2013 Peer Awards
Chuck Dolan has been a tremendous asset to the team tasked with developing and maintaining the Virtual Wave Observatory site. Much of the work involved migration to a new server and many special case datasets that would not fit with the usual data searches. Chuck willingly accepted each new challenge ranging from learning obscure heliophysics terminology to tactfully diffusing heated discussions on webpage design. His honesty in recommending realistic solutions allowed the team to move forward with the VWO project. The contribution that Chuck makes is even more significant given the limited time he has to devote to the project. The VWO project is now well on its way in no small measure due to the efforts of Chuck Dolan. For these reasons Chuck Dolan is awarded the Unsung Hero Peer Award. Congratulations!
Jerry Huppman took the initiative and set up a virtual PC, loaded with all the necessary applications, to get people access to Windows-only software including calendar software and the Protégé Ontology Editor. Not only did the virtual PC provide access to necessary software, it reduced the memory load on people’s non-Windows desktops, making them much more usable. This outstanding effort has “transformed” work environments.
In addition, Jerry is always willing to lend a helping hand. His friendly attitude and willingness to go the extra mile mean that all questions are answered and problems resolved quickly. When not solving desktop issues, Jerry also makes time to mentor new desktop support staff, showing them the ropes and answering their questions.
We are pleased to honor Jerry with the Innovator Peer Award.
Patrick Lynch demonstrates outstanding leadership by showing fresh ideas for communicating the complexities of climate change to the public. His tenacity and management skills enhance NASA’s communication on climate change issues by looking beyond traditional press releases to social media and new media initiatives.
Patrick is the mastermind behind the “Climate 365” campaign, a new and successful communications initiative targeted toward social media via weekly digital “postcards” with a powerful image and tidbits on different aspects of climate science. Patrick rallied Earth science writers from multiple centers and developed the strategy and the content. He pitched this idea to NASA HQ and currently supervises the weekly releases.
The Climate 365 postcards are currently some of the most shared and commented images on NASA’s Facebook page. In addition, Patrick innovates in related outreach activities, like spearheading a series of Google+ Hangouts on climate science in preparation for the release of the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
Patrick has demonstrated remarkable organizational abilities and is an incredible benefit to all of NASA.
Congratulations Patrick on receiving this year’s Leadership Peer Award.
Khuram Maqbool is a critical team player to the ADNET Facility IT Team at the GCP offices. Khuram exemplifies professionalism and exemplary technical skills while presenting a very security conscious, dynamic and responsible attitude. He is admired and respected by his co-workers; no request is too big or too small a task for Khuram to generously take-on or lend a hand with. He always has a smile on his face and treats co-workers problems as the most important task of the day, not as an inconvenience. It is a pleasure working with Khuram and he is appreciated in everything he does.
Following the win of the SESDA 3 contract, the GCP offices received a technology overhaul that resulted in an extensive assignment for the IT department. Under pressure and along with time constraints, Khuram successfully migrated the offices to the new systems.
We would like to recognize Khuram’s stellar accomplishments with the transition to the new SESDA contract and award Khuram the 2013 Health, Safety, and Security Peer Award.
As conference logistics coordinator extraordinaire, Cindy Trapp has the uncanny ability to stay on top of numerous tasks that involve on-time ordering of NASA exhibit logistics with companies both in the U.S. and abroad.
An example of Cindy’s accomplishments is accurately ordering the correct power requirements for NASA’s hyperwall, a sometimes-challenging task when dealing with international conference centers. She provides detailed floor plans to conference exhibit decorators to design and construct custom exhibit hardware, including flooring, furniture, and network access. Cindy collects and accurately submits the names and affiliations of exhibit staffers. She also ensures that the payments for conference logistics and support hardware are made in a timely and accurate manner.
Cindy maintains the distribution database for The Earth Observer, a bi-monthly publication that is distributed worldwide to over 5000 subscribers.
While Cindy’s responsibilities are oftentimes “behind-the-scenes,” her accuracy and timeliness are of the utmost importance to the day-to-day operations of the Earth Science and Science Mission Directorate outreach office.
Congratulations on winning the Unsung Hero Peer Award. An honor you truly deserve!
Eliot Malumuth is the innovative driver of the James Webb Space Telescope optical testing.
He took on the brunt of work required to complete the delivery of 162 optical test plans for the use of the JWST cryovac testing to be performed later this year. Eliot is successfully balancing four different instrument teams with all the limitations and constraints of the ground test equipment and the optical simulator.
Eliot is aided in this work by his intimate knowledge of the planning tool program. This large software program contains over 800,000 lines of code, of which Eliot contributed a significant portion. Eliot met the frequently changing requirements with aplomb, and cheerily attended hundreds of meetings with instrument and operations engineers.
The optical test plans are a significant milestone in the path to the launch of JWST, and we recognize Eliot Malumuth who played the major role in their successful completion and honor him with the Innovator Peer Award.
Ferzan Jaeger joined ADNET as the Deputy Program Manager for the LADEE and MAVEN flight Mass Spectrometers in 2011.
Building mass spectrometers is a highly complex process. Ferzan enlisted the efforts of many skilled specialists in many engineering fields such as contamination control, thermal, electrical, mechanical, and logistics. She orchestrated this highly cohesive unit to accomplish goals on time regardless of the many setbacks that normally accompany a flight instrument build. On several occasions where it was apparent that a delay would result, Ferzan would volunteer to run tests in the lab in partnership with the engineers.
Ferzan has demonstrated a capacity to create vision in others, to instill the thrill of a challenge to a group, to willingly take responsibility, to show mental toughness, to adopt a completion factor mind set, and to command peer respect.
Ferzan Jaeger is an exemplary leader and we honor her with the Leadership Peer Award.
Tami Kovalick is considered an irreplaceable asset to the Space Physics Data Facility and specifically the Coordinated Data Analysis Web. Tami has led the contractor staff for the SPDF tasks with quality workmanship and an excellent rapport with the customer.
Tami’s primary mainstay is management with CDAW. Here she excels as lead primary developer of CDAW software while maintaining day-to-day operations. She has complete knowledge of the CDAW processing pipeline from data ingest to display and delivery.
We would like to commend Tami for her superior leadership. Her co-workers both appreciate and respect her hard work and professionalism. Congratulations on a well deserved Leadership Peer Award!
Tony Ritrivi has consistently delivered to the customer on time and provided on-demand solutions for the GES-DISC website. He is truly an unsung hero as he helps the scientists and stakeholders in diverse areas ranging from graphic design to information architecture.
Tony is very meticulous and pays attention to finer details as illustrated in mockup design of the GES-DISC website in preparation for its re-design. Time after time, he delivers on a short notice with professional quality that is evident from his customer support during on-boarding of new mission portals, in preparation for conferences and the GES-DISC User Working Group meetings.
Too many times Tony’s work has not been recognized and it is about high time that he gets noticed. Hats off to Tony!
Bhagirath (Bhagi) Trivedi is one of the hardest working individuals in the GES DISC project. He is an Unsung Hero because a lot of what he does is not highly visible even though it is very important. He has a great breadth of knowledge. He possesses database, system administrator, network administrator, and general Unix skills.
On top of all of that, he is always on-hand to help with moving computers and racks in the computer room and even crawling under the floor to run cables. This is not a requirement of his task. He just likes to help everyone out.
Bhagi is always forward thinking and makes sure a task is done correctly. He is also very friendly which makes working with him an easy and enjoyable job.
John Westberg has supported the work of NASA Code 699’s labs for over 25 years. His efforts contribute significantly toward efficient day-to-day operations. John serves as the group’s property custodian, keeping inventory of large amounts of lab equipment. He also coordinates numerous lab safety inspections while ensuring that any deficiencies get corrected. He is often responsible for hand carrying proposals to NASA Headquarters and critical flight hardware to and from various vendors throughout the country. John handles all shipping and receiving needs, arranges security badges for all Code 699 visitors, and schedules conference rooms for branch meetings.
John solely embraces additional tasks that allow his Code 699 co-workers to stay more focused on their individual jobs. John handles an impressive workload that often times goes unrecognized.
John Westberg is an Unsung Hero.
Michael Yan is possibly the most overlooked employee working on the SESDA contract. Michael’s primary focus is the Aura Validation Data Center.
Along with two Universities Space Research Association colleagues, Michael manages the AVDC task. He is the person who makes sure the AVDC is running smoothly. Michael has been with the AVDC for a decade, writing code and documentation while making sure that the Aura data from OMI, MLS, HIRDLS and TES are co-located with respect to hundreds of ground stations. Michael also works to incorporate other, non-Aura external validation data sets to the AVDC. Often Michael’s duties include system administration and maintenance on servers in addition to his nominal AVDC archiving tasks.
Michael Yan’s exemplary contributions to the AVDC are the foundation to the success of the AVDC and with this we are pleased to award Michael with the Unsung Hero Peer Award.
