NASA has chosen a senior scientist who heads the heliophysics division to the position of chief scientist of the US space agency. Reuters reported that she is the first woman appointed to the position, according to two people familiar with the decision.

Nicola Fox, the former lead scientist on the Parker Solar Probe mission that studies the sun, will this week be named NASA’s associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate, two sources said on condition of anonymity.

Fox will lead NASA’s science directorate, a division with an annual budget of about $7 billion that oversees some of the agency’s best-known programs, from the robotic exploration of Mars to the exploration of distant galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope.

She will also lead a NASA research team formed in 2022 to help the U.S. military detect and characterize UFOs, or so-called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena — mysterious objects that the White House and Pentagon officials consider a threat to U.S. airspace.

Fox will succeed Thomas Zurbuchen, a Swiss-American astrophysicist who led the administration from 2016 until his retirement in December. Sandra Connelly, Zurbuchen’s former deputy, temporarily headed the directorate.