Anne L. Kinney

Deputy Center Director, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

Anne L. Kinney has been deputy center director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, since May 24, 2020.

She is a space scientist and astronomer whose most recent previous position was as the associate director of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) for the National Science Foundation (NSF). Before that, she held positions as the chief scientist of the W.M. Keck Observatory, director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and director of the Universe Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

She was an instrument scientist for the Faint Object Spectrograph that flew on the Hubble Space Telescope.  At that time she also served as an expert commentator on the televised Space Science Updates from NASA Headquarters, announcing the results for over 40 discoveries with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Throughout her career, she has overseen numerous space missions, including the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS), and two Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions.

Kinney has also served on the Council of the American Astronomical Society, was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and served on the editorial board of Astronomy Magazine from 1997 to 2002. While she was Keck Observatory chief scientist, she piloted the Keck Visitor Scholars Program, which gives graduate students and post-doctoral fellows hands-on experience in observational astronomy.

She worked in public outreach for the Hubble Space Telescope, forming the Space Telescope Science Institute Education Group, and leading the team to create Amazing Space, an award-winning website for children to learn science, math and astronomy.

She has been awarded Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service, NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership, Robert H. Goddard Award for Outstanding Leadership, NASA Group Achievement awards for, among other things, Spitzer Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, GLAST (now known as the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope), and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Laser Altimeter. (Anne Kinney, Goddard Deputy Center Director | NASA