DR. ALBERT SACCO JR.

Astronaut and Dean of the Whitacre College of Engineering at Texas Tech University

Albert Sacco, Jr. is an American chemical engineer who flew as a Payload Specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia on shuttle mission STS-73 in 1995.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Sacco completed a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston in 1973, and then a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977. He then joined the faculty of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, becoming a full professor and rising to department head in 1989.

Sacco accepted the position of Dean of the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering at Texas Tech University, effective January 1, 2011.