NEW DELHI: Indian-American Bhavya Lal was appointed the Acting Chief of Staff by NASA on Monday. Bhavya has 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 Joe Biden. Lal has extensive experience in engineering and space technology. She has served as a member of the research staff at the Institute for Defence Analyses Science and Technology Policy Institute from 2005 to 2020, NASA said in a statement.

She led the analysis of space technology, strategy, and policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and National Space Council. She also served in federal space-oriented organizations, including NASA, the Department of Defence, and the intelligence community. Bhavya is an active member of the space technology and policy community and has also 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.

Prior to joining STPI, she has also remained president of C-STPS LLC and was the director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Studies at Abt Associates. She co-founded and is co-chair of the policy track of the American Nuclear Society's annual conference on Nuclear and Emerging Technologies in Space, NETS, and co-organizes a seminar series on space history and policy with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Bhavya earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in nuclear engineering and is a member of both nuclear engineering and public policy honor societies. 

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