Fran Bagenal, a senior research scientist at the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been named to the NASA Advisory Council’s Science Committee. Bagenal was tapped by Nicky Fox, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, to bring her experience with data on the US STEM workforce, including STEM education, undergraduate research experience, and the multiple career pathways in STEM.
The Science Committee—which advises the NASA Administrator, the NASA Science Mission Directorate, and other NASA Mission Directorates on all NASA space science-related programs, projects, activities, and facilities—welcomed Bagenal at their October 2024 meeting.
Bagenal’s main area of expertise is the study of charged particles trapped in planetary magnetic fields and the interaction of plasmas with the atmospheres of planetary objects, particularly in the outer solar system. She is co-investigator and team leader of the plasma investigations on NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter and has participated in several other NASA planetary exploration missions, including Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, and the New Horizons mission to Pluto. She has also studied and published on workforce issues in the space sciences, including as co-chair of one of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reports emphasizing career pathways.
From High School to Space: Supporting STEM Career Pathways
Historically, the United States has relied on international scientists and engineers for the space workforce. According to reports, around 40 percent of the U.S. science and engineering workforce come from China, India, Europe, and elsewhere.
The challenge in the space sciences is that, as other nations’ space agencies stand up more robust operations, foreign-born scientists and engineers may come to the U.S. for education or specific programs, but not for their entire careers, Bagenal says.
“If we rely on a non-U.S. workforce for our technical work—not just at NASA but across technology, science and engineering—what happens when those countries begin to pull those people back?” Bagenal asks.
That query leads the space science community to another significant issue—education. Funding needs to be directed to high school and college education to develop the U.S. workforce, Bagenal says.
According to a report written by Bagenal, the most significant barrier for directing American students into the space industry happens between high school and college. Studies show that the main dropout points are first-year physics and calculus courses. Decadal surveys and other reports also have shown that research experiences in the undergraduate years are important for retention of students in STEM areas.
Bagenal says to build a U.S. space workforce that is robust enough to support cutting-edge technology and research, funding and effort must be directed to communities with underutilized potential in STEM, starting during K-12 education.
“We cannot rely on a simple pipeline where you have people from certain schools, with certain backgrounds going along a single, narrow path to a career,” Bagenal says. “We have a braided stream of people coming from different backgrounds, and the profession benefits from that because it sees a variety of creativity. But how to implement this gets difficult.”
The Space Leaders of the Future
Universities and academic space science research institutes like LASP can play an important role as research and technology incubators—which not only develop new missions that are “faster, better, and cheaper,” as the NASA dictum goes, but also spawn creative ideas that advance scientific discovery.
For example, CubeSats, which are largely an endeavor of universities, are ushering in new possibilities in space-based observation and research. Research and technology development at universities also allow students, from the undergraduate to the doctoral level, to engage in the space sector and develop the needed skills and connections to advance their careers.
“Missions like CubeSats at universities are really useful for developing new technologies and training the next generation,” Bagenal says.
LASP, which produced the first peer-reviewed publication of data obtained from a CubeSat and has been leading the development of miniaturized instruments for space science across multiple disciplines, was recently designated the first Center of Excellence for Capacity Building in CubeSat Technologies.
As NASA and the rest of the space sector look to the future of the U.S. in space, Bagenal says she will use her seat on the Science Committee to advocate for programs that will support the next generation of the workforce, from outreach and education in K-12, to funding undergraduate research experiences and university-based research and technology development.
“We need to put time, energy and effort into education at all levels but particularly at places like LASP involving undergraduates in research projects because it really excites them and inspires them to not just do their math homework but perhaps go on to be the space leaders of the future,” Bagenal says.
By Ravyn Malone, LASP Marketing Specialist
