On Monday, Indian-American Bhavya Lal was named as the Acting Chief of Staff of the US Space Agency by NASA. Ms Lal worked as a part of the Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Committee. She also managed the transition of the organization under the administration of President Joe Biden.
NASA said in a release of statements pointed that Ms Lal brings vast engineering and space technology expertise. From 2005 to 2020, she served as a research staff member at the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) of the Institute for Defence Analyses.
There, she headed the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Space Council’s study of space technology, strategy and policy. Federal agencies, including NASA, the Department of Defence, and the intelligence community, are also space-oriented.
More About Ms Bhavya Lal:
Having chaired, co-chaired, or served on top five leading National Academy of Science committees, she is amazing. Ms Bhavya is an active member of the space technology and policy community.
She worked two consecutive terms on the Federal Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She was also a member of the External Board of the Creative Advanced Concepts Program of NASA and the NASA Advisory Council Science, Innovation and Engineering Advisory Committee.
Ms Lal was president of C-STPS LLC, a science and technology policy analysis and consulting firm, before joining STPI. Before that, she was the director of Abt Associates’ Center for Science and Technology Policy Studies, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based global policy research consultancy.
Ms Lal received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in nuclear engineering, as well as a Master of Science degree in technology and policy. She is a leader of both honour societies of nuclear engineering and public policy. She holds a phd from George Washington University in public policy and public administration.
She co-founded and is co-chair of the policy track of the annual Nuclear and Emerging Technologies in Space (NETS). This is a conference of the American Nuclear Society. Ms Bhavya co-organizes a seminar series also with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on space history and policy.
She was nominated and chosen to be a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics for her many contributions to the space field, the report said.
