Washington: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has named Bhavya Lal as acting chief for the agency. As a senior White House official at NASA, 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 led by Joe Biden.
“NASA has named appointments for senior agency positions. Bhavya Lal joins the agency as acting chief. Phillip Thompson will serve as the White House liaison, Alicia Brown Legislative and associate administrator for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Mark Etiack NASA said in a statement, “serve as associate administrators for the agency’s communications office. In addition, Jackie McGinnas will serve as press secretary at the agency and special assistant to the Reagan Hunter Agency’s office. “
She led the analysis of space technology, strategy and policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Space Council, as well as federal space-oriented organizations including NASA, the Department of Defense, and intelligence. Communities,” in statement Added.
Red is an active member of the space technology and policy community, chaired, co-chaired, or served on five high-impact National Science Academy committees. She served on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Federal Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing twice in a row 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.
Prior to joining STPI, Lal was president of C-STPS LLC, a science and technology policy research and consulting firm. Prior to this, she was the director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Studies at Abt Associates, a global policy research consultancy based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Lal brings extensive experience in engineering and space technology and will also serve as senior advisor for budget and finance at NASA.