Carthage astronaut named deputy director at NASA research center

(From Glenn Research Center)

NASA’s Glenn Research Center Director Jim Free has appointed NASA astronaut Dr. Janet L. Kavandi as the next deputy director of the Glenn Center in Cleveland. Kavandi, a veteran of three shuttle missions, served most recently as the deputy director of the Health and Human Performance Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. She will succeed Gregory Robinson, who was named deputy associate administrator for programs for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.

“Janet’s experience as a researcher and power system developer, along with her distinguished career as an astronaut and senior manager at Johnson, will be invaluable to Glenn’s management team as we continue our support of the Orion spacecraft program,” said Free. “I look forward to her advice, ideas and leadership in this area, as well as those focused on new opportunities in aeronautics and spaceflight research and development.”

Kavandi will assume duties as deputy director in early March. She will share with the center director responsibility for planning, organizing and managing the agency level programs and projects assigned to the center.

NASA selected Kavandi as an astronaut candidate in December 1994. Following an initial year of training, she was assigned to the Payloads and Habitability Branch where she supported payload integration for the International Space Station. She served on the crew of three space flights, STS-91, STS-99 and STS-104, and has logged more than 33 days in space, traveling more than 13.1 million miles in 535 Earth orbits. She became deputy director of Flight Crew Operations at Johnson in January 2008, director of Flight Crew Operations in March 2011 and deputy director of the Health and Human Performance Directorate in August 2014.

Kavandi received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Missouri Southern State College in Joplin, a Master of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Missouri-Rolla and her doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Washington in Seattle.

For Kavandi’s biography, visit: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/kavandi.html

For more information about NASA Glenn, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn