Dr. Thomas J. Bogdan
Director, Space Weather Prediction Center
National Centers for Environmental Prediction
National Weather Service
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
 |
Since May 2006, Thomas Bogdan has been the Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Environment Center, which is located at the David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder, Colorado. His 23-year career has spanned basic research, grants administration, program development and operations management in solar-terrestrial physics in both the public and private sectors.
The Space Environment Center is the official source for our Nation’s space weather prediction, forecast and warning services. It operates 24/7 and is one of only two Department of Commerce affiliated National Critical Systems in Colorado. Approximately 50 civil servants and a dozen contractors work to provide space weather guidance that is critical for (i) space exploration missions, (ii) activities essential to our homeland security and national defense, (iii) telecommunications satellite operations, (iv) commercial air transport communications and crew/passenger radiation safety, and (v) the reliability of the national power grid infrastructure.
Prior to this appointment, Dr. Bogdan was a senior scientist and an administrator with the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), where he carried out basic research on solar magnetic activity and variability, and took the lead in setting up NCAR’s Societal Environmental Research and Education Laboratory. He was the acting Director of NCAR’s Advanced Studies Program (ASP) and exercised administrative oversight over the prestigious ASP postdoctoral and graduate fellowships in the atmospheric and related sciences.
Between 2001 and 2003, Dr. Bogdan served as the Program Director for the Solar-Terrestrial Research Section of NSF’s Atmospheric Sciences Division. During this time he was instrumental in developing the NSF’s first bridged faculty program in the space sciences, that resulted in the creation of eight new tenure track faculty lines devoted to solar-terrestrial research and education at several major U.S. universities.
Dr. Bogdan is a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics, and serves as a co-chair of the National Space Weather Program’s Committee on Space Weather. He earned a Doctorate in Physics at the University of Chicago in 1984, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in mathematics/physics from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1979. He is the author of over 100 papers in solar-terrestrial research, was the recipient of the Gregor Wentzel and Valentine Telegdi Prizes from the University of Chicago, and spent the summer of 1989 as a Visiting Gauss Professor at the Universitäts Sternwarte in Göttingen.
EDUCATION
1979 B.S. (Summa Cum Laude) State University of New York at Buffalo
1981 M.S. Physics, University of Chicago
1984 Ph.D. Physics, University of Chicago
HONORS
1975 Bausch & Lomb Science Award
1975 New York State Regents Scholarship
1981 Gregor Wentzel Prize, University of Chicago
1981 Valentine Telegdi Prize, University of Chicago
1989 Visiting Gauss Professor, Göttingen University
APPOINTMENTS
1983 Postdoctoral Fellow, NCAR
1985 Scientist I, NCAR
1987 Scientist II, NCAR
1990 Scientist III, NCAR
1993 Senior Scientist, NCAR
1995 Section Head, NCAR
2001 Program Director, NSF
2003 Director (acting), Advanced Study Program, NCAR
2004 Associate NCAR Director (acting)
2006 Director, SWPC, NOAA
