A senior Langley Research Center engineer has been appointed to serve as NASA Chief Technologist Robert Braun’s deputy, the U.S. space agency announced Jan. 12.
Michael J. Gazarik was the deputy director for programs in the Engineering Directorate at the Hampton, Va.-based NASA field center before being appointed NASA deputy chief technologist, a Washington position that will put the 20-year veteran in charge of the agency’s space technology programs.
Gazarik also has served as the chief engineer for NASA’s Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory — an Earth science mission still in early stages of development — and as project manager for the Mars Science Laboratory entry, descent and landing instrumentation project during the formulation and design phases.
Prior to joining NASA, Gazarik was project manager for the Geosynchronous Imaging Transform Spectrometer project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.
