Terry Milholland has departed his role as chief technology officer of the Internal Revenue Service as the critical pay authority through which he was hired nears its expiration, FCW reported Friday.

Zach Noble writes Milholland joined the IRS eight years ago after he served as a technical officer at Visa International, Electronic Data Systems and Boeing.

Milholland helped oversee the modernization of IRS’ information technology infrastructure under the Customer Account Data Engine project and also worked on the agency’s efforts to implement the Affordable Care Act, according to the report.

IRS confirmed that Milholland’s last day with the IRS on June 30 and Gina Garza succeeded him as acting CTO, Noble reports.

Space agencies from Poland and China have signed an agreement to cooperate on joint research, monitor and develop new telecommunications systems to spur space cooperation between the two nations, Space News reported Monday.

Brian Berger writes the Polish Space Agency and the Chinese National Space Administration’s partnership aims to help facilitate development of smaller businesses in Poland’s space industry.

“The cooperation between the [POLSA] and [CNSA] will be related to three fields: space research, exchange and use of satellite data to develop our scientific knowledge on Earth, including observation and monitoring of climate change and the environment, and the development of space technology, including in the field of telecommunication,” Marek Banaszkiewicz, POLSA president.

The report added POLSA has also signed space cooperation agreements with government counterparts in France, Italy, Ukraine and Brazil.

C. Dabney O’Riordan — an associate regional director at the Securities and Exchange Commission‘s Los Angeles Regional Office – has been appointed as co-chief of the asset management unit within SEC’s division of enforcement.

SEC said Tuesday O’Riordan will work alongside co-chief Anthony Kelly to lead the unit’s mission to apprehend misconduct of investment advisers, investment companies and private funds.

“Dabney’s excellent judgment, deep knowledge of the laws and rules governing the asset management industry, and strong leadership skills position her perfectly to co-lead the nationwide Asset Management Unit,” said Andrew Ceresney, SEC enforcement division director.

“I am confident that she and her co-chief, Anthony, will be great partners in the unit’s mission and the SEC’s efforts to root out misconduct in the asset management industry.”

In the division of enforcement, O’Riordan previously served as assistant director, counsel to the enforcement division director and staff attorney.

O’Riordan also worked as litigation associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson and as a law clerk to the David Thompson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

At SEC, she has investigated or supervised enforcement cases on misconduct in the asset management industry such as advisers who misallocated private fund expenses.

O’Riordan has also supervised investigations on charges against gatekeepers.

NASA has selected nine informal education organizations across seven states to receive grants with a total worth of $10 million in an effort to inspire the next generation of scientists, innovators and explorers.

The nine organizations were chosen out of 73 applications for NASA’s Competitive Program for Science Museums, Planetariums and NASA Visitor Centers Plus Other Opportunities for their proposed projects ranging from botanical experiments with a focus on food growth in space, hands-on aviation exhibits, technology challenges with caves as stand-ins for other planets and a traveling exhibit on Earth’s extreme environments, NASA said Friday.

The selected institutions will work with other organizations, including museums, K-12 and higher education institutions and NASA’s Museum Alliance to create the exhibits with the goal to increase science literacy and inspire youths to take up a career within the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

NASA added that the projects are each valued between $420,000 to $1.25 million.

“NASA’s investment in education is directly linked to inspiring the next generation of explorers and innovators,” said Donald James, NASA’s office of education associate administrator.

Hands-on interactive educational activities help to engage students, educators and families, as well as increase the general public interest in science and technology, he said.

The winners of the grant are as follows:

• DNC Parks & Resorts at KSC, Inc.
• Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens
• Orlando Science Center
• Museum of Aviation
• Exploration Place
• Museum of Science
• The Sciencenter
• Nurture Nature Center
• Wex Foundation

A new Office of the Director of National Intelligence report has found a 5.9 percent decline in the number of federal government employees and contractors who were eligible for a security clearance in fiscal year 2015.

ODNI said in the report that there were 4,249,053 security clearance-eligible individuals in October 2015, compared with 4,514,576 in October 2014.

According to the report, federal agencies saw a 2.1 percent drop in the number of individuals who were eligible to hold a security clearance as well as gain access to classified information between October 2014 and October 2015.

The agency also found that the number of people who were entitled to a security clearance but were not allowed to access confidential data decreased by 203,449 from FY 2014 to FY 2015, showing a 12.8 percent decline.

The document also noted that such reductions in clearance eligibility were associated with the Defense Department’s efforts to implement several data quality initiatives.

ODNI prepared the 2015 Report on Security Clearance Determinations in compliance with the FY 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act.

The special security directorate under ODNI’s national counterintelligence and security center collected and processed data from DoD’s Joint Personnel Adjudication System, Office of Personnel Management’s Central Verification System and ODNI’s Scattered Castles repository in order to determine the security volume levels for government employees and contractors.