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9 November 2005

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Phil DeCola

Dr. Phil DeCola is the Lead Scientist for the Atmospheric Composition Focus Area in the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Earth-Sun System Division. His scientific training and research is in the areas of molecular spectroscopy and condensed phase energy transfer and he has authored a number of publications in the area of nonlinear optics and its application to solid state energy transfer. His association with NASA began with research on radiative transfer properties of planetary atmospheres and is now focused on space-based remote sensing of Earth1s atmospheric composition.

Dr. DeCola serves as the co-Chair of the U.S. Government1s Climate Change Science Program Sub-group on Atmospheric Composition. He has served as Lead Scientist for the Earth System Science Pathfinder Program (ESSP), a science-driven program intended to identify and develop low-cost, quick turnaround space-borne missions addressing high priority Earth System science objectives. He is Program Scientist for a number of other atmospheric composition focused space missions such as the currently flying Aura Mission that is making global observations pertaining to air quality, climate and stratospheric ozone. He is also Program Scientist for missions in development including the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), a mission designed to precisely measure global distributions of carbon dioxide in order to greatly reduce uncertainty in the global carbon budget. (OCO is scheduled to be launched in 2008 and to fly in formation with Aura and other satellites in the A-Train formation.)

Dr. DeCola has received the Terra Award in Earth Science, the NASA Exceptional Performance Award and a number of other awards for his leadership of atmospheric composition research within NASA. He received both his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984 and 1990, respectively, and was awarded a National Academy of Sciences postdoctoral fellowship in 1991. He greatly enjoys his involvement in science outreach and education at the Pre-Kindergarten through Graduate School levels.