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Release: 00-307

Dr. Paul Munafo named manager of NASA program to develop new space materials

Dr. Paul Munafo has been appointed manager of the Materials Processes and Manufacturing Department in the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

In his new position, Munafo supervises approximately 550 scientists, technicians and support personnel responsible for developing new materials and manufacturing techniques used in the design of spacecraft and payloads for launch into space.

Munafo joined the Marshall Center in 1975 as a materials research engineer. He is a three-time recipient of the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal as well as numerous other NASA awards and commendations.

Among his accomplishments in the Materials Processes and Manufacturing Department, Munafo helped develop a metal with the unique and valuable property of being stronger when hot than when cold. It plays a vital role in the Space Shuttle primary rocket engines. Other projects his department has worked on include development of ball bearings that are 30 percent lighter than steel but 40 percent stronger; and perfecting friction stir welding — a process that allows metals to be joined together in a stronger bond than with conventional fusion welding.

A native of Boston, Mass., Munafo graduated from Boston Technical High School in 1957. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge in 1962, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tulane University in New Orleans in1971. Munafo later earned a doctorate degree in materials science from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala.

Munafo is married to the former Virginia Perkins of Brookhaven, Mass. They live in Huntsville and have three grown children: Robert Gillis, Rob Munafo, and Susan Gillis.

The Marshall Center is NASA’s premier center for the development of future space transportation technologies and manages all of the propulsion elements that lift the Space Shuttle into orbit.