View source for Biography:Alan Eustace

{{Short description|American computer scientist|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Infobox person
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| name               =  Alan Eustace
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| image              =  Alan Eustace in 2008.jpg
| alt                = 
| caption            = Eustace in 2008
| birth_name         = Robert Alan Eustace<ref name=Paragon />
| birth_date         =  {{Birth based on age as of date|57|2014|10|25}}<ref name="NYT-20141024-JM" />
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| nationality        = 
| alma_mater         = [[Organization:University of Central Florida|University of Central Florida]]
| occupation         = Computer scientist
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| known_for          = World record for the highest-altitude free-fall jump
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| boards             = Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
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'''Robert Alan Eustace''' (born 1957) is an American computer scientist who served as Senior Vice President of Engineering and first Senior Vice President for Knowledge at [[Company:Google|Google]] until retiring in 2015.<ref name=Google>{{cite web|title=Management team|url=https://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/|access-date=24 October 2014}}</ref>  On October 24, 2014, he made a free-fall jump from the [[Earth:Stratosphere|Stratosphere]], breaking Felix Baumgartner's world record.  The jump was from {{convert|135890|ft|km}} and lasted 15 minutes, an altitude record that stands {{As of|2023|lc=y}}.<ref name="NYT-20141024-JM">{{cite news |last=Markoff |first=John |title=Parachutist's Record-Breaking Fall: 26 Miles, 15 Minutes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/science/alan-eustace-jumps-from-stratosphere-breaking-felix-baumgartners-world-record.html |date=October 24, 2014 |work={{wipe|The New York Times}} |access-date=October 24, 2014 }}</ref><ref name="NYT-20141027-JM">{{cite news |last=Markoff |first=John |title=15 Minutes of Free Fall Required Years of Taming Scientific Challenges - For World Record, Alan Eustace Fought Atmosphere and Equipment |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/science/for-world-record-alan-eustace-fought-atmosphere-and-equipment.html |date=October 27, 2014 |work={{wipe|The New York Times}} |access-date=October 31, 2014 }}</ref>

==Early years==
The son of a Martin Marietta engineer, Eustace grew up in Pine Hills, Florida, then a working-class suburb of Orlando, where small ranch houses had been built for employees of the Martin Marietta Corporation.<ref name=Kassab2011>{{cite news|last1=Kassab|first1=Beth|title=Google exec remembers growing up in Pine Hills|url=http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-12-13/news/os-beth-kassab-pine-hills-transformation-20111212_1_pine-hills-google-exec-alan-eustace|access-date=October 25, 2014|publisher=Orlando Sentinel|date=December 13, 2011}}</ref> After graduating from Maynard Evans High School in 1974, he received a debate scholarship from [[Organization:Valencia College|Valencia College]] and attended it for a year before transferring to Florida Technological University—now known as the [[Organization:University of Central Florida|University of Central Florida]]—to major in mechanical engineering.<ref name=Kassab2011 />

As a university student, Eustace worked part-time selling popcorn and ice cream in Fantasyland and working on the monorail at Walt Disney World.<ref name=Kassab2011 /> After taking a class on [[Computer science|computer science]], he decided to switch majors and ended up completing three academic degrees in the field, including a doctorate in 1984.<ref name=Kassab2011 />

==Professional career==
After graduation, Eustace worked briefly for Silicon Solutions, a [[Finance:Startup company|startup]] in Silicon Valley,<ref name=Kassab2011 /> before joining [[Company:Digital Equipment Corporation|Digital]], [[Company:Compaq|Compaq]] and then [[Company:Hewlett-Packard|HP]]'s Western Research Laboratory, where he worked 15 years on pocket computing, chip multi-processors, power and energy management, internet performance, and frequency and voltage scaling. In the mid-1990s, he worked with Amitabh Srivastava on [[Profiling (computer programming)#History|ATOM]], a binary-code instrumentation system that forms the basis for a wide variety of program analysis and computer architecture analysis tools.
<ref>A. Srivastava and A. Eustace, [http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~ece548/tools/atom/man/wrl_94_2.pdf ''ATOM: A system for building customized program analysis tools''], Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming language design and implementation (PLDI '94), pp. 196–205, 1994; ACM SIGPLAN Notices - Best of PLDI 1979-1999 Homepage archive, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 528–539; doi:10.1145/989393.989446</ref>
These tools had a profound influence on the [[Engineering:Alpha 21164|EV5]], [[Engineering:Alpha 21264|EV6]] and EV7 chip designs.

Eustace was appointed head of the laboratory in 1999, but left it three years later to join [[Company:Google|Google]], then a new startup.<ref name=Kassab2011 /> At Google, he worked as Senior Vice President of Engineering until he retired from that section of Google on March 27, 2015.

Eustace is currently Technical Advisor<ref>{{cite web | url=https://opener.aero/about-us | title=Opener }}</ref> at Opener Aerospace, sometimes giving interviews[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=671Vf3PFlWU#t=16s] about their electric VTOL aircraft, the [[Engineering:Opener BlackFly|Opener BlackFly]].

In the course of his professional career, Eustace co-authored nine publications and appeared as co-inventor in ten patents.

==Stratosphere jump==
[[File:Comparison International Standard Atmosphere space diving.svg|thumb|right|200px|Comparisons: Jump altitudes by Alan Eustace and others ''versus'' [[International Standard Atmosphere|atmospheric]] temperature and pressure]]
<!---[[File:Comparison International Standard Atmosphere space diving.svg|thumb|right|200px|Comparison of the altitude of Eustace's jump with approximate altitudes of various objects and other successful stratospheric jumps, and a graph of [[International Standard Atmosphere|International Standard Atmosphere]] temperature and pressure.]]--->
In 2011, Eustace decided to pursue a stratosphere jump and met with Taber MacCallum, one of the founding members of Biosphere 2, to begin preparations for the project.<ref name="NYT-20141024-JM" /> Over the next three years, the Paragon Space Development technical team designed and redesigned many of the components of his parachute and life-support system.<ref name=Paragon>{{cite web|title=StratEx|url=http://www.paragonsdc.com/stratex/|publisher=Paragon|access-date=October 27, 2014}}</ref><ref name="NYT-20141024-JM" /> The Paragon team integrated systems for the Stratospheric Explorer mission code named StratEx Space Dive.<ref name="Paragon StratEx Mission">{{cite web |title=StratEx Mission |url=https://www.paragonsdc.com/what-we-do/systems-integration/stratex-mission/ |website=paragonsdc.com |publisher=Paragon |access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref>
[[File:20180328 Eustace Suit Udvar-Hazy.jpg|thumb|left|Eustace's suit on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center]]

On October 24, 2014, Eustace made a jump from the [[Earth:Stratosphere|stratosphere]], breaking Felix Baumgartner's 2012 world record.<ref name="The Verge article">{{cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2014/10/24/7062023/alan-eustace-google-vp-free-fall-parachute-jump-world-record |title=Google VP's 135,908-foot leap breaks world record for highest free-fall parachute jump |work=The Verge |date=October 24, 2014 |access-date=October 24, 2014 }}</ref> The launch-point for his jump was from an abandoned runway in [[Place:Roswell, New Mexico|Roswell, New Mexico]], where he began his gas balloon-powered ascent early that morning.<ref name="The Verge article" /> He reached a reported maximum altitude of {{convert|135908|ft|km mi}}, but the final number submitted to the World Air Sports Federation was {{convert|135889.108|ft|km mi}}.<ref name="NYT-20141024-JM" /> The balloon used for the feat was manufactured by the Balloon Facility of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, India.<ref name="Paragon"/> Eustace in his pressure suit hung tethered under the balloon, without the kind of capsule used by Felix Baumgartner. Eustace started his fall by using an explosive device to separate from the helium balloon.<ref>{{cite book |last= Leidich |first= Jared |date= September 29, 2016 |title= The Wild Black Yonder |location=Denver, CO |publisher= Stratospheric Publishing |isbn=978-0997691900}}</ref>

His descent to Earth lasted 4 minutes and 27 seconds<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ted.com/talks/alan_eustace_i_leapt_from_the_stratosphere_here_s_how_i_did_it/transcript#t-153264|title=Transcript of "I leapt from the stratosphere. Here's how I did it"|last=Eustace|first=Alan|access-date=2018-11-10|language=en}}</ref> and stretched nearly {{convert|26|mi|km}} with peak speeds exceeding {{convert|822|mph|km/h}},<ref name="The Verge article" /> setting new world records for the highest free-fall jump and total free-fall distance {{convert|123414|ft|km mi}}.<ref>{{Cite web | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29766189 | title = Google's Alan Eustace beats Baumgartner's skydiving record | work = BBC News | date = October 24, 2014 | access-date = October 25, 2014 }}</ref> However, because Eustace's jump involved a [[Engineering:Drogue parachute|drogue parachute]], while Baumgartner's did not, their vertical speed and free-fall distance records remain in different categories.<ref name=FAI>{{cite web |url=http://www.fai.org/fai-slider-news/37012-baumgartners-records-ratified-by-fai |access-date=October 26, 2014 |date=February 22, 2013 |title=Baumgartner's Records Ratified by FAI! |work=[[Organization:Fédération Aéronautique Internationale|FAI]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130302153718/http://www.fai.org/fai-slider-news/37012-baumgartners-records-ratified-by-fai |archive-date=March 2, 2013 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uspa.org/NewsEvents/News/tabid/59/ctl/Detail/mid/797/xmid/39702/xmfid/19/Default.aspx |access-date=October 26, 2014 |date=October 24, 2014 |title=Alan Eustace, D-7426, Bests High-Altitude World Record |work=U.S. Parachute Association |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003015830/http://www.uspa.org/NewsEvents/News/tabid/59/ctl/Detail/mid/797/xmid/39702/xmfid/19/Default.aspx |archive-date=October 3, 2015 }}</ref>

Unlike Baumgartner, Eustace, a twin-engine jet pilot, was not widely known as a daredevil prior to his jump.<ref name="NYT-20141024-JM" />

Eustace's world record jump was featured in two episodes of ''STEM in 30'', a television show geared towards middle-school students by the National Air and Space Museum.<ref>{{Citation|title=The Engineering Behind a Record-Breaking Skydive|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt8651212/|access-date=2019-02-06}}</ref>

==See also==
*Space diving
*Yevgeni Andreyev
*Felix Baumgartner
*Charles "Nish" Bruce
*Michel Fourniret
*Joseph Kittinger
*Nick Piantanida
*Cheryl Stearns
*Steve Truglia
*[[Biography:Olav Zipser|Olav Zipser]]
*Victor Prather

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Leidich, Jared ''The Wild Black Yonder, The Inside Story of the Secret Trip to the Edge of Earth's Atmosphere for the Highest Balloon Flight and Skydive of All Time''. Stratospheric Publishing, 2016. {{ISBN|0997691905}}

==External links==
*[https://www.ted.com/talks/alan_eustace_i_leapt_from_the_stratosphere_here_s_how_i_did_it?language=en "I leapt from the stratosphere. Here’s how I did it" (TED Talk, March 2015)]
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/science/alan-eustace-jumps-from-stratosphere-breaking-felix-baumgartners-world-record.html?_r=0 "Alan Eustace Jumps from Stratosphere Breaking Felix Baumgartner's Record" (John Markoff, ''The New York Times'', October 24, 2014)]
* {{IMDb name|5468197}} movie about record setting space jump ''14 Minutes from Earth'' (2016)

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[[Category:American computer scientists]]

{{Sourceattribution|Alan Eustace}}