Douglas Isbell/Don Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC                    November 16, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

RELEASE:  98-204

WEILER NAMED ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR SPACE SCIENCE

     NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin today named Dr. Edward J. 
Weiler as Associate Administrator for NASA's Office of Space 
Science, effective immediately.  

     Weiler has served as acting Associate Administrator since 
Sept. 28, following the departure of Dr. Wesley T. Huntress, Jr. 

     "In his short time as acting Associate Administrator, Ed 
Weiler has demonstrated both the management skills and scientific 
leadership that this position demands, and I am delighted he has 
accepted the offer on a more permanent basis," Goldin said.  

     In this capacity, Weiler will be responsible for providing 
overall executive leadership of NASA's Space Science Enterprise.  
This enterprise aims to achieve a comprehensive understanding of 
the origins and evolution of the Solar System and the Universe, 
including connections between the Sun and the Earth, the 
beginnings of life and the question of whether life exists 
elsewhere beyond Earth.  It also is charged with communicating 
this knowledge to the public.  

     Weiler was appointed as Science Director of the Astronomical 
Search for Origins and Planetary Systems theme within the Office 
of Space Science in March 1996.  He will continue to serve as the 
Program Scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope, a position he 
has held since 1979, until a replacement for that position is 
selected.  Weiler joined NASA in 1978 as a staff scientist.  

     Prior to that, Weiler was a member of the Princeton 
University research staff and was based at NASA'S Goddard Space 
Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, as the director of science 
operations of the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory-3 
(COPERNICUS).  Weiler received his Ph.D. in astrophysics from 
Northwestern University in January 1976.

       Weiler lives in Bowie, MD, and has two children, Gregory, 
9, and Allison, 12.

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