David W. Beaty

David W. Beaty, Ph.D.: David Beaty is currently the chief scientist for the Mars exploration program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. His PhD research at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) involved work on samples returned by Apollos 11 and 12. After leaving Caltech in 1980, Dr. Beaty entered the minerals industry with Noranda Exploration. He worked on commercial mineral exploration projects throughout the Rocky Mountains, primarily on projects related to zinc, molybdenum, gold, silver, and copper. In 1988, Dr. Beaty switched to the oil industry, joining Chevron at their research lab in La Habra, CA. After a time as a research geologist, he became interested in management, and moved from team leader to division manager to acting lab director. In 1999 Dr. Beaty left the industrial sector, and returned to NASA working on planetary robotic missions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His JPL assignments have included project manager, Mars Planetary Protection manager, Mars Subsurface Exploration manager, Mars Program Science manager, and Mars chief scientist.