J. Vanderlei Martins is a professor at the Department of Physics, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and a member of the Climate and Radiation Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), under the Joint Center for Earth Systems and Technology (JCET) program. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Physics in 1991, a Master’s degree in Physics/Nuclear Applied Physics in 1994, and a Ph.D. in Physics/Applied Physics in 1999 from the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil. He joined the Group of Air Pollution Studies at the Institute of Physics (USP) in 1990, and conducted research in environmental and atmospheric applied physics. In particular, he developed analytical nuclear techniques using particle accelerators for material analysis, including aerosols and tree-rings, and participated in several ground-based and aircraft field experiments studying properties of aerosols from biomass burning and biogenic emissions. He was a member of the University of Washington, Department of Atmospheric Sciences’ Cloud and Aerosols Research Group, from November 1995 to 1996. He taught at the University Sao Judas Tadeu between 1998 and 1999 while conducting research at the University of Sao Paulo.

Vanderlei works closely with the MODIS aerosol group; a collaboration which has led to many projects involving measurements and modeling of aerosol and cloud properties. He also works closely with several NASA GSFC Engineering Branches in the development of new satellite and aircraft sensors focusing on future measurements of aerosol and cloud properties. His group has a strong US and international collaborations and together they have performed field/aircraft measurements in several countries and Continents.