We are proud to announce the speakers for the
13th Naval Academy Science and Engineering Conference:
Forrestal Speaker: Dr. Rick Spinrad, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere & NOAA Administrator Dr. Rick Spinrad was sworn in as NOAA Administrator and Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere on June 22, 2021. He oversees NOAA's strategic direction and its 12,000 employees, focusing on climate action, environmental sustainability, and workforce diversity. Before this role, Spinrad was Vice President of Research at Oregon State University and served as NOAA’s chief scientist from 2014 to 2016. His earlier positions include leadership roles at the U.S. Office of Naval Research, faculty appointments at multiple universities, and serving as the U.S. representative to the UN's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. He has received several awards, including Presidential Rank Awards from Presidents Bush and Obama, and holds degrees in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Oceanography. |
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Katherine Calvin, NASA’s Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor
Dr. Katherine Calvin was appointed NASA's Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor on January 10, 2022. In these roles, she advises on science programs and climate initiatives under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program. Since 2008, she has been an Earth scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Joint Global Change Research Institute, focusing on models that analyze interactions between human and Earth systems amid climate change. With over 150 publications, her recent work addresses the challenges of population growth and resource scarcity. In July 2023, she became Co-Chair of Working Group III for the IPCC's 7th assessment cycle, contributing to various IPCC reports and the third U.S. National Climate Assessment. Calvin holds a doctorate from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland. |
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Francis, Senior Scientist at Woodwell Climate Center
Jennifer Francis is a Senior Scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Previously, she spent twenty-four years as a Research Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University, where she studied the Arctic climate system. Specifically, she looked at how the Arctic's rapid change is affecting areas beyond the Arctic, particularly extreme weather in the Northern Hemisphere. Jennifer earned a B.S. in Meteorology from San Jose State University in 1988 and a PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 1994. She and her husband circumnavigated the globe by sail during the early 1980s, including the Arctic, which is where her interest in the region began. They now live on their catamaran eight months/year riding the winds to the Caribbean, Central America, and now the South Pacific.
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Dr. David Novak, Director of NWS Weather Prediction Center
Dr. David Novak is the Director of NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center. The |
Dr. Michelle Hawkins, Program Manager of NASA Climate Resilience and Community Action
Dr. Michelle Hawkins is NASA’s Program Manager for Climate Resilience and Community Action. Prior to joining NASA, Dr. Hawkins held positions at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and NOAA. She also served as Director of Strategic Initiatives at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Dr. Hawkins received the Black Engineer of the Year Modern Day Technology Leader Award, and she is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. Dr. Hawkins holds a B.S. in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from Howard University. |
Dr. Greg Foltz, Co-lead of NOAA's Saildrone Hurricane Observations project
Dr. Greg Foltz is an oceanographer, AOML’s lead principal investigator of the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) Northeast Extension, and a co-lead of NOAA’s Saildrone Hurricane Observations project. His research is concentrated primarily on tropical cyclone-ocean interaction and tropical climate variability and change and their links to the ocean. Dr. Foltz’s work has contributed to improved understanding of ocean mixed layer dynamics in the tropics and the impact of ocean temperature and salinity stratification on tropical cyclone intensification. He also works closely with NOAA’s operational centers to transition research to operations in order to improve weather and climate forecasts and assessments. Dr. Greg Foltz serves as an editor of the Journal of Physical Oceanography and as a member of the PIRATA Science Steering Group and CLIVAR’s Atlantic Region Panel. |
