Dr. Ramon De Paula is a retired NASA engineer/program executive. He worked on Mars and Venus scientific exploration missions in the Science Mission Directorate/ Planetary Science Division at NASA HQ in Washington DC. He was the program executive for the following missions: 2001 Mars Odyssey, the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Phoenix Mission, MAVEN, ExoMars/TGO (NASA/ESA cooperation), InSight Mission/MarCo CubeSats, VERITAS, and Envision/VenSAR (NASA/ESA cooperation). He joined NASA HQ in 1989 as a program manager responsible for R&D in space communications and photonics, moving to science exploration mission development in 2000. Prior to NASA HQ he worked as an R&D scientist in the areas of optoelectronic sensors and communication systems at NASA/JPL, Litton Industries, and Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).