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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

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)
Business Email:
Business Phone: 

Will C. Carrara

Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: will.c.carrara@nasa.gov
Business Phone: 

Kate Duffy

KateDuffy

Pathways Intern
NASA Earth eXchange (NEX)
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: kate.m.duffy@nasa.gov

Stephen E. Dunagan

Stephen 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

JenniferDungan

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

Liane 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

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

Matthew 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

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

Amber Jean Kuss

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

TaejinPark_c

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
Business Phone:

Geoffrey Phelps

Staff, United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email:
Business Phone:

Ethan A. Pinsker

Staff, California State University Monterey Bay
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email:
Business Phone:

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: 
Business Phone: 

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

ThomasVandal

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

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

WenFengYip

Research Support Specialist, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
NASA Earth eXchange (NEX)
Biospheric Science Branch (SGE)
Business Email: wen.f.yip@nasa.gov