Les Johnson is the Deputy Manager for NASA’s Advanced Concepts Office at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He is also the co-author of three published popular science books, Living Off the Land in Space (Springer/Copernicus 2007), the 2008 PROSE Award finalist, Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel (Springer/Copernicus 2008) and Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth, (Springer/Copernicus 2009). His first science fiction novel, Back to the Moon, will be published next year (Baen 2010). In the early 2000’s, Les was NASA’s Manager for Interstellar Propulsion Research and later managed the In-Space Propulsion Technology Program. He has worked for NASA since 1990 and has served in various technical and management roles.

Les frequently speaks to the general public about space and science. He regularly speaks to civic and community groups throughout the southeastern United States and has done so in public forums in four countries. One student at the Tec de Monterey in Monterey, Mexico told him that he was “bigger than a rock star.” (Now that’s something a physicist does not hear very often!) He was the technical consultant for the movie, Lost in Space. NPR, CNN, Fox News, The Science Channel and The Discovery Channel have all interviewed him about space and space exploration. Most recently, he appeared on the Discovery Science Channel in three episodes of their July 2009 series about interplanetary and interstellar exploration called Exodus Earth.

Les is the co-investigator on a Japanese space experiment that will fly in the spring of 2010. He was the Chief Scientist for the ProSEDS space experiment, twice received NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal, and holds 3 space technology patents. He has numerous peer-reviewed publications and was published in Analog. He is a frequent contributor to the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and a member of the National Space Society, The World Future Society, and MENSA.