US space agencyNASA) announced that it has selected Dr. Nicola Fox, Head of the Department of Heliophysics, as its new Chief Scientist. Since 2018, Fox has led the Parker Solar Probe mission, which studies the Sun up close.

Fox will now lead NASA’s Science Office, a division with an annual budget of about $7 billion that oversees and coordinates more than 100 US space programs, from robotic exploration of Mars to the James Webb Space Telescope.

Dr. Nicola Fox was appointed Associate Administrator of the Agency’s Office of Science Mission. Previously, she headed the department of heliophysics. Fox, head of science at NASA, has over 100 NASA missions to explore the universe. https://t.co/FdlD9mxc2e

— NASA people (@NASApeople) February 27, 2023

Among other things, Fox, who succeeded Swiss-American astrophysicist Thomas Serbuchen, will lead a new NASA research team set up in 2022 to help the country’s military detect and analyze unidentified flying objects or phenomena (UFOs or UFOs). ).

Fox was awarded the American Astronautical Society’s Carl Sagan Award in 2021 and the NASA Distinguished Leadership Medal in 2020.

^{According to APE – MEB}