Jack A. Kaye

Jack Kaye currently serves as Associate Director for Research of the Earth Science Division (ESD) within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). He has been a member of the Senior Executive Service since August, 1999, managing NASA’s Earth Science Research Program. Earlier positions in his more than 40-year career at NASA include being a Space Scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center and Manager of the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program at NASA HQ. His academic training is in chemistry (B.S. Adelphi University, 1976; Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 1982). He also held a post-doctoral research associateship at the US Naval Research Laboratory. As Associate Director for Research, Dr. Kaye is responsible for the research and data analysis programs for Earth System Science, covering the broad spectrum of scientific disciplines that constitute it.

He represents NASA in many interagency and international activities and has been an active participant in the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) in which he has served for many years as NASA principal. He also serves as NASA’s representative to the Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology and as a co-chair of the Committee on Research and Innovation for the Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services. He currently serves as vice chair for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Expert Team on Satellite Systems and Utilization after long service (2014-2019) as chair of the WMO Expert Team on Satellite Systems.

He has received numerous NASA awards (most recently, the Distinguished Service Medal in 2022), as well as been recognized as a Meritorious Executive in the Senior Executive Service in 2004, 2010, and 2021. He was named as a Fellow by the American Meteorological Society in 2010 and the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2014, and was inducted as an Honorary Member of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society in 2015. In 2017 he received the “Order of Merit Award” from the International Coordination Group for Laser Atmospheric Studies, and in 2024 he received a Lifetime Contribution Award from the Global Energy and Water Exchange Project of the World Climate Research Programme. He also served a three-year leadership term for the Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences Section of the American Association for the AAAS. He has published more than 50 refereed papers, contributed to numerous reports, books, and encyclopedias, and edited the book Isotope Effects in Gas-Phase Chemistry for the American Chemical Society.