He was the Princeton University Vice President for the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL) from 2016 - 2024 and previously Assistant Vice President for Space Science and Engineering at the Southwest Research Institute, Adjoint Professor of Physics[1] at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and was the founding director of the Center for Space Science and Exploration[2] at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

His father, Harold McComas, was a World War II Veteran, who went to college and law school through the GI Bill.

His mother, Hazelyn McComas, nee Melconian, was the descendant of Armenian/Lebanese refugees who fled the genocide from Beirut to Ellis Island.

He discussed his dyslexia in childhood and how it led him to space science in a 2014 talk entitled “A Personal Journey from “Slow” to the interstellar Frontier.” McComas received his undergraduate degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980, and his M.S.

McComas holds seven patents[3] and is author of over 800 scientific and technical papers in the refereed literature, spanning topics in heliospheric, magnetospheric, solar, and planetary science as well as space instrumentation and mission development.