Michael Watkins became Director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on July 1, 2016. In this role, he also serves as a vice president of the California Institute of Technology, which manages JPL for NASA. Prior to this, Watkins spent 22 years on the staff of JPL. From 2015-2016, he held the Clare Cockrell Williams Chair in Engineering and directed the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas at Austin.