Paula Cleggett-Haleim

Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

September 2, 1992
(Phone: 202/358-1547)

RELEASE: 92-141

NASA SELECTS SCIENCE/APPLICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

NASA has selected Dr. Claude R. Canizares, head of the

Astrophysics Division at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, as the new Chairman of the Space Science and
Applications Advisory Committee.

Dr. Lennard A. Fisk, Associate Administrator of NASA's Office

of Space Science and Applications, said that the advisory
committee process would be particularly important over the coming
months as NASA looks at restructuring parts of its program.

"To preserve a strong set of space science missions in a tight

budgetary environment, we need to work especially closely with
members of the scientific community," said Fisk.

This committee, a standing committee of the NASA Advisory

Council, consults with and advises NASA on its plans, priorities,
objectives and strategies to accomplish its multifaceted space
science programs.

Concerned with observations from space and use of space

technology to support basic research, the committee reviews NASA's
plans in the following areas: astrophysics, solar system
exploration, solar and space physics, Earth science, microgravity
research and life sciences.

Since 1990, he also has served as the Director of the MIT

Center for Space Research. He has served on numerous NASA
advisory committees, including the Space and Earth Sciences
Advisory Committee and the NASA-University Relations Task Force.
Also, he served as a member of the National Academy of Science's
Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee.

Canizares has written or contributed to more than 114

scientific papers. He earned three degrees from Harvard
University -- A.B. in 1967, A.M. in 1968 and Ph.D. in 1972.

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 Canizares succeeds Dr. Berrien Moore who led the committee
since its formation in 1988. Moore recently received the
Distinguished Public Service Medal, one of the highest honors NASA
bestows.

Moore had helped to organize the Space Science and Applications

Advisory Committee from three former committees -- Space and Earth
Sciences, Space Applications and Life Sciences.

Moore merged an extraordinarily diverse group of scientists and

perspectives into a coherent and cohesive body, capable of looking
at the full spectrum of space science and applications issues and
then rendering objective advice.

Currently, Moore is Director of the Institute for the Study of

Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire.

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