People

People

Robert Cahalan – NASA Goddard, Co-Director of the SCRC

Dr. Robert Cahalan is Head of the Climate and Radiation Branch at NASA/Goddard.

Dr. Phillip Chamberlin, NASA Goddard, Research Astrophysicist

Dr. Phillip Chamberlin is a Research Astrophysicist at the Solar Physics Laboratory, Code 671, located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. His research is focused primarily on measuring and modeling of the solar X-ray and ultraviolet irradiance. Dr. Chamberlin led the development of the Flare Irradiance Spectral Model (FISM), which not only improved the ability to empirically model the solar cycle and solar rotation irradiance variations in the Vacuum Ultraviolet wavelengths (VUV; 0.1-190 nm), but also added the ability to model the irradiance variations due to solar flares. Dr. Chamberlin has also been involved with various tasks on six sounding rocket payloads and continues to be involved with the TIMED SEE and SDO EVE data analysis, as well as the development of the GOES-R EXIS instruments (XRS and EUVS) and the MAVEN LPW-EUV instrument. He is also currently a Deputy Project Scientist for the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Dr. Chamberlin has also participated in many Education and Public Outreach (EPO) opportunities and is a collaborator on the NASA Heliophysics Education and Public Outreach Forum.

Dr. Ralph Kahn, NASA Goddard, Senior Research Scientist

Ralph Kahn, a Senior Research Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, received his PhD in applied physics from Harvard University. He spent 20 years as a Research Scientist and Senior Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he studied climate change on Earth and Mars, and also led the Earth & Planetary Atmospheres Research Element. Kahn is Aerosol Scientist for the NASA Earth Observing System’s Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument. He focuses on using MISR’s unique observations, combined with other data and numerical models, to learn about wildfire smoke, desert dust, volcano and air pollution particles, and to apply the results to regional and global climate-change questions. Kahn has lectured on Global Climate Change and atmospheric physics at UCLA and Caltech, and is editor and founder of PUMAS, the on-line journal of science and math examples for pre-college education (http://pumas.nasa.gov).

Dr. Peter Pilewskie, LASP, Co-Director of the SCRC

Peter is a senior research scientist at LASP and professor in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Department at University of Colorado Boulder.

Dr. Douglass Rabin, NASA Goddard, Co-Director of the SCRC

Doug is a senior research scientist at NASA Goddard and the head of the Goddard Solar Physics Laboratory.

Dr. Cora Randall, LASP, Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder

Cora Randall is a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC) and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Her main area of expertise is remote sensing of the earth’s middle atmosphere, with particular emphasis on the polar regions. She investigates processes related to stratospheric ozone depletion, polar mesospheric clouds, and atmospheric coupling through solar and magnetospheric energetic particle precipitation. Dr. Randall is a current or prior member of numerous international satellite science teams, and is principal investigator on the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) experiment on the NASA Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite mission. She teaches courses in chemistry, climate, and remote sensing for ATOC. Dr. Randall is a Fellow of the Sun-Climate Research Center.

Dr. Erik Richard, LASP, Research Scientist

Erik is a research scientist at LASP and the instrument scientist for the Solar Irradiance Monitor (SIM) for the upcoming TSIS mission.

Dr. K. Sebastian Schmidt, LASP, Research Scientist

Sebastian is a research scientist at LASP. He is running the field campaign program for the Atmospheric Radiation Group (ARG).

Dr. Kurt Thome, NASA Goddard, Senior Research Scientist

Kurt Thome obtained a BS degree in Meteorology from Texas A&M
University and MS and PhD degrees in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Arizona. He then joined what is now the College of Optical Sciences becoming full professor in 2006. He served as the Director of the Remote Sensing Group from 1997 to 2008. Thome moved to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in 2008 as a Physical Scientist in the Biospheric Sciences Branch. He has been a member of the Landsat-7, ASTER, MODIS, and EO-1 Science Teams providing vicarious calibration results for those and other imaging sensors. He is a Fellow of SPIE and is serving as the calibration lead for the Thermal Infrared Sensor on the Landsat Data Continuity Mission and is the Deputy Project Scientist for CLARREO for which he is also the instrument lead for the Reflected Solar Instrument.

Dr. Tom Woods, LASP, Associate Director of Technical Divisions

Dr. Thomas Woods is the Associate Director of Technical Divisions of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He obtained his BS in Physics in 1981 from Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College) and his PhD in Physics in 1985 from the Johns Hopkins University. His research is focused primarily on the solar ultraviolet irradiance and its effects on Earth’s atmosphere and climate change. Dr. Woods is involved with several NASA and NOAA satellite programs. He is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the TIMED SEE and SDO EVE satellite instrument programs at LASP and is also the PI of the SORCE mission.

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