On 24 May 2018, the Chinese government announced the appointment of Zhang Kejian as the new Administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the nation’s space agency. Zhang has replaced Tang Dengjie, who was the Administrator until January this year.
Zhang has also taken over as the Deputy Minister of Industry and Informational Technology, of which CNSA is a part of, as well as Director of the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA), and Director of the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND). A prominent member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Zhang has also been promoted to Party Secretary.
A physicist by training, Zhang holds a Bachelor’s Degree in high energy density physics from the People’s Liberation Army National University of Defense Science and Technology (NUDT). Following that, he completed his Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He spent much of his career in the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics, and in 2007, was appointed Party Committee Secretary of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP).
