Hello, my name is Ric Slater. I have been working at NASA for 11 years. I grew up in Rochester, New York and attended Rochester Institute of Technology and received a degree in Photographic Technology and Management in 1978. I am currently working in the Imagery and Printing Branch and specifically the Still Imagery Area, which is part of the Information Systems Directorate.

The Imagery area is responsible for photography, photographic processing, digital imaging and still image distribution through the Intranet at JSC. This includes the processing of still imagery generated on the Shuttle and International Space Station. Our group has been working on a project over the past few years to move NASA-JSC from an entirely film based system to a hybrid system which merged both film and digital technologies. This has been an exciting and challenging area because just 10 years ago we only needed to make photographs available to engineers and the public here at JSC in a reasonable amount of time. Today, we have to make images available to all the NASA Centers and International Space Station Partners all over the world. This was a huge challenge and made us change how we approached our distribution of imagery at JSC.

This has been a very rewarding area to work in because the challenges that we tackle are never easy ones and they are always significantly unique in their nature. The people at JSC are some of the brightest and most enthusiastic I have ever worked with in my career. To have an opportunity to work with some of the best engineers and scientists coupled with exciting challenges that JSC has to offer has made working at NASA a real pleasure.

I am really excited about working with all of you while you get the experience of a lifetime learning about the space program. I know that all of you will go back to your schools and help your fellow classmates get excited about science and technology just as you have during your time at JSC.