Gary Swenson: NASA, von Braun, and Remote Sensing | The UIUC Talkshow #23

Gary Swenson is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Over his career, Gary Swenson has followed a philosophy of working on problems others aren't working on, where he's applied a systems engineering approach to solving remote sensing problems.

In a series of fortunate events, Dr. Swenson ended up working at NASA, where he experienced the institution's inner workings that gave rise to the moon landing led by the leadership of the legendary Wernher von Braun.

NASA's atmosphere impacted him greatly, leading him to work at Lockheed Martin, where he initially developed his interests in atmospheric sensing projects, including aurora.

After a diverse and successful career in the industry, Dr. Swenson continued his remote sensing research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After almost three decades, he continues to work hard and discover new findings.

Watch and listen to this conversation to:

- Learn how to find the right problems to work on
- What it was like to work with von Braun
- NASA's ambitious working environment
- Why the state of Wisconsin will always be underrated

This is the UIUC Talkshow: the most interesting people with the most interesting ideas.

EPISODE LINKS:

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
0:48 - Background
7:17 - How to find the right problems
24:43 - NASA & von Braun
34:23 - NASA's Atmosphere
45:10 - The Moon
52:30 - Goals after retirement
56:38 - The privilege of being an educator
1:02:15 - Specialization
1:07:09 - Advice for young people
1:09:55 - Human nature
1:11:27 - Aliens
🚥Overrated or Underrated Section 🚥
1:15:38 - 🚀 Artemis I
1:19:37 - ✈️ Hypersonics
1:21:18 - 🧀 Wisconsin
1:24:00 - Closing Words

SOCIAL:

What is the UIUC Talkshow?
Our goal with this show is to introduce you to the most interesting people with the most interesting ideas from the UIUC campus.

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Here are the timestamps for this conversation. If you have questions for Dr. Swenson, please write them below.

0:00 - Introduction
0:48 - Background
7:17 - How to find the right problems
24:43 - NASA & von Braun
34:23 - NASA's Atmosphere
45:10 - The Moon
52:30 - Goals after retirement
56:38 - The privilege of being an educator
1:02:15 - Specialization
1:07:09 - Advice for young people
1:09:55 - Human nature
1:11:27 - Aliens
🚥Overrated or Underrated Section 🚥
1:15:38 - 🚀 Artemis I
1:19:37 - ✈ Hypersonics
1:21:18 - 🧀 Wisconsin
1:24:00 - Closing Words

[birenpatel]

What a great luck to see such a legendary personality with so much simplicity and talk with him in such a simple way. Amazing talk. I have been a very keen follower of Wernher von Braun for the last 20 years and I was so glad to listen his personal experience, Sir Swenson has shared in this talk. Great opportunity he had with his diverse talent to work with NASA and then at Lockheed Martin and then straight to teaching at U of I, a perfect Professor a student wishes to have. Apart from science and his specific research on atmosphere above 90 kms above earth, his equal passion to do star gazing, canoeing, wood working and enjoying family life equally, he teaches us to do what we like with equal passion and patience. May be if he can share his memoirs with Wernher von Braun, I will be waiting for. Keep it up 👍 Dear Boys and do invite him when you will test the rocket landing, very soon !! 👏👏