After graduating from UT in 1963, Gentry Lee studied at MIT before entering the world of space exploration research. Now, as a chief engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, he leads the planetary flight systems program which oversees engineering projects like sending rovers to planets and moons. “Starman,” a documentary about his life and career premiered at South by Southwest for the first time on March 8. The Daily Texan sat down with Lee to discuss his passion for science and his time on the Forty Acres.
The Daily Texan: How did the courses you took at UT prepare you for what you do now?
Gentry Lee: I was a junior fellow as an undergraduate, where 25 students at the University were chosen to take any course they wanted and have private interactions with professors. So, my experience at the University was very special and I make the comment that … I got a better education at UT than I did at MIT, and the reason was that I was given a whole bunch of preferential treatment. Yes, I took some math and physics, but I also took Russian, French, the modern English novel and things like that. I did a completely broad undergraduate education.
DT: Are there any current space research projects that are exciting you?
GL: We have (over) a dozen projects going on at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. My passion has remained the same since I was a child. We just launched a spacecraft that’s going to orbit Jupiter and make many flybys of the moon Europa, where there’s more water underneath the ice on Europa than there is on planet Earth. … We also have a spacecraft rover-ing around on the surface of Mars, and the area that we picked out as being highly likely to have the possibility for biological activity. And, it’s making samples and storing these samples, so a mission in the future can come, pick up those samples and bring them back to Earth so we can study them.
DT: What advice would you give to young people who want to work in your field but might feel intimidated?
GL: Even the people who may have better grades from better schools are also dealing with situations they have never dealt with before. In the work we do, there are no answers in the back of the book, and the work requires as much imagination as it does science and engineering skills. Get out of that little box you live in, see how the human mind can function when it reads imagination and creativity.
DT: If you could send a work of art into space, what would it be?
GL: I have a fondness for Broadway music. I also like classical, pop (and) The Beatles, but my true favorite is Broadway. And “Les Miserables” is, in my opinion, the epitome of a great musical. The story is fantastic and riveting, and the music is magnificent.
DT: What does it feel like to have a documentary about your life and career premiere at the festival, in Austin?
GL: The Austin I grew up in had a population of 150,000. When I went to McCallum High School, it was the second high school in Austin. The Austin of today bears no resemblance whatsoever. Austin of today has a million people. I’m glad to be in Austin. I’m glad this is happening in Austin. But, if you’ll allow me to say this, this is not my Austin.
