Edward Carroll Stone (January 23, 1936 – June 9, 2024) was an American space scientist, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, and director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Biography

Stone was born in Knoxville, Iowa, on January 23, 1936. After receiving his undergraduate education at Iowa's Burlington Junior College in Iowa, Stone attended the University of Chicago where he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics. Stone's began astrophysics research in 1961, working on cosmic-ray experiments carried by Discoverer satellites. He then joined the staff of Caltech as a research fellow, and became a full faculty member in 1967. In 1976, Stone was named professor of physics, later the Morrisroe Professor of Physics, and was chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy from 1983 to 1988. He has also served as director of the Caltech Space Radiation Laboratory, and as vice president for Astronomical Facilities. He was the vice-chair of the Thirty Meter Telescope Board of Directors. In 1972, Stone became project scientist for the Voyager missions to the outer Solar System. He was also the principal investigator for the Cosmic Ray System experiment on both Voyager spacecraft. As the spokesman for the Voyager science team, he became well known to the public in the 1980s. He was later the principal investigator of nine NASA spacecraft missions and coinvestigator on five more. He appeared in The Farthest, a 2017 documentary on the Voyager program. In 2022, Stone retired from project scientist of the Voyager missions, after holding the role for 50 years. He died from complications of dementia in Pasadena, California, on June 9, 2024, at the age of 88.

JPL director

Stone was the director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, from 1991 to 2001. During his tenure, the Mars Pathfinder and its Sojourner rover were successful. Other JPL missions in the period included Mars Global Surveyor, Deep Space 1, TOPEX/Poseidon, NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) and the launches of Cassini, Stardust, and 2001 Mars Odyssey.

Awards and honors