Jay's story

            After flying model rockets and doing amateur astronomy in high school, Jay graduated from Harvard in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in physics. He completed his Ph.D. in experimental atomic physics at MIT and in 1976 joined the Center for Earth and Planetary Physics at Harvard, studying the weather on Venus. He later directed the observatory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, and worked in NASA’s mission control center in Houston.

            Jay has spent more than 847 hours in space, on four Space Shuttle missions, and performed two space walks. He has been to the Russian space station Mir, and is the recipient of NASA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal.

            He is a pilot and aircraft owner with 7,000 hours of experience in more than 25 types of aircraft, sailplanes, and human-powered aircraft. He has flown single-engine aircraft to Greenland, Iceland, Europe, Alaska, and Central America.

            An award-winning photographer, Apt shares his images and knowledge of the Earth in Orbit: NASA Astronauts Photograph the Earth, published by the National Geographic Society. The book has been printed in eleven languages; more than 600,000 copies are in print.

            Jay is an emeritus Professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business and in the CMU Department of Engineering and Public Policy. He served as the Director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center. He has authored over 120 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as two books and several book chapters. He has published op-ed pieces in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post.  He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the Metcalf Lifetime Achievement Award for significant contributions to engineering.

Learn More

Jay Apt Speaker Introduction

Jay Apt Full Biography

Jay Apt NASA portrait

Jay’s Wikipedia page

Jay’s Carnegie Mellon University page

Sharing the experience of Earth from space

Cover of "Orbit: NASA Astronauts Photograph the Earth"

Orbit is the first look at Earth with digital resolution

The 155 photographs are divided into chapters on Africa, Europe and the Middle East, Asia, the Aurora, Pacific, Middle and South America, and North America.

Jay Apt's National Geographic cover story

The cover story went to 7 million subscribers

This was the first time that National Geographic had tied in a book it published with its iconic magazine. Jay uses the high-resolution photos in his talks for your audience.

Praise for Orbit

“A magnificent testament to what we see and feel from space: Earth so splendid, Earth so fragile.”
Frank Borman, commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the Moon
“This book provides a very real sense of the wonder and majesty that astronauts experience as they gaze upon our world from above.”
Senator John Glenn the first American to orbit and photograph Earth

A few of the images from Orbit: NASA Astronauts Photograph The Earth that your audience will see in Jay’s presentation:

Mt. Everest, one of the images Jay Apt can show as an astronaut speaker.
The Tiffernine dune field in North Africa, one of the images Jay Apt can show as an astronaut speaker.
Volcanic eruption near Rabaul, one of the images Jay Apt can show as an astronaut speaker.
New York city at night, taken by Jay Apt, one of the images he can show as an astronaut speaker.
Dwarf hurricane photographed on STS-47, one of the images Jay Apt can show as an astronaut speaker.
Sunset over the Pacific on STS-47, one of the images Jay Apt can show as an astronaut speaker.
The southern aurora and Orion taken by Jay Apt on STS-59, one of the images Jay Apt can show as an astronaut speaker.
The view out the overhead and aft windows of the Space Shuttle, one of the images Jay Apt can show as an astronaut speaker.
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