Engineering Dean Bobby Braun is returning to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in January 2020 as a member of the executive leadership team
Amy Santoso | Photo Courtesy of Jeff Zehnder
At the end of September, Dean Bobby Braun announced that he will return to NASA in January 2020, having accepted a position with the executive leadership team at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Braun had a conversation with the provost the week prior to the public announcement, and said that he made the decision relatively quickly, taking him only several weeks to decide. “I get to lead the implementation of these missions. That was kind of hard to turn down and as much as I love it [at CU], my inner eight-year-old self was saying ‘go to JPL’,” Braun said.
After earning his PhD at Stanford University, Braun started at NASA Langley Research Center, as he desired to work on robotic solar system exploration missions. Braun noted: “I was fortunate enough to be part of the first rover mission to Mars … that landed on July 4, 1997. I was only 30 and I had already helped land something on Mars!” That year, however, as Braun was involved in several more missions, he realized that he also enjoyed working with students.“I always had [internship] students around me doing these things together, and at some point I realized I like working with the students as much as doing the missions. Then a faculty position opened up at Georgia Tech that was really ideally suited for me … someone with a Systems Engineering [background] in space.”
After 13 years at Georgia Tech, and a twoyear leave to serve as the Chief Technologist at NASA from 2010-2011, Braun stepped into his current position, beginning in 2016, as the dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU Boulder. “I wanted to be the dean of the college because when I interviewed, this place really impressed me. First of all, the college has a fantastic hands-on educational approach, but it’s [also] working in teams, testing, flying, operating things which are all part of the curriculum. I haven’t seen that in other places.”
Braun feels that CU has a lot of potential and credits the college’s vision to faculty, staff, and students in the college. He believes that the vision will continue after his departure.
Over the years, Braun said that the college has taken major steps, especially when it comes to gender parity and underrepresented minority students. The percentage of women in the freshman class, at 32 percent in Fall 2016, has grown to 45 percent in Fall 2019. And within that period, the percentage of underrepresented minority students increased from 16 – 25 percent in the freshman class. The college has also created partnerships with Ball Corporation around diversity and inclusion, and with Lockheed Martin around RF communication.
Research funding has been over $100 million for the past two years, which is a 28 percent increase from previous years. In addition, the college has increased the number of PhD students by 15 percent in the past three years.
Given the new developments within the college, including the creation of the Biomedical Engineering program, the Material Science and Engineering program, and the Entrepreneurship minor, Braun hopes that students from the College of Engineering and Applied Science will not just go into existing jobs today, but create the jobs of the future.
After his departure to NASA, Braun plans to remain engaged with CU, as it is one of the 14 universities part of the Strategic University Research Partnership (SURP) program at JPL. The SURP program works with JPL researchers and universities to encourage JPL/university collaborations and supports students in space exploration topics through participation in JPL summer programs.
In addition, Braun has several graduate students in the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research in the Aerospace Engineering department with whom he will remain in contact.
Throughout the three years as the dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science, some of his fondest memories are of these ceremonies, commencement and graduation ceremonies. “When you’re standing up there in front of 1,000 graduates in December or 6,000 graduates in May … it’s pretty awesome,” Braun said.
“The opening day of the Aerospace Engineering Sciences building has to be right up there,” Braun said, adding to his list of memorable moments at CU. Fundraising helped the project financially and it did not cause any debt to the college. In addition, the new building benefits growth for four of the six departments of the college, which are going to expand into the Northwest side of the Engineering Center after its renovation.