Indian-American scientist appointed Acting Chief of Staff of NASA

PTI Updated - February 02, 2021 at 01:03 PM.

Bhavya Lal was nominated and selected to be a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics

(FILES) This file photo taken on December 06, 2007 shows Vultures as they fly past a NASA logo on the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center. The largest asteroid in more than a century will whiz safely past Earth on September 1 at a safe but unusually close distance of about 4.4 million miles (7 million kilometers), NASA said. The asteroid was discovered in 1981, and is named Florence after the famed 19th century founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. "Florence is the largest asteroid to pass this close to our planet since the first near-Earth asteroid was discovered over a century ago," said a US space agency statement. / AFP PHOTO / NICHOLAS KAMM

Bhavya Lal, the Indian-American scientist who oversaw NASA’s transition under President Joe Biden’s administration, has been appointed as the Acting Chief of Staff of the US space agency.

According to NASA, Lal brings “extensive experience” in engineering and space technology, serving as a member of the research staff at the Institute for Defence Analyses Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) from 2005 to 2020.

She led the analysis of space technology, strategy, and policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and National Space Council, as well as federal space-oriented organisations, including NASA, the Department of Defence, and the intelligence community, the US space agency said in a statement on Monday.

Lal served as a member of the Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Team for the agency and oversaw the agency’s transition under the administration of President Biden.

She is an active member of the space technology and policy community, having chaired, co-chaired, or served on five high-impact National Academy of Science committees.

Lal served two consecutive terms on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Federal Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing and was an External Council member of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program and the Technology, Innovation and Engineering Advisory Committee of the NASA Advisory Council.

Before joining STPI, Lal was president of C-STPS LLC, a science and technology policy research and consulting firm.

For her many contributions to the space sector, she was nominated and selected to be a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, the statement said.

Published on February 2, 2021 07:14