Dr. Joe Bassi

Joseph P. (Joe) Bassi is an Assistant Professor of Arts and Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University/Worldwide Campus. He is also an (online) adjunct lecturer at the National Security Studies Institute, University of Texas/El Paso.  Dr Bassi completed his PhD in History of Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara in June 2009. He specialized in the history of modern US science and technology. He was a senior project engineer with the Aerospace Corporation supporting national security space efforts at Vandenberg AFB from 2009-2010.  During his PhD program, Dr Bassi was a Guggenheim pre-doctoral fellow in Space History at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. His recent book, “A Scientific Peak: How Boulder Became a World Center for Space and Atmospheric Science,” recently was selected as one of the best books in atmospheric sciences for 2015 (History category) by Atmospheric Sciences Librarians International.

A retired US Air Force officer with twenty-six years of active duty, he at various points in his military career served as Director of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (Guam), Professor of Strategic Studies at a DOD college, Headquarters US Air Force Action Officer and Program Element Manager, Chief of the Acquisition Meteorology Office at Air Force Space Systems Division, and Assistant Professor of Physics at the USAF Academy.  After retirement from active service, Professor Bassi served as a space policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense while working for the Aerospace Corporation.

In addition to the PhD, he has graduate degrees in Meteorology from Penn State, Astrophysics from the University of Colorado, and History from the George Washington University.  While at GWU, he was a NASA Space Grant Research Fellow at the Space Policy Institute, Elliot School of International Affairs.  He graduated from Manhattan College in 1974 with a BS in Physics (Phi Beta Kappa) and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force ROTC program.