Professional Affiliation

Acting Office Director, Office of Polar Programs, Directorate for Geosciences, National Science Foundation (NSF)

Expert Bio

Dr. James S. Ulvestad is serving as Acting Office Director for the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO). Before this appointment, he was the first Chief Officer for Research Facilities in the Office of the Director, a position he held from January 2018 until October 2021. Previously, Dr. Ulvestad spent seven years as Division Director of the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences and one year as the Acting Assistant Director in charge of the NSF Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

Before coming to NSF, Dr. Ulvestad was an Assistant Director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), where he led New Mexico Operations, encompassing the Very Large Array (VLA) and Very Long Baseline Array radio telescopes as well as the VLA Expansion Project. Prior to his time at NRAO, he was a Member of the Technical Staff and a Systems Engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Dr. Ulvestad earned a Bachelor’s degree in astronomy from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Ph.D. degree in astronomy from the University of Maryland. He is an author or co-author of more than 80 refereed scientific papers.