Branch scientists seek to understand biospheric and ecosystem processes and functions in terrestrial and aquatic environments and how those processes and functions are changing, or may change, in response to climate change, and land cover and land use change. The Branch develops and applies remote sensing, ecological modeling and related technology (sensors, algorithms and information processing systems), process and risk models, and various spatial analysis tools to support its investigations. Research results are extended, through cooperative agreements and partnerships, to enhance the operational capability of public and commercial entities to make decisions regarding resource management and policy.
Scientists strive to understand terrestrial and microbial ecosystem processes, to predict how these processes are changing in response to disturbance, land use and climate change, and to determine the relationships between these changes and the condition and health of ecosystems and humankind. With these aims in mind, the Branch develops relevant remote sensing technology (sensors, algorithms and information processing systems), process and risk models, and various spatial analysis tools. In addition to the scientific publications of the Branch, both the applied science and technology are translated into practical everyday solutions and transferred through cooperative arrangements and partnership training and education to end users in the private and public sectors.
Research and applied science activities within the Branch are:
(1) Assessing the biological productivity of Earth’s terrestrial and microbial ecosystems and predict how productivity will change in response to various cycles and trends in land use, disturbance and climate change.
(2) Measuring and modeling chemical exchanges between the biosphere and the atmosphere, identifying biotic and abiotic factors controlling these fluxes, and predict how these fluxes will change in response to short- and long-term trends in land use,
disturbance and climate change.
(3) Modeling and predict the impact of climate change on regional and global ecosystem characteristics, such as productivity and health, and risk of resource loss.
(4) Articulating the measurement requirements for global, regional and local ecosystem assessments, and to develop technology to satisfy these requirements.
(5) Transferring the knowledge and technology derived from research to the public and private sectors, and the education community, through partnerships with end users.
(6) Foster human capital development to extend NASA science research to local communities using students to demonstrate to community leaders prototype applications of NASA science measurements and predictions addressing local policy issues.
(7) Develop and deploy NASA sensor, platform (manned and unmanned), information processing, and communication technology to address the real-time requirements of disaster management and mitigation, particularly for wildland fires; and
(8) Study how rapid rates of change affect emergent ecosystem properties as part of the larger effort in Astrobiology.
Scientists, engineers, programmers, geographers, chemists and educators comprise the branch and cover a range of disciplines from ecology to engineering and computer science. A number of staff are associated with Ames through cooperative agreements with California State University at Monterey Bay, San Jose State University and Bay Area Environmental Research Institute. Other science staff supports branch research through on-site contracts, visiting professor programs and educational grants and programs.
The staff collaborates with a large number of external and internal organizations, including colleagues from Stanford University, Universities of California at Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Davis, University of Montana, California State Universities at Monterey Bay and San Jose, and the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. Collaborative agreements with various federal agencies have long been an important aspect of how we conduct research. Branch staff work with scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service and the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey; and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Within Ames the Branch has collaborative relationships with the Information Technology Division, the Atmospheric branch within the Earth Science Division, and the Airborne Sensor Facility. These collaborations are vital to the accomplishment of the mission, and, in particular, permit the Branch to find practical applications of Earth science research.
The Biospheric Science Branch, as part of NASA’s Earth Science Division, supports the carbon cycle and ecosystem, water cycle and solid earth, and climate change vulnerability focus areas. The branch participates in the Applied Science Program and helps NASA respond to three presidential initiatives: the Climate Change Research Initiative, Global Earth Observation, and the Oceans Action Plan. NASA has developed relationships with other federal agencies and state and local entities to improve the application of NASA’s research, providing services in disaster assessment, ecosystem forecasting, environmental management, and land use assessment.
Members:
Vince Ambrosia
Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: vincent.g.ambrosia@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-6565
Vince Ambrosia is a Senior Research Scientist and Adjunct Faculty Member at California State University – Monterey Bay who is affiliated with NASA-Ames Research Center. He is the NASA Applied Science Associate Program Manager for Wildfire at NASA HQ, responsible for management of a portfolio of projects related to wildfire applications and remote sensing.
He was a recipient of the 2009 NASA Outstanding Public Service Medal for efforts focused on emergency wildfire observations with unmanned vehicle systems / sensors in 2006-2009. His research team at Ames received the 2009 Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer, Interagency Partnership Award for efforts focused on improving national wildfire observations. He has authored or co-authored over 140 papers, journal articles, and book chapters. He holds a BS in Geography from Carroll University and the MS from the University of Tennessee (1980), and has been at NASA-Ames in various positions since 1980.
CV:
Curriculum vitae for Vince Ambrosia
Britnay Beaudry
DEVELOP Lead 1
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email:
Business Phone:
David Bubenheim
Staff, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: david.l.bubenheim@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-2309
CV:
Curriculum vitae for David Bubenheim
Sally Buechel
Staff, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
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Will C. Carrara
Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: will.c.carrara@nasa.gov
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Kate Duffy
Pathways Intern
NASA Earth eXchange (NEX)
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: kate.m.duffy@nasa.gov
Stephen E. Dunagan
Staff, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: stephern.e.dunagan@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-4560
CV:
Curriculum vitae for Stephen E. Dunagan
Jennifer Dungan
Project Manager
NASA Earth eXchange (NEX)
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
MS 245-4, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035
Business Email: jennifer.l.dungan@nasa.gov
Phone: 650 604-3618
James Eilers
Staff, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: james.a.eilers@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-6536
CV:
Curriculum vitae for James Eilers
Pat Finch
Staff, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Biopsheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: patrick.e.finch@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-4324
CV:
Curriculum vitae for Pat Finch
Vanessa Brooks-Genovese
Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: vanessa.genovesew@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-2164
Vanessa Brooks Genovese is a Research Scientist with the Science and Environmental Policy Division at the California State University, Monterey Bay. She has been working in the Biospheric Branch at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) in Moffett Field, CA through the NASA Ames-CSUMB Co-op for more than 15 years. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of CA, Santa Cruz with an emphasis in Conservation Biology. She’s an expert in GIS and remote sensing with more than 15 years experience developing the databases to run the CASA ecosystem model as well as programming custom applications for processing various remote sensing data products and producing additional carbon ecosystem data products through the CASA Express application. Since 2000, she has been responsible for developing the Arc databases and custom interfaces for CQUEST and other project related map servers. Additionally, in 2010 and 2011 she received awards for her work at NASA.
Diana Gentry
Staff, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: diana.gentry@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-5441
CV:
Curriculum vitae for Diana Gentry
Liane S. Guild
Research Scientist, Biospheric Science Branch (Ecosystem Science and Technology)
MS 245-4, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035
Business Email: liane.s.guild@nasa.gov
Business Phone: 650-604-3915
Jake Gudino
Staff, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: joaquin.s.gudino@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-1228
Alberto Guzman
Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: alberto.guzman@nasa.gov
Business Phone:
CV:
Curriculum vitae for Alberto Guzman
Hiro Hashimoto
Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: hirofumi.hashimoto-1@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-6446
Diane Huebner
Postdoc Research Fellow
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: diane.c.huebner@nasa.gov
Business Phone:
Lee Johnson
Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: lee.f.johnson@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-3331
Matthew S. Johnson
Staff, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: matthew.s.johnson@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-5420
Dr. Matthew Johnson is a civil servant Research Scientist in the Earth Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center. His research interest include: 1) analyzing global/regional source apportioned greenhouse gasemissions and atmospheric concentrations using “bottom-up” and “top-down” modeling techniques, 2) combining remotely-sensed, modeling, and in situ data to evaluate aerosol and trace gas emissions, transport, chemical transformation, and deposition, and 3) modeling of mineral dust and bioavailable nutrient (e.g., iron, phosphorus, nitrogen) deposition to the world’s oceans.
Jennifer Kenworthy
Secretary, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: jennifer.m.kenworthy@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-5688
Jeremy Kravitz
NPP Postdoc Fellow
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: jeremy.kravitz@nasa.gov
Business Phone:
Diana Ly
Deputy Division Chief, Acting Branch Chief, Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
NASA Ames Research Center (ARC)
Business Email: diana.c.ly@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-4153
Diana Ly is the Earth Science Deputy Chief and the Project Manager for the Bion-M2 project, an international collaboration with the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow, Russia. From 2017 to 2022, she served as the Deputy Portfolio Manager of the Space Biology portfolio at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. She was responsible for managing the cost, technical, schedule and risk of a portfolio that consisted of over 70 active grants and payload development and operations for space biology experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) and on other free-flyer platforms. Before joining NASA as a civil servant in 2017, she spent twelve years as a contractor performing a variety of science roles for the Nanosat Program and Shuttle payloads and operations roles for ISS payloads. Her passion and dedication to teamwork, innovation, and problem solving have earned her multiple awards, including the prestigious Space Flight Awareness Silver Snoopy award.
Diana has a BA in Psychology with minors in Biology and Chemistry from the University of San Francisco and an MBA with an emphasis on Leading Teams and Organizations and Managing Innovation and Technology from the University of Santa Clara. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, learning about different cultures and foods, and spending time with family.
Amber Jean McCullum
Staff, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: amberjean.mccullum@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-6327
Forrest Melton
Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: forrest.s.melton@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-2787
Arthur P. Mizzi
Postdoc Research Fellow
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: arthur.p.mizzi@nasa.gov
Business Phone:
Sreeja Nag
Staff, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: sreeja.nag@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-1522
Eric J. Osgood
Lab Technician
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: erik.j.osgood@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-1324
Sherry Palacios
Staff, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: sherry.l.palacios@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-3223
Taejin Park
Research Scientist, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
NASA Earth eXchange (NEX)
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: taejin.park@nasa.gov
Tu Anh Phan
Staff, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: tu.a.phan@nasa.gov
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Geoffrey Phelps
Staff, United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email:
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Ethan A. Pinsker
Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
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Hayley Pippin
DEVELOP Lead 2
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email:
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Christopher Potter
Staff, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: chris.potter@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-6164
NASA-CASA Website
Dr. Christopher Potter is currently a NASA Senior Research Scientist in the Biospheric Branch at Ames Research Center. He holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree in forest ecology from Emory University. He came to NASA in 1990 as a National Research Council (NRC) Associate. He and his colleagues were awarded NASA’s Public Service Medal for development of the first computer model for global ecosystem exchange of all major biogenic trace gases with the atmosphere. Dr. Potter has been a NASA Science Team Member on the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA-ECO I and II), EOS Interdisciplinary Science (EOS-IDS), Intelligent Data Understanding, NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, the Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS), and Land Surface Hydrology. He is the author of more than 175 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.
In 2007, Dr. Potter was selected as a NASA Ames Associate Fellow in recognition of exceptional scientific research achievement. And in 2010 & 2011, the CASA team received awards for their work in forest carbon.
Projects:
Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE)
CV:
Curriculum vitae for Chris Potter
Casey Schine
Staff, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email:
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Greg Schlick
Staff, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: gregory.a.schlick@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-0147
Cynthia Schmidt
Staff, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: cynthia.l.schmidt@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-0021
Juan Torres-Perez
Staff, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: juan.l.torresperez@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-0915
Thomas Vandal
Research Scientist, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
NASA Earth eXchange (NEX)
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: thomas.vandal@nasa.gov
Vern Vanderbilt
Staff, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: vern.c.vanderbilt@nasa.com
Business Phone: (650) 604-4254
CV:
Curriculum vitae for Vern Vanderbilt
Weile Wang
Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: weile.wang@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-3916
Daniel Whitt
Research Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: daniel.b.whitt@nasa.gov
Daniel Whitt is a research scientist and interdisciplinary oceanographer in the Biospheric Science Branch of the Earth Science Division at NASA Ames. He uses observations, high-end computing, and theory to model and understand the ocean, including its physics, biogeochemistry and ecology as well as its role in the changing Earth system.
K. Dave Wilson
Staff, Ames Association
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: kenneth.d.wilson@nasa.gov
Business Phone: (650) 604-3231
Wen Feng Yip
Research Support Specialist, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
NASA Earth eXchange (NEX)
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: wen.f.yip@nasa.gov