Gordon H. Pettengill, born 1926, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received an SB in physics from the MIT in 1948, and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in physics in 1955. He began his career at MIT by working on planetary radar at Lincoln Laboratory in the late 1950s. From 1963 to 1965 Pettengill served as Associate Director and from 1968 to 1970 as Director of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. He was appointed Professor of Planetary Physics in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in 1970. He was Director of the Center for Space Research from 1984 to 1990. He served on the Committee on Graduate School Policy as chairperson of the Subjects and Performances Evaluation sub-committee from 1976 to 1982. In 1995, Pettengill retired from MIT but continued to be active in research.