Nicholas Skytland

Nick is a NASA data scientist and evangelist with a passion for human spaceflight. He currently serves within the Technology and Innovation Division of the Office of the Chief Information Officer at NASA Headquarters. Nick has leadership experience in EVA crew training, flight operations integration and hardware development, as well as research in biomechanics and human physiology in microgravity. He has been a team member in numerous analog simulations including the NBL, NEEMO and Zero-G missions. 

Nick has pioneered new ways of doing business for over a decade and is directly responsible for many successful cutting-edge initiatives such as the International Space Apps Challenge and the National Day of Civic Hacking, two of the largest mass collaborations in history. During his career in the federal government, he has also founded NASA's Open Innovation Program, led the implementation of the Open Government, Open Data and Digital Strategy directives, envisioned future space exploration missions, designed next generation space suits, trained space-bound astronauts, developed open-source software and encouraged new partnerships between government and industry, academia and citizens. 

Nick has worked at the Boston Consulting Group, X Prize Foundation, the Zero G Corporation, General Motors and has recent executive leadership experience in an international innovation consulting firm, returning to NASA full-time in 2015 to pursue his vocational calling to exploration. 

Nick is a gifted communicator and strategic leader who regularly represents NASA in technical and public spheres. He has presented research to the United Nations, the White House, Department of Defense, Army Sciences Board, U.S. Naval Academy, Disney Imagineering, NASA Advisory Committee, and Public Services Summit at the Nobel Prize Ceremony as well as given numerous TEDx talks on exploration and discovery.

He is an experienced diver and a four-time Ironman triathlete.

photo of Nick Skytland