Padi Boyd is the Chief of the Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory in the Astrophysics Science Division, and the Project Scientist for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Mission (a NASA Explorer Mission launched in 2018). She has been at Goddard since 1993, when she was a USRA visiting scientist with the High Speed Photometer and Polarimeter Team aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, studying the optical and ultraviolet polarization seen in X-ray binaries, pulsars and active galaxies.
In 1995, Boyd joined the Monitoring X-ray Experiment team, an X-ray all-sky monitor that was in development and testing as part of the Russian-led Spectrum X-Gamma mission. In 1997, she joined the Rossi X-ray Timing Experiment Guest Observer Facility performing science support for that mission. From 2003 to 2008, she managed that facility, as well as the Swift Science Center.
Padi spent a two-year detail at NASA Headquarters in Washington as the program scientist for the Kepler mission. While at NASA Headquarters, she was also the NASA point of contact for the MOST U.S. Guest Observer program and also served as a discipline scientist for X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy. She was also the Program Officer for the Origins of Solar Systems Exoplanets program.
Since returning to Goddard in 2010, she has held a number of positions including Deputy Project Scientist for Operations of the Hubble Space Telescope, Associate Chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory, Acting Deputy Director of the Astrophysics Division, and Associate Director of the Astrophysics Division.
Her research interests focus on applying traditional and novel time series and spectral analysis techniques to uncover the drivers of stellar variability, and accretion in compact binaries and active galaxies, using data from a variety of space telescopes.