Washington, DC, — January 18, 2010 — The Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (“ESIP Federation”) elected a new slate of officers during its meeting in Washington, DC. The new officers will serve one-year terms, through the end of the 2011 Winter Conference.

The Federation’s President is Dr. James Frew of the Bren School at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Frew was elected to serve his second term as President and will preside over the ESIP Federation’s Assembly and its Executive Committee. President Frew, who has previously served as the ESIP Federation’s Vice President, described his vision for the ESIP Federation. “The ESIP Federation is a dynamic organization that is responsive to its community’s vision for data proliferation and technology implementation. During the past year, the ESIP Federation has seen its membership ranks grow and has begun to increase its visibility internationally. With a growing community of 115 partners, and with multiagencys upport and participation, the ESIP Federation is working toward building bridges across many consumers of environmental information representing both professional and lay communities.

The ESIP Federation’s leadership is diverse, coming from government, academic, and private sectors.
All officers and committee chairs will serve one-year terms on the ESIP Federation’s Executive Committee. Each will be involved in policy development and planning for the ESIP Federation. New officers include (those marked with an asterisk (*) also serve on the Foundation for Earth Science Board):

President*, James Frew, Bren School, University of California, Santa Barbara
Vice President*, Chris Lenhardt, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Type I Representative*, Marilyn Kaminski*, National Snow and Ice Data Center
Type II Representative*, Peter Fox, Tetherless World Constellation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Type III Representative*, Karl Benedict, Earth Data Analysis Center, University of New Mexico

Committees:
Chair of Constitution and Bylaws, Michael Goodman, NASA Marshall
Chair of Finance & Appropriations*, Charles Hutchinson, University of Arizona
Chair of Partnership, Annette Schloss, University of New Hampshire
Chair of Education, Margaret Mooney, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin
Chair of Information Technology and Interoperability, Rahul Ramachandran, University of Alabama in Huntsville
Chair of Products and Services, Robert Raskin, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The ESIP Federation is a consortium of Earth science data and technology professionals spanning government (NASA, NOAA, EPA, USGS), academia and the private sectors (both commercial and nonprofit). Our organization is dedicated to transforming research data and information into useful and usable data and information products for decision makers, policy makers and the public. Initiated by NASA in 1997, the ESIP Federation provides data, products and services to decision makers and researchers in public and private settings. The Foundation for Earth Science provides administrative and staff support to the ESIP Federation.



Contact:

James Frew
President
Federation of Earth Science Information Partners
Tel.: (805) 893-7356

Carol Meyer
Executive Director
Foundation for Earth Science
Tel.: 877-870-3747