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Welcome!

Proposal Period:  10/1/2021 – 09/30/2024

Who is present today at this meeting?

    • GESTAR II partners
    • JCET colleagues
    • MSU Colleagues
    • GESTAR faculty we believe are in GESTAR II

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GESTAR II Partners

B. Demoz

D. Laughlin

S. Kreidenweis

J. Fuentes

J. Yang

V. Morris

C. Wilson

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Leadership & Innovation in Diversity & Inclusion

  • AGU Bridge program at UMBC and Morgan in collaboration with CSU, Penn State and Goddard
  • Earth & Space Science minor at Morgan
  • Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies in Earth & Space Science at UMBC
  • Meyerhoff Scholars Program: the Nation’s top training model for URM in STEM
  • Engaging Navajo Tech: NASA, UMBC and ASU
  • SaSa: engaging undergrads from minority institutions in NASA Earth science: UMBC, Morgan, et al (Science Activation Grant)
  • High potential for success in mentoring – Partners have a long history of URM mentorship producing post-docs and NASA scientists
  • Large pool of students in Goddard’s backyard
  • History of working with all MD HBCUs
  • Ability to scale up through SURA

GESTAR II: What we envision as a group

Recruit, mentor, retain, and graduate

  • Student to NASA Scientist
  • Faculty to NASA Scientist
  • NASA Scientist to Faculty

Mentorship and Employment Cycle

  • Effective Administration
  • Inclusive Excellence
  • Institutional Commitment
  • Leaders in the field
  • Interdisciplinary potential
  • Access to faculty and Students (local)

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GESTAR II Transition Timetable – “onboarding”

Planned 3 months; need to complete in 1month+ minus communication

10/27/21

11/10/21

Reaching out to you 1-to-1 in preparation for onboarding

Today

11/17/21

12/1/21

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GESTAR II: Organization

GESTAR II IAC - Proposed

VP Research, UMBC

VP Research, Morgan

GESTAR II Director

(Co-chair): Director of ESD - Goddard

GESTAR II Exec. Dir. (Y1)

Director of Admin./UMBC

Chief Scientist,

X. Li/Morgan

Morgan Assoc. Director & Project Coordinator

ASU Associate Director

CSU Associate Director

PSU Associate Director

Goddard Code Reps

ERT Representative

SURA Representative

GESTAR II

Faculty representative

Dept. Representative (rotates partners)

Executive team is the main engine

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Who is in GESTAR II?

“Faculty”

Senior Research Scientist/Prof.

Assoc. Research Scientist/Prof.

Assist. Research Scientist/Prof.

University Faculty

Research Associate I, II, III

Post-Doctoral Research Assoc.

Professional Specialist

Graduate Student

Visiting Scientist

Student Intern

Manager Deputy

Manager Deputy

Manager Deputy

Manager …

Business office:

One Center!

GESTAR II: Executive team

Science Sub-groups

  • Area/topic/Code
  • Maximize Collaboration
  • Leader & Deputy: elected by subgroup
    • Members of Science Council

GESTAR II Partners

Unified business office: same efficiency regardless of which GESTAR II partner a faculty is assigned.

Expand to near and far places; open collaborations, expand reach both in personnel and subject matter

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GESTAR II: Administration and Finance

Margo Camilla Judith Cathy Dave Amy

Paula Halley Pam Eric Carol Nartasha

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Introduction to the Partners

1-slide each

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GESTAR II Partner: SURA

C. Wilson

SURA’s mission: To advance collaborative research and education and to strengthen the scientific capabilities of its members and our nation

SURA shall operate as the GESTAR II Special Programs Lead

SURA will:

    • act as the lead institution in recruiting and attracting visiting scientists and sabbatical researchers and facilitate contractual arrangements with the researchers’ home institutions regarding salary, travel and other related negotiations;

    • administer the GESTAR II summer internship program, including stipend allocation, travel, and housing assistance for selected students;

    • administer Center access to GSFC, travel, consulting, and other logistical support as needed, and;

    • administer the visiting scientist and student visa programs

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GESTAR II Partner: CSU

S. Kreidenweis

Department of Atmospheric Science:

  • Graduate-only; interdisciplinary; tradition of excellence
  • Commitment to diversity, including inaugural member of AGU Bridge program
  • Atmospheric chemistry; remote sensing; data assimilation; ML / XAI

Improve sub-daily smoke exposure estimates

Radiation

Atmospheric Chemistry

Nonlinear data assimilation for �extreme weather events

Global Modeling and Assimilation

Jeff Pierce

Regional-to-global scale modeling of aerosols; health impacts of particulate matter

Christine Chiu

Remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols; aerosol-cloud interactions

Peter Jan van Leeuwen

Formerly Director of the Data Assimilation Research Centre at the University of Reading

Data assimilation; causality theory

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GESTAR II Partner: ERT

J. Yang

Mission:

To be a trusted partner of the Federal Governments, providing high value Science, IT, and Engineering services and solutions.

Values:

Customer Satisfaction – We are dedicated to delivering the highest quality of performance to our customers.

Respect and Value our Employees – Employee satisfaction and career development are among our top priorities.

Continuous Communication – Frequent and Open Communication with customers for effective and timely response to customer needs.

Always Doing What’s Right – We promote a business relationship with our customers and employees based on honesty and strong ethics.

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GESTAR II Partner: Morgan State University

D. Laughlin

Founded in 1867, Morgan is Maryland’s preeminent public urban research university, its largest HBCU and a designated National Treasure.

  • As a major partner on GESTAR II, with ten years experience administering GESTAR CADs, Morgan will provide operational support for the program. �Including Project Coordinator (D. Laughlin), Chief Scientist (X. Li) and program office personnel (N. Richards, H. Thompson and one additional person.)

  • Morgan will be the home institution for 39 GESTAR II researchers on Dec. 1.

  • Morgan is launching a new Earth and Space Sciences minor and is committed to increasing its Carnegie research rating from high to very high. �

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GESTAR II Partner: Penn State

J.D. Fuentes

Research expertise and interests

  • Radar meteorology and boundary layer dynamics
  • Improving prediction of weather using data assimilation
  • Air pollution exposure based on satellite data
  • To examine the dynamics and precipitation processes of tropical cyclones (TCs) and their environmental interaction during stages of intensification and size changes in TCs worldwide.
  • To asses and improve the representation of tropical cyclone dynamics and precipitation processes in global climate models, and determine the salient changes in TC evolution and environmental interaction in global warming scenarios.
  • Dynamics and precipitation processes of tropical cyclones
  • Tropical cyclone dynamics in global climate models

Analysis

Observation

Cross section of simulated tangential wind and latent heating of Hurricane Matthew during rapid intensification

  • Surface-atmosphere interactions and ground validation studies
  • Carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems

R (km)

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GESTAR II Partner: ASU

ASU is the largest public university in the US and rated #1 in innovation. ASU serves a diverse population of students and measures its success not by whom it excludes , but by whom it includes and how they succeed

  • ASU faculty bring a long history of NASA collaboration and Earth System Sciences Research to the partnership, including:
    • Over twenty years of satellite calibration/validation experience at sea and remote continental regions
    • Extensive PBL monitoring and measurement expertise
    • State of the art facilities for laboratory process studies

  • ASU’s approach is to connect the creativity and commitment of many minds with diverse expertise and backgrounds in the absence of academic silos assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities we serve.

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GESTAR II Partner: UMBC - Prime

B. Demoz

Founded in 1966; Inclusive Excellence; “best colleges to work for over a decade”; Shared governance; and more

  • NASA/ESD center history: GEST (2000-2011); JCET (1995-Present)
  • GPHI, CSST (Helio and Space) Co-ops; EST – UMBC institute
  • ESRA – Excellent shared administration [GESTAR II, GPHI, CSST, ESI]
  • Interdisciplinary program planning in progress
  • Active JCET history of collaboration with ATPH and GES Departments;

Land Acknowledgement

UMBC was established upon the land of the Piscataway and Susquehannock peoples. https://oei.umbc.edu/land-acknowledgement-statement.

UMBC is a member of the University System of Maryland.

ATPH Faculty