PERSONAL DATA: Born February 1, 1961 in Ridley Park Pennsylvania, but considers Lombard Illinois, to be his hometown. Married. He enjoys golf, flying, running, tennis, music, cooking. His mother, Rose Tani, resides in Lombard, Illinois. His father, Henry N. Tani, is deceased.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Glenbard East High School, Lombard, Illinois, in 1979; received a bachelor and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984 and 1988, respectively.

ORGANIZATIONS: Member, Japanese American Citizens League, Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

AWARDS: Orbital Sciences Corporation Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, 1993.

EXPERIENCE: After Tani received his bachelor's degree from MIT, he worked at Hughes Aircraft Corporation in El Segundo, California as a design engineer in the Space and Communications group. In 1986, he returned to MIT and received his master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1988, specializing in human factors and group decision making. After graduation, Tani worked for Bolt Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the experimental psychology department. In 1988, Tani joined Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) in Dulles Virginia, initially as a senior structures engineer, and then as the mission operations manager for the Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS). In that role, he served as the TOS flight operations lead, working with NASA/JSC mission control in support of the deployment of the ACTS/TOS payload during the STS-51 mission in September 1993. Tani then moved to the Pegasus program at OSC as the launch operations manager. In that capacity, he served as lead for the development of procedures and constraints for the launching of the air launched Pegasus unmanned rocket. Tani also was responsible for defining, training, and leading the team of engineers who worked in the launch and control room.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in April 1996, Tani reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. Having completed two years of training and evaluation, he is qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. Tani was initially assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Computer Support Branch. Currently, he is currently assigned to STS-108, scheduled for launch late in 2001.