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Cynthia M. O'Carroll                    May 1, 2003
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301-614-5563)
Cynthia.m.ocarroll{at}nasa.gov


RELEASE: 03-46

GODDARD SCIENTIST RECEIVE EXCELLENCE IN FEDERAL CAREER AWARD

Dr. Ross F. Nelson, a research scientist in the Laboratory of 
Terrestrial Physics, is a Bronze Award recipient an Excellence in 
Federal Career Award presented by the Baltimore Federal Executive 
Board for his outstanding community service.

Nelson will be recognized as an outstanding Federal employee at the 
36th Excellence in Federal Career Awards Ceremony and Luncheon to be 
held on May 2 at Martin's West, in Baltimore, Md.  This regional 
program will be held in conjunction with national Public Service 
Recognition Week, May 5-11.

According to Richard H. Howell, Executive Director of the Federal 
Executive Board, 239 Gold, Silver and Bronze awards will be awarded 
to Maryland federal employees and military service members who have 
performed exceptional and meritorious work.

The awards will be presented by Captain Micheal J. Mangan, U.S. Coast 
Guard, Chairman, Baltimore Federal Executive Board and Commanding 
Officer of the USCG Engineering Logistics Center in Baltimore. 
Performances at the ceremony include musical selections by the United 
States Naval Academy Ceremonial Band and the presentation of the 
Colors and Honors by the Joint Service Color Guard Defense 
Information School Fort Meade.

Although Nelson's research at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in 
Greenbelt, Md., keeps him quite busy, he has found time to volunteer 
as a paramedic with the Laurel Volunteer Rescue Squad (LVRS), Prince 
Georges County Station 49, in Laurel, Maryland.  In his 21 years as a 
volunteer, he has responded on over 2300 basic life support calls and 
well over 1000 advanced life support calls.

He joined the Squad in 1981 as a search and recovery diver with the 
LVRS Marine Division.  Within two years, he obtained his EMT-A (basic 
ambulance) certification and began riding on the ambulances one night 
a week (12 hour shifts, 7p.m. to 7a.m.).  In 1985 he completed 
Cardiac Rescue Technician training, permitting him to act as a 
paramedic in Prince Georges County.  In 1993, after nine months of 
classroom and clinical training, he received his National Registry 
EMT-Paramedic certification and became a national and state-certified 
paramedic.  Since that time, in addition to riding the basic life 
support units at Laurel, he has ridden as third medic with the 
two-person paid crews that staff the advanced life support ambulances 
around the County. He continues his volunteer work as an active 
member of LVRS, works a 12 hour shift every Monday night at Laurel, 
and runs once or twice a month on the only all-volunteer medic unit 
in PG County, Medic-5 out of Capitol Heights, Maryland.

Nelson has been a research scientist with the Biospheric Sciences 
Branch at Goddard for over 22 years. He earned a BA degree in Forest 
Management in 1974 from the University of Maine, Orono, and a MS 
degree in Forestry/Remote Sensing in 1979 from Purdue University. 
While at GSFC, he took advantage of the Research and Study Fellowship 
Program and received his PhD in Forest Biometry in 1994 from Virginia 
Polytechnic Institute and State University.  He uses his forestry 
expertise to develop methods to delineate, monitor, and inventory 
large forested areas remotely using Earth resource satellite digital 
data and airborne laser altimetry.

He is married, has 6 children, and lives on Kent Island, Md., on the 
Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

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