IPAC Teams and Individuals Honored with NASA Awards

Thursday, October 18th, 2012 • Announcement • ipac2012-013

A number of IPAC projects, teams and individuals were honored today with NASA Achievement Awards. These recognitions reflect the dedication and creativity of these individuals and teams as well as the support and contributions by many others at IPAC that make each success possible.

Individual Awards:

Rosanne Scholey is awarded the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal with citation: "For consistently outstanding facilities support to eight NASA astrophysics missions through three decades of dedication to service reliability and process improvement."

Lee Bennett is also awarded the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal with citation: "For significant contributions, outstanding team building and technical excellence in systems engineering and operations of the Spitzer Science Center."

Team Awards:

NEOWISETeam

Citation:  For outstanding success at detecting and discovering minor planets with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, significantly improving our understanding of the Solar System.

WISE Science Data Center Team

Citation:  For developing and operating the WISE Science Data System that successfully ingested, processed, archived and distributed WISE science data on schedule and within budget.

Spitzer Observatory Performance Analysis Team

Citation:  For demonstrated innovation, creativity and exceptional observatory engineering analysis significantly contributing to Spitzer's continued high precision science mission.

Spitzer/Deep Space Network PMAR Team

Citation:  For outstanding collaborative teamwork, extensive analysis and improved operational recovery from the DSS 14 pointing anomaly enabling Spitzer's return to science processing.

IRU Switch Analysis and Recovery Team

Citation:  For outstanding planning, analysis and execution of the Internal Reference Unit Switch enabling stellar Spitzer high precision exoplanet science.

IRAC Data Compression Improvement Team

Citation:  For implementing innovative strategies to increase on-board data compression, thereby maintaining high data volume science observations as the downlink rate decreases.

Spitzer Extended Science Planning & Proposal Team

Citation:  For outstanding vision and creativity in the planning and execution of the Spitzer Warm Mission.

Spitzer Cryogen Mission Closeout Team

Citation:  For outstanding implementation of the Spitzer cryogenic mission close-out supporting archival science for decades to come.

The IRAC PCRS Peak-Up Team

Citation:   For the innovative development of a new observing mode for exoplanet observations, a key Spitzer science theme, that results in a 20-50% reduction in correlated noise."