NFF National Scholar-Athletes
A two-time Honorable Mention All-American, Richmond wide receiver Leland Melvin holds the school record for career games with 100+ receiving yards (11). A co-captain of the 1985 Spiders, he ranks third in school history in career receiving yards (2,669) and career receptions (198); fourth in single-season touchdown catches (8), single-game receiving yards (208); fifth in career touchdown catches (16); eighth in single-season receiving yards (956); and ninth in single-season receptions (65). In 1984, Melvin caught 16 passes for 252 yards and a touchdown in Richmond’s two games in the 1984 Division I-AA Playoffs. He caught at least one pass in all 39 games he played for the Spiders. Melvin was inducted into the University of Richmond Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee in 1997 and selected for the All-UR Stadium Team in 2009. He was selected in the 11th round (290th overall) of the 1986 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions.
A Second Team Academic All-American, Melvin received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and received his master’s in materials science engineering from the University of Virginia in 1991. In 1989, he began working in the Nondestructive Evaluation Sciences Branch at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., where he led the Vehicle Health Monitoring team for the cooperative NASA/ Lockheed Martin X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle program and co-designed and monitored construction of an optical nondestructive evaluation facility capable of producing in-line fiber optic sensors. Melvin was selected as an astronaut in 1998, and he was a member of the crews for STS-122 Atlantis and STS-129. The mission of STS-122, the 24th shuttle mission to visit the International Space Station, was the delivery and installation of the European Space Agency’s Columbus Laboratory. The mission of STS-129, the 31st shuttle flight to the International Space Station, was to deliver two Express Logistics Carriers.
Melvin was assigned to the Astronaut Office Space Station Operations Branch and the Education Department at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. As co-manager of NASA's Educator Astronaut Program, he traveled across the country, discussing space exploration with teachers and students, and promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In October 2010, Melvin was named as associate administrator for the Office of Education. He retired from NASA in February 2014. He still serves as president of the Spaceship Earth Grants, a public benefit corporation whose mission is to make space more accessible through human spaceflight and parabolic flight awards to individual applicants.
