Dr. Begoña Vila is the Lead Systems Engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/SGT for two of the instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), one of them being the Fine Guidance Sensor responsible for the pointing and stability of the Observatory. She is also the Deputy Lead for the operations of all the Webb instruments after launch.

She obtained her PhD in Astrophysics at Jodrell Bank, Manchester University, UK, after her undergraduate degree in Spain. Her research included rotation curves of galaxies, nuclear galactic activity, and stellar abundances, observing them in both optical and radio wavelengths. She has been involved with JWST since 2006, starting in Canada under the Canadian Space Agency and moving to NASA after the flight instruments were delivered in 2012. She was the overall Test Lead for the final cryogenic test at Goddard for all the JWST instruments and was heavily involved in the testing completed at the Johnson Space Center cryogenic chamber that included the JWST instruments and mirrors. She is currently involved in the test activities at the Observatory level at Northrop Grumman Space Systems as well as the detailed plans for commissioning and operating the instruments following the launch in 2021.

She has received various achievement awards, including the NASA Exceptional Public Achievement Medal in 2016, the Premio Wonenburger by the Xunta de Galicia (Spain) in 2017, a Gallego del Año Award (Spain) in 2019, and Top10 Spanish Women Leaders Abroad by Mujeres&Cia in 2021.

Apart from her work, Dr. Begoña Vila enjoys outreach activities communicating with the general public on JWST, STEAM, science, or other, both in English and in Spanish. We can hear Dr. Vila talking about the JWST mission in Spanish here.