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Charles Gatebe and His Not-So-Maniac Talks

Climate scientist Charles Gatebe conceived of the informal Maniac Talks as a means of breaking down barriers.

Climate scientist Charles Gatebe conceived of the informal Maniac Talks as a means of breaking down barriers. The name, suggested by a junior NASA scientist, stuck simply because it was catchy.

Charles Gatebe
Charles Gatebe
Credits: NASA/W. Hrybyk

This series of lectures at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, allows the facility’s researchers to share with fellow employees their latest work — as well as why what they do excites them and what personal journeys brought them to where they are.

“People need to talk about their journey, what motivated them to do what they are doing today, what inspired them to go into science, and what keeps them going,” Gatebe said. “These talks are not about the speakers, they are about the young folks, inspiring the next generation.”

The first speaker was Goddard Senior Scientist Warren Wiscombe, now a well-known and highly respected emeritus employee, talking without electronic visual aids about “The Big Unknowns in Clouds and their Influence on Climate.”

It was Oct. 28, 2011. The room was packed. Expectations were high. And the audience was delighted.

Soon other senior scientists were clamoring to give a Maniac Talk.

The Maniac Talks evolved thanks to good advice and support from many Goddard senior scientists, most notably Claire Parkinson, a fixture at the lectures, and others throughout the Goddard community: Dot Zukor, Jack Richards, Gatebe’s program director William Corso, and other Goddard managers. Photographer Bill Hrybyk records and edits the talks. The Goddard library archives the recordings and arranges for the recordings to be closed captioned for greater accessibility and translatability into other languages. Susannah Pearce launched and manages the website. Cathy Newman handles all other administrative details.

“Charles Gatebe has done a phenomenal job in founding and leading the series of Maniac Talks,” Parkinson said. “I try to attend every one that I can, as they are always interesting, providing insights into the speaker both as a scientist and as a person. We all have such varied backgrounds and influences, and it is really fascinating to get to see some of those and gain some insights into the different career paths and the different ways that science evolves.”

Goddard has hosted about 55 Maniac Talks, averaging 11 a year, to standing-room-only crowds. Most speakers are senior Goddard colleagues from Greenbelt, but some have been from NASA Headquarters in Washington, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and even other government agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The result is a well preserved, informal, patchwork quilt of an oral history of Goddard told from each individual’s perspective. At the end of the day, Maniac Talks are about people, about Goddard and about NASA.

“I remind every speaker that this is about your journey, where you started, where you are now and where you are going,” Gatebe said. “I encourage speakers to tell stories and to talk about their mentors and formative events in order to inspire the next generation and make disciples of creative thinkers.”

Maniac Talks are now famous at Goddard. Everyone wants to give one, and everyone can at some point. The speakers trust Gatebe because he always makes sure that he does what he says he will do. The younger employees regularly thank him for finding such motivating speakers. He also won an outreach award for his efforts.

“Many of these talks are about overcoming difficulties – war, family tragedies or personal challenges – about how the speaker became somebody,” said Gatebe, who survived famines growing upin a thatched hut in a small village in central Kenya owned by a coffee farmer.“We are not just scientists or engineers, we are people.”

Although Gatebe has never given a Maniac Talk, he generally introduces each speaker with a short story. His favorite presenter is Nobel laureate Dr. John Mather, the only one who has given two recorded talks.

“Dr. Mather helped me verbalize how these talks should be structured by humanizing his own life,” Gatebe said. “He knew who he was talking to and what he wanted them to hear. In his introduction, I compared him to a giraffe because a giraffe sees very far and so does he.” 

And so, too, do the organizers of the Maniac Talks.

By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center