05.31.11

Michael Finneran
NASA Langley Research Center
Hampton, Va.
757-598-1720 (anywhere number)
michael.p.finneran@nasa.gov

Ernesto Mora
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn, N.Y.
718-951-5882 ext. 6377
Cell: 212-662-9939
emora@brooklyn.cuny.eduRELEASE: 11-043

NASA LANGLEY SCIENTIST IS BROOKLYN COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER

HAMPTON, Va. -- Joel Levine, a senior research scientist at NASA 
Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., will be honored with a 
Distinguished Alumnus Award and will be the keynote speaker at the 
2011 commencement at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, N.Y., on June 1.

Levine will serve as the keynote speaker for the master's ceremony.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
&rsaquo; Levine Biography
&rsaquo; Levine, Mars Airplane (image)
&rsaquo; NASA Langley 

</div> He serves as chief scientist and principal investigator for the 
proposed ARES (Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Surveyor) Mars 
Airplane, a robotic, rocket-powered aerial vehicle that NASA will use 
to search for life on Mars.

In 2010, his unique expertise also led NASA officials to appoint him 
to the agency's Trapped Chilean Miners Rescue Team, which assisted in 
the successful rescue of 33 miners trapped a half mile below the 
surface of earth. Levine will also receive a Distinguished Alumni 
award.

Levine and Rudolf Schild, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for 
Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., are co-editors of the recently 
published book, "The Human Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red 
Planet." Levine has also edited four books on planetary atmosphere 
and global climate change.

From 2007 to 2008, Levine served as Mars Scout program scientist for 
the Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Among many honors and awards, Levine has received the NASA Medal for 
Exceptional Scientific Achievement, the NASA Outstanding Leadership 
Medal, the New York Academy of Science Halpern Award in 
Photochemistry, and was selected as Virginia's Outstanding Scientist.

After graduation from Brooklyn College, Levine received a Master of 
Science degree in atmospheric science from New York University and a 
Master of Science in aeronomy and planetary atmospheres, and a Ph.D. 
in atmospheric science, both from the University of Michigan.


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