rocket scientist

rocket scientist (plural rocket scientists)

1. (colloquial) aerospace engineer.
   • 2006, Gerard Degroot, Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 29:

     “There was hardly a German sufficiently competent to talk about the V-2 and other big stuff,” Grigory Tokady, a Russian rocket scientist sent to investigate immediately after the German defeat, later revealed.

   • 2007, James Longuski, The Seven Secrets of How to Think Like a Rocket Scientist, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 73:

     When a rocket scientist does a sanity test, he's pinching himself back into reality and asking if what he has done adds up.

   • 2013, Steven Lambakis, On the Edge of Earth: The Future of American Space Power, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN:

     By the 1940s, his work in this area was so advanced that German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun remarked that “Goddard's experiments in liquid fuel saved us years of work, and enabled us to perfect the V-2 years before it would have been possible.”

2. (hyperbolic) Someone qualified to understand or handle that which is overly complex, detailed or confusing.

   Synonyms: genius, (humorous) rocket surgeon

   You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that that idea won't work.

   • 2013, Beth Kolko; Lisa Nakamura; Gilbert Rodman, Race in Cyberspace, Routledge, →ISBN, page 69:

     It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that as a culture we are obsessed with almost every aspect of technology.

• This phrase is usually used in a negative comparison, as in the example above, to show that something is (or should be) simple, straightforward, or obvious.

• rocket surgeon

• brain surgeon
• rocket science