La Canada Flintridge resident William J. Weber, Special Assistant to the Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will present the annual Les Tupper Community Service Awards on Monday, May 9, in JPL’s von Karman Auditorium.  All residents are invited to this annual event sponsored by the La Canada Flintridge Coordinating Council.

Dr. Weber will give a presentation titled, “JPL Update: From La Canada to Jupiter.”  The Laboratory has one of its busiest years ever ahead, with the launches of a major Earth satellite, Aquarius; and a mission to Jupiter, Juno; twin spacecraft called GRAIL that will study the gravity of Earth’s moon; and NASA’s next-generation rover, Mars Science Laboratory.  In addition, this summer the Dawn spacecraft will go into orbit around the protoplanet Vesta.

Before assuming his current post, Dr. Weber was the Director for JPL’s Interplanetary Network Directorate for 7 years.  The Directorate is responsible for space telecommunications, navigation, and many other mission operations services and software applications.  Major responsibilities included NASA’s Deep Space Network.  For nearly 6 years before that, Dr. Weber was the Director for JPL’s Engineering and Science Directorate, home to the majority of JPL’s 3,000 technical personnel.

Dr. Weber holds a BS and masters degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and a PhD in EE from the University of Southern California.  He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and the AIAA, and a member of Phi Eta Sigma, Eta Kappa Nu, and Sigma Xi honoraries. He has received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, and numerous NASA Group Achievement Awards.  He has three adult children, five grandchildren, and resides with his wife, Barbara, in La Canada.

The Les Tupper Award, given to honor outstanding community volunteers, is named after the late Leslie C. (Les) Tupper, a La Canada Flintridge resident and community leader. The event is scheduled from 7 to 10 p.m.