Neyda Abreu
Center Chief Scientist, Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center
Neyda Abreu is Chief Scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. She advises center leadership on research and development in aeronautics, space exploration, Earth science, and technology development. She also serves as Center Science Integrity Officer, manages the Emeriti Langley Associates program, and is the Center POC for the NASA Postdoctoral Program.
Abreu led the development of NASA LEADS and serves as its program manager for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. In response to findings from the 2021 NASA Science Workforce Study, she designed a curriculum that prepares scientists to lead research teams and take on broader technical and organizational leadership roles.
Before joining Langley, Abreu spent 13 years on the geoscience faculty at Penn State DuBois. She joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 2007, earned tenure and promotion to associate professor in 2013, and became a full professor in 2020. She also served as Science Discipline Coordinator for the Penn State Commonwealth Campuses and chaired the Penn State University College Faculty Council.
Abreu studies primitive meteorites for what they reveal about how planets formed and how water and organic compounds were distributed in the early solar system. She edited the volume Primitive Meteorites and Asteroids: Physical, Chemical, and Spectroscopic Observations Paving the Way to Exploration.
Abreu earned undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Minnesota in 2000, a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from the University of New Mexico in 2007, and a Master of Management in Strategic Management and Executive Leadership from Penn State in 2022.
She grew up in the northern Andes and now lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, with her family. She enjoys reading, writing fiction, running, and rowing on the Chickahominy River.
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