WASHINGTON — NASA expects to hire a new permanent director for the Heliophysics Division, which lost its leader with the firing of David Chenette in June, sometime within the next year, the division’s acting director, Jeffrey Newmark, said July 17.
“My current position is a one-year position,” Newmark told the NASA Advisory Council’s heliophysics subcommittee during a meeting at NASA headquarters here. “The assumption is a permanent person would be appointed within that one year, give or take.”
Newmark took over as the acting head of NASA Heliophysics June 6, when Chenette was placed on paid leave. Shortly thereafter, Chenette was fired by John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science, for what the former astronaut called leadership and management failures.
The search for Chenette’s permanent replacement has not officially started, and Newmark did not say when it would. No opening for director of the Heliophysics Division had been posted on USAjobs.gov, the government’s official help-wanted portal, at press time July 18.
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