Meet Steven Neeck: Program Executive, NASA Office of Earth Science

Throughout his career in academia, industry, and civil service, Mr. Neeck has taken a special interest regarding the formulation of space missions for Earth Science, and the development of corresponding remote sensing instrumentation. He holds a B.S. (Highest Honors) degree in Imaging Science from Rochester Institute of Technology, and an M.Sc. (Diploma with Distinction) degree in Remote Sensing from the University of London. Prior to joining Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in 1986, he held positions in academia and private industry related to the design, development, and application of remote sensing technology to the study of the Earth.

Mr. Neeck began his career at GSFC as a systems engineer in the Instrument Systems Branch. He successively held positions of increasing engineering responsibility at GSFC, eventually becoming the head of the Earth Science Missions Branch in the Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate. While at GSFC, Mr. Neeck actively participated in the design and development of several remote sensing instruments and space missions, and numerous future studies. Among others, he worked on the Earth Observing System (EOS) flagship mission, Terra; the New Millennium Program Earth Oberving-1 mission; and the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project, which will serve as a bridge between the EOS program and NPOESS.

Mr. Neeck’s work on space systems for precipitation measurement began at GSFC in 1997, when he worked with Dr. Chris Kummerow to design the mission concept for a successor to the highly successful joint U.S. - Japan Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). His contributions to this and other Earth science missions led to his early involvement in the formulation of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) concept, which was formally endorsed by NASA as an EOS follow-on reference concept in 1998.

From 2000-2001, Mr. Neeck, supported the GPM pre-formulation and advanced study phases as Mission Systems Engineering Lead, and developed and implemented the GPM mission systems engineering staffing plan. In late 2001, he was detailed to NASA Headquarters in the Office of Earth Science to support GPM.

In 2002, Mr. Neeck formally joined NASA Headquarters as a Program Executive, where he continues to be involved in planning for GPM at the program level. His responsibilities include integration of all NASA activities regarding GPM, such as budget planning, establishment of technical requirements, the integration of research science into mission objectives, and international activities.

Mr. Neeck has enjoyed his involvement in GPM from its earliest stages. He looks forward to the substantial improvements in climate research and meteorology that GPM is expected to bring. He observes, “GPM is unique, because of the breadth and depth of the international involvement required to achieve the mission. As we attempt more and more ambitious things, we must leverage the capabilities of our international partners to ensure success. GPM will be a true model for the future.”

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Meet Erich Stocker: GPM Deputy Project Scientist for Data Systems

Mr. Stocker’s extensive technical experience and unique educational background combine to make him an apt individual to lead GPM data system development. He has had the good fortune to work with numerous talented and hardworking personnel during his academic and professional careers. These individuals contributed greatly to the success of the projects Mr. Stocker has worked on, and he looks forward to collaborating with the other members of the GPM team to ensure that GPM meets its mission objectives.

Mr. Stocker presently holds a master’s degree in ancient history from the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and a master’s degree in computer science from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in computer science also from Nova Southeastern University; his Ph.D. thesis concerns the application of formal methods to the analysis of software architecture.

After college, Mr. Stocker worked in the U.S. Army, as a signal officer. He then became the assistant to the president of Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU) in Savannah, Georgia. Eventually, he assumed a faculty position there, serving as the university’s first (and only!) Assistant Professor of both History and Computer Science.

While at AASU, Mr. Stocker was recruited to work in private industry, as a Department of Defense (DoD) contractor. He worked in Annapolis, Maryland, developing software to facilitate battlefield command, communications, and control. After working for the DoD contractor, Mr. Stocker was employed by a firm holding NASA contracts. He worked on several projects for the science directorates at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). While a contractor, Mr. Stocker helped create the Global Change Master Directory, a system that enabled scientists to learn about and locate datasets containing information from various NASA science disciplines. This breakthrough system significantly facilitated scientists’ research all over the globe, and included deliveries to Japan and Europe. The system was especially remarkable because it was developed before the advent of the web environment that we are familiar with today.

As a NASA contractor, Mr. Stocker also aided in development of the Satellite Situation Center, a system that tracked NASA’s solar physics satellites. The system was able to determine when satellite overpasses occurred, and was used to support science research by providing information about when data from multiple satellites might be available. Mr. Stocker also provided analysis and design input for a Space Physics Data System, which supported data management and distribution for the space physics community.

Mr. Stocker was actively involved in numerous activities concerning the early development stages of NASA’s Earth Observing System Data Information System (EOSDIS). He was a member of the team responsible for designing the architecture that was eventually adopted for the Version 0 (V0) EOSDIS. This involvement led NASA to hire him as a civil servant in 1991, as the Project Manager for EOSDIS V0. The EOSDIS V0 system successfully demonstrated the value of employing a distributed development environment and working closely with the science community to be supported by the system. Under Mr. Stocker’s direction, EOSDIS V0 won a National Performance Review Silver Hammer Award, an award that former Vice President Al Gore initiated to showcase examples of teamwork, innovation, and creativity in the Federal Government.

After V0 became operational, Mr. Stocker served until April 1994 as the Manager for the EOSDIS Science Data Processing Segment, before being appointed the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Science Data Information Systems (TSDIS) Manager, a position he still holds. Mr. Stocker also currently serves as the GPM Deputy Project Scientist for Data Systems, and as the GPM Precipitation Processing System (PPS) Manager and Chief Architect. Simultaneously, he is the Project Manager for Aquarius, a satellite that will monitor global sea surface salinity changes.

Mr. Stocker’s experience with TRMM will be indispensable to GPM and the Aquarius mission, as the systems he is helping to develop for those missions will be based on heritage from the TSDIS.

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Third GPM Workshop To Be Held in June 2003

The European Space Agency (ESA) will host the Third GPM Workshop at ESTEC, its space research and technology center in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, from 24-26 June 2003. Previous GPM planning workshops included a first meeting in May 2001, in the United States, which was hosted by NASA in College Park, Maryland, and a second conference in May 2002, hosted by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) in Tokyo, Japan. Like the preceding two GPM Workshops, this event promises to be an excellent forum for participants to exchange information and promote partnership opportunities. Topics to be covered at this Workshop include:

· Overall Plans and Status · GPM Science Objectives and Relations to Other Programs · System Architecture and Technical Implementation: - GPM system/constellation design - Space segment - Ground segment - Other related topics · Algorithms, Products and Validation: - Retrieval algorithms - Algorithms/product validation - Assimilation/impacts - NWC/NWP/climate products - Hydrology products - Other applications - Validations - Synergy with other systems - Data/product policy

The conference will consist of both oral and poster presentations, and a brochure containing abstracts of the presentations will be prepared for the meeting. All parties interested in GPM are welcome and encouraged to attend. Please contact the ESTEC Conference Bureau via email (confburo@esa.int) if you are interested in receiving more information regarding this Workshop, or visit the Third GPM Workshop web site at: http://www.estec.esa.nl/conferences/03C06 for additional details on abstract submission, registration, hotel reservations, and a calendar of Workshop events.

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