http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-018

NASA-JPL Scientist Elected to National Academy of Engineering
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 06, 2009

PASADENA, Calif. - In one of the highest professional distinctions
accorded to engineers and scientists, the National Academy of
Engineering has elected Moustafa T. Chahine, a senior research
scientist
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., as a member
of
its organization.

The academy elected Chahine based on his leadership in determining the
structure and composition of Earth's atmosphere from space. The
organization awards those who have made outstanding contributions to
"engineering research, practice, or education" and for pioneering new
fields of technology, advancing the engineering field, and
"implementing
innovative approaches to engineering education."

Chahine, the founder of JPL's Earth and space sciences division and
the
lab's chief scientist from 1984 to 2001, is one of 65 members and nine
foreign associates newly elected to the Washington-based academy. He
is
the principal investigator for NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder,
which was launched onboard the Aqua spacecraft in 2002. Aqua is part
of
NASA's Earth Observing System, which studies Earth's water cycle and
energy fluxes.

Chahine's primary interests are in the remote sensing of planetary
atmospheres and surfaces, and in climate change processes. Among the
remote-sensing methods he has developed is one that enables infrared
remote sensing through clouds. This has been applied to the remote
sensing of Earth, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. His current research
activities are in transport studies of Earth's hydrological cycle.

Chahine served as a member of NASA's Earth system sciences committee
and
as chair of the World Meteorological Organization's science steering
group for the organization's global energy and water cycle experiment
from 1989 to 1999. His many honors include the William T. Pecora Award
from NASA and the U.S. Department of the Interior, the American
Meteorological Society's Jule G. Charney Award, and in 2007, the NASA
Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievements.

Chahine received his Ph.D. in 1960 from the University of California
at
Berkeley, the same year he joined JPL. He and his wife, Marina, live
in
La Canada-Flintridge and have two sons.

In addition to being a new member of the National Academy of
Engineering, Chahine is a fellow in the American Physical Society, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American
Geophysical Union and the American and British Meteorological
Societies.

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.

More information on JPL is at www.jpl.nasa.gov . More information on
the
National Academy of Engineering is at www.nae.edu .

Media contact: Rhea R. Borja 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Rhea.R.Borja{at}jpl.nasa.gov

2009-018
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