NASA Dilemma: CASIS Can’t Seem To Pull Together a Board of Directors
It has been three months since a Juy 2012 Congressional hearing whereien NASA and CASIS (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space) said that the CASIS Board of Directors would be announced “shortly”. It has been seven months since an exchange of memos between NASA and CASIS wherein the board of directors was listed by CASIS among its expected near term accomplishments.
Despite statements before Congress and in formal communications with NASA, CASIS has yet to announce the names of the members of its Board of Directors. Sources report that no one (White House, NASA, Congress, research community) especially likes the names that CASIS has floated.
“Through a series of evaluations, interviews, and down-selects, the Interim Board has identified the first group of permanent Board of Directors candidates, all of whom represent the best American minds in the fields of scientific research and management from academia, government, and industry. An announcement of the first set of Board members will be made shortly, with the remaining 15-member Board finalized soon thereafter.”
“NASA is working with CASIS’ interim Board of Directors to identify and evaluate a diverse group of outstanding individuals for that board, and the Agency is also in the process of transitioning existing National Laboratory agreement holders to CASIS.”
“Moreover, the functions identified in the Cooperative Agreement and the milestones in the Annual Program Plan (APP) are critical given the limited amount of time remaining to do research on the International Space Station (ISS). NASA would like assurances from the Board that CASIS will be able to meet the milestones in the APP.”
“A Selection process for the full Initial Board has been approved and is underway.”
