David Halpern, PhD

Senior Research Scientist, California Institute of Technology/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Dr. David Halpern is Senior Research Scientist at the California Institute of Technology/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. While on assignment from JPL from 2002 to 2012, he served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and at NASA Headquarters. He has chaired many national and international committees. Currently he serves as US Representative to the UN Bureau for the Regular Process for the World Ocean Assessment, Chair of the COSPAR Task Group on GEO, Secretary of the AAAS Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Section, and Eos ocean sciences editor. He is a member of the NRC Ocean Studies Board and the US CLIVAR Phenomena, Observations and Synthesis Panel. He has been a visiting or adjunct professor at University of California at Los Angeles, California Institute of Technology, University of Washington and University of Maryland at College Park. Dr. Halpern pioneered the measurement of near-surface ocean currents and surface winds in shallow and deep-water regions, including the highly challenging equatorial Pacific. His research focused on ocean circulation and ocean-atmosphere interactions using in-situ and satellite measurements, and he served as Chief Scientist on many cruises in the Atlantic and Pacific. His current interests are equatorial ocean circulation inferred from ocean general circulation models constrained by observations, satellite observations of atmospheric planetary boundary layer dynamics, and the intersection of ocean science and public policy. Dr. Halpern published over 300 articles. He has received many awards, including the US Department of Commerce Silver Medal, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, Exceptional Service Medal, and NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, and has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advance of Science, American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, California Academy of Sciences, and International Academy of Astronautics. Dr. Halpern received his B.Sc. (Honours) in geology and physics from McGill University and Ph.D. in physical oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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