Leonard Berkoski III, Associate Editor for Technology

Leonard Berkoski III, Associate Editor for Technology, Earthzine

Leonard (Len) Berkoski has worked for 17 years in the development of remote sensing payloads, with experience in concept development, instrument systems engineering, technology maturation, and final integration and testing. Len is currently responsible for the Civil/ Environmental market area for the Space & ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) Systems Division of Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, headquartered near Baltimore, Md., and including facilities in California and Colorado. For over 50 years, Northrop Grumman’s Space & ISR Systems Division has been a market leader in civil and defense instruments, using diverse sensing methods and phenomenology such as Electro-Optical Imaging (Visible & Infrared), Hyperspectral sensors, Atmospheric Sounding (Passive Microwave), Active Remote Sensing (Synthetic Aperture Radar and LIDAR based systems), and Navigation (GN&C sensors). He is a three-time Maryland Terrapin, with BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering and a Master's of Business Administration, all from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Len’s interest in Earthzine developed from the National Academy of Sciences’ Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond. This report presents a vision for the Earth science program; an analysis of the existing Earth Observing System and recommendations to help restore its capabilities; an assessment of and recommendations for new observations and missions for the next decade; an examination of and recommendations for effective application of those observations; and an analysis of how best to sustain that observation and applications system. Len designed a strategic Space Act Agreement between NGES and GSFC that enables researchers at the two Maryland-based organizations to collaborate on the development of advanced civil radar system architectures that can be leveraged into new space-based remote sensing instruments for Earth and Planetary Science.

Under the auspices of this Space Act Agreement, Len began working with Paul Racette on ways to leverage technologies (initially radar) developed for military applications to civil problems. The first successful result of this collaboration was a recently selected Earth Science Technology Office Instrument Incubator Program (NNH09ZDA001N-IIP) award, “Antenna Technologies for 3D Imaging, Wide Swath Radar Supporting ACE.” As part of Earthzine we hope to increase the visibility of NASA’s Earth science technology development and its importance to advancing our understanding of Earth.

Prior to his current position, Len entered the commercial telecommunications world at Ericsson IP Infrastructure, where he was responsible for the integration of commercial IP networking technologies into 3rd generation mobile networks. However, the foundation of his passion for space was laid by five years supporting the replacement scientific instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. As an Instrument Systems Engineer, Len was involved with the integration & test of many scientific instruments, including the Near Infrared Camera & Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), and the NICMOS Cryocooler that flew on STS-95.