A Mount Carmel alum, the late Jake Matijevic (’65), received one of the highest honors in the world. The crazy thing about this honor, it’s not even in this world! Matijevic was given his own hill and rock on Mars after working on the original rovers sent there.

Matijevic was born in Chicago and came to Mount Carmel in 1961. After MC, he continued his education at Illinois Institute of Technology and later earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago.

After college, Matijevic got a job in California at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a control system engineer.  While at JPL, he began to work on a rover for Mars. This rover was later sent to Mars in 1996, being the first of its kind.

Matijevic died on August 20, 2012. Shortly after his death, the latest of several rovers he worked on was sent to Mars. While on Mars, the rover located a hill and a rock. NASA honored Matijevic by naming both the hill and the rock after him.