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Biographies of Committee Members
MICHAEL H. FREILICH, Chair, is a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. Dr. Freilich’s research interests include microwave ocean remote sensing, especially surface wind measurement and analysis techniques; surface wave modeling; and nearshore processes. His current work focuses on development of empirical models relating radar backscatter to near-surface winds; characterization of centimetric ocean surface roughness and atmospheric mesoscale phenomena using satellite measurements; and development and application of advanced statistical validation techniques. Dr. Freilich heads the Ocean Vector Wind Science Team on NASA’s QuikScat mission. Dr. Freilich served on the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Oceans Studies Board from 1992 to 1995. He was also a member of the Panel on the NOAA Coastal Ocean Program from 1993 to 1994.
ANTONIO J. BUSALACCHI, JR., is director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) and professor of meteorology at the University of Maryland, College Park. ESSIC is a joint center among the Departments of Meteorology, Geology, and Geography at the University of Maryland in collaboration with the Earth Sciences Directorate at NASA’s Goodard Space Flight Center. Dr. Busalacchi is a research scientist with past government laboratory experience. He brings expertise in applying research instruments and data to operational oceanography with particular emphasis on study of the tropical ocean response to surface fluxes of momentum and heat and tropical ocean circulation and its role in the coupled climate system. Dr. Busalacchi began his professional career as an oceanographer at the NASA/Goodard Space Flight Center. In 1991, he was appointed as the chief of the NASA/Goddard Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes. In that capacity he furnished scientific direction to a broad, many-faceted program in Earth system science. Dr. Busalacchi has extensive NRC experience, having served as a member of the Panel on the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Program, the Panel on Ocean Atmosphere Observations Supporting Short-Term Climate Predictions, and the Climate Research Committee. Currently, he serves as co-chair of the Scientific Steering Group for the World Climate Research Programme.
JOHN R. CHRISTY is a professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. In November 2000, he was appointed as the Alabama state climatologist. Dr. Christy has served as a contributor to and lead author of the United Nations’ reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in which satellite temperatures were included as a high-quality data set for studying global climate change. Dr. Christy has also been a member of several NRC committees, including the Committee
to Review NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise Science Plan and the Panel on Reconciling Temperature Observations. Dr. Christy is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society.
CAROL ANNE CLAYSON is an associate professor in the Department of Meteorology at Florida State University (FSU) and is director designate of the FSU Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute. From 1995 to 2001, she was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University. Dr. Clayson’s research interests are in air-sea interaction, ocean and atmosphere boundary layers, numerical ocean and coupled ocean-atmosphere modeling, and remote sensing of air-sea surface fluxes. She was the recipient in 2000 of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award. She was also the recipient in 1996 of an NSF career award. Her professional service activities include program chair for the 12th AMS Conference on Air-Sea Interactions, held in 2003, and membership on a number of committees and working groups, including the AMS Committee on Interaction of the Sea and Atmosphere; AMS Board of Meteorological and Oceanographic Education in Universities; NASA TRMM Science Team; TOGA COARE Air-Sea Flux Working Group and TOGA COARE Radiation Working Group; and the AMS, the AGU, and the Oceanography Society.
WILLIAM B. GAIL is director, Advanced Programs for Earth Science, Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. Dr. Gail is responsible for business development and proposal activities for NASA, NOAA, and international customers covering instruments, spacecraft, and space systems in the areas of space and Earth sciences. He has also directed program development activities leading to contracts on numerous space science programs. Dr. Gail was instrumental in establishing international science mission partnerships in Europe and Asia and for developing innovative program implementation approaches, including government/commercial partnerships and commercial geo-platform leasing for government payloads.
CATHERINE GAUTIER is a professor of meteorology and Earth system science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Gautier heads the Earth Space Research Group of the Institute for Computational Earth Systems Science, a research unit at UCSB, where research is focused on Earth system science modeling and observations. Her research utilizes satellite-derived data relating to El Niño, Indian Ocean monsoons, air-sea interactions, development of a system for processing geostationary satellite data, and other topics related to weather and climate. Dr. Gautier’s other research interests include Earth radiation budget and cloud processes, radiative transfer and remote sensing, and global climate processes.
WILLIAM C. GIBSON is assistant vice president, Space Science and Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute. He has extensive experience in the management of projects involving the development of scientific instruments and support systems for use on the space shuttle, free-flying satellites, sounding rockets, and high-altitude research balloons. Mr. Gibson has served as the project manager for the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration Medium-Sized Explorer (MIDEX). His areas of technical specialization include the design of spacecraft data systems, spacecraft telemetry and control systems, and spacecraft heat transfer systems.
SARAH T. GILLE holds a joint appointment as an assistant professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego. Prior to her current position, she was on the faculty of the Earth System Science Department at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Gille’s research interests are in climate and ocean dynamics. She interprets satellite observations from altimetry and scatterometry, with the goal of understanding physical processes controlling ocean climate. She is a member of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Ocean Vector Wind Science Team and the NASA JPL Jason Science Working Team.
ROSS N. HOFFMAN is vice president, Prediction and Radiation Studies, and manager, Numerical Weather Prediction Group, at Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), Inc. Dr. Hoffman is an industry scientist with emphasis on data assimilation and uses, not satellite mission development or operations. His principal areas
of interest cover objective analysis and assimilation methods, atmospheric dynamics, climate theory, and atmospheric radiation. He has been the principal investigator for several projects at AER and has made significant contributions in the field of data assimilation, including the development of some variational techniques. Dr. Hoffman is a member of the NASA NSCAT Science Team and the EOS SeaWinds Science Team. He is also a member of the NRC Committee on Status and Future Directions in U.S. Weather Modification Research and Operations.
BRUCE D. MARCUS is retired from TRW, Inc., where he was the chief scientist of the Space and Laser Programs Division. His technical background includes research in heat and mass transfer, heat pipes, thermosiphons, spacecraft thermal control, and thermo-mechanical design of telescopes. Dr. Marcus is a former member of the NRC Task Group on Technology Development in NASA’s Office of Space Science and is currently a member of the Space Studies Board.
RALPH F. MILLIFF is a research scientist at the Colorado Research Associates Division of NorthWest Research Associates. His expertise is in numerical modeling of the ocean and atmosphere, and the relation of air-sea dynamics to climate. Prior to his current position, Dr. Milliff was a staff scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Dr. Milliff has served as a member of the NASA Ocean Vector Winds Science Team for the NSCAT and QSCAT missions (1991 to the present). His current research involves the application of global surface vector wind data sets to studies of upper ocean mixing and the ocean general circulation; the Madden-Julian Oscillation; and the quasi-stationary waves of the Southern Hemisphere. In addition, he is adapting methods of Bayesian hierarchical models from probability and statistics to problems of air-sea interaction.
MICHAEL J. PRATHER is a professor in the Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine. His areas of expertise are atmospheric chemistry and physics, with a special emphasis on modeling atmospheric composition. His publications also extend to planetary atmospheres and his doctoral work in astro-physics. Prior to his position at UC Irvine, Dr. Prather was employed by NASA at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of Geophysical Research Letters. His extensive NRC service includes membership on the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate.
R. KEITH RANEY is principal professional staff scientist with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He is on special assignment in the APL Space Department, where his responsibilities include new initiatives in microwave remote sensing and satellite system configurations. Prior to his employment at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Raney was at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS), where he was its chief radar scientist and co-founder of RADARSAT, Canada’s first remote sensing satellite program. He participated in the conceptual design phase of several satellite programs.
STEVEN W. RUNNING is a professor of ecology and director, Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, School of Forestry, at the University of Montana. His research interests include remote sensing of vegetation, bioclimatology, terrestrial ecosystem modeling theory, and regional hydrologic and carbon balance responses of forests resulting from global climate change. He is a member of the science team for NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, and he chaired NASA’s Land Panel for the Earth Observing System (1999). Dr. Running has served on numerous committees, including for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program’s Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrologic Cycle (vice chair, 1991-1996), the NASA Earth Observing System, the World Climate Research Program’s Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate, and the WMO (1995-1998). He also served on the NRC BASC Climate Research Committee (1996-1999), the Panel on Climate Observing Systems Status (1998-1999), and the Committee to Review NASA’s ESE Science Plan (2000). He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
LAWRENCE C. SCHOLZ retired from Lockheed Martin as engineering fellow/manager, Systems Engineering and Flight Software Development, after 44 years as an engineer and physicist with 34 years of spacecraft design
and systems engineering experience. He managed engineering groups and technical programs and has expertise in flight software, spacecraft operations, and instrument accommodations, and generally in spacecraft systems design. Dr. Sholz’s commercial program experience includes communication satellites such as RCA Satcom, GE-1 (A2100 series), Telstar, and Intelsat. As the architect and manager of the Astro Satellite Operations Center, he was the mission director for communications spacecraft transfer-orbit operations. Working directly with NASA personnel at GSFC and Headquarters, he participated in the earliest studies of instrument accommodation on EOS.
CARL F. SCHUELER is chief scientist, Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing (SBRS). Dr. Schueler’s experience and expertise are principally in satellite remote sensing. He has led numerous advanced sensor development studies and proposals for polar and geosynchronous Earth observation, as well as planetary exploration. He also managed the mid-1990s Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Block 6 studies and Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite 2000 studies leading to Raytheon’s participation in the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program. He is currently technical director for the NPOESS Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Program at SBRS and serves on the Advisory Committee for the Institute for Computational Earth System Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
ROBERT A. SHUCHMAN is senior vice president and chief technical officer of the Altarum Institute. Prior to his appointment at Altarum, Dr. Shuchman was vice president for Government Products and Services as well as director of the Earth Sciences Group at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan. At Altarum, he is responsible for providing collaboration and overall technical direction and facilitating technical exchanges between business lines to create new business opportunities and collaboration of teams across those business lines. Dr. Shuchman manages corporate IR&D, utilizing inputs from the Altarum Science Advisory Council and business line presidents. Altarum’s Emerging Technologies Group also reports to Dr. Shuchman. Dr. Shuchman is an expert in the use of remote sensing for terrestrial and oceanographic applications, including hydrology, land cover mapping, sea ice mapping, and coastal and marine management. He is also a recognized expert in intergrating remote sensing data into geographic information systems. His NRC service includes membership on the Panel on the Implications of Future Space Systems for the U.S. Navy (1985-1993), the Advanced Radar Technology Panel, and the Task Group 5 – Space Inputs (1994-1996).
ROY W. SPENCER serves as principal investigator on the global precipitation studies with Nimbus-7 and DMSP SSM/I at the Earth System Science Center of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Dr. Spencer has been a member of several science teams: the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Space Station Accommodations Analysis Study Team, Science Steering Group for TRMM, TOVS Pathfinder Working Group, and NASA HQ Earth Science and Applications Advisory Subcommittee. Since 1992 Dr. Spencer has been the U.S. team leader for the Multichannel Imaging Microwave Radiometer team and the follow-on AMSR-E team. In 1994 he became the AMSR-E science team leader. He received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 1991, the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Director’s Commendation in 1989, and the American Meteorological Society’s Special Award in 1996. He served on the NRC Panel on Reconciling Temperature Observations (1999-2000).
WILLIAM STONEY is principal engineer at Mitretek Corporation. Following a varied history in NASA, including service as director of engineering for the Apollo Program, Mr. Stoney began his career in satellite remote sensing as director of NASA’s Earth Observation Program in 1972, the year that Landsat 1 was launched. His tenure at NASA included the launch of Landsats 2 and 3 and the development of the Thematic Mapper and NOAA’s TIROS and GEOS satellites and sensors. Since leaving NASA, he has worked for RCA and GE supporting the development of the EOS program, and for MITRE, and now Mitretek, supporting the current and future Landsat systems. Recently, he has been closely involved with the Stennis Science Commercial Data Buy Program.
JAN SVEJKOVSKY is the founder and president of Ocean Imaging, Inc., where he is responsible for managing and directing all scientific and corporate developments. His company focuses on added-value uses of space.
Dr. Svejkovsky is principal investigator on research grants from NOAA, NASA, NSF, the Navy, the State of California, and corporations. Dr. Svejkovsky’s prime interest is in identifying new potential markets for remote sensing technology and developing customized products/services for those markets. In recent years, he has directed advanced development and commercialization of satellite and nonsatellite oceanographic techniques for diverse research and coastal applications, including sewage, storm runoff, and other pollution effluent monitoring (using optical, infrared, and synthetic aperture radar sensors); high-resolution surface current detection (using infrared, synthetic aperture radar, and optical imagery); and multispectral algorithms for bathymetry surveys and bottom substrate mapping. Since mid-1998, Ocean Imaging has operated its own multispectral aerial sensor for coastal research and environmental monitoring and, since 1999, for rapid-response agricultural remote sensing.
KURT THOME is an associate professor in the Optical Sciences Center at the University of Arizona. Dr. Thome’s current research activities focus on NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS). This work includes developing algorithms for the absolute radiometric calibration after launch of the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection radiometer (ASTER), Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper+ (ETM+), and MODIS. He is also involved in developing atmospheric correction algorithms for ASTER and ETM+ and is a member of the ASTER and Landsat-7 Science Teams.
JOHN R.G. TOWNSHEND holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Institute for Advanced Computing Studies and the Department of Geography at the University of Maryland. He is also a member of the Department of Geography’s Laboratory for Global Remote Sensing Studies. Dr. Townshend’s research centers on the use of remote sensing and advanced computing methods for improvements in the characterization of regional and global land cover. He has been a member of NASA’s MODIS Science Team (since 1996) and he is a principal investigator on the Landsat Pathfinder Project for monitoring Earth’s tropical moist forests. Dr. Townshend has also been chair of the Joint Scientific and Technical Committee of the Global Climate Observing System. His previous NRC service includes membership on the Committee on Geophysical and Environmental Data (1992-1998) and on the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources (1999). He also served as a member of the NRC Committee for Review of the Science Implementation Plan of the NASA Office of Earth Science.
Staff
ARTHUR CHARO, Study Director, received his Ph.D. in physics from Duke University in 1981 and was a postdoctoral fellow in chemical physics at Harvard University from 1982 to 1985. Dr. Charo then pursued his interests in national security and arms control at Harvard University’s Center for Science and International Affairs, where he was a fellow from 1985 to 1988. From 1988 to 1995, he worked in the International Security and Space Program in the U.S. Congress’s Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). He has been a senior program officer at the Space Studies Board (SSB) of the National Research Council since OTA’s closure in 1995. Dr. Charo is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in International Security (1985-1987) and was the American Institute of Physics Congressional Science Fellow for 1988 to 1989. He is the author of research papers in the field of molecular spectroscopy; reports on arms control and space policy; and the monograph, Continental Air Defense: A Neglected Dimension of Strategic Defense (University Press of America, 1990).
THERESA FISHER is a senior program assistant with the Space Studies Board. During her 25 years with the National Research Council (NRC) she has held positions in the Executive, Editorial, and Contract Offices of the National Academy of Engineering, as well as positions with several NRC boards, including the Energy Engineering Board, the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, and the Marine Board.
