Bhavya Lal, an Indian-American scientist who oversaw the transformation of NASA under the administration of President Joe Biden, has been named Chief of Staff of the U.S. Space Agency.
According to NASA, Ms Lal brings “extensive experience” in engineering and space technologies, working as a research team member of the Institute for Defence Analyses Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) from 2005 to 2020.
It led the study of space technologies, planning, and policy for the White House Science and Technology Policy Office and the National Space Council, as well as federal space-based agencies, including NASA, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community, the U.S. Space Agency said in a February 1 statement.
Ms Lal worked as a member of the Agency’s Biden Presidential Transition Agency Management Committee and supervised the transition of the Agency under the administration of President Biden.
She is an active member of the space technology and policy group, chaired, co-chaired or sat on five high-impact National Academy of Science Committees.
Ms Lal served on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Federal Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing for two consecutive terms and was a member of the NASA’s Creative Advanced Ideas Initiative and the NASA Advisory Council on Research, Science and Engineering.
Prior to joining STPI, Ms Lal was President of C-STPS LLC, a science and technology policy analysis and advisory firm. Prior to that, she was Director of the Centre for Science and Technology Policy Analysis at Abt Associates, a multinational policy consulting firm located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
She co-founded and co-chaired the policy track of the annual conference of the American Nuclear Society on Nuclear and Emerging Technologies in Space (NETS) and co-hosted a series of lectures on space history and policy with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
For her numerous services to the space industry, she was nominated and chosen to be a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, according to the statement.
Ms Lal holds a Bachelor in Science and a Master of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering and a Master in Science degree in Technology and Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD in Public Policy and Public Administration from George Washington University.
She is a member of both nuclear engineering and public policy honour societies.
