Gregory L. Robinson

For his role in improving the performance of the Webb program, Robinsons's supervisor, Thomas Zurbuchen, called him "the most effective leader of a mission I have ever seen in the history of NASA." Zurbuchen credited Robinson with raising the program's schedule efficiency (how many measures were completed on time) from 50% to 95%. In 2022, Robinson was named to the Time 100 list of influential people. In July 2022, after Webb's commissioning process was complete and it began transmitting its first data, Robinson retired following a 33-year career at NASA.

Since 2020, Robinson has taught at Columbia University.

Robinson joined NASA in 1989, and quickly became a manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center. He has been Deputy Center Director of the John H. Glenn Research Center, NASA Deputy Chief Engineer, and from 2018 to 2022, was the director of the Webb Space Telescope Program. He has also taught in the George Washington University Department of Engineering Management & Systems Engineering.

Robinson was the 9th of 11 children born to tobacco sharecroppers in rural Virginia. He attended a segregated elementary school until 1970, and then earned a bachelor degree in math from Virginia Union University, where he had a football scholarship. He transferred to Howard University and earned a bachelor degree in electrical engineering. Robinson also has an MBA from Averett College.