Clayton Turner is the Director of NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia. He leads a diverse group of civil servant and contractor scientists, researchers, engineers and support staff, who work to make revolutionary improvements to aviation, expand understanding of Earth’s atmosphere, develop new technologies for space exploration, and contribute to NASA’s broader exploration mission.

Turner has served the agency for more than 30 years. He has held several roles at NASA Langley, including Systems Engineer, Chief Engineer, Engineering Director, Associate Center Director, and Deputy Center Director.

After graduation from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 1990, Turner began his career with NASA serving as a design engineer with the Lidar In -Space Technology Experiment project, where he spearheaded development of the laser aligning, bore-sight limit system.