Alice Bowman

{{Infobox scientist

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| name = Alice Bowman

| image = Alice Bowman 2019.jpg

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| caption = Alice Bowman during the New Horizons extended mission in 2019

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1960}}

| birth_place = Richmond, Virginia

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| workplaces = Applied Physics Laboratory, Howard County, Maryland

| education = BA, physics and chemistry, University of Virginia

| known_for = Mission Operations Manager for the New Horizons mission to Pluto

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| spouse =

| children = Noah Carter Bowman

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Alice Bowman (born 1960) is the Mission Operations Manager for the New Horizons mission to Pluto. She is the first woman to fill that role at the Applied Physics Laboratory,{{cite news | url=http://www.themarysue.com/alice-bowman-new-horizons/ | title=Earth Celebrates New Horizons' MOM, Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman | work=The Mary Sue | date=2015-07-15 | accessdate=2015-07-16 }}{{cite news | url=http://earthsky.org/space/these-women-power-new-horizons-pluto-flyby | title=The women of New Horizons' Pluto flyby | work=EarthSky | date=2015-07-14 | accessdate=2015-07-16 }} taking on the position in 2002 specifically for the duration of the three billion-mile space journey.{{Cite news|url=https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/cool-jobs-probing-pluto|title=Cool Jobs: Probing Pluto|last=Cowen|first=Ron|date=2017-02-21|work=Science News for Students|access-date=2017-03-05|language=en}}

Early life and education

Bowman grew up in Richmond, Virginia. She was influenced at an early age by the Gemini program, and in 1969 she watched the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Bowman originally majored in physics and chemistry in college, gaining a BA from the University of Virginia.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zxraDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA76|title=Extending Science: NASA's Space Science Mission Extensions and the Senior Review Process|date=29 January 2017|publisher=National Academies Press|isbn=978-0-309-44878-9|pages=76– |author=Committee on NASA Science Mission Extensions |author3=Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences |author2=Space Studies Board}}

Career

She first worked in the defense industry analyzing infrared detectors{{Cite web|url=http://www.jhuapl.edu/employment/meet/bowman.asp|title=Meet Our Staff|website=www.jhuapl.edu|access-date=2017-03-05|archive-date=2018-05-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511193720/http://www.jhuapl.edu/employment/meet/bowman.asp|url-status=dead}} and developing anti-cancer drugs. She entered the Applied Physics Laboratory as an engineer, intending to work on tracking incoming ballistic missiles.

A member of the principal professional staff at the APL, she is supervisor of the university's own Space Mission Operation Group and Mission Operations Manager (MOM) of the Mission Operations Centre on the New Horizons project. This title is one, it has been suggested, that male personnel refer to traditionally as "Ops manager"; but Bowman, as "a physicist, space commander and parent, embraces the broader term" of MOM.{{cite magazine |last=Witherspoon |first=Roger |title=Rocket Science: Navigating through the Solar System |journal=US Black Engineer & IT |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JsYR13clarsC&pg=PA25 |date=January–February 2007 |volume=30 |issue=4 |publisher=Career Communications Group |pages=25– |issn=1088-3444}} Bowman leads a team of approximately 40 people, and personally assesses every piece of information the centre sends to the space crew before it dispatches.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-women-who-power-nasa-s-new-horizons-mission-to-pluto|title=The Women who Power NASA's New Horizons Mission to Pluto|last=Talbert|first=Tricia|date=2015-07-12|work=NASA|access-date=2017-03-05|language=en}} Ten days before the eventual Pluto-encounter day, that entailed over 20,000 commands.{{Cite news|url=http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4443006/Mission-to-Pluto--An-interview-with-New-Horizons--MOM-|title=Mission to Pluto: An interview with New Horizons' "MOM"|last=Taranovich|first=Steve|work=EDN|access-date=2017-03-05|language=en}} She has compared the levels of accuracy required to achieving a hole in one in golf.

Memberships

Bowman is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the International SpaceOps Committee.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-09/aioa-aac090618.php|title=AIAA announces Class of 2019 Associate Fellows|website=EurekAlert!|language=en|access-date=2019-06-20}}

Awards and honors

Asteroid 146040 Alicebowman, discovered by Marc Buie at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in 2000, was named after her. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 11 July 2018 ({{small|M.P.C. 110636}}).