Andrea Razzaghi

Andrea Razzaghi is the Deputy Director of Astrophysics at NASA, providing executive leadership, strategic direction, and overall management of the programs and projects in the Astrophysics Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. She oversees the Agency’s research programs and missions necessary to discover how the Universe works, explore how the Universe began and developed into its present form, and search for Earth-size planets outside of our Solar System.

Ms. Razzaghi manages a portfolio of over 20 NASA missions and /or international partnerships including our nation’s Great Observatories in space: Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer, which have transformed our understanding of the Cosmos, and Kepler, which discovered that virtually all stars have planetary systems.From 1996 to 1997, Ms. Razzaghi was selected to serve on detail as a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She coordinated the activities of the National Science and Technology Council which is the principal means within the executive branch to coordinate science and technology policy that comprise the Federal research and development enterprise. Chaired by the President, the membership of the Council is made up of the Vice President, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Cabinet Secretaries and Agency Heads with significant science and technology responsibilities, and other White House officials.

Ms. Razzaghi also worked with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, an advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers who directly advise the President and the Executive Office of the President. She earned a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University, and an M.S. degree from the Catholic University of America in Mechanical Engineering Design. She has won many awards for her service to NASA and our nation and was the 2014 recipient of the Brown University Engineering Alumni Medal.