Dr. Jerry K. Cline received a Ph.D. from Purdue in 1967. A student of the late Harry Pollard, he wrote his thesis in the field of celestial mechanics. Shortly after graduation, he began his career with McDonnell Douglas Corporation (MDC). Over the first 15 years, he was assigned Mission Analysis responsibilities on several advanced space and weapon system programs, including the Galileo Probe Mission to Jupiter, Viking Mars Lander, Space Shuttle Orbiter, Tomahawk Cruise Missile and Harpoon Antiship Missile. A notable achievement during this time was the development of a 2-body, 12 degree-of-freedom digital simulation of the separation of the space shuttle orbiter from its external fuel tank. Studies based on this simulation were made by Dr. Cline to determine conditions under which the separation could take place safely, i.e. with no recontact.
Dr. Cline later moved into management positions at MDC. The first of these was in the Strategic Management organization, where his duties centered around identifying potential new business opportunities for missile systems and prioritizing new technology development.
Since 1992, Dr. Cline has been head of the Operations Analysis department, which is responsible for System Analysis, Cost Analysis, Risk Management and Manufacturing Process Simulation for McDonnell Douglas Aerospace. This department consists of about 120 people, of whom some 30% have degrees in mathematics. Most of the rest have degrees in engineering, operations research, or computer science. Twelve people in the department have degrees from Purdue, four of which are in mathematics.
During his career at MDC, Dr. Cline has maintained strong academic ties. As an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at Washington University in St. Louis, he has taught evening courses each year since 1967. He has also participated with Oklahoma State University mathematics faculty on several of their applied mathematics projects, which were funded by the National Science Foundation.
In the most significant of the NSF-funded projects, Dr. Cline was one of six industry mathematicians selected in 1983 to present a work-related problem and its solution on videotape. The videotapes were made available to other universities by the Mathematical Association of America. Dr. Cline's presentation problem was entitled "Hours of Daylight." The problem, suitable for advanced undergraduates, was to develop an analytical methodology for calculating the length of day at a point on a planet as a function of latitude and the inclination of the planet's spin axis to the ecliptic. Length of day, sun angles, etc. are helpful in selecting candidate landing sites for interplanetary lander missions.
Dr. Cline has published some articles in the open literature over the years and numerous internal MDC technical reports.