Dr. Alex M Spencer curates two collections at the museum: British and European military aircraft and military flight material. The aircraft collection that includes the museum’s captured German aircraft such as the Messerschmitt Bf.109, Heinkel He 219, Focke Wulf Fw 190 and the British aircraft...

Priscilla Strain first joined the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies (CEPS) in 1974 to work under a NASA grant to study the photography of the Moon collected by the Apollo missions. At the completion of these studies, she undertook the development of the Looking at Earth exhibition...

Dr. F. Robert van der Linden is the Curator of Air Transportation and Special Purpose Aircraft and a supervisory curator in the Aeronautics Department. He served two four-year terms as department chair, from 2007 until 2015.  He is the responsible aeronautics curator for the Boeing Milestones of...

Dr. Thomas R. Watters is a Senior Scientist in the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. He received his BS in earth science from West Chester University in 1977, his MA in geology from Bryn Mawr College in 1979, and his PhD in...

In addition to serving as the department chair, Dr. Margaret A. Weitekamp curates the Museum's social and cultural history of spaceflight collection, more than 5,000 artifacts that include space memorabilia and space science fiction objects. These everyday mementos of the space age—which include...

Lisa Young has served as objects conservator at the National Air and Space Museum since 2009. She earned her B.Sc. (Honors) in conservation at the University of Wales, Cardiff. She has worked at the Museum since 1997, where she conducted primary research on the degradation and preservation of...

Dr. Jim Zimbelman served as the department chair of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies from October 2002, to February, 2007, as part of a rotating chair position among the department scientists. His research interests include topical geologic mapping of Mars and Venus; remote sensing of...