Appendix C
Committee Member Biographies
MICHAEL J.ARMSTRONG, chair, is a principal at ICF Consulting in Fairfax, Virginia, where he manages support activities for the U.S. Department of Justice regarding victims of terrorism, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding contingency planning for “mad cow” disease, and the U.S. Department of Defense regarding the capabilities of a common Web portal for first responder Internet applications. Mr. Armstrong was formerly the associate director for Mitigation and the Region VIII director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). During his tenure at FEMA, Mr. Armstrong administered the nation’s disaster prevention programs, including pre- and post-disaster local planning, building design, land use, structural rehabilitation, and building removal grants. Mr. Armstrong spent more than a decade in local and state government, where he served as an assistant city attorney specializing in land use and personnel issues, and as deputy director of the Colorado Governor’s Office of Energy Conservation.
WILLIAM W.HOOVER is a consultant for aviation, defense, and energy matters. He is the former executive vice president of the Air Transport Association of America, where he represented the interests of the U.S. major airlines industry, particularly as related to technical, safety, and security issues. Prior to holding this position, he served as the assistant secretary, Defense Programs, U.S. Department of Energy, where he was responsible for the U.S. nuclear weapons development program, including production, research, testing, safety, and security. He is also a major general, USAF (retired), and held positions of responsibility within NATO, at the Pentagon with the Secretary of the Air Force, and in Vietnam, where he commanded a combat air wing and flew as a fighter pilot. Mr. Hoover currently serves as chair of the NRC’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board.
DOROTHY E.PATTON retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as director of the Office of Science Policy in July of 2000, after having served the EPA in many capacities for 24 years. Dr. Patton began her EPA career in 1976 as an attorney in the agency’s Office of General Counsel. She served as EPA’s chief legal counsel in the administrative proceeding to cancel the dioxin-containing pesticide 2,4,5,-T and acted as the legal advisor on teams that developed national standards for contaminants such as particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Beginning in 1985 she assumed leadership responsibilities within EPA as the executive director of the Risk Assessment Forum, then executive director of the Science Policy Council, and then, director of the Office of Science Policy. In these capacities, she exercised significant influence over national policies related to protection of public health and safety.
ROBERT J.PLANTE is director of science at Raytheon Systems Company. Mr. Plante is a senior executive with over 25 years of top-level management experience in worldwide organizations both in government and the private sector. He is a nationally and
internationally recognized operational oceanographer and meteorologist. Throughout the course of his career Mr. Plante has demonstrated his expertise in human resources leadership, financial management, technical innovation, international and interagency agreements, high-level policy developments, and long-range planning. He was elected a fellow of the American Meteorological Society for outstanding contributions to and achievements in the atmosphere and ocean sciences and has been recognized by international and national counterparts for expertise in air-ocean sciences. Mr. Plante successfully directed DOD’s principal Numerical Air-Ocean Prediction Center. Among his other personal achievements, he was recognized as the Navy’s top weatherman.
HEIDI M.SOSIK is an associate scientist in the Biology Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). She accepted a scientific staff appointment at WHOI in 1996 after 2 years as a postdoctoral scholar. Her research has been at the interface of phytoplankton ecology and optical oceanography, with a focus on environmental regulation of phytoplankton biomass and productivity. She has used a variety of optical approaches to investigate photophysiology and nutrient limitation in phytoplankton from the California Current System, the Black Sea, the Southern Ocean, and coastal waters of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. She is currently involved in the development of single-cell methods to characterize phytoplankton physiology and community structure and in the implementation of new sampling strategies for observing in the coastal ocean. Dr. Sosik is a member of the Phycological Society of America, the American Society for Limnology and Oceanography, and the American Geophysical Union.
MARK L.WILSON holds a dual appointment in the Departments of Epidemiology and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan. After earning his Sc.D. in 1985 from the Harvard School of Public Health, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and then worked for 4 years at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal. From 1991 to 1996 he was a member of the faculty at Yale University. Dr. Wilson’s research addresses patterns and processes in disease ecology, particularly of human pathogens that are arthropod-borne or zoonotic. His studies of transmission dynamics, vector-host-parasite evolution, and environmental variation are directed at various viral, bacterial, and protozoal diseases. Dr. Wilson’s approach employs field studies, laboratory experiments, and modeling, including the use of satellite images and geographic information systems. The goals are to reduce the risk of emerging diseases, to design ecologically sound development, and to understand the impacts of global environmental change on human health.
MILTON A.WILTSE is the Alaska State Geologist and director of the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) within the state’s Department of Natural Resources. Dr. Wiltse has been employed as a professional geologist in the contiguous western states and Alaska for 34 years. During his time at DGGS, Dr. Wiltse has worked on projects throughout Alaska, including wide-ranging reconnaissance work that contributed to the state’s choices when Alaska’s statehood-entitlement lands were selected. Summer mineral exploration consulting work in Alaska encouraged him to accept a position as an economic geologist with the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys in 1974. He served in that capacity for 2 years until he resigned to
work as a consultant geologist in Alaska and other western states from 1976 to late 1979. In November of 1979, Dr. Wiltse returned to DGGS as the supervisor of the division’s geochemistry laboratory.
ROBERT S.WINOKUR has been president and chief operating officer of the Earth Satellite Corporation since October 2000. He is responsible for the operation of EarthSat’s remote sensing, weather, environmental, GIS, and image processing business areas. Mr. Winokur previously served as assistant administrator for Satellite and Information Services (NESDIS) within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As assistant administrator, Mr. Winokur directed an integrated program for the development and use of all operational civilian satellite-based environmental remote sensing systems and NOAA’s national climatic, oceanographic, and geophysical data centers. Mr. Winokur also served as the acting assistant administrator for weather services (NOAA).
ERIC F.WOOD is a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Operations Research, Water Resources Program, at Princeton University. His areas of interest include hydroclimatology with an emphasis on land-atmosphere interaction, hydrologic impact of climate change, stochastic hydrology, hydrologic forecasting, and rainfall-runoff modeling. Dr. Wood is an associate editor for Reviews in Geophysics, Applied Mathematics and Computation: Modeling the Environment, and Journal of Forecasting. He is a member of the NRC Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC), the Climate Research Committee, and the Committee on Hydrologic Science. He is a former member of the Water Science and Technology Board and of BASC’s GEWEX panel.
