In this episode of the Lives That Speak podcast, Bryan spoke to Andrea Johnson Razzaghi ’78, on the vastness of deep space, practicing for failure, the scariest seven minutes in engineering, and why you should always stop and smell the science.

The director of the NASA Office of JPL Management Oversight at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Andrea has played a significant role in many exciting NASA endeavors over the course of her career. She’s worked on missions that have earned the Nobel prize, landed an SUV-sized rover on Mars, helped to unravel the mysteries of the big bang, and discovered planets beyond our solar system, just to name a few. During the Clinton Administration, The White House requested that Andrea serve as a senior policy analyst in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. In that position, Andrea coordinated the activities of the National Science and Technology Council and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Prior to her time at NASA, she worked as a Navy contractor. Andrea has won many awards for her service to NASA and the nation and was the 2014 recipient of the Brown University Engineering Alumni Medal and the 2020 Catholic University of America Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award.

Video - 7 Minutes of Terror: Curiosity Rover's Risky Mars Landing

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