Miami University

Miami alumnus named director of Cleveland NASA Research Center

11/30/2012

Miami University alumnus James M. Free (Miami '90) will become the next director of the John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has announced.

Free obtained his current post as deputy director of the Glenn Research Center in 2011 after serving as the center’s director of Space Flight Systems since 2009. He will succeed acting director Ramon “Ray” Lugo III in January 2013.

"Jim is an outstanding leader who I know will do great things as the director of Glenn," Bolden said.

A native of northeast Ohio, Free received his bachelor’s degree in aeronautics from Miami. After graduating, he immediately began his NASA career in 1990 as a propulsion engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Free also holds a master's degree in space systems engineering from Delft University in the Netherlands. He is a recipient of a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the Civil Service Excellence Award.