Flinn-Brown Fellow Blends Aerospace Aspirations, Political Practicality

Bradley Williams was 10 years old when he first discovered his passion for deep space exploration, while he was watching the 1999 Mars Polar Lander Descent. 

Years later, Peter Smith, the principal investigator of the Phoenix Mars Lander mission -- which rose from the ashes of the Mars Polar Lander -- eventually gave Williams his start in space research when Williams took one of Smith’s classes at the University of Arizona. 

Williams earned his UA bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering with minors in math and planetary science in 2013 and an MS in systems engineering in 2018. He now works as a project manager at the UA's Steward Observatory, executing several of the funded and proposed NASA missions at both the observatory and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. 

The Arizona Center for Civic Leadership at the Flinn Foundation named him one of 30 members of the 2019 class of the Flinn-Brown Civic Leadership Academy. Flinn-Brown fellows have opportunities to expand their knowledge, skills and networks to help address Arizona’s long-term issues.

"The aerospace industry has a large presence in Arizona, so I'd love for it to be a force for progress and change in the state,” Williams said. “The UA is at the epicenter of space in Arizona and in a good place to push us into the sky."