Clarence A. "Sy" Syvertson is the retired Center Director of the Ames Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, located at Moffett Field, California. Syvertson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1926. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering (with Distinction) in 1946 at age 20. After serving in the US Army in 1946 - 1947, he returned to the University and earned a Master of Science in the same field in 1948. He also did graduate work at Stanford University and the Harvard Business School. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, of the American Astronautical Society, and of the California Council on Science and Technology (emerit