Williams, Darrel - Biography

Darrel L. Williams currently serves as the Associate Chief for Science in the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics, within the Earth Sciences Directorate, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He continues to serve as the Landsat Project Scientist, a position he has held since 1992. In this position he was responsible for ensuring the scientific integrity of the Landsat 7 mission currently in orbit. Dr. Williams also serves as the Project Manager for NASA's LBA-ECO project in Brazil. Prior to his selection as Associate Chief, Dr. Williams served as Head of the Biospheric Sciences Branch from 1991 through September 2001. He began his NASA service in 1975 as a Research Scientist in that same organization. Dr. Williams received his BS and MS degrees in Forest Science from the Pennsylvania State U. in 1973 and 1974, respectively, and his Ph.D. in Physical Geography from the University of Maryland in 1989.

Throughout his NASA career Dr. Williams has been actively involved in remote sensing research. The majority of his work has involved the development of enhanced techniques for assessing forest ecosystems. Landsat imagery depicting some of these techniques were on display for several years at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, with acknowledgement to Dr. Williams. Geographical areas of study have included numerous sites throughout the U.S., as well as sites in Canada, Russia (Siberia), China, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.

Dr. Williams served as Assistant Project Scientist for Landsat 4 and 5 during the late 1970's and early 1980's, and as the EOS Deputy Project Scientist during 1989 -'90. Dr. Williams has authored and/or co-authored over 70 publications in the field of quantitative remote sensing in such categories as refereed journal articles, book chapters, and/or proceedings articles. In 1991 he was named an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, Department of Geography. He served as a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Remote Sensing from 1990 through 1998.

Dr. Williams has received well over two-dozen NASA awards in a variety of categories. Foremost among these are the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership (1997) and NASA's Exceptional Service Medal (2000). In 1999, he received the "Aviation Week and Space Technology 1999 Laurels Award" for outstanding achievement in the field of Space in recognition of his science leadership role for the highly successful Landsat 7 mission currently in orbit.