Miguel Roman

Miguel Roman
Born	1981 San Juan, Puerto Rico
Nationality	Puerto Rican/American
Alma mater	University of Puerto Rico Cornell University Boston University
Occupation	Earth System Scientist

Miguel O. Roman, (born 1981), is a research physical scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) who pioneered the use of surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) and albedo retrieval techniques from airborne multiangle remote sensing data. He is an expert and researcher in terrestrial vegetation dynamics and remote sensing of the land surfaces.^[1][2][3]

Early years

Miguel Roman was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After he graduated from CROEM high school, he attended the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus and, in 2004, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

Career in NASA

Roman continued his academic studies at Cornell University, earning a Master's degree in Systems Engineering (2005). In 2009, he received a doctorate in Remote Sensing from Boston University. While studying at BU, Roman did his dissertation research at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, as part of NASA's Harriett G. Jenkins Pre-doctoral Fellowship (JPFP)^[4] and the Graduate Student Research Program (GSRP).^[5] Upon his graduation from BU, Roman became a research physical scientist in the Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).^[6] Currently, Roman is part of a multi-agency team of Earth and climate scientists in charge of developing and evaluating algorithms for the VIIRS instrument onboard the NPP and JPSS satellites. NPP and JPSS will provide continuation of U.S. capability required to observe, protect, and manage our Planet’s resources to promote environmental stewardship; to monitor biophysical processes on the surface of the Earth; and to monitor surface temperatures of land and ocean, chlorophyll fluorescence, and cloud cover and aerosols in the atmosphere.

Dr. Roman is also the Land scientist for NASA’s Cloud Absorption Radiometer; the most frequently used airborne instrument built in-house at NASA Goddard. His research is centrally concerned with the development and application of remote sensing in multiangle satellite and airborne imaging systems (e.g., MODIS and MISR) to measure and monitor terrestrial essential climate variables for climate change assessment, mitigation, and adaptation.^[1] He has participated in several field campaign programs (e.g., FluxNet, NACP, ARM-DoE, and BSRN) and intense observing periods (e.g., ChEAS’06, CLASIC'07, and ARCTAS'08) to coordinate the production of in-depth accuracy and variability assessments for current and future reprocessing of global surface albedo and reflectance anisotropy products.^[1][2] His research at NASA has led to improved understanding of the relationship between vegetation parameters estimated from remotely sensed data at different spatial scales (from both airborne and satellite sensors) and the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) of complex heterogeneous environments.^[1][3]

He is an officer of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society's Washington/Northern Virginia Chapter and a member of the American Geophysical Union, the Golden Key International Honor Society, the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society (PR-Alpha Chapter), and the NASA Academy Alumni Association.^[7]

Honors and Awards

• NASA/GSFC Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory Annual Award (2010 Rookie of the Year)
• NASA/GSFC Special Act Incentive Awards (2010)
• NASA Harriett G. Jenkins Pre-doctoral Fellowship (JPFP) (Cohort IV - 2004-2006)^[4]
• NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) Fellowship (2007-2009)^[5]
• US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation Award (2006)^[8]
• Xerox Technical Research Award (2005)
• Cornell University Teresa Lazaro Memorial Master of Engineering Fellowship (2004)
• University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Research Associate Award (2002)
• IBM Corporation Traineeship at Harvard Business School (2002)
• USGS STAR Award (2001)

See also

Puerto Rico portal

• List of Puerto Ricans in the United States Space Program

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Roman, M. O.; C.B. Schaaf, C.E. Woodcock, A.H. Strahler, X. Yang, R.H. Braswell, P.S*. Curtis, K.J. Davis, D. Dragoni, L. Gu, M.L. Goulden, D.Y. Hollinger, T.E. Kolb, T.P. Meyers, J.W. Munger, J.L. Privette, A.D. Richardson, T.B. Wilson, and S.C. Wofsy (2009). "The MODIS (Collection V005) BRDF/albedo product: Assessment of spatial representativeness over forested landscapes". Remote Sensing of Environment 113: 2476–2498. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2009.07.009. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Roman, M. O.; C.B. Schaaf, P. Lewis, F. Gao, G.P. Anderson, J.L. Privette, A.H. Strahler, C.E. Woodcock, and M. Barnsley (2010). "Assessing the Coupling between Surface Albedo derived from MODIS and the Fraction of Diffuse Skylight over Spatially-Characterized Landscapes". Remote Sensing of Environment 114: 738–760. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2009.11.014. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Roman, M. O.; C.K. Gatebe, C. B. Schaaf, R. Poudyal, Z. Wang, and M. D. King (2011). "Variability in surface BRDF at different spatial scales (30 m - 500 m) over a mixed agricultural landscape as retrieved from airborne and satellite spectral measurements". Remote Sensing of Environment 115 (9): 2184–2203. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2011.04.012. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "NASA JPFP Fellows Directory". UNCFSP. http://www.uncfsp.org/spknowledge/default.aspx?page=program.view&areaid=1&contentid=524&typeid=jpfp. Retrieved 5 January 2011. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "NASA Graduate Students Research Program: GSRP Awardees at GSFC - FY 2008". NASA. http://fellowships.hq.nasa.gov/gsrp/home/awardees.cfm?fy=2008&center=GSFC. Retrieved 5 January 2011. 
6. ^ "GSFC Profile for Miguel Roman - Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Research (614) - Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory (619)". NASA. http://neptune.gsfc.nasa.gov/tisb/personnel/index.php?id=376. Retrieved 5 January 2011. 
7. ^ "NASA Academy Alumni Association Executive Council". NAAA. http://www.nasa-academy.org/org_details_council.html. Retrieved 5 January 2011. 
8. ^ "United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation - 2006 Press Release (USGIF)". USGIF. http://usgif.org/news/65-united-states-geospatial-intelligence-foundation-announces-call-for-entries-for-the-2006-usgif-scholarships-program. Retrieved 5 January 2011. 

Links

• Miguel Roman. Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Research (614) - Terrestrial Information Systems Branch (614.5), NASA. Retrieved 2011-01-07.

Persondata
Name	Roman, Miguel
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1981
Place of birth	San Juan, Puerto Rico
Date of death
Place of death