David Wright – Engineering Manager, EC

David Wright was the European Consortium (EC) Engineering Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). He enjoyed working in a consortium for an international partnership.

In addition to the 21 institutes that make up the EC and their subcontractors, he worked with a dispersed team of lead engineers in the United Kingdom and Germany. He also interacts with the MIRI Science Team; the European Space Agency; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; and the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Wright was the EC Engineering Manager from the start of MIRI pre-phase B. He was instrumental throughout all stages of its system and equipment level design, build and test leading to the delivery of the flight instrument to the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM). He works for Astrium Ltd. in the United Kingdom.

Wright grew up in the industrial city of Bradford in the north of England. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at Loughborough University of Technology in 1975. He also has a Master of Science in Machine Tool Technology. Wright worked as a machine tool designer, mechanical designer, equipment manager, and engineer as well as a group leader throughout the years. He's also worked on Envisat, Metop and Beagle 2.

For relaxation he likes to walk, cycle, read, garden and travel.