MEET LEE FEINBERG- JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE OPTICAL TELESCOPE ELEMENT MANAGER

Lee Feinberg is the NASA Optical Telescope Element Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.  Lee has been in that role for six years and is also a Senior Staff Engineer in the Instrument Systems Technology Division at Goddard.

In his role on the James Webb Space Telescope, Lee has overseen the development of the three critical telescope technologies: lightweight mirrors, lightweight cryogenic structures, and wavefront sensing and control. Lee co-chaired the Mirror Review Board that chose Beryllium as the material for the primary mirror, he has been a significant contributor to the telescope flight architecture and test architecture, and has been the NASA lead for the overall development of the telescope. 

In 2005, Lee also served as the Chair of the Agency level Advanced Telescope and Observatory Capability Roadmap Committee that developed the technology roadmaps for space telescopes and observatories. In that same year, Lee won the Moe Schneebaum Memorial Award, the highest engineering honor given to a single NASA Goddard engineer or scientist each year.

From 1998-2000, Lee served as the Assistant Chief for Technology in the Instrument Systems Technology Division.  Before that, Lee worked for 10 years on the optical correction and upgrade instruments for the Hubble Space Telescope.  This included serving as the Acting Head of the Instrument Development Office, Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph Instrument Manager, Wide-Field Camera-3 Concept Study Lead, Cosmic Origins Spectrograph Instrument Manager, Wide-Field Planetary Camera-2 NASA Goddard Integration and Testing Lead, and as the NASA optics lead assigned to assure the COSTAR corrective optics would work.

Before coming to NASA, Lee worked for Ford Aerospace and Booz, Allen and Hamilton and also worked for two years as a research assistant the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics Nuclear Fusion Laboratory, Rochester, N.Y.  Lee also left NASA for a year in 2001 to work for Dorsal Networks, an optical networking startup.

In 1998 Lee received an MS in Applied Physics from Johns Hopkins University and in 1987 graduated with a BS in Optics from the University of Rochester.  Lee is a frequent session chair of SPIE and IEEE Aerospace telescope and optics sessions.

Lee is also a pianist, keyboardist, composer of jazz and rock music, and a member of the band Outta Scope that plays in the Washington, D.C. area.  Lee has played in several jazz, rock, and blues bands in the New York City and Washington, D.C. areas for the past twenty years. His compositions appear on 4 CDs and include cable television theme music, a CD of original jazz and classic rock, and songs on the latest CD "Time Machine" by Outta Scope. Lee also recorded a CD of acoustic piano holiday music "Festival of Lights and Sounds" and has appeared as a guest musician on CDs of other artists. He plays acoustic piano, electronic keyboards and Hammond organ. He studied jazz piano with pianist Phil Gaberman and has taught pop and jazz piano in the D.C. area.

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope:
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

For information about the Hubble's COSTAR:
http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/nuts_.and._bolts/optics/costar/

The Moe I. Schneebaum Memorial Award for Engineering:
http://ohcm.gsfc.nasa.gov/awards/schneebaum.htm