David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington                                
202-358-1730
david.steitz@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 11-290

NASA CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST BRAUN RETURNING TO GEORGIA TECH

WASHINGTON -- Bobby Braun, who served as the first NASA chief
technologist in a decade, will leave the agency in October to return
to the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Braun's service at NASA was possible through a two-year
intergovernmental personnel agreement with Georgia Tech.

During his tenure at NASA, Braun served as the agency's principal
advisor and advocate on matters concerning agency-wide technology
policy and programs. Braun also was responsible for the formulation
and initial implementation of NASA's Space Technology Program, which
develops crosscutting technologies and advanced capabilities to
enable NASA's future space missions.

"When I asked Bobby to join the NASA leadership team and establish the
new Office of the Chief Technologist, I had to pull him away from his
family and his work as a professor and researcher at Georgia Tech,"
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "Bobby has rebuilt our basic
and applied research capabilities, created technology programs to
enable our agency's future success, and clearly articulated the
importance of NASA's technology investments as an integral component
of our nation's space policy. He's done an incredible job, and we're
indebted to him for his exemplary public service."

Joseph Parrish, the deputy chief technologist, will serve as acting
NASA chief technologist. Parrish joined the Office of the Chief
Technologist (OCT) in January from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., where he was responsible for technology
assessment and mission architecture planning for future robotic
missions to Mars.

Before joining JPL, Parrish was the president of Payload Systems Inc.
and the vice president for research and development at Aurora Flight
Sciences Corp., two small businesses in Cambridge, Mass. Besides his
corporate responsibilities at those companies, Parrish served in
project management and principal investigator roles for many
technology development projects for NASA and other customers.

Michael Gazarik has been named director of NASA's Space Technology
Program within OCT. Until recently, Gazarik served as the deputy
chief technologist at NASA Headquarters, focusing on enabling
effective implementation of the Space Technology programs.

Prior to his appointment, Gazarik was the deputy director for Programs
in the Engineering Directorate at NASA's Langley Research Center in
Hampton, Va. In that role, he balanced the directorate's engineering
and fabrication capabilities across projects that ranged from
conceptual design to spaceflight operations, focused the
directorate's resources to deliver flight hardware for numerous
flight programs, and led the formulation of a variety of programs in
science and human exploration.

For Braun's biography, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/about_us/bios/oct_braun_bio.html


For Parrish's biography, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/about_us/bios/oct_cc_parrish_bio.html


For Gazarik's biography, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/about_us/bios/oct_gazarik_bio.html


For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov