Welcome to Roohi Dalal, AAS Deputy Director of Public Policy

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) is pleased to announce that Roohi Dalal has joined the staff as AAS Deputy Director of Public Policy as of 14 October 2024.

In this role, Roohi will be responsible for the implementation of public policy priorities for the Society by interacting with, answering questions from, and providing expert referrals to policy makers, members, and others. Roohi will oversee the work of the John Bahcall Public Policy Fellow, and she will work with the Fellow and the Director of Public Policy to coordinate the day-to-day public policy activities of the Society, including training and supporting AAS volunteers in advocacy visits to Congress.

Roohi Dalal comes to the Society as an astronomer working to advance safe and sustainable space policy. After working in observational cosmology for her PhD in Astrophysics at Princeton University, she moved into space policy as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Space Security and Sustainability at the Outer Space Institute and University of British Columbia. Prior to graduate school, she was a Fulbright research scholar at Leiden University, and she received undergraduate degrees in Astrophysics and History from the California Institute of Technology.

Roohi has been deeply involved in research and advocacy around environmentalism in outer space, including the preservation of dark and radio-quiet skies and the mitigation of orbital debris. She has previously served as the Policy Vice-Chair of the AAS Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment, and she has been involved in the Policy Hub of the International Astronomical Union's Centre for Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference.

Roohi is looking forward to serving the astronomical community and advancing AAS policy priorities in her new role. 

Welcome, Roohi!