John Billingham

Senior Scientist Emeritus, SETI Institute (advisory) Inductee, NASA Ames Hall of Fame Chief, NASA ARC, Life Sciences Division (1984 - 91) Chief, NASA ARC, Extraterrestrial Research Division (1976 - 84) Chief, NASA ARC Biotechnology Division (1970-76), Assistant/Acting Chief (1965-70) Chief, NASA JSC Environmental Physiology Branch (1963-65) Medical Officer, Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine (1956 - 63) Vice Chair, SETI Institute Board of Trustees M.A., B.M., B.Ch. (equivalent to M.D. in the U.S.), Oxford University B.A. and M.A. in Physiology, Oxford University He completed his medical studies at Oxford in 1954 and later spent six years as a medical officer in the Royal Air Force. He joined NASA in 1963, becoming chief of its environmental physiology branch later that year at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. He moved to the Ames Research Center in 1965 and spent the next several years in NASA’s biotechnology divisions while he built support for SETI. In addition to his sons Robert and Graham, he is survived by four grandchildren. His wife, the former Margaret Macpherson, also a physician, died in 2009.