August 2, 2013 — Kathryn Sullivan once walked in space as a pioneering female astronaut. These days, the oceanographer is sticking closer to Earth, as US President Barack Obama’s choice to lead the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Sullivan has been NOAA’s acting administrator since Jane Lubchenco left the post in February. On 1 August, Obama nominated her to be the permanent chief of the US$5-billion agency.
“I think it’s a great move,” says James Baker, who served as NOAA administrator from 1993 to 2001, and Sullivan was the agency’s chief scientist during part of that time. Baker says that Sullivan's experience with technology and satellites will be valuable. “That’s a big part of what NOAA does,” he says. “The satellite program is very expensive and always a big issue with Congress.”
Since returning to NOAA as its deputy administrator in 2011, Sullivan has overseen efforts to keep the agency’s ailing satellite programmes on time and on budget. She has also led the agency’s work to prepare for a probable gap in data from the series of polar-orbiting satellites that feed observations to NOAA’s computer weather models.