Chief Scientist for Atmospheric Sciences, NASA GSFC, Earth Sciences Division

Dr. Paul Newman earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at Seattle University, and then completed his doctorate in physics at Iowa State University. In 1984, he arrived at NASA Goddard as a postdoctoral researcher, worked for several years as science contractor, and in 1990 became a civil servant scientist. He has worked on about 17 airborne field missions at Goddard. Most recently, his latest mission was the Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX), which studies moisture and chemical composition in the region of the upper atmosphere where pollutants and other gases enter the stratosphere and potentially influence our climate. As the Deputy Principal Investigator for NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission, Dr. Newman works with the Principal Investigator to lead a diverse team of hurricane and instrument scientists to design and conduct experiments using unmanned aircraft to understand better the meteorological conditions that favor storm formation and often lead to the development of major hurricanes. HS3 is a five-year mission specifically targeted to investigate the processes that underlie hurricane formation and intensity change in the Atlantic Ocean basin. Other field campaigns included work in Costa Rica, Sweden, Norway and Alaska. During the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE), Dr. Newman directed the first flight of the NASA ER-2 over Russia, a civilian version of the U-2 reconnaissance plane that is used for scientific research. He was also the project scientist for the Global Hawk Pacific Mission, the first mission to use the Global Hawk for science.

Dr. Newman is a 2014 Goddard Senior Fellow and has been one of four co-chairs to the United Nations’ Scientific Assessment Panel for the Montreal Protocol since 2007. The Montreal Protocol of the United Nations regulates chlorofluorocarbons from aerosols spray cans and refrigerators, which can destroy the ozone layer. The United Nations has three panels: the scientific assessment, technical and environmental effects panels. Every four years, his panel produces a book called “The Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion,” which is the science basis for the Montreal Protocol. If the countries associated with the Montreal Protocol have a scientific question, it comes to all four co-chairs.

Dr. Newman is a Fellow of both the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union. He is a member of the International Ozone Commission (IOC), and other international scientific and technical committees. He has been part of 12 NASA Group Achievement awards and has twice been chosen by his Goddard colleagues for peer awards. In 2002, he was chosen for the Arthur S. Flemming Award presented by George Washington University. In 2009, he was awarded a Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award by the Environmental Protection Agency.