Paul Racette
As an adventurous adolescent, Paul grew up chasing severe thunderstorms across the plains of Kansas. And so he was quite excited after joining the Goddard Space Flight Center in July 1990 to learn that his first assignment was to prepare and install a suite of sensors on a DC-8 aircraft for an experiment to study typhoons. That fall while stationed at Kadena Airbase in Okinawa, Japan, he flew for the first time through the eye of a category 5 typhoon. That experience was the beginning of an exciting and fruitful career developing and deploying microwave remote sensors for studying Earth's environment. Since then, Paul has been the principal engineer responsible for the overall instrument concept, development and deployment for five highly-innovative remote sensing instruments. Each of these instruments has produced unique, scientifically rich data. Paul has participated in more than fifteen major field experiments around the world pioneering techniques to observe the Earth. As a member of the senior technical staff at Goddard, he has initiated technology developments, research projects, and international collaborations that have advanced the state of the art in microwave remote sensing and instrument calibration. For these efforts and accomplishments Paul received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Service and was the first recipient of Goddard's Engineering Achievement Award established to publicly recognize Goddard's highest achieving engineers. In 2005 he completed the requirements for his Doctor of Science in electrical engineering from The George Washington University. Recognizing the critical needs in education and a desire to seek new adventures, Paul applied and was accepted into the NASA Administrator's Fellowship Program. As a NAFP fellow he returned to his home state to serve as a guest faculty at the Haskell Indian Nations University during the 2005 - 2006 academic year. Paul recently competed the second year of his fellowship working at NASA Headquarters as Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of Education.
Paul is highly commited to serving the public through professional activities. Paul has served the IEEE in many capacities including secretary of the University of Kansas IEEE student chapter, the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Socieity's New Technology Directions Committee Representative, Chair of the Instrumentation and Future Technologies Committee, and Professional Activities Committee for Engineers Representative. He now serves as Editor-In-Chief for Earthzine.
Scientists Warn That Species Extinction Could Reduce Productivity of Plants on Earth by Half
Originally Published by Earth Today
An international team of scientists has published a new analysis showing that as plant species around the world go extinct, natural habitats become less productive and contain fewer total plants — a situation that could ultimately compromise important benefits that humans get from nature.
Posted on
November 10th, 2007
Biodiversity, Ecosystems
News: La Niña Persists
Originally Published by NASA Earth Observatory
Posted on
November 10th, 2007
Climate, Earth Observation
Mitigating Climate Change with Geoengineering
Originally Published by NYT > Environment
Posted on
November 10th, 2007
Technology, Would You Believe?
Fires and Haze Fill The Skies In West Africa
Originally Published by NASA Earth Observatory
Posted on
November 8th, 2007
Agriculture, Disasters
Feds Want to Clean Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Originally Published by San Francisco Chronicle
Posted on
November 5th, 2007
Water, Would You Believe?
Scientists Track Time and Place of HIV’s Arrival
Originally Published by washingtonpost.com
Posted on
November 5th, 2007
Health
Green Schools Offer Healthier, Smarter Classrooms
Originally Published by t r u t h o u t
Posted on
November 2nd, 2007
Education
China’s Birth Defects Soar Due to Pollution
Originally Published by t r u t h o u t
Posted on
November 2nd, 2007
Health
Deforestation in Amazonia
Originally Published by Encyclopedia of Earth
Posted on
November 2nd, 2007
Agriculture, Biodiversity, Economy


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