Alexander Kossiakoff was born on June 26, 1914 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He immigrated to the United States in 1923, and received a BS degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1936 and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1938. Kossiakoff worked for the Allegheny Ballistics Laboratory during World War II, and in 1946 joined the staff of the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). He became Director of APL in 1969 and remained in that role until his retirement in 1980. In this interview, Kossiakoff discusses how he came to study and work at Johns Hopkins and some of the major initiatives at APL during his tenure. In this interview, Kossiakoff discusses how he came to study and work at Johns Hopkins and some of the major initiatives at APL during his tenure. This oral history is a part of the Mame Warren oral histories series.

Since 1986, Raymond Villard has been the News Director for the Space Telescope Science Institute. His earlier work experience includes producing planetarium programs for the Maryland Science Center and serving as Assistant Editor of Astronomy magazine. He received a B.S. in Communication Arts from the University of Albany, SUNY and an M.S. in Science Communication from Boston University. In this oral history, Villard discusses his work at the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Hubble Space Telescope. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral histories series.