Peter Theisinger
Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Project Manager
MER spacecraft mission director
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Peter C. Theisinger is Manager of the MER Project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His prior positions have included Deputy Manager of the Mars Sample Return Project, Deputy Manager of the Systems Division, Mission Support and Development Manager of the Mars Surveyor Operations Project, Project Engineer for the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft development project, and Manager of the Spacecraft Systems Engineering section.

Theisinger has been with JPL since 1967, except for the period from 1980 - 1983 when he worked in the private sector. He originally joined JPL in 1967 as an engineer in the Payload Integration Section, and has worked on a variety of missions, including the 1967 Mariner mission to Venus, the 1971 Mariner orbiter mission to Mars, the 1977 Voyager mission to the outer planets of the solar system, and the 1989 Galileo mission to Jupiter.

Pete earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1967 from the California Institute of Technology, and has completed several management programs, including the UCLA Engineering and Management Program, the NASA Management Education Program, and the NASA Advanced Project Management Program.

Theisinger was born in Fresno, California in 1945, and lived with his family in Wisconsin, Maryland, Illinois, and Nebraska before settling in Downey, California in 1961. Theisinger is married with four children, and lives in La Crescenta, California.