20th Anniversary Celebration of the National Center for Microgravity Research

On May 18, 2017, USRA hosted an event to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the establishment of the National Center for Microgravity Research (NCMR). NCMR was a unique partnership established between NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and USRA to nurture and grow GRC’s program of cutting-edge microgravity science research in combustion, fluid physics, and complex fluids. Although the NCMR name has changed over the years, the partnership between NASA, CWRU, and USRA has been steadfast, and has produced outstanding results that are benefiting all humankind.

The celebration was held at the Windows On The River party center in downtown Cleveland and the evening was filled with fond remembrance of the partnership’s past successes (that includes over 100 successful flight investigations and many more ground-based investigations) as well as the team’s continued optimism for the future of microgravity science research. Featured speakers included Dr. Simon Ostrach - the founding Director of NCMR and a member of the National Academy of Engineering – along with his successors Dr. J. Iwan Alexander,Stephen Simons, and Christopher Pestak, the current director. Bill Masica and Jack Salzman – founding managers of NASA GRC’s Space Experiments Division also addressed the crowd, along with USRA’s President Dr. Jeffrey Isaacson