RELEASE NO: 97-149

Dr. Robert A. Langel, a recent retiree of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Earth Sciences Directorate, is the recipient of the 1997 William Nordberg Memorial Award for Earth Sciences. The award will be presented on Friday Nov. 7 at Goddard Facility in Greenbelt, Md. Dr. Langel is the fourth recipient since the Goddard honor was first introduced in 1994.

The William Nordberg Memorial Award for Earth Science is presented annually to a Goddard employee who best exhibits qualities of broad scientific perspective, enthusiastic programmatic and technical leadership on the national and international levels, wide recognition by peers, and substantial research accomplishments in understanding Earth science processes.

This Blacksburg, Va. resident, who previous worked in the Geodynamics Branch of the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at Goddard, is being honored for his internationally-recognized achievements in the study of the Earth’s magnetic field from space, including leadership as project scientist for MAGSAT (launched in 1979) and subsequent application of MAGSAT and other data to development of a new generation of geomagnetic field models and to compilation of the first comprehensive global map of lithospheric magnetism.

For nearly two decades he has been an internationally respected leader in the study of the Earth’s magnetic fields from satellite data. As the MAGSAT project scientist, he was responsible for the conceptualization, building, and launch of the spacecraft, as well as the reduction, analysis, distribution and interpretation of the data from this first near-Earth satellite designed to map the crustal as well as the main magnetic field.

Langel assembled a research team at Goddard renown for their production of geomagnetic field models which have become the standard used throughout the world.

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This group pioneered the development and application of new analytical techniques to the analysis of both satellite and surface geomagnetic data. Techniques which have been embraced and adopted by the community at large. Langel has been published in over 60 scientific publications, and has written a book on "The Magnetic Field of the Earth’s Crust: The Satellite Perspective."

As an internationally recognized leader in the satellite study of the Earth’s magnetic field, Langel is widely sought for collaborations in both scientific research and mission development. He has served as project study scientist for magnetic fields for the proposed Geopotential Research Mission, and the MFE (Magnetic Field Explorer)/Magnolia and the Aristoteles missions. He was selected to serve on the outside scientific review and mission selection team.

Langel has held appointments as Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University, at Purdue University, and as Lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. He received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 1982, the Exceptional Achievement Award in 1996, and the Baltimore Federal Executive Board Excellence in Federal Career in 1997.

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