2025 AeroAstro Lester D. Gardner Lecture
Tuesday, September 23
4:30-5:30pm
35-225
“Let’s Build the Road to Space”
Millions of people living and working in space—to benefit Earth. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp will speak about the company’s vision to build a road to space, and the short-term imperatives to do so: radically reducing the cost to access space, creating a hydrogen economy in space, and leveraging the Moon as our strategic gateway. He’ll also highlight the significant contributions that MIT alumni and interns are making at Blue—and the opportunities ahead for students in the space industry and AI.
About Dave Limp:
Dave Limp joined Blue Origin as CEO in December 2023. Blue Origin is a private space company founded by Jeff Bezos with a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. The company builds reusable rocket engines, launch vehicles, in-space systems, and lunar landers.
Previously, Dave was Senior Vice President of Amazon Devices & Services, where he oversaw the development, retail sales, and operational aspects of Amazon’s consumer electronic devices and the services behind them – including Alexa, Echo, Kindle, Fire TV, Fire tablets, Ring, eero, Blink, as well as other initiatives such as Project Kuiper and Zoox. Dave joined Amazon in March 2010.
Dave started his career at Apple, where he held various positions from 1987 to 1996, the last of which was Director of the North and South American PowerBook division. From 1997 to 2002, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Liberate Technologies. Following that, he served as Chief Strategy Officer of Palm, where he was responsible for corporate development, business development, and applications. Immediately prior to joining Amazon, Dave served as Venture Partner of Azure Capital Partners for four years.
Dave has B.S. degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and a M.S. degree in Management from Stanford University, Graduate School of Business. He serves as board chair for Blue Origin’s Club for the Future, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring and mobilizing future generations to pursue careers in STEAM. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, cooking, mountain biking, and spending time with his family.
About the Gardner Lecture:
An honored tradition in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics dating back to 1959, the Gardner Lecture is made possible by a bequest of Major Lester D. Gardner (class of 1898) to sponsor an annual presentation on aeronautical history.