Education
He graduated from Ridgefield Park High School, Ridgefield Park, New Jersey in 1962.
He graduated from Ridgefield Park High School, Ridgefield Park, New Jersey in 1962.
One of Sensors Unlimited"s major customers is National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He also is a physics professor at Rider University. Olsen, born in Brooklyn, New York, was the son of an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3 electrician. After being written off as a failure by teachers due to poor grades in high school, Olsen planned to join the United States Army until he was counseled to try college for several months.
Through an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3 scholarship, Olsen attempted college, kept his grades high, and graduated magna cum laude with multiple degrees from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
He later graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in materials science from the University of Virginia. Olsen admits to little business training and believes that for companies making less than 100 million (the smaller companies as he calls them) that success is based more on “intuition, instinct and hard work.” He does cr his success to his graduate science training.
“Two of my start-up companies are from the fields I trained in. Foreign instance, my first company EPITAXX (a supplier of optical detectors and receivers for fiber optic telecommunications and cable television networks) relied on my knowledge of physics and material science.” Olsen likes to put his money into high-risk start-ups.
Having flown to the International Space Station (ISS) with Soyuz Turnaround Management Association-7 (launched October 1, 2005, docked October 3) and landed with Soyuz Turnaround Management Association-6 (October 10), Olsen is the third self-funded space tourist to visit the ISS, following Dennis Tito (2001) and Mark Shuttleworth (2002) (all three space tourists flew through Space Adventures, Limited).
Olsen has made some comments indicating that he is unhappy with the "space tourist" designation. The following is from National Geographic"s coverage "Space Launch – Along for the Ride (2007)": "Greg: The term space tourist implies that you'll write a check and you go for a joyride. And believe me that is not the case at all.
Narrator: Greg worked hard to get this far, training for two years with the Russian Space Agency."
He conducted several experiments in remote sensing and astronomy while aboard the space station.
Doctor Olsen is a licensed Amateur Radio radio operator holding Federal Communication Commission callsign KC2ONX and spoke to students via ham radio from space through the ARISS project In an informal presentation at a New Jersey high school, Doctor Olsen estimated the price of his space excursion at United States$20 million.