Shelby G. Tilford

• Comment: Still requires more sources Jenyire2 20:54, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

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Shelby Tilford
Born	Kentucky, United States
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Western Kentucky University, Vanderbilt University
Awards	Presidential Rank Award NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal William T. Pecora Award
Scientific career
Fields	Spectroscopy Earth science Remote Sensing
Institutions	Naval Research Laboratory National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Shelby G. Tilford is an atmospheric spectroscopist and Earth scientist. He retired from a long career with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, most recently serving as the Acting Associate Administrator of NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth. He is recognized as the founder of the Earth system science concept and NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program, which represented NASA's contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP).

Education

Tilford majored in chemistry, math and physics at Western Kentucky University, and went on to graduate school at Vanderbilt University where he completed a PhD thesis on spectra of dinitrogen substituted benzene rings. He then moved to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC where he conducted research on spectral lines of atmospheric molecules in the region above 1000 angstroms.

Career

In 1976 Tilford went to NASA Headquarters as a detailed in the Solar Physics program, which shortly led to his acceptance of a position to head NASA's newly established [Upper Atmosphere Research Program]]. An important science issue at the time was to understand the nature and causes of atmospheric ozone depletion and the impact of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). After several years of NASA-funded research contributions and interagency cooperation CFCs were eventually banned on a global scale. By late 1978, as interest grew in understanding Earth science from space, NASA had consolidated all its Earth science research observation components, including atmosphere, oceans, land, solar-terrestrial physics, and the aircraft observations program into an integrated Earth Science Division in the Office os Space Science, under Tilford's purview.

At UNISPACE '82 in Vienna (a conference of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space), Tilford and colleagues, in a NASA delegation led by Administrator James Beggs, proposed a Global Habitability initiative as an international cooperative research effort to obtain data on the Earth's environment, hoping to obtain international support for the concept. However, it was not generally well received. Following this, Tilford formulated an Earth System Science Committee (ESSC) of the NASA Advisory Council, chaired by Francis Bretherton, to put together the foundation for a new comprehensive NASA initiative in Earth science from space. After years of deliberations by the scientific community, and careful steering by Tilford and the NASA management, a final report was released in 1988 (Earth System Science: A Closer View) that set the stage for NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) and the associated data system, the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS). As preparation for EOS got underway, Tilford and counterparts in other U.S. agencies with responsibilities in Earth science created the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). The USGCRP was established by Presidential initiative in 1989. EOS subsequently received budgetary funding as a new start in 1990.

Leading up to, and continuing through the EOS era, Tilford developed important partnerships with the key international space agencies, including those of Europe, Japan, France, Canada and others. He also championed open data policies responsive to the needs of the international research community.

Awards

Presidential Rank Award William T. Pecora Award NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal