Eugene H. Trinh

Eugene Huu-Phau Trinh is director of the Physical Sciences Research Division in the Biological and Physical Research Enterprise at NASA headquarters, a program aiming to enable the human exploration and development of space. Its research will provide a scientific basis for technologies to explore the vast expanses of our solar system and beyond. He started his career with NASA in 1999, as a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Trinh flew aboard NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-50 in 1992 as a payload specialist, becoming the first Vietnamese-American astronaut in space. He holds a Masters of Science, a Masters of Philosophy and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Applied Physics from Yale University. Updated July 2018