NASA Names Solar Physicist as Agency’s Science Chief

Nicola Fox, Parker Solar Probe project scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), speaks during a preview briefing on the NASA's Parker Solar Probe at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 20, 2018. Mike Brown/Reuters

WASHINGTON—NASA announced on Monday it has picked a longtime solar scientist who heads its heliophysics division to become the U.S. space agency’s science chief.

Nicola Fox, former top scientist on the Parker Solar Probe mission studying the sun, was named as NASA’s associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.