{"id":230114,"date":"2025-06-05T23:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T13:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/science-research\/earth-science\/jack-kaye-retires-after-a-storied-career-at-nasa\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T23:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T13:54:14","slug":"jack-kaye-retires-after-a-storied-career-at-nasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=230114","title":{"rendered":"Jack Kaye Retires After a Storied Career at NASA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Kaye<\/strong> [NASA HQ\u2014Associate Director for Research, Earth Science Division (ESD)<\/em>] has decided to retire on April 30, 2025, following 42 years of service to NASA \u2013 see Photo 1<\/strong>. Most recently, Kaye served as associate director for research of the Earth Science Division (ESD) within NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). In this position, he was responsible for the research and data analysis programs for Earth System Science that addressed the broad spectrum of scientific disciplines from the stratopause to the poles to the oceans.<\/p>\n

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Photo 1.<\/strong>\u00a0Jack Kaye<\/strong> [NASA HQ\u2014Associate Director for Research, Earth Science Division (ESD)<\/em>] retired from NASA on April 30, 2025, after a 42-year career.<\/div>\n
Photo credit:<\/strong>\u00a0Public Domain<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A New York native, Kaye\u2019s interest in space was piqued as a child watching early NASA manned space launches on television. He would often write to NASA to get pictures of the astronauts. In high school, he started an after school astronomy club. Despite a youthful interest in Earth science, as he explained in a 2014 \u201cManiac Talk\u201d at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, Kaye pursued a slightly different academic path.<\/a> He obtained a Bachelor\u2019s of Science in chemistry from Adelphi University in 1976 and a Ph.D. in theoretical physical chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in 1982. For his graduate studies, he focused on the quantum mechanics of chemical reactions with an aim toward being able to understand and calculate the activity.<\/p>\n

Following graduate school, Kaye secured a post-doctoral position at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, where he studied the chemistry of Earth\u2019s atmosphere with a focus on stratospheric ozone. It was while working in a group of meteorologists at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center that Kaye returned to his roots and refocused his scientific energy on studying Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA had a mandate to study stratospheric ozone,\u201d Kaye said in an interview in 2009<\/a>. \u201cI got involved in looking at satellite observations and especially trying to interpret satellite observations of stratospheric composition and building models to simulate things, to look both ways, to use the models and use the data.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaye has held numerous science and leadership positions at NASA. He began his career at GSFC as a researcher for the Stratospheric General Circulation and Chemistry Modeling Project (SGCCP) from 1983\u20131990 working on stratospheric modeling.\u00a0 In this role, he also worked on an Earth Observing System Interdisciplinary proposal.\u00a0 His first role at NASA HQ was managing \u00a0as program scientist for the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program (ACMAP), as well as numerous other missions. In this role, he was a project scientist for the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science<\/a> (ATLAS) series of Shuttle missions. While managing ATLAS, Kaye oversaw the science carried out by a dozen instruments from several different countries. He also managed several other Earth Science missions during this time. See the link to Kaye\u2019s \u201cManiac Talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaye entered the Senior Executive Service in 1999, where he continued to contribute to the agency by managing NASA\u2019s Earth Science Research Program. In addition, Kaye has held temporary acting positions as deputy director of ESD and deputy chief scientist for Earth Science within SMD. Throughout his career he has focused on helping early-career investigators secure their first awards to establish their career path\u2014see Photo 2<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Photo 2.<\/strong> Throughout his career, Jack Kaye<\/strong> has been an advocate for young scientists, helping them get established in their careers. Here, Kaye <\/strong>speaks with the Climate Change Research Initiative cohort at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington, DC on August 7, 2024. The Earth Science Division\u2019s Early Career Research Program\u2019s Climate Change Research Initiative is a year-long STEM engagement and experiential learning opportunity for educators and students from high school to graduate level.<\/div>\n
Photo Credit:<\/strong> NASA\/Joel Kowsky<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On numerous occasions, Kaye spoke to different groups emphasizing the agency\u2019s unique role in both developing and utilizing cutting-edge technology, especially remote observations of Earth with different satellite platforms \u2013 see Photo<\/strong> 3<\/strong>. With the launch of five new NASA Earth science campaigns in 2020, Kaye stated, \u201cThese innovative investigations tackle difficult scientific questions that require detailed, targeted field observations combined with data collected by our fleet of Earth-observing satellites.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo 3.<\/strong>\u00a0Jack Kaye<\/strong>\u00a0hands out eclipse posters and other outreach materials to attendees at Eclipse Fest 2024.<\/div>\n
Photo credit:<\/strong>\u00a0GRC https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/science-research\/earth-science\/looking-back-on-looking-up-the-2024-total-solar-eclipse\/<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kaye has also represented NASA in interagency and international activities and has been an active participant in the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), where he has served for many years as NASA principal of the Subcommittee on Global Change Research. He served as NASA\u2019s representative to the Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology and chaired the World Meteorological Organization Expert Team on Satellite Systems. Kaye was named an honorary member of the Asia Oceania Geoscience Society in 2015. He previously completed a six-year term as a member of the Steering Committee for the Global Climate Observing System and currently serves an ex officio member of the National Research Council\u2019s Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability and the Chemical Sciences Roundtable, as well as a member of the Roundtable on Global Science Diplomacy.<\/p>\n

NASA has honored Kaye with numerous awards, including the Distinguished Service Medal in 2022 and the Meritorious Executive in the Senior Executive Service in 2004, 2010, and 2021. In 2024 he was awarded the NASA-USGS Pecora Individual Award honoring excellence in Earth Observation. He was named a Fellow by the American Meteorological Society in 2010 and by the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2014. Kaye was elected to serve as an office of the Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Science section of the AAAS (2015\u20132018). AGU has recognized him on two occasions with a Citation for Excellence in Refereeing.<\/p>\n

Over the course of his career Kaye has published more than 50 papers, contributed to numerous reports, books, and encyclopedias, and edited the book\u00a0Isotope Effects in Gas-Phase Chemistry<\/em>\u00a0for the American Chemical Society. In addition, he has attended the Leadership for Democratic Society program at the Federal Executive Institute and the Harvard Senior Managers in Government Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vantage point of space provides a way to look at the Earth globally, with the ability to observe Earth\u2019s interacting components of air, water, land and ice, and both naturally occurring and human-induced processes,\u201d Kaye said in a November 2024 article published by Penn State University<\/a>. \u201cIt lets us look at variability on a broad range of spatial and temporal scales and given the decades of accomplishments, has allowed us to characterize and document Earth system variability on time scales from minutes to decades.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Kaye [NASA HQ\u2014Associate Director for Research, Earth Science Division (ESD)] has decided to retire on April 30, 2025, following 42 years of service to NASA \u2013 see Photo 1. Most recently, Kaye served as associate director for research of the Earth Science Division (ESD) within NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). In this position, he [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-science"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230115,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230114\/revisions\/230115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}