NASA-JPL Scientist Elected to National Academy of Engineering

Rhea R. Borja 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Rhea.R.Borja@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2009-018 February 6, 2009

NASA-JPL Scientist Elected to National Academy of Engineering

PASADENA, Calif. - In one of the highest professional distinctions accorded to engineers and scientists,
the National Academy of Engineering has elected Moustafa T. Chahine, a senior research scientist at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., as a member of its organization.

The academy elected Chahine based on his leadership in determining the structure and composition of
Earth's atmosphere from space. The organization awards those who have made outstanding
contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education" and for pioneering new fields of
technology, advancing the engineering field, and "implementing innovative approaches to engineering
education."

Chahine, the founder of JPL's Earth and space sciences division and the lab's chief scientist from 1984 to
2001, is one of 65 members and nine foreign associates newly elected to the Washington-based
academy. He is the principal investigator for NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, which was launched
onboard the Aqua spacecraft in 2002. Aqua is part of NASA's Earth Observing System, which studies
Earth's water cycle and energy fluxes.

Chahine's primary interests are in the remote sensing of planetary atmospheres and surfaces, and in
climate change processes. Among the remote-sensing methods he has developed is one that enables
infrared remote sensing through clouds. This has been applied to the remote sensing of Earth, Venus,
Mars and Jupiter. His current research activities are in transport studies of Earth's hydrological cycle.

Chahine served as a member of NASA's Earth system sciences committee and as chair of the World
Meteorological Organization's science steering group for the organization's global energy and water cycle
experiment from 1989 to 1999. His many honors include the William T. Pecora Award from NASA and the
U.S. Department of the Interior, the American Meteorological Society's Jule G. Charney Award, and in
2007, the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievements.

Chahine received his Ph.D. in 1960 from the University of California at Berkeley, the same year he joined
JPL. He and his wife, Marina, live in La Canada-Flintridge and have two sons.

In addition to being a new member of the National Academy of Engineering, Chahine is a fellow in the
American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American
Geophysical Union and the American and British Meteorological Societies.

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information on JPL is at www.jpl.nasa.gov . More information on the National Academy of
Engineering is at www.nae.edu .

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