Friday, June 11, 2010 at 3:30pm

NASA Goddard Visitor Center

(refreshments available at 3:00pm)

Featuring:

Chair

IEEE Committee on Earth Observation (ICEO)

Abstract A voluntary association of 80 countries, the European Commission, and 58 Participating Organizations including the IEEE is working to improve the quantity and quality of a wide spectrum of information available to policy makers and operational users. This information contains everything we know about the earth, from its ground cover to its water quality and quantity to its energy generation and use to various measures of health and beyond. This talk will explain how the Group on Earth Observations came together, how it is fostering the development of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, and how the IEEE is playing a key role in these activities.

Dr. Thomas F. Wiener is an Aerospace Engineer with over 40 years of increasing responsibility in conducting and directing high technology research and development efforts. Now the Principal of the Forte Consultancy, he was formerly a Program Manager of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, serving there for a total of ten years. He served in the U.S. Navy for over 22 years, qualified in Destroyers and in Submarines. He commanded the nuclear attack submarine USS JACK. His special technical proficiencies span the fields of missile technology, inertial guidance and automatic control, imaging and non-imaging sensors, and C4I. He has acquired substantial expertise in training and education in the Navy and in civilian life.

Dr. Wiener received his Sc.B. degree in Engineering from Brown University and his Sc.D degree in Instrumentation from M.I.T. His dissertation, the first substantial work on strapdown inertial guidance, was the basis for the Apollo Guidance System. Dr. Wiener is a Life Senior Member of the IEEE, served as President of the Oceanographic Engineering Society from 2001-2004, and currently serves on the Administrative Committee of that society. During his tenure as President, he initiated the "Two OCEANS" program, conducting one OCEANS Conference annually in the Americas, and a second one in Region 8 or Region 10 in alternate years.

Other IEEE activities include serving as member of the Technical Activities Board (TAB) (2001-2005), TAB Finance Committee (2002-2003), TAB Business Simplification Committee (2002), and TAB Membership Value Committee (2002). He also served as Chair, TAB Society Review Committee (2004-2007), revitalizing the committee and thereby encouraged Societies, Councils, and Committees to conduct thorough and effective reviews of their activities. Since 2010 he has been serving as Chair, IEEE Committee on Earth Observation (ICEO).