
Zurbuchen lecturing at the University of Michigan. (Image credit – Joseph Xu, Michigan Engineering.)
Zurbuchen lecturing at the University of Michigan. (Image credit – Joseph Xu, Michigan Engineering.)
On Oct. 3, Thomas Zurbuchen became NASA’s associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) after NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced his selection last week. SMD commands a budget of about $5.3 billion and encompasses NASA’s Earth Science, Planetary Science, Heliophysics, and Astrophysics Divisions. It is also responsible for such high-profile projects as the $8 billion James Webb Space Telescope and the future Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope.
In a NASA press release
It’s absolutely thrilling to be embarking on this journey. Today, NASA is leading efforts to answer a host of important questions for humanity: Where do we come from? How did life originate? How are Earth’s environments changing? There has never been a more pivotal time to solve these mysteries, and I’m looking forward to the charge.
Having consulted with an aerospace company during his studies, Zurbuchen elected to concentrate on astrophysics, and ultimately established his research specialty in solar and heliospheric physics. He joined the University of Michigan in 1996 as a research fellow. He became a research scientist there in 1998, and an associate professor in 2003 before being promoted to full professor in 2008.
At Michigan, Zurbuchen also developed a strong interest in entrepreneurship. He was one of the key drivers behind the establishment in 2007 of the Center for Entrepreneurship
Zurbuchen joins NASA at a moment when the agency is pursuing stronger collaboration with commercial space ventures and other non-governmental partners. Notably, Zurbuchen recently served as chair of a National Academies study committee
According to NASA, although Zurbuchen has never worked for the agency, he has participated in two NASA missions: the MESSENGER spacecraft that studied the planet Mercury for ten years and the Advanced Composition Explorer that is currently gathering data on solar eruptions from the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point. Additionally, he participated in the joint NASA-European Space Agency Ulysses mission, which gathered data on the heliosphere from a polar orbit around the sun.
Following his Ph.D., Zurbuchen received a Young Researcher Award from the Swiss National Science Foundation, and in 2004 he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the National Science and Technology Council.
Zurbuchen has also been active on social media, maintaining a blog
The previous head of SMD was astrophysicist and former astronaut John Grunsfeld, who served in the position from January 2012 until his retirement