{"id":57301,"date":"2019-09-30T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T19:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?migration=converted-node-385670"},"modified":"2024-03-07T10:48:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T15:48:47","slug":"chief-economist-alexander-macdonald","status":"publish","type":"people","link":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/people\/chief-economist-alexander-macdonald\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander MacDonald"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-bio-intro maxw-full width-full padding-y-6 padding-x-3 hds-module hds-module-full wp-block-nasa-blocks-bio-intro\">\n\t<div class=\"hds-bio-intro-container grid-row grid-container grid-container-block padding-0\">\n\t\t<div class=\"grid-col-4 desktop:grid-col-3\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"hds-bio-thumbnail width-10 tablet:width-card desktop:width-card-lg\">\n\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"hds-media-background  \"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?w=640\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large\" alt=\"Official portrait of Alex MacDonald\" style=\"transform: scale(1.2); transform-origin: 42% 20%; object-position: 42% 20%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg 4000w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?resize=240,300 240w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?resize=768,960 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?resize=819,1024 819w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?resize=1229,1536 1229w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?resize=1638,2048 1638w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?resize=320,400 320w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?resize=480,600 480w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?resize=720,900 720w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?resize=960,1200 960w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?resize=1600,2000 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" loading=\"eager\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"grid-col-7 desktop:grid-col-9 grid-row margin-0 padding-0\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"grid-col-12 desktop:grid-col-8 margin-bottom-2 desktop:margin-bottom-0\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"margin-bottom-1 desktop:margin-bottom-2\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"display-60 display-block width-full\">Alexander MacDonald<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"p-lg padding-0 margin-0 color-carbon-60\">Chief Economist<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"grid-col-12 desktop:grid-col-4\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Alexander MacDonald is the chief economist at NASA. He was previously the senior economic advisor in the Office of the Administrator and was the founding program executive of NASA\u2019s Emerging Space Office within the Office of the Chief Technologist. He is the author and editor of a number of NASA reports including <em>Emerging Space: The Evolving Landscape of 21st Century American Spaceflight, Public-Private Partnerships for Space Capability Development, <\/em>and <em>Economic Development of Low-Earth Orbit. <\/em>He is also a former executive staff specialist on commercial space at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a former research faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University, and he has worked for the Universities Space Research Association while at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center where he worked on small satellite mission designs and served as the center\u2019s first research economist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He received his undergraduate degree in economics from Queen\u2019s University in Canada and his master\u2019s degree in economics from the University of British Columbia, and he was a Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford where he obtained his doctorate on the long-run economic history of American space exploration. He was also an inaugural TED Senior Fellow and received the AIAA History Manuscript of the Year Award in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexander MacDonald is the chief economist at NASA. He was previously the senior economic advisor in the Office of the Administrator and was the founding program executive of NASA\u2019s Emerging Space Office within the Office of the Chief Technologist. He is the author and editor of a number of NASA reports including Emerging Space: The Evolving [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":58690,"template":"","meta":{"nasa_hds_core_meta_l10n":"en-US","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_editor":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_contacts":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_topic":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_linked_locations":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_related_articles":[],"hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_id":"","hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_type":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_x":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_y":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_gallery_images":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_people_facebook_url":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_people_twitter_url":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_people_instagram_url":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_people_linkedin_url":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_people_title":"Chief Economist"},"categories":[2883,2668],"news-tags":[],"internal-terms":[],"coauthors":[10473],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebPage","headline":"Alexander MacDonald","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/people\/chief-economist-alexander-macdonald\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/people\/chief-economist-alexander-macdonald\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg"},"articleSection":"People of NASA","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Zajac"}],"creator":["Michelle Zajac"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NASA","logo":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/themes\/nasa\/assets\/images\/nasa-logo.svg"},"keywords":["People of NASA","Leadership"],"dateCreated":"2019-09-30T19:46:00Z","datePublished":"2019-09-30T19:46:00Z","dateModified":"2024-03-07T15:48:47Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"Alexander MacDonald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/people\/chief-economist-alexander-macdonald\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"index\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2019-09-30T19:46:00Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"People of NASA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-tags\" content=\"People of NASA,Leadership\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"Michelle Zajac\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nasa.gov\/p.js"},"read_time":2,"featured_image":{"id":58690,"file":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/20191002_mg_0023.jpg","title":"Portraits","alt":"Official portrait of Alex MacDonald","caption":"Portrait, Alexander MacDonald, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. 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