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STScI Astronomers Nancy Levenson and David Soderblom Elected AAAS Fellows
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By European Space Agency
Astronomers have discovered a huge filament of hot gas bridging four galaxy clusters. At 10 times as massive as our galaxy, the thread could contain some of the Universe’s ‘missing’ matter, addressing a decades-long mystery.
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By NASA
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Earth scientist Compton J. Tucker has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences for his work creating innovative tools to track the planet’s changing vegetation from space. It’s research that has spanned nearly 50 years at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he is a visiting scientist after retiring in March.
Tucker’s research began with identifying wavelengths of light that are absorbed or reflected as plants undergo photosynthesis, and has evolved into calculating the health and productivity of vegetation over time with satellites.
“I’m honored and surprised,” Tucker said of his election. “There were opportunities at the Goddard Space Flight Center that have enabled this work that couldn’t be found elsewhere. There were people who built satellites, who understood satellite data, and had the computer code to process it. All the work I’ve done has been part of a team, with other people contributing in different ways. Working at NASA is a team effort of science and discovery that’s fun and intellectually rewarding.”
Earth scientist Compton Tucker, who has studied remote sensing of vegetation at NASA Goddard for 50 years, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.Courtesy Compton Tucker Tucker earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Colorado State University, where he worked on a National Science Foundation-funded project analyzing spectrometer data of grassland ecosystems. In 1975, he came to NASA Goddard as a postdoctoral fellow and used what he learned in his graduate work to modify the imager on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) meteorological satellites and modify Landsat’s thematic mapper instrument.
He became a civil servant at the agency in 1977, and continued work with radiometers to study vegetation – first with handheld devices, then with NOAA’s Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer satellite instruments. He has also used data from Landsat satellites, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments, and commercial satellites. His scientific papers have been cited 100,000 times, and one of his recent studies mapped 10 billion individual trees across Africa’s drylands to inventory carbon storage at the tree level.
“The impact of Compton Tucker’s work over the last half-century at Goddard is incredible,” said Dalia Kirschbaum, director of the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Goddard. “Among his many achievements, he essentially developed the technique of using satellites to study photosynthesis from plants, which people have used to monitor droughts, forecast crop shortages, defeat the desert locust, and even predict disease outbreaks. This is a well-deserved honor.”
Goddard scientist Compton Tucker’s work using remote sensing instruments to study vegetation involved field work in Iceland in 1976, left, graduate student research at Colorado State University in the early 1970s, top right, and analyzing satellite data stored on tape reels at Goddard.Courtesy Compton Tucker The National Academy of Sciences was proposed by Abraham Lincoln and established by Congress in 1863, charged with advising the United States on science and technology. Each year, up to 120 new members are elected “in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,” according to the organization.
In addition his role as a visiting scientist at Goddard, Tucker is also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland and a consulting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s University Museum. He was awarded the National Air and Space Collins Trophy for Current Achievement in 1993 and the Vega Medal by the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography in 2014. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union, and won the Senior Executive Service Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service in 2017, among other honors.
By Kate Ramsayer
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jun 05, 2025 EditorErica McNameeContactKate D. Ramsayerkate.d.ramsayer@nasa.govLocationNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Goddard Space Flight Center Earth General Landsat Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) View the full article
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By NASA
NASA Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy and namesake of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, briefs astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin on celestial objects in 1965 in Washington, D.C. Nancy Grace Roman passed away on December 25, 2018, in Germantown, Maryland at the age of 93. May 16, 2025, would have been her 100th birthday.
Prior to joining NASA in 1959, Dr. Roman was a well-respected and influential astronomer, publishing some of the most cited papers in the mid-20th century, one included in a list of 100 most influential papers in 100 years. At the agency, Roman worked to gain science support for space-based observatories. She established NASA’s scientific ballooning and airborne science, oversaw the start of the Great Observatory program with the first decade of Hubble Space Telescope development, and invested early in charge-coupled devices technology development used on Hubble – and now in digital cameras everywhere.
She was also key to the decision to link the development of the Large Space Telescope (that became Hubble) and the Space Transportation System – more commonly known as the Space Shuttle. Finally, after retiring from NASA, Dr. Roman often worked with young students in underserved communities, hoping her story and mentoring could inspire them to join humanity’s quest for knowledge in a STEM field.
Learn more about Dr. Roman.
Text credit: NASA/Jackie Townsend
Image credit: NASA
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By NASA
Wayne Johnson, who in 2012 earned the highest rank of Fellow at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, is known worldwide as an expert in rotary wing technology. He was among those who provided help in testing Ingenuity, NASA’s Mars helicopter.NASA / Eric James NASA Ames’ Wayne Johnson Elected to 2025 Class of New Members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
Dr. Wayne R. Johnson, aerospace engineer at Ames Research Center, will be inducted as a new member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE), class of 2025, on October 5, 2025, for his 45+ years of contributions to rotorcraft analysis, tiltrotor aircraft development, emerging electric aircraft, and the Mars Helicopter development. NAE members are among the world’s most accomplished engineers from business, academia, and government and are elected by their peers. The full announcement was released to the press on February 11, 2025 from NAE and is at
https://www.nae.edu/19579/31222/20095/327741/331605/NAENewClass2025
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By NASA
Four individuals with NASA affiliations have been named 2022 fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in recognition of their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements in the scientific enterprise.
Election as a Fellow by the AAAS Council honors members whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications in service to society have distinguished them among their peers and colleagues. The 2022 Fellows class includes 508 scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines.
Rita Sambruna from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was recognized in the AAAS Section on Astronomy, and Jennifer Wiseman, also from Goddard, was recognized in the AAAS Section on Physics. Dorothy Peteet of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York was honored in the AAAS section on Earth Science. Erik Conway of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in southern California was honored for distinguished contributions and public outreach to the history of science and understanding of contemporary science and science policy.
Dr. Rita Sambruna is the acting deputy director of the Science and Exploration Directorate and the deputy director of the Astrophysics Division at Goddard. She also promotes increased participation of underrepresented groups in science.Courtesy of Rita M. Sambruna Rita Sambruna
Dr. Rita Sambruna is the acting deputy director of the Science and Exploration Directorate and the deputy director of the Astrophysics Division at Goddard. She also promotes increased participation of underrepresented groups in science.
She worked with a team to position Goddard to lead the decadal top priority missions. She led a team to set into place a vision for a Multi-Messenger Astrophysics Science Support Center at Goddard, to lead the astrophysics community in reaping the most from NASA- and ground-based observations of celestial sources.
She came to Goddard in 2005 to work on multiwavelength observations of jets using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and other NASA capabilities. From 2010 to 2020 she worked at NASA Headquarters, Washington, as a program scientist for astrophysics. Her research interests include relativistic jets, physics of compact objects, supermassive black holes in galaxies, and multiwavelength and multi-messenger astrophysics.
In December 2022, Sambruna was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) as an internationally acclaimed astrophysicist who embodies the RAS mission in promoting the advancement of science, the increased participation of historically underrepresented groups in astronomy, and a broad interest in astronomy. In 2019 she was awarded the NASA Extraordinary Achievement Medal for her leadership on the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey studies. She was named Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2020 and a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2021.
Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is a senior astrophysicist at Goddard and a Senior Fellow at Goddard, where she serves as the senior project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope. Her primary responsibility is to ensure that the Hubble mission is as scientifically productive as possible.NASA Jennifer Wiseman
Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is a senior astrophysicist at Goddard and a Senior Fellow at Goddard, where she serves as the senior project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope. Her primary responsibility is to ensure that the Hubble mission is as scientifically productive as possible. Previously, Wiseman headed Goddard’s Laboratory for Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics. She started her career at NASA in 2003 as the program scientist for Hubble and several other astrophysics missions at NASA Headquarters.
Wiseman’s scientific expertise is centered on the study of star-forming regions in our galaxy using a variety of tools, including radio, optical, and infrared telescopes. She has a particular interest in dense interstellar gas cloud cores, embedded protostars, and their related outflows as active ingredients of cosmic nurseries where stars and their planetary systems are born. In addition to research in astrophysics, Wiseman is also interested in science policy and public science outreach and engagement. She has served as a congressional science fellow of the American Physical Society, an elected councilor of the American Astronomical Society, and a public dialogue leader for AAAS. She enjoys giving talks on the excitement of astronomy and scientific discovery, and has appeared in many science and news venues, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NOVA, and National Public Radio.
Dr. Dorothy M. Peteet is a senior research scientist at GISS and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. She directs the Paleoecology Division of the New Core Lab at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia.NASA Dorothy Peteet
Dr. Dorothy M. Peteet is a senior research scientist at GISS and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. She directs the Paleoecology Division of the New Core Lab at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia.
In collaboration with GISS climate modelers and LDEO geochemists, she is studying conditions of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene that are archived in sediments from lakes and wetlands. Peteet documents past changes in vegetation, derived from analyses of pollen and spores, plant and animal macrofossils, carbon, and charcoal embedded in sediments. Her research provides local and regional records of ancient vegetational and climate history. One recent focus has been the sequestration of carbon in northern peatlands and coastal marshes: ecosystems that are now vulnerable to climate change and potentially substantial releases of carbon back into the atmosphere.
Peteet also has performed climate modeling experiments to test hypotheses concerning the last glacial maximum and abrupt climate change. She is interested in climate sensitivity and in how past climate changes and ecological shifts might provide insights on future climate change.
Erik Conway has served as the historian at JPL since 2004. Prior to that, he was a contract historian at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. He is a historian of science and technology, and has written histories of atmospheric science, supersonic transportation, aviation infrastructure, Mars exploration, and climate change denial.NASA Erik Conway
Erik Conway has served as the historian at JPL since 2004. Prior to that, he was a contract historian at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. He is a historian of science and technology, and has written histories of atmospheric science, supersonic transportation, aviation infrastructure, Mars exploration, and climate change denial.
He is the author of nine books, most recently, “A History of Near-Earth Objects Research” (NASA, 2022), and “The Big Myth” (Bloomsbury, 2023). His book “Merchants of Doubt” with Naomi Oreskes was awarded the Helen Miles Davis and Watson Davis prize from the History of Science Society. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 and the Athelstan Spilhaus Award from the American Geophysical Union in 2016.
AAAS noted that these honorees have gone above and beyond in their respective disciplines. They bring a broad diversity of perspectives, innovation, curiosity, and passion that will help sustain the scientific field today and into the future. Many of these individuals have broken barriers to achieve successes in their given disciplines.
AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: https://www.nasa.gov
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Last Updated Feb 10, 2025 EditorJamie Adkins Related Terms
Goddard Space Flight Center Goddard Institute for Space Studies People of Goddard View the full article
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