University of Colorado Professor Jack Burns was appointed Friday to the NASA transition team by the incoming Trump administration.

Burns, a professor in the Department of Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences on the Boulder campus, has longstanding ties with NASA. He served on the NASA Advisory Council from 2008 to 2010. That included a stint as chair of the council’s Science Committee in 2009 and 2010.

Through a CU spokesman, Burns declined to discuss the appointment.

Burns also directed the Lunar University Network for Astrophysics Research, which is a consortium of top research institutions funded by a $6.5 million NASA grant to conduct astrophysics from the moon, including the use of radio telescopes.

Additionally, Burns is a fellow at CU’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy.

Burns currently is the principal investigator of a $250 million NASA Explorer Mission concept proposal called the “Dark Ages Radio Explorer,” known as DARE. DARE is designed to orbit the moon and look back in time, through observations of the early universe from above the moon’s far side, when it is shielded from Earth and the sun.

Burns, who currently serves as senior vice president of the American Astronomical Society, was vice president for Academic Affairs and Research for the CU system from 2001-05.

Also, he is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. In 2010 he received NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal.

Transition teams are typically named for each federal department or agency by incoming presidential administrations, charged with reviewing the activities and portfolios of specific departments or agencies to identify major issues.

Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan