Waleed Abdalati, an associate professor at CU-Boulder’s geography department and a fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), has been named to the role of chief scientist today. Abdalati has been focused on understanding the role of Earth’s ice cover on life on our planet, and has been using satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques to model and understand glaciers and their vulnerability to climate change. He was heavily involved in the development of NASA’s ICESat satellite that failed to reach orbit and is involved in ICESat-II, its successor.
The chief scientist reports directly to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, and is tasked with strategic planning and evaluation of NASA’s science investments. The White House has placed a stronger emphasis on NASA’s mission on earth sciences, so the nature of Abdalati’s research is pertinent as well as the fact that he has prior experience at NASA, having been the head of the Cryospheric Sciences Branch of NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in the past.
You can learn more about Abdalati and his research on this page of the CIRES website.
