CONTACT:  Patricia Viets                 For Immediate Release
                                         6/1/98

Helen M. Wood, director of the Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has received the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award.

In her position at NOAA, Wood directs the operation of a system that processes and distributes real-time data gathered by NOAA and other environmental satellites. The data are used to support weather forecasting, coastal ocean monitoring, sea ice detection and prediction, and search and rescue. Wood also leads NOAA's computer network integration planning.

As a senior executive with the federal government, Wood has led the way for numerous interagency and international partnerships. Because of her efforts, government agencies in the United States have gained access to unique data from foreign environmental satellites. This access means cost savings and avoidance of about $1 billion for U.S. taxpayers.

Wood developed a NOAA partnership with the space agencies of Japan and Canada so that NOAA can acquire valuable data from Japanese and Canadian environmental satellites. These data are critical to NOAA's missions of weather forecasting and environmental monitoring. These data are also important to other federal agencies including the U.S. Navy, the Departments of Agriculture and Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Wood holds a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Maryland and an M.S. in computer science from the American University. An active member of the IEEE since 1978, Wood was president of the Computer Society in 1990, IEEE's vice president for publication activities in 1993, and is a Fellow of the IEEE.