Contact:

Cynthia M. O'Carroll
Goddard Spc Flt Ctr, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301-614-5563)

GODDARD SCIENTIST RECEIVE EXECELLENCE IN FEDERAL CAREER AWARD

Dr. Ross F. Nelson, a research scientist in the Laboratory of Terrestrial Physics, is a Bronze Award recipient an Excellence in Federal Career Award presented by the Baltimore Federal Executive Board for his outstanding community service.

Nelson will be recognized as an outstanding Federal employee at the 36th Excellence in Federal Career Awards Ceremony and Luncheon to be held on May 2 at Martin’s West, in Baltimore, Md. This regional program will be held in conjunction with national Public Service Recognition Week, May 5-11.

According to Richard H. Howell, Executive Director of the Federal Executive Board, 239 Gold, Silver and Bronze awards will be awarded to Maryland federal employees and military service members who have performed exceptional and meritorious work.

The awards will be presented by Captain Micheal J. Mangan, U.S. Coast Guard, Chairman, Baltimore Federal Executive Board and Commanding Officer of the USCG Engineering Logistics Center in Baltimore. Performances at the ceremony include musical selections by the United States Naval Academy Ceremonial Band and the presentation of the Colors and Honors by the Joint Service Color Guard Defense Information School Fort Meade.

Although Nelson’s research at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., keeps him quite busy, he has found time to volunteer as a paramedic with the Laurel Volunteer Rescue Squad (LVRS), Prince Georges County Station 49, in Laurel, Maryland. In his 21 years as a volunteer, he has responded on over 2300 basic life support calls and well over 1000 advanced life support calls.

He joined the Squad in 1981 as a search and recovery diver with the LVRS Marine Division. Within two years, he obtained his EMT-A (basic ambulance) certification and began riding on the ambulances one night a week (12 hour shifts, 7p.m. to 7a.m.). In 1985 he completed Cardiac Rescue Technician training, permitting him to act as a paramedic in Prince Georges County. In 1993, after nine months of classroom and clinical training, he received his National Registry EMT-Paramedic certification and became a national and state-certified paramedic. Since that time, in addition to riding the basic life support units at Laurel, he has ridden as third medic with the two-person paid crews that staff the advanced life support ambulances around the County. He continues his volunteer work as an active member of LVRS, works a 12 hour shift every Monday night at Laurel, and runs once or twice a month on the only all-volunteer medic unit in PG County, Medic-5 out of Capitol Heights, Maryland.

Nelson has been a research scientist with the Biospheric Sciences Branch at Goddard for over 22 years. He earned a BA degree in Forest Management in 1974 from the University of Maine, Orono, and a MS degree in Forestry/Remote Sensing in 1979 from Purdue University. While at GSFC, he took advantage of the Research and Study Fellowship Program and received his PhD in Forest Biometry in 1994 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He uses his forestry expertise to develop methods to delineate, monitor, and inventory large forested areas remotely using Earth resource satellite digital data and airborne laser altimetry.

He is married, has 6 children, and lives on Kent Island, Md., on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

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