Not a 'real' PSP candidate; 1986 bachelor of science in aerospace engineering from the University of Tennessee; 1990 master of science in engineering science and mechanics from the University of Tennessee Space Institute; since January 1983 working at the Marshall's Engineering Dynamics Laboratory; from January 1991 until September 1995 training manger for STS-50, STS-66 and STS-83; then selection as "non-flight alternate payload specialist" for STS-83; this position he had again for the repetition flight STS-94; the Investigator Working Group (IWG) and NASA did not succeed in finding a second alternative PSP for the MSL mission; after his assignment because of his large experience and scientific background (although it was clear that he actually never would fly) payload commander Janice Voss and commander Jim Halsell decided that it would be a good idea to train him in all payload and Shuttle/Spacelab systems as long as the budgets and facility schedules would allow; the result of this attitude toward him was that he participated in Spacelab simulation training, emergency egress training, launch simulations and even a familiarization flight in a T-38; posing in the official (complete) crew portrait was a logical result.