Kan Yang is a Capture Manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He oversees Project Managers, Scientists, and Engineers in generating new proposals for spaceflight instruments and mission concepts, translating science ideas into engineering and programmatic realism. In this position, he has brought over $300M of new work to two NASA centers.

Since joining NASA Goddard in 2010, Kan has enjoyed a kinetic and multifaceted career. As Team Lead of the Instrument Design Lab at Goddard’s Integrated Design Center, he led the development of over 40 concepts, working with principal investigators, engineers, technologists, and university partners to realize NASA’s next generation of spaceborne instruments studying the Earth, the Sun, the Solar System, and the cosmos. Prior to this position, he was a Thermal Engineer, working on projects as varied as an Earth-observing satellite tracking extreme weather and a lunar satellite to enhance our knowledge of the dust environment around the Moon. Kan was the Lead Thermal Analyst of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)’s major cryogenic test, where he directed the cooldown of a telescope the height of a three-story building to a chilly -240°C inside the world’s largest thermal vacuum chamber, verifying its functionality on Earth before it flew in space. After a successful launch in 2021, JWST’s groundbreaking discoveries have offered humanity unprecedented insight into our universe, and the telescope has been honored with a place in Time Magazine’s “Best Inventions Hall of Fame.” For his contributions to Webb, Kan was awarded NASA’s prestigious Exceptional Achievement Medal.

Kan holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan and a Master’s Degree from the University of Maryland, both in aerospace engineering. He has authored many technical papers, short courses, and textbook chapters, and has lectured at the University of Maryland, Cornell University, and the University of Michigan. He considers his work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach to middle and high school students, especially for underserved communities in Hawai’i, among his most impactful achievements.