysis, and a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management
Science.
The Aerospace Corporation, based in El Segundo, Calif., is an independent, nonprofit
company that provides objective technical analyses and assessments for national security space
programs and selected civil and commercial space programs in the national interest.