Personal Note From Laurie Leshin

To: The Caltech Community
From: Thomas F. Rosenbaum, Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and Professor of Physics

As a follow up to my message this morning announcing the transition in JPL leadership, Laurie Leshin has written a personal note to the JPL community. Laurie's full message is included below.

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May 7, 2025
To: JPL Employees and Contractor Personnel
From:  Laurie Leshin
Subject: With Gratitude 

Dear JPL Community,

As you read in President Rosenbaum's email, I have decided to step down as Director of JPL, effective June 1. Though not an easy decision, I strongly believe it is the right one for me, my family, and the Laboratory. I appreciate the support of Caltech and NASA leadership over the past weeks who have worked collaboratively with me to ensure a timely and smooth transition in JPL leadership. I strongly support Dave Gallagher's appointment as JPL's 11th Director. I believe that he is the right leader at the right time for the Lab.

I am proud of the many things JPL has accomplished over the past three years. We launched EMIT, SWOT, Psyche, PREFIRE, Europa Clipper, SPHEREx and soon NISAR, among others. We delivered the Coronagraph Instrument now installed on the RomanSpace Telescope, and the CADRE rovers, now ready for flight to the Moon. We saved Voyager more than once and flew into history on Mars with Ingenuity. We have made more amazing scientific discoveries than I can name, including finding potential ancient Martian biomarkers with Perseverance. And we've driven the forefront of technology on Earth and in space.

There is no doubt that the challenges of the past three years have also been significant. But I could always count on you all – this amazing JPL community – to guide us through. Your strength through adversity will always inspire me.

Moving forward, I will help Dave, Leslie and the JPL team in any way I can and am already working closely with them to ensure a seamless transition in early June. Then I intend to take up my role as a Caltech faculty member, with a focus on re-launching my research program, and on my family's recovery from the Eaton fire. This event is still deeply impacting my daily life, as I know it is for so many of you.

Thank you to every one of you who came forward with good ideas (like paid parental leave!), who stopped me in the cafeteria to say hello or express appreciation, and to those who helped us celebrate our successes, and weather our losses. I know you will continue to Dare Mighty Things Together far into the future.

Leading JPL has been the honor of a lifetime. I look forward to staying connected to many of you as we all move forward. I will always remain a champion of the extraordinary work you all do to expand humanity's reach into the cosmos and make lives better on Earth.

With gratitude,
Laurie