From admiring rocket launches as a child growing up in Houston to steering the operations at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Indian-American scientist Amit Kshatriya has had a stellar innings at the space agency that has set on a mission to land astronauts on the moon.

As NASA’s Associate Administrator, Wisconsin-born Mr. Kshatriya serves as the highest-ranking civil servant at the agency and as a senior advisor to Administrator Jared Isaacman. Mr. Kshatriya leads the agency’s 10 centre directors, as well as the mission directorate associate administrators at NASA Headquarters in Washington. He also acts as the agency’s Chief Operating Officer.

Born to first-generation Indian immigrant parents, Mr. Kshatriya holds a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, and a Master of Arts in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. He was born in Brookfield, Wisconsin, but considers Katy, a suburb of Houston, Texas, to be his hometown.