Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Long-time NASA scientist is 2016 summer commencement speaker
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
PRINCESS ANNE, MD– (Aug. 17, 29016) – Dr. Julian M. Earls, a physicist who headed a NASA research center, will be the featured speaker during the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s 2016 Founders’ Day convocation and summer commencement exercises.
UMES will award 27 Doctor of Physical Therapy degrees at the Sept. 8 ceremony in the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts. It begins at 10 a.m.
Earls currently is an Executive in Residence at the Monte Ahuja College of Business at Cleveland State University in Ohio.
From October 2003 to December 2005, he was director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, where he managed a three-quarters of a billion dollar budget and was responsible for more than 3,200 employees.
His NASA biography says he joined the space agency in 1965 – four years before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. He wrote NASA’s first health physics guides and has been a distinguished honors visiting professor at universities across the country.
During his tenure as the Glenn Center director, it “engaged in research, technology and systems development programs in aeronautical propulsion, space propulsion, space power, space communications, and microgravity sciences in combustion and fluid physics.”
Earls is the author of 31 publications and received NASA Medals for Outstanding Leadership, Exceptional Achievement and Distinguished Service. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush each honored him with Executive Presidential Rank Awards.
He is founder of the Development Fund for Black Students in science, technology, engineering and math fields, which provides college scholarships to students who attend historically black institutions.
In recognition of his humanitarianism, the Dr. Julian M. Earls Community Service Award is presented annually by the City of Beachwood (Ohio) Diversity Council, and the Dr. Julian M. Earls College Scholarship is awarded annually by the National Technical Association and the Ohio Aerospace Institute.
He is a runner who has completed 27 marathons, including the Boston Marathon, and was a torch bearer in 2002 for the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
Earls was a 1986 inductee into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame’s charter class along with the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Norfolk (Va.) State University, a Master of Science in radiation biology from the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Medicine and Dentistry, and a master’s and doctorate in radiation physics from the University of Michigan. He also is a graduate of the Harvard Business School.
Earls is married to a retired Cleveland public school teacher. The couple has two sons and two granddaughters.
UMES Office of Public Relations, (410) 651-6669
