#23 - Gary Swenson: NASA, von Braun, and Remote Sensing

Gary Swenson is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Over his career, Gary Swenson has followed a philosophy of working on problems others aren't working on, where he's applied a systems engineering approach to solving remote sensing problems.  In a series of fortunate events, Dr. Swenson ended up working at NASA, where he experienced the institution's inner workings that gave rise to the moon landing led by the leadership of the legendary Wernher von Braun.   NASA's atmosphere impacted him greatly, leading him to work at Lockheed Martin, where he initially developed his interests in atmospheric sensing projects, including aurora.   After a diverse and successful career in the industry, Dr. Swenson continued his remote sensing research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After almost three decades, he still continues to work hard and discover new findings.  Watch and listen to this conversation to learn how to find the right problems to work on, what it was like to work with von Braun, NASA's ambitious working environment, and why the state of Wisconsin will always be underrated.  This is the UIUC Talkshow: the most interesting people with the most interesting ideas.  EPISODE LINKS: Gary Swenson's UIUC Website: https://ece.illinois.edu/about/directory/faculty/swenson1 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 0:48 - Background 7:17 - How to find the right problems 24:43 - NASA & von Braun 34:23 - NASA's Atmosphere 45:10 - The Moon 52:30 - Goals after retirement 56:38 - The privilege of being an educator 1:02:15 - Specialization 1:07:09 - Advice for young people 1:09:55 - Human nature 1:11:27 - Aliens 🚥Overrated or Underrated Section 🚥 1:15:38 -  🚀 Artemis I 1:19:37 - ✈️  Hypersonics 1:21:18 - 🧀  Wisconsin 1:24:00 - Closing Words SOCIAL: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uiuctalkshow Twitter: https://twitter.com/uiuctalkshow TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uiuctalkshow Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ezoc4xJa4DrGq7N4lhqQn Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-uiuc-talkshow/id1611427075 Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1H9UJqXvJXr3qlx9c89Rv76c6IpnwGeC Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1H9UJqXvJXqdyEq7fuyUz9cmpdfqN1Rb What is the UIUC Talkshow? Our goal with this show is to introduce you to the most interesting people with the most interesting ideas from the UIUC campus. Learn more about Juan David & Aaryaman: Aaryaman https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaryaman-patel-779437205/ Juan David Website: https://www.juandavidcampolargo.com/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/jdcampolargo  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdcampolargo Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jdcampolargo/