Photo of Edward C. Stone

Edward C. Stone

  • National Medal of Science
  • Physical Sciences

For his outstanding leadership as Project scientist for the Voyager Space Mission and its exploration of the outer Solar System.

As a graduate student at the University Chicago, Edward C. Stone was inspired to enter the fields of planetary science and space exploration by the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Stone attended the University of Chicago where he earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in physics.

In 1972, Stone became the project scientist for the unmanned Voyager Mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He coordinated the scientific study of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and Voyager’s exploration of the out heliosphere and search for the edge of interstellar space. The Voyagers are still traveling in space, exploring where nothing else has before, and are expected to continue returning scientific information as they reach the outer bounds of our solar system.

Stone was a principal investigator on nine NASA spacecraft and a co-investigator on five other NASA missions, including Galileo’s five-year orbital mission to Jupiter, the launch of Cassini to Saturn, the launch of Mars Global Surveyor, development of a new generation of Earth science satellites, and the successful Mars Pathfinder landing in 1997. Stone developed instruments for studying galactic cosmic rays, solar energetic particles and planetary magnetospheres, providing researchers better technology to study the wonders of space.

By Jen Santisi