John Vittallo, a former member of the NSS Board of Directors, is a Motorola employee with over 10 years of telecommunication design and engineering experience. He has worked and lived in the northwest subsurbs of Chicago all his life. He always wanted to work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), but didn't want to move, so he did the next best thing and became a JPL Solar System Ambassador in 2002. This is a public outreach program designed to work with motivated volunteers across the nation who communicate the excitement of JPL's space exploration missions and information about recent discoveries to people in their local communities.  He has given over 50 such presentations in the Chicago area.  He is also an NSS Chicago Society for Space Studies chapter member and has been on their Speaker’s Bureau since 2005.