Michael Douglas Griffin (born November 1, 1949 in Aberdeen, Maryland) is an American physicist, aerospace engineer and the former Administrator of NASA, from April 13, 2005 to January 20, 2009. As the chief of America's space agency, Dr. Griffin oversaw such areas as the future of human spaceflight, the fate of the Hubble telescope and NASA's role in understanding climate change. Dr. Griffin, who has a heavy academic background, was named eminent scholar and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville in April 2009. He had previously worked at NASA including as Associate Administrator for Exploration. When he was nominated as NASA chief, Dr. Griffin was working as the head of the Space Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. While he describes himself modestly as "a simple aerospace engineer from a small town," Griffin has held several high-profile political appointments. In 2007, he was named for the TIME 100, the magazine's list of the 100 most influential people.