Before a recent staff meeting for the business development & integration office of Johnson Space Center, Jason Foster has planned a typical update and team discussion program. He did not expect an announcement that he had been appointed recruit of the year in 2025 – honorable mention through the annual program of annual Laboratory Consortium.
Foster was one of the only three technology transfer professionals through the federal government to be recognized in the recruit category of the year, which is open to people at the start of their career with less than three years of experience. “It was definitely a surprise,” he said. “It was an honor, because it represents not only the Johnson Space Center but also NASA.”
Foster is a license specialist and Report on new technology (NTR) Specialist in Johnson’s technology transfer office in Houston. This team strives to guarantee that the innovations developed for aeronautics and space exploration are widely available to the public, maximizing their advantage for the nation. Foster’s role involves both capturing new technologies developed at Johnson and Marketing and License These technologies to companies who wish to use and develop them more.
He describes a large part of his work such as a “hunt for technology” – handing his hand to branches, offices and teams of Johnson to teach them the technology transfer office, the NTRS and the value of technological reports for NASA and the public. “The NTRs are the foundation that allows our office to do our job,” he said. “We need to know a technology to transfer it.”
Foster’s efforts to rationalize and strengthen the reports and patents of Johnson’s innovations led to its recognition by the consortium. Its proactive awareness and relationship creation improved customer service and contributed to 158 NTRS during fiscal 2024 – the largest number of NTR disclosed by federal employees in any NASA center. Foster also proposed a three -month -old sprint, during which he led a team of seven in an intensive exercise to identify and report new technologies. This initiative not only erased a back -in -law for the office, but also resulted in more than 120 NTr previously uncluttered. “We are still using this process now when we continue to treat NTR,” said Foster. In addition to these achievements, he helped obtain the highest number of records recorded with commercial entities in the history of the center, with 41 licenses executed during the financial year 2024.
“I am very proud of my achievements, none of this would be possible without the opening of mind and the continuous support of my incredible team,” said Foster. “They have always provided a space to develop and actively welcome innovation in our processes and our workflows.”
A self -written “space of space”, Foster said he was still planning to work at NASA, but not much later in his career – ideally as an astronaut. He first planned to continue a diploma in astrophysics but discovered a passion for engineering and merged with his love of space by studying in place aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical engineering. During his latest college half of California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo, he won an internship in Johnson through the NASA STEM engagement office. He supported the development of flight software for crew exercise systems on the international space station and future exploration missions. “I really got involved in the team of the Johnson Space Center and the work, and I thought, and if I joined NASA now?”
He was hired as a license specialist in the Technology Transfer team as part of the Jets II contract as an employed Amentum shortly after graduation and continuously seeks new opportunities to extend his role and skills. “The more I can know more about everything that NASA does is incredible,” he said. “I found myself in this perfect position where my work is literally to learn everything there is to learn.”
Foster celebrates three years with NASA in July. In his time at the agency, he learned the value of getting to know and understanding the needs of your colleagues to help them. Before meeting someone, he takes time to find out more about the organization or the team in which they are part, the work in which they are involved and what they could discuss. It is also important to determine how each person prefers to communicate and collaborate. “Doing your homework reports dividends,” said Foster. He found that being as prepared as possible opens doors to more opportunities, and this helps save precious time for the members of the occupied team.
When not hunting for technology, you could find Foster practicing the art of spinning. He picked up the pastime at the university, joining a club that met on local beaches to practice the rotation and capture of different geometric models through long-exposure exhibition photos. “It was a kind of strange thing to enter, but it was really fun,” he said. His love for learning also arouses his interest in other activities. Gardening is a relatively new hobby inspired by an awareness that he had never cultivated anything before.
“It’s a real joy, I think, to meet something with curiosity and want to learn from it,” he said. “I think this helps particularly in my work, where your curiosity switch must be on at least 90% of the time.”