Hanspeter Schaub grew up in Switzerland. He moved to the US in 1988 where he earned his BS, MS and PhD, all in aerospace engineering, from Texas A&M University. He did one year post-doc working on formation flying at Texas A&M then four years at Sandia National Laboratories. Between 2003-2007, he was an assistant professor at Virginia Tech then joined the 鶹Ƶ in August 2007 as an associate professor. Hanspeter is married to Steve White and they have two Great Pyrenees dogs.
Describe one of your favorite traditions.
Having friends over for dinner where we spend hours eating, drinking and laughing. I enjoy these small socials where the focus is on good food and good company.
What is an ordinary moment in your life that brings you joy?
Walking the dogs each day. We have always had large Great Pyrenees dogs and spoil them regularly.
What do you most like to do to unwind?
I enjoy hanging out with our dogs, traveling, as well as doing the various home improvements in our mountain home.
What has been your favorite work or personal project so far?
My favorite project so far is working with LASP on the Emirates Mars mission called Hope. This was an amazing collaboration where we got to push the technical envelope on how to fly a deep space mission. My LASP collaborators Daniel Kubitschek and Scott Piggott were a joy to work with.
Where is the best place you’ve traveled to and why?
There have been so many, but I’d have to pick Antartica. It is a place I’ve always wanted to visit and we finally got to do this for our honeymoon trip in 2014.
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
I’m a skydiver with over 1600 jumps and 24 hours of freefall time. I used to compete at the National Collegiate Skydiving championships where we won several categories over the years. I became the first civilian (non military academy) skydiver to win the 'Overall Parachuting Champion' award.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Pastries. They are my “happy food” if I need a pick me up during the week.
What was the first concert you attended?
This was a concert by Genesis in Houston for their Invisible Touch tour.