Nicholas White graduated from Leicester University with a B.Sc. in physics in 1973 and a PhD in space physics from the University College London in 1977. From 1978-1982, Dr. White was a postdoc with the University of Maryland College Park based at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Later, he spent six years with the European Space Agency (Research Fellow, 1982-1984, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, Senior EXOSAT Observatory Scientist, 1984-1986, Darmstadt, West Germany, and EXOSAT Project Scientist, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands). From 1990-2014, Dr. White was with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where he held many important leadership positions at NASA Goddard, including the director of Sciences and Exploration Directorate (2008-2014), Director of Goddard's Astrophysics Science Division (2004-2008), and Chief of the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics (2000-2004). He joined the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) in 2014, where serves as Senior Vice President for Science and provide oversight of scientific activity across USRA institutes and programs. Dr. white’s primary area of research is in X-ray astronomy, studying black holes and neutron stars. His pedigree includes more than 200 publications in refereed journals.