Deborah Amato serves as the Deputy Chief Technologist for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). She manages the Internal Research and Development (IRAD) program, which invests in advanced technologies for future missions enabling breakthrough scientific discoveries. Amato began working at GSFC as a student in the Space Grant internship program and then became a co-op student. She began her aerospace engineering career working in the Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics as a mechanical engineer, doing mechanical design, thermal and structural analysis, and systems engineering for small scientific instruments.

Her career experience has also included integration and testing, instrument management, and collaborative engineering. Before becoming the Deputy Chief Technologist, Amato worked as the Senior Systems Engineer in Goddard’s Integrated Design Center where early mission and instrument concept studies are conducted. Over the years she has worked on a variety of projects from technology development, to concept studies and proposals, to sounding rocket and balloon payloads, to spaceflight missions including the James Webb Space Telescope Integrated Science Instrument Module (JWST ISIM), the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), and the Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE). Amato received a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.

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