Congratulations are in order for the following researchers!
Sean Foley (616/Morgan) attended the EarthCARE 2026 Science and Validation workshop, hosted by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and ESA (European Space Agency) in early June 2026 in Oxford, UK. For his poster presentation, "PACE / EarthCARE Matchups (PEM): An intercomparison library in Python for the NASA Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) and EarthCARE missions,” Mr. Foley won the EarthCARE MAAP-PAL Challenge award, along with a scale model of the EarthCARE spacecraft. (EarthCARE refers to ESA's Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer satellite mission; MAAP-PAL refers the ESA's Multi-mission Algorithm and Analysis Platform - Product Algorithm Library.)
James Irons (610/UMBC) and Eric Vermote (619/NASA) recently were selected as "winners of the 2025 William T. Pecora Award for their outstanding leadership and pioneering research that revolutionized the Landsat program and advanced global, land-change monitoring." According to the USGS site, "The prestigious award is sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA. The award recognizes outstanding scientific contributions toward understanding the Earth through remote sensing, which is the science of gathering information about Earth’s surface from satellites and aircraft. Remote sensing can be used to manage forests, monitor agriculture, track water quality and availability, support natural or human-induced disaster response, and more. This annual award has been presented since 1974, and honors the memory of William T. Pecora, former USGS director and Under Secretary of the Interior." The in-person awards presentation will be held in August at the 2026 IGARSS Symposium.
Cheng-Hsuan Lyu (617/Morgan) was recognized in early June with an Outstanding Teamwork Award from NOAA's NESDIS Office of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Observations to the Sounder for Microwave-Based Applications (SMBA) Team: "Given in recognition of their exceptional cohesion, resilience, and dedicated partnership in navigating programmatic challenges to perfect a revolutionary microwave instrument and successfully release the SMBA final RFP." The Office of LEO Observations includes two programs: the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and the Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON).