In 1936, with encouragement from von Kármán, Malina and a small group of men began developing and testing rocket motors, and both solid and liquid propellants. While pursuing rocket research, Malina and von Kármán developed a close, lifelong working relationship. Theodore von Kármán was the Director of GALCIT and Malina's doctoral adviser. Malina served as an assistant professor at Caltech from 1942 until 1946. In his dissertation he examined the problems of rocket propulsion and sounding rocket flight performance. In 1934, Malina received a graduate fellowship from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he quickly became involved with its Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory (GALCIT). Born on October 2, 1912, in Brenham, Texas to Czech immigrants, his life was a rare combination of science and art. Malina is considered by some to be the father of modern rocketry.