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Compton Tucker Maniac Lecture

Personal Photograph

Senior Scientist, Hydrospheric and Biospheric Laboratory, NASA GSFC

Dr. Compton “Jim” Tucker earned his B.S. from Colorado State University in 1969; in 1973 and 1975, he received his M.S. and Ph.D, respectively, both from the College of Forestry, Colorado State University. He worked as a post-doctoral fellow through the National Academy of Sciences at NASA Goddard in 1975 and became a civil servant at NASA in 1977. Through the use of satellite remote sensing his work was used for early warning of famine and insect control. He has also studied photosynthesis, global agricultural production, land cover, tropical deforestation and the prediction of disease outbreaks connected to changes in climate.

Dr. Tucker is the recipient of many awards and honors. Among them are the following: NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award (1987); NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1989); NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Senior Fellow (1992); National Air and Space Museum Trophy for Current Achievement (1995); William Nordberg Memorial Award for Earth Sciences (1996); Mongolian Friendship Medal (1st U.S. co-recipient with Dr. Mary Cleave) (1997); William T. Pecora Award, U.S. Geological Survey (2000); Int'l Society for Optical Engineering NASA-Office Naval Research Remote Sensing Award (2002); Highly Cited Researcher, Institute of Scientific Information's Web of Science 2004 - Galathea Medal, Royal Danish Geographical Society. He was the NASA representative to the U.S. Global Change Research Program (GCRP) from 2006 to 2009. In April 2014, Dr. Tucker received the Vega Medal from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. This honor celebrates his work in remote sensing.