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Foundations of a Healthy and Vital Research Community for NASA Science (2022)

Chapter: Appendix C: Committee Biographies

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Committee Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Foundations of a Healthy and Vital Research Community for NASA Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26575.
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C

Committee Biographies

CHARLES F. BOLDEN, JR. (NAE) (Co-Chair), nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, began his duties as the 12th administrator of NASA on July 17, 2009. As administrator, Bolden oversaw the safe transition from 30 years of space shuttle missions to a new era of exploration focused on the full utilization of the International Space Station and space and aeronautics technology development. He led the agency in developing a space launch system rocket and Orion spacecraft that will carry astronauts to proving ground missions in lunar orbit and enable the journey to Mars. He also established a new Space Technology Mission Directorate to develop cutting-edge technologies for the missions of tomorrow. During Bolden’s tenure, NASA’s support of commercial space transportation systems for reaching low-Earth orbit enabled successful commercial cargo resupply of the space station and advancement of commercial crew systems. During his 14 years as an astronaut, the South Carolina native logged more than 680 hours in space during four space shuttle missions, twice as commander and twice as pilot. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968, Bolden was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. Bolden was promoted to his final rank of Major General in July 1998 and named Deputy Commander of U.S. Forces in Japan. He later served as the Commanding General of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, from 2000 until 2002, before retiring from the Marine Corps in 2003. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

WANDA A. SIGUR (NAE) (Co-Chair) is an aerospace consultant for both emerging space exploration companies and traditional aerospace industry companies on strategic planning and program management. She retired from Lockheed Martin as the vice president and the general manager of the Civil Space business, where she had executive responsibility for national space programs relating to human space flight and space science missions, including planetary, solar, astrophysical, and Earth remote sensing for civil government agencies. These major programs included the Orion Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, GOES-R weather satellites, Juno, GRAIL, MAVEN, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, InSight, OSIRIS-Rex planetary missions, and the company’s nuclear space power programs. She received an M.B.A. from Tulane University. Sigur serves as the chair of the Space Technology Industry-Government-University Roundtable of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is a member of the NAE and the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Committee Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Foundations of a Healthy and Vital Research Community for NASA Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26575.
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GALE J. ALLEN is the president of G-Allen Strategies, LLC. From 2018 to 2021, she was the executive director of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research. Previously, Allen was the deputy chief scientist at NASA Headquarters (HQ) for 7 years. She began her NASA career at the NASA Kennedy Space Center as the chief of the Materials and Chemistry Branch and served NASA as the associate director of Technology Programs and Commercialization. At NASA HQ, Allen managed the Bioastronautics (human research and life support) Research Program, served as the deputy for the Human Systems Research and Technology Program, and the director of the Strategic Integration and Management Division. Allen received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and the Distinguished Service Medal. She is a member of Women in Aerospace. Allen holds a B.S. and an M.S. in chemistry from Old Dominion University, an M.B.A. in management from Brenau University, and a Ph.D. in business administration with an emphasis in high technology partnership development from Nova Southeastern University.

ROGER BLANDFORD (NAS) is the Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and a professor of physics and particle physics and astrophysics at Stanford University. He previously served as the Pehong and Adele Chen Director of Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. His current research interests include black hole and neutron stars, astrophysics, cosmology, gravitational lensing, cosmic ray physics, and biophysics. He chaired the National Research Council’s 2010 astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics. He is the co-author of Modern Classical Physics. Blandford is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the American Astronomical Society (AAS), a fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is a recipient of the AAS Helen B. Warner Prize, the AAS Dannie Heineman Prize, the Royal Astronomical Society Eddington Medal, and the Humboldt Research Award. Blandford received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Magdalene College, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

SHERI KLUG BOONSTRA is the PI of NASA’s Lucy Student Pipeline and Competency Enabler (L’SPACE) Program, which is NASA’s Lucy Asteroid Mission Student Collaboration at Arizona State University (ASU). She is the director of Strategic Partnerships and co-instructor for the ASU Space Works Program. Klug Boonstra has more than 20 years of experience in creating and implementing national NASA science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education pipeline programs that stretch vertically from pre-college to workforce including as the PI for NASA’s largest undergraduate internship program (Undergraduate Student Research Project). She is the director of the Mars Education Program, which produced and implemented NASA’s award-winning Mars Student Imaging Project. She has worked on multiple NASA projects, including Mars Odyssey, Mars Exploration rovers, Lucy Asteroid Mission, Mars Sample Return, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and astrobiology projects. Klug Boonstra was selected to receive the Excellence in Earth and Space Science Education award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2020. She has an M.S. in Earth science education from Boise State University, Idaho.

ANTONIO J. BUSALACCHI (NAE) is the president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). An expert in Earth’s climate system and ocean–atmosphere interactions, he helps guide the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s (NCAR’s) world-leading research into Earth system sciences and its support of the research community through supercomputing, observing instruments, and community models. His priorities include fostering a broad interdisciplinary approach to researching the Earth system, increasing diversity across the geosciences, and being a steward of the taxpayer investment in NCAR. Busalacchi has a distinguished career in geosciences; extensive experience in the management of academic, laboratory, and government programs; and broad knowledge of the research community. A nationally recognized expert on science policy, Busalacchi has advised policymakers and testified to Congress on the importance of continued federal support for Earth system science. He earned his Ph.D. in oceanography from Florida State University. He is a member of the NAE.

CHRISTOPHER M. KEANE is the director of Geoscience Profession and Higher Education at the American Geosciences Institute (AGI). He has overseen AGI’s Workforce Program activities, including data collection and analysis, student recruitment, diversity initiatives, and AGI’s collaboration with the higher education community for the past 22 years. He also serves on the board of the International Raw Materials Observatory and as part of

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Committee Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Foundations of a Healthy and Vital Research Community for NASA Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26575.
×

the European Union’s consortia examining future geoscience-related workforce needs. Most recently, he was a co-principal investigator (co-PI) for a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project that developed the Vision and Change in the Geosciences-The Future of Undergraduate Geoscience Education report. He earned a B.S. in geology and a Ph.D. in marine, estuarine, and environmental science from the University of Maryland.

ROSALY M.C. LOPES is the chief scientist for the Planetary Science Directorate at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology. She is the editor-in-chief of the planetary science journal Icarus. Her major research interests are planetary and terrestrial geology and volcanology. Lopes is the PI of a NASA Astrobiology Institute research project, leading an international team, and was a member of the science teams of the Galileo and Cassini missions, studying Io and Titan. She is a fellow of AGU, the Geological Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Lopes has held several positions of leadership in the planetary science community, including the chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences of AAS and the president of AGU’s Planetary Science Section. She has a B.S. and a Ph.D. from the University College London.

CORA BAGLEY MARRETT is a professor emerita in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she served for more than 20 years. She has also held appointments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Wisconsin System, and NSF. Marrett has been a member of boards of directors and advisory committees for the Social Science Research Council, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Argonne National Laboratory, and divisions of the National Academies. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and AAAS. Marrett is committed to inclusion in science—of fields of knowledge and all of human talent. The organization, Quality Education for Minorities, recognized Marrett for “outstanding contributions to the field of sociology and the participation of minorities in mathematics, science, and engineering.” The American Sociological Association granted her the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award for her lifetime of research, teaching, and service in the tradition of the three African American namesakes. She has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

MARK B. MOLDWIN is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering and Applied Physics within the University of Michigan’s (UM’s) Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering within the College of Engineering. Moldwin is also affiliated with the Space Physics Research Laboratory, the Engineering Education Research program, the African Studies Center, the Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering, and the Robotics Institute. He is the faculty director of UM’s M-STEM’s M-Engin program, the president of AGU’s Education Section, and the executive director of NASA’s Michigan Space Grant Consortium. Prior to joining the faculty of UM, Moldwin was a professor of space physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, a professor of physics and space sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, and a postdoctoral research fellow in the Space and Atmospheric Sciences and Non-proliferation and International Security groups at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was awarded a B.A. in physics with honors from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and received his Ph.D. in astronomy and space physics from Boston University.

KENNETH SEMBACH is the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), a 700-person multimission operations center for NASA’s flagship astronomical observatories and a world-class astronomical research center. Sembach has been deeply involved in scientific, operational, and managerial aspects of the Hubble Space Telescope for nearly two decades. He also leads the organization that will conduct the science and flight operations of NASA’s next flagship observatory in space, the James Webb Space Telescope, as well as the center of science operations for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will continue the legacy of NASA’s flagship observatories. As director, Sembach works closely with government, corporate, academic, international, and public partners to help humanity explore the wonders of the universe with advanced space telescopes and their data archives. He has a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Committee Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Foundations of a Healthy and Vital Research Community for NASA Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26575.
×

SUSAN WHITE is the director of the Statistical Research Center at the American Institute of Physics (AIP). Since joining AIP 13 years ago, she has overseen and participated in a number of research projects examining physics education and the workforce. White and her colleagues have provided workforce data for a number of decadal surveys, including astronomy and astrophysics, planetary science, and solar and space physics. In addition to examining physics education and the workforce within the United States, she helped direct the Global Survey of Science as part of a study examining gender differences in science disciplines around the world. Prior to joining AIP, White taught statistics and quantitative methods in business schools in Louisiana, Texas, and Washington, DC. She has a Ph.D. in management science.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Committee Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Foundations of a Healthy and Vital Research Community for NASA Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26575.
×
Page 93
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Committee Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Foundations of a Healthy and Vital Research Community for NASA Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26575.
×
Page 94
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Committee Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Foundations of a Healthy and Vital Research Community for NASA Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26575.
×
Page 95
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Committee Biographies." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Foundations of a Healthy and Vital Research Community for NASA Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26575.
×
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The U.S. space science community includes thousands of scientists across multiple disciplines that influence and are influenced by the many engineers, technicians, and support personnel that are part of the space research enterprise. Over one-third of NASA's budget is devoted to space science, and the agency currently operates over 50 space missions in the fields of astrophysics, Earth science, solar and space physics, planetary science, and the biological and physical sciences. The strength of NASA science lies with its people, both those who work directly for the agency and the thousands of researchers and professionals who are funded by NASA grants and contracts.

At the request of NASA, this report examines the foundation for healthy and vital research communities. Foundations of a Healthy and Vital Research Community for NASA Science identifies the characteristics of a healthy and vital research community, defines implementable measures for assessing the health and vitality of a research community, describes the types of data that NASA should be collecting to enable future assessments of the health and vitality of the scientific work force, and recommends best practices to improve the health and vitality of NASA’s research communities.

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