Dr. Nancy Grace Roman is seen here visiting the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) outside the clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md on Friday, March 31, 2017.
Dr. Nancy Grace Roman was the first Chief of Astronomy in the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters and the first woman to hold an executive position at NASA. In her role, she had oversight for the planning and development of programs including the Cosmic Background Explorer and the Hubble Space Telescope. The WFIRST observatory was named the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on May 20, 2020.
Dr. Roman received her PhD in astronomy from the University of Chicago in 1949 and joined NASA in 1959. She finished her NASA career at Goddard Space Flight Center where she served as the manager of the Astronomical Data Center. After retiring from NASA in 1979, she continued working as a contractor at Goddard. Throughout her career, Dr. Roman has been a spokesperson and advocate of women in the sciences.
Credit: NASA/Jim Jeletic
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