In a week that marked International Women’s Day there was some stellar news from Nasa: the space agency has appointed its first female head of science.
Solar scientist Dr Nicola Fox, who originally hails from a small market town in the English county of Hertfordshire, steps up from her role leading Nasa’s heliophysics division, which studies the sun.
Fox hailed her new post as the “best job on the planet”. She now holds the purse strings to a space mission budget worth almost $8bn (£6.76bn).
“Growing up in Hitchin, you might dream of working for Nasa but it certainly doesn’t seem as if it could ever be a reality,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“Whatever you’re interested in, whatever your heart tells you you’re interested in, that’s what you should do.”
Image: Nasa
