NASA Chief Scientist and planetary geologist Dr. Ellen Stofan will be available to meet with local media at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, March 28, 2014 at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

Born in Oberlin, Ohio, Dr. Stofan’s visit marks a return to the Cleveland area and her childhood home, and brings her back to the center where her father, Andrew Stofan, began his career (then NASA Lewis) in 1958 and later served as Lewis’ Center Director from 1982 to 1986.

Media are invited to join her on a tour of the Electric Propulsion Laboratory where she will hear about how solar electric propulsion technologies are essential to NASA’s asteroid initiative. After the tour, Dr. Stofan will discuss with the media the impact of NASA Earth and space science research on the Glenn community, and how this research is critical to the agency’s long-term science and exploration roadmap.

The roadmap calls for maximizing the International Space Station as a platform for groundbreaking Earth and space science research; plans to identify, redirect and send human explorers to an asteroid; optimizing future deep space exploration vehicles to carry spacecraft to the outer solar system in half the time; and eventually placing the first human footsteps on Mars.

Dr. Stofan became NASA’s chief scientist in August 2013. As principal science advisor to the NASA administrator, she is responsible for implementing a scientific portfolio that literally spans the universe. Her own research has covered the geology of Earth, Venus, Mars and Titan.

Media interested in attending should contact Lori Rachul at 216-433-8806 or the Glenn Media Relations Office at 216-433-2901 by 4 p.m. Thursday, March 27.

Dr. Stofan’s biography is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ocs/stofan_bio.html

For more information on the agency’s asteroid initiative, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/initiative/index.html

For more information about NASA’s Glenn Research Center, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/glenn