Federal 100: Tomas J. Soderstrom
Name: Tomas J. Soderstrom
Title: Chief Technology and Innovation Officer
Agency/Company: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Testing the future. Soderstrom constantly has his eye on the horizon, looking for the next technology that will disrupt the way JPL does business. His advocacy of 3-D printing allowed JPL engineers to see and touch their designs and share them with others, and the lab’s early adoption of cloud computing has led to innovative ways of processing telemetry data so that engineers can better operate missions such as the Mars Curiosity rover. In addition, Soderstrom’s use of open-source software to reduce costs and improve capabilities exceeded expectations and prompted officials to create a special office to broaden those capabilities.