John Junkins

John L. Junkins (born May 23, 1943) is an American academic and a distinguished professor of aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University specializing in spacecraft navigation, guidance, dynamics, and control. He holds the Royce E. Wisenbaker Endowed Chair at Texas A&M University and also serves as the Founding Director of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University, since its founding in December 2010. On November 24, 2020, Junkins was announced as the interim President of Texas A&M University starting January 2021. He was the interim president until May 31, 2021.

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents on March 5, 2021, named M. Katherine Banks as the sole finalist to be president of Texas A&M University. On May 27, 2021, Junkins issued a farewell message welcoming his successor as the 26th President of Texas A&M University. After his term as interim president, he returned to his positions as professor in the College of Engineering and continues as the director of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study.

Early life and education

John Junkins was born on May 23, 1943, in Oakman, Georgia, to George Manley Junkins (1917–1986) from Carter's Quarter, Georgia, a World War II veteran, machinist, mechanic, and welder, and Alice Lenell Junkins (née Searcy; 1922–2008) from Gordon County, Georgia, who worked in the textile industry. He is one of five siblings, and one of his sisters, Faye Gibbons, is an author and an inaugural inductee of the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. Although both his father and mother dropped out of school at the sixth and fourth-grade, respectively, they were bright, and understood education was vital for their children to succeed.

Junkins grew up near the town of Dalton, Georgia on his family's five-acre mini-farm, where he later attended North Whitfield High School and participated in the football and track and field teams. He began to be interested in Aerospace Engineering after watching the artificial satellite Sputnik make history during his Freshman year of high school in 1957. This interest was reinforced during the spring of his senior year after his high school track coach, Crossland Clegg, told Junkins that while he was talented at football and track, he could tell Junkins had more unrealized academic potential than as an athlete. Also, later the next year, after hearing President John F. Kennedy's "We choose to go to the Moon" speech, Junkins elected to pursue aerospace engineering.

After high school, he wanted to attend Georgia Institute of Technology but was lacking some required classes that he was not able to take at his rural high school. He initially attended Berry College in Rome, Georgia, where he was active on the track team, winning the GIAC championship in pole vault. In the spring of 1962 he was accepted to transfer to Georgia Institute of Technology. His college roommate Spiros Pallas, who was also on the Berry track team, convinced him to come along on a visit to Auburn University, where Junkins was instantly impressed. During his initial visit in August 1962, Junkins called the registrar on a Sunday afternoon, after looking for his number in a phone book. After explaining his desire to attend Auburn, he was invited to the registrar's home where he was invited to submit his application on the spot.

He was accepted soon after, and began the Aerospace Engineering program in September 1962, later on receiving a degree in Aerospace Engineering (B.AE. 1965) at Auburn. He then pursued his graduate studies at University of California, Los Angeles (M.S. 1967 and Ph.D. 1969). His dissertation was on a novel gradient projection technique.

Career

While an undergraduate at Auburn University, Junkins began his career at the age of 19 as a co-op student during the Apollo program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Huntsville, Alabama, working with Wernher von Braun. He also supported the final three Apollo missions (Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17) during the early 1970s and his inventions have led to commercial products including navigation sensors for autonomous aerial refueling of aircraft, and for pointing navigation of spacecraft based on star pattern recognition.
While he attended graduate studies at UCLA, he maintained full-time employment at McDonnell-Douglas, where he supported numerous launches of satellites aboard Delta rockets.
At the age of 26 and after receiving his doctorate from UCLA, Junkins went to work at the University of Virginia as an assistant professor.
At 34, he left UVA to join the faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University as a full professor.
In 1985, Junkins accepted an offer from Texas A&M University to become the first endowed professor in the College of Engineering. Junkins was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1996 for contributions to flight mechanics and flexible vehicle control. He is also a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. A prolific graduate student mentor, he has directed over 60 PhD students. Half of his PhD students became professors, giving rise to several generations of PhD descendant offspring. Over his career, he has developed a significant body of scholarship. In addition to seven technical books (see Works below), he has about 600 journal and conference publications.

After being recommended by the Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp on November 24, 2020, Junkins released a statement.

"My job will be to help navigate Texas A&M safely along our presently planned course and work with existing senior leadership and the faculty to solve problems as they arise until our new president takes the helm, hopefully by June."

Junkins became the interim President of Texas A&M University on January 1, 2021. His term as interim President ended on May 31, 2021. He faced three unusual challenges: the COVID pandemic (not a single death), campus unrest following the George Floyd murder and an extraordinary winter storm. After his term as interim president, Junkins returned as distinguished professor of Aerospace engineering and Director of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study.

Career chronology

• 1970–1977, University of Virginia
• 1978–1985, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 1985 – present, Texas A&M University

Awards and honors

• 1983 Mechanics & Control of Flight Award, AIAA
• 1987 Dirk Brouwer Award, AAS
• 1988 J. Leland Atwood Award, ASEE & AIAA
• 1990 G. Edward Pendray Aerospace Literature Award, AIAA
• 1997 Theodore von Karman Lectureship in Astronautics Award, AIAA
• 1999 Frank J. Malina Astronautics Medal, IAF
• 2003 Tycho Brahe Award, ION
• 2006 Aerospace Guidance, Navigation, and Control Award, AIAA
• 2011 Life-Time Achievement Medal, ICCES
• 2013 Martin Summerfield Best Book Award, AIAA
• 2019 Robert H. Goddard Astronautics Award, AIAA
• 2021 Kay Bailey Hutchinson Award, TAMEST
• 2022 Kay Bailey Hutchinson Award Video, TAMEST

Works