Lyman, Peter T., 1930-

Peter Tompkins Lyman was born on February 9, 1930 in Berkeley, California. After serving seven years in the Merchant Marine, Lyman earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering, a master of engineering in naval architecture, and in 1963 a doctorate in mechanical engineering, all from the University of California at Berkeley.

Lyman joined JPL in 1963, and worked for fifteen years on Mars missions, including Mariner 1964, Mariner 1969, and Viking. He served as Cognizant Engineer for Low-Gain Antenna Dampers for Mariner Mars 1964, Spacecraft Performance Analysis and Control (SPAC) Director for Mariner Mars 1969, and was Viking's director of Spaceflight Performance and Flight Path Analysis.

Lyman was Manager of the Spacecraft Design and Integration Section in 1976, Manager of the Applied Mechanics Division (350) from 1976-78, Deputy Manager of Voyager from 1978-79, and Manager of the Information Systems Division (360) from July 1979-December 1980. In December 1980, Lyman was named Assistant Laboratory Director for Telecommunications and Data Acquisition, serving in that position until June 1987.

On June 30, 1987, Lyman succeeded Bob Parks as JPL Deputy Director. Lyman served in that position until his retirement in June 1992. Lyman was twice awarded NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal, as well as other medals from NASA and the American Astronautical Society. Lyman also served as President of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce from 1991-92, and director of United Way and Boy Scouts in San Gabriel Valley.