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<\/a><\/figure>On Monday, NASA announced Dr. Makenzie Lystrup, director of NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is set to leave the agency on Friday, Aug. 1.<\/p>\n
As center director of Goddard, a role she has held since April 2023, Lystrup also was responsible for guiding the direction and management of multiple other NASA field installations including Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Katherine Johnson Independent Verification & Validation Facility in West Virginia, the White Sands Complex in New Mexico, and the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving served in a variety of science and aerospace civilian and government roles in her career, Makenzie has led development of, and\/or contributed to a variety of NASA\u2019s priority science missions including successful operations of our James Webb Space Telescope and Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, as well as development of the agency\u2019s Roman Space Telescope, and more,\u201d said Vanessa Wyche, acting NASA associate administrator. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful to Makenzie for her leadership at NASA Goddard for more than two years, including her work to inspire a Golden Age of explorers, scientists, and engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout her time at NASA, Lystrup led Goddard\u2019s workforce, which consists of more than 8,000 civil servants and contractors. Before joining the agency, Lystrup served as senior director for Ball\u2019s Civil Space Advanced Systems and Business Development, where she managed new business activities for NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other civilian U.S. government agencies as well as for academia and other science organizations. In addition, she served in the company\u2019s Strategic Operations organization, based in Washington where she led Ball\u2019s space sciences portfolio.<\/p>\n
Prior to joining Ball, Lystrup worked as an American Institute of Physics \u2013 Acoustical Society of American Congressional Fellow from 2011 to 2012 where she managed a portfolio including technology, national defense, nuclear energy, and nuclear nonproliferation.<\/p>\n
Lystrup also has served on boards and committees for several organizations to include the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, International Society for Optics and Photonic, the University of Colorado, and the American Astronomical Society. She was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow in 2019 for her distinguished record in the fields of planetary science and infrared astronomy, science policy and advocacy, and aerospace leadership. Lystrup also served as an AmeriCorps volunteer focusing on STEM education.<\/p>\n
Lystrup holds a bachelor\u2019s in physics from Portland State University and attended graduate school at University College London earning her doctorate in astrophysics. She was a National Science Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Research Fellow spending time at the Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado, and University of Liege in Belgium. As a planetary scientist and astronomer, Lystrup\u2019s scientific work has been in using ground- and space-based astronomical observatories to understand the interactions and dynamics of planetary atmospheres and magnetospheres \u2013 the relationships between planets and their surrounding space environments.<\/p>\n
Following Lystrup\u2019s departure, NASA\u2019s Cynthia Simmons<\/a> will serve as acting center director. Simmons is the current deputy center director.<\/p>\n For more information about NASA\u2019s work, visit:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.nasa.gov<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n -end-<\/p>\n Cheryl Warner \/ Kathryn Hambleton Katy Mersmann
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov<\/a> \/ kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-377-1724
katy.mersmann@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\nShare<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n