Neel Mehta
Maria Zuber, vice president of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chair of the National Science Board, has joined the board of directors at Textron.
She oversees MIT’s Lincoln laboratory and interdisciplinary research facilities as well as the university’s research partnerships with the federal government, Textron said Thursday.
Zuber is also the E. A. Griswold professor of geophysics at MIT and serves on the board of fellows at Brown University.
“We are fortunate to have a scientist of such prominence helping to shape our company’s strategic direction,” said Textron Chairman and CEO Scott Donnelly.
“Her research experience and knowledge of emerging technologies will provide invaluable support for our company’s product development activities.”
She previously served as head of the university’s department of earth, atmospheric and planetary science and supported the presidential commission on the implementation of the U.S. Space Exploration Policy.
Zuber helped spearhead scientific experiments and instrumentation efforts for nine NASA missions such as the agency’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission that sought to map the gravitational field of the moon.
She also currently serves as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society as well as a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society and the American Geophysical Union.
