NOAA'S 200TH CELEBRATION SHOWCASES TOP TEN HISTORY MAKERS

December 29, 2006 — No one knows for sure how many men and women have filled the rolls of NOAA and its ancestor organizations throughout 200 years of history. But it’s safe to say that they number in the hundreds of thousands. Many have distinguished themselves by serving the nation and the world and inspiring their NOAA colleagues with discoveries, innovations, and extraordinary influence and leadership. Those who have worked at NOAA for any length of time can easily name contemporaries who left indelible marks of accomplishment and influence on NOAA’s science, service and stewardship missions and on its people. (Click NOAA image for larger view of NOAA's Top Ten History Makers. Please credit “NOAA. ”)

But just who among the thousands who have set the survey marks, charted the coast, measured the tides, predicted the weather, sampled the fisheries, built satellites and supported scores of other NOAA missions has exerted the most far-reaching and compelling influence? Who among those who have come before us most shaped NOAA’s culture, laid the organizational groundwork, built its capabilities and infrastructure, or advanced ocean, Earth, atmospheric, or biological sciences and environmental stewardship to make NOAA a world-renowned organization? They are the pioneers, the visionaries, the stalwarts, models of commitment and perseverance, and the brilliant minds on whose shoulders NOAA and the nation should acknowledge with heart felt thanks.

NOAA celebrates and honors ten eminent individuals whose service to NOAA spans from NOAA founding in 1807, through the Civil War, both world wars and to the present day. All have bequeathed legacies of influence to NOAA or to society that continue to reverberate. Some like Ferdinand Hassler with the NOAA Office of Coast Survey and Joseph Smagorinsky with the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory were pioneers who established the foundations of NOAA science missions; others like Francis Reichelderfer of the Weather Bureau guided NOAA through periods of transformation brought on by advancing technology or historic events; still others like Rachel Carson and Susan Solomon contributed discoveries that are vital to human health worldwide. So significant are their contributions that NOAA is proud to call them NOAA’s Top Ten History Makers.

Learning about those who shaped and dramatically influenced NOAA should give all of us a deeper regard, respect and appreciation for their hallowed achievements. Now let’s meet these venerable and distinguished individuals (time with NOAA or ancestor organizations in parentheses):

• Cleveland Abbe — First Scientist of the American Weather Bureau (1871-1915): Pioneered theoretical dynamic meteorology among many other contributions in the early years of the U. S. Weather Bureau.
• Alexander Dallas Bache — Leader of American Science and Second Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey (1843-1867): Expanded significantly the mission and geographic presence of the U.S. Coast Survey.
• Rachel Carson — Defender of the Environment (1935-1952): Revered as the “mother of the age of ecology.”
• George Brown Goode — Eminent 19th Century Fish Scientist (1872-1888): Set the methods and standards used in fishery research today.
• Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler — Founder of the United States Coast Survey (1807-1843): Imbued the U.S. Coast Survey, as its first superintendent, with unswerving devotion to accuracy, precision and scientific integrity.
• David Simonds Johnson — Ardent Champion of Satellite Technology (1956-1982): Paved the way for satellite technology in NOAA.
• Ernest Lester Jones — Athlete, Idealist, Leader of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and Father of the NOAA Corps (1915-1929): Entrusted by four U.S. presidents to lead the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
• Francis Reichelderfer — Sailor, Aviator, Meteorologist and Director of the U.S. Weather Bureau (1938-1963): Brought modern technology to weather forecasting.
• Joseph Smagorinsky — Visionary in Numerical Weather Prediction and Climate Modeling (1953-1983): Combined computers and mathematical models for extended predictions of weather and trends in global climate.
• Susan Solomon — Pioneering Atmospheric Scientist (1981–present): Discovered the cause of depleted atmospheric ozone in the Antarctic ozone “hole.”

History Makers: Honorable Mentions

• Dr. Daniel Albritton spent nearly 40 years as a scientist and head of the NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory (now part of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory) working to understand the chemical processes of the atmosphere and their implications for the health of living creatures and their effect on the global climate system.
• Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887) was a naturalist who was appointed the first Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries (a forerunner of the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service) in 1871. He encouraged the rapid development of fish culture in the United States, founded the Woods Hole fisheries laboratory, and commenced building and acquiring fisheries research vessels, notably the NOAA ships Albatross and the Fish Hawk.
• William Ferrel (1817-1891) designed and built the second tide prediction machine (which was used for more than 30 years), wrote numerous theoretical treatises on tides and tidal currents, and published a series of essays in Coast and Geodetic Survey annual reports on such topics as “Meteorological Researches - Cyclones, Tornadoes, and Water - Spouts,” while working for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
• Dr. Nancy Foster (1941-2000) served as Director of the Sanctuary and Reserves Program where she laid much of the groundwork for today’s great network of NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries and NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserves. She also helped lead NOAA into the modern era of coastal resource management and marine conservation/protection by serving as Chief of the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service’s Office of Protected Resources, Deputy Assistant Administrator of Fisheries and Assistant Administrator of the NOAA National Ocean Service.
• Dr. Helmut Landsberg (1906-1985) was a leader and pioneer in many aspects of the science of climatology. He served as the head the United States Weather Bureau Office of Climatology, which he reorganized into the National Weather Records Center (now the NOAA National Climatic Data Center) and introduced new weather data processing methods and electronic computing.
• Dr. Lester Machta (1919-2001) was a leader in studying atmospheric chemistry throughout his career in NOAA and its predecessor organization, which extended from his appointment as head of the Special Projects Section in 1948 till his passing in 2001 as a scientist emeritus with the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory.
• Dr. Syukuro Manabe (1931- ) spent the first 39 years of his professional career, from 1958 to 1997, affiliated with the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and its predecessors and was best known for his work on ocean and atmospheric modeling.
• Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) served in the U.S. Coast Survey from 1859-1891 where he was the pioneer in gravity observations and made many contributions to mathematical methods and error analysis.
• Charles Anthony Schott (1826-1901) served as chief geodesist and chief mathematician of the Survey, guided the evolution of the U.S. Survey through its transition from purely coastal to a continent-wide geodetic survey.
• Dr. Oscar Elton Sette (1900-1972) is considered the father of modern fisheries oceanography in the United States and is internationally recognized for his many significant contributions to fisheries research/management over a long career. He also founded the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1950.
• Dr. Harris B. Stewart (1922-2000) was a marine geologist, pioneer science SCUBA diver, first chief oceanographer of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, founder and first director of the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, author, poet, mentor and friend of many scientists in NOAA throughout his career.
• Livingston Stone (1836-1912) was a pioneer fish culturist, Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries for the Pacific coast from 1872 to 1898, and senior fish culturist of the U.S. Fish Commission from 1898 to 1903.
• Dr. Fred Utter (1931- ) is known as the founding father of the field of fishery genetics — he joined the ancestor laboratory of the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center fishery genetics laboratory in 1959, became head of the laboratory in 1969 and led the genetics group until his retirement from NOAA in 1988.
• Dr. Usha Varanasi is the science and research director of the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Wash., a position she has held since 1994, when she became the first woman to lead one of NOAA’s nine major fisheries field installations. Her work transformed NOAA’s capabilities in ecotoxicology, making it a national and international leader in this area.
• Dr. David Q. Wark (1918-2002) was a pioneer in satellite meteorology, who served 55 years with the federal government — most of it with the United States Weather Bureau, and then, as a founder and long-time scientist with the NOAA Satellite and Information Service.
• Dr. Harry Wexler (1911–1962) was the Director of Meteorological Research of the United States Weather Bureau in the years following the Second World War. Many innovative and long-lasting weather and climate research programs were begun during his tenure including carbon dioxide observations at Mauna Loa, atmospheric ozone and radiation studies and the hurricane research program.
  

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Celebrates 200 Years of Science, Service and Stewardship

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Julie Bedford, NOAA, (202) 482-6090