Professor Stephen Robinson’s childhood obsession with flying objects shaped a career that led him to becoming one himself as a NASA astronaut. 

On this week’s Face to Face hosted by Chancellor Gary S. May, hear Robinson detail lessons from his 37-year tenure at NASA, which included multiple spacewalks and visits to the International Space Station, before joining the university in 2012. Now a faculty member in the UC Davis Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Robinson graduated from the university in 1978.

Two features of UC Davis in the early 1970s shaped Robinson’s ultimate journey to space: the university had an aeronautical engineering department and an airport. He was recently appointed director of the UC Davis Center for Spaceflight Research. His research focuses on how human life survives in extreme environments.

“We don’t try to inspire the students to protect human life in space,” Robinson says, “we try to think of inspiring the students to extend, augment and make humans much more capable in a hazardous environment.”

Stick around to hear Robinson discuss his early campus mentors, his numerous rejection letters from NASA (“badges of honor”) and the former astronaut’s pick for the best movie about space. 

More episodes of ‘Face to Face’

Chancellor May has interviewed more than 40 guests on his monthly talk show, including faculty, staff and students.

Listen to all of the conversations on the Face to Face webpage.