Nelson to Head White House R&D Office

David Nelson, NASA’s deputy chief information officer, is the new director of the White House’s National Coordination Office for IT Research and Development, which coordinates approximately $2 billion of government networking and IT projects. The agency is part of President Bush’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.

As part of his new assignment, Nelson will also co-chair a 12-member interagency working group on IT R&D at the National Science and Technology Council. The working group focuses on high-end government networking and software design.

Nelson, who has been NASA’s deputy CIO since 1999, takes over his new post from Cita Furlani.