State of the Industry Breakfast
Sponsored by the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation
Before the floor opens for the world’s largest sportfishing trade show, the industry comes together for the State of the Industry Breakfast – one of the most important business events for our industry.
Wednesday, July 12
Doors open at 7:00 AM
7:45 AM – 8:45 AM
Room S320
State of the Industry Breakfast is a ticketed event.
Keynote Speaker
Michael Massimino, Ph.D.
Michael Massimino, Ph.D.
Former NASA Astronaut and Columbia University Engineering Professor
Mike Massimino, a former NASA astronaut, is a professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University and the senior advisor for space programs at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. He received a B.S. from Columbia University, and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering and technology and policy, as well as a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After working as an engineer at IBM, NASA, and McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, along with academic appointments at both Rice University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Mike was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1996.
He is a veteran of two space flights, the fourth and fifth Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions in 2002 and 2009. Mike has a team record for the number of hours spacewalking in a single space shuttle mission and was also the first person to tweet from space.
During his NASA career he received two NASA Space Flight Medals, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the American Astronautical Society’s Flight Achievement Award, and the Star of Italian Solidarity (Italian knighthood).
Mike has made numerous television appearances, including a six-time recurring role as himself on the CBS hit comedy The Big Bang Theory. He has hosted Science Channel’s The Planets and its special Great American Eclipse. He is featured in National Geographic Channel’s series One Strange Rock and is the host for Science Channel’s series The Planets and Beyond.
Mike’s book, Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe, has received rave reviews and is a New York Times best-seller.
The street that Mike grew up on in Franklin Square, Long Island, New York, has been renamed “Mike Massimino Street.”