James Lux

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

James Lux is the Task Manager for FINDER (Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response), a victim detection radar that detects the breathing and heartbeat of the victims developed for the Department of Homeland Security. He is leading JPL’s development of non-contact microwave techniques for mobile device user authentication and the remote sensing of human vital signs. Mr. Lux is the JPL Principal Investigator for NASA’s SCaN Testbed, including three Software Defined Radios (SDRs), installed on the International Space Station in 2012. He participated in developing the NASA standard for SDRs and was responsible for delivering the first flight qualified standards compliant Operating Environment: the software infrastructure for a SDR. Previous work at JPL includes an adaptive phased array antenna with distributed processing and metrology, a ground station for on-orbit calibration of radar, and a variety of other radio and communications projects.

Before joining JPL in 1998, Mr. Lux developed products for a physical special effects company as well as making it rain on command, lighting really big fires, making household appliances fly through the air, and creating the world’s largest artificial tornado. He has run a software consulting company, and developed equipment to monitor communications and radar systems. He’s worked on a variety of software development projects in both embedded and enterprise scale environments with real-time needs, such as the LAPD ECCCS dispatch system.

Mr. Lux is a licensed Professional Engineer in California, has received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, 6 NASA Group Achievement Awards, and over 20 technology development awards from NASA. He holds two patents and has won several entertainment industry technical awards for the development of novel motion picture effects.