AC Charania, an India-American aerospace industry expert has been appointed as NASA‘s new chief technologist. He has been designated as principal advisor to Administrator Bill Nelson on programmes and technology policy at NASA’s headquarters.
Charania will be looking after NASA’s agencywide investments, mission requirements across six mission directorates, external stakeholders, collaboration with other agencies and the private sector, Nasa stated.
”In every NASA’s mission, technology plays an essential part. By making sure that we are following the best policy objectives which permits this agency to continue as a leader in the innovation sector,” said Bhavya Lal, NASA associate administrator for technology , policy and strategy, as quoted in the statement released by the space agency.
”Charania is an expert who can easily manage rapidly shifting large technology portfolios. I am eager to work with him as he applies his expertise and enthusiasm at NASA,” added Lal.
The position anointed to Charania was earlier headed by Lal, whose first day working at NASA was on 3rd of January.
Charania stated that the rate of advancement which they are seeking in the 21st century is reliant on selecting and maturing a portfolio of technologies into systems which helps in execution of NASA’s mission.
”By keeping this in mind, NASA has incredible opportunities in ties up within and outside of the agency,” Charania added as per NASA statement.
Charania holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
His previous stint was as vice president at Reliable Robotics. He also has worked with Blue Origin and was part of several projects on the Blue Moon lunar program, lunar permanence strategy and in many technology initiatives with NASA. He has served at Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne small satellite launch vehicle program.
He has also worked as a fellow of NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts and was part in the formation of FastForward industry group.