Dr. Samuel H. Mosely is a senior astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Moseley’s accomplishments include the inventions of superconducting imaging arrays for astronomy, ranging from sub-millimeter bolometers to energy sensitive X-ray microcalorimeters, and even dark matter detectors, as well as microshutter arrays for the James Webb Space Telescope near-infrared spectrometer, which promise to enable detailed study of the first galaxies to form in the universe after the big bang. Before the Webb, Moseley worked extensively on COBE as a member of its Science Working Group. The satellite made groundbreaking measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, which show the universe soon after the big bang. Astrophysicists John Mather and George Smoot won the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics for this work. He has also worked on the many programs that have either flown or are expected to fly: the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Japan’s Suzaku (ASTRO-E2) mission. Moseley received his bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College, his master’s degree and doctorate from University of Chicago. He is a member of the American Physical Society and the American Astronomical Society.

Dr. Elizabeth M. Middleton is a senior terrestrial ecosystem and carbon cycle scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, focusing on the photobiology and remote sensing of vegetation, with expertise in field and laboratory measurements of plant physiological and spectral optical properties, project management, and satellite remote sensing of ecosystems. She leads a research team that studies vegetation spectral bioindicators of plant stress and photosynthetic function, including plant fluorescence. Over the last four decades with NASA, she has been directly involved in four satellite missions including Landsat (ERRSAC), Earth Observing One (EO-1, Mission Scientist for 9 years), formulation of an ESA mission (FLEX - the FLuorescence EXplorer, as the NASA representative for 10 years), and a successful NASA mission concept development team (HyspIRI - Hyperspectral Infrared Imager, 10 years as the GSFC leader), which was recently selected for development towards formulation by NASA. She was a Co-I in the tall grass prairie campaign as part of the FIFE (First ISLSCP) Field Experiment in Kansas (mid 1980s), a PI in the boreal forest studies in Saskatchewan during the BOREAS (Boreal Ecosystem Study) campaign (mid 1990s), the data system manager for the GSFC team for the Large Scale Ecosystem Study in Amazonia (LBA) in Brazil (late 1990s), and the research leader for the Fluorescence Laboratory, jointly conducted with USDA/Beltsville, MD. The fluorescence research has included a two-decade summer research campaign largely conducted at the local USDA research cornfield. In addition, she was a member of the NASA/GSFC Carbon Cycle Science Working Group (2000–2007) and the NASA representative to the U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee's Vegetation Subcommittee for many years. Dr. Middleton won the 2012 Nordberg Award and has won other numerous NASA career achievement awards. She received the B.S. degree in Zoology, the M.S. degree in Ecology, and the Ph.D. degree in Botany (plant physiology) from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1967, 1976, and 1993, respectively. She joined NASA in 1978.

Gavin Schmidt graduated from Oxford University with a BA (Hons) in mathematics in 1988 and a PhD in applied mathematics from the University College London in 1994. From 1994-1996, Dr. Schmidt worked at McGill University as a postdoc; 1996-1998, NOAA Climate and Global Change fellow at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York; 1998-2004, Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University. He joined NASA GISS in 2004 and became Director of GISS in 2014.

His main research interest is in climate variability, which can be both internal and externally-driven. He uses and helps develop coupled ocean-atmosphere climate models, including GISS ModelE. One of his specific interests is using "isotopically enabled" models that track oxygen-18 and deuterium tracers in water throughout the climate system, allowing the model to simulate the pattern of isotopes observed in satellite retrievals, ice cores, cave records and ocean sediments.

Dr. Schmidt has often appeared in the media to discuss climate-related stories, current events or give lectures. He has worked with (among others) the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian, the College de France, and the New York Academy of Sciences for education and outreach. Dr. Schmidt helped co-found the RealClimate blog in 2004 and published a book “Climate Change: Picturing the Science” with co-author Joshua Wolfe in 2009. In October 2011, the American Geophysical Union awarded Schmidt the inaugural Climate Communications Prize, for his work on communicating climate-change issues to the public.

Dennis Andrucyk became the Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) in 2017. From 2015-2017, he served as NASA’s acting chief technologist and as deputy associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). From 2003-2015, Andrucyk held many senior executive positions at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, including Director of the Applied Engineering & Technology Directorate, Chief of the Software Engineering Division, and Chief of the Mission Engineering and Systems Analysis Division. Before joining NASA in 1988, Andrucyk worked at the Department of Defense as both a contractor and a civil servant. He also served with the National Security Agency (1977-1978), the Naval Research Laboratory (1980-1982), Westinghouse (1982-1983), General Electric (1983-1987) and Northrop Grumman (1987-1988).

Andrucyk served on several national and international space partnership teams including the U.S.-based Space Technology Alliance as one of three voting members on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Sensors & Electronics Technology (SET) panel. He also served as NASA co-lead on the Interagency Space Science and Technology Partnership Forum, along with members of the Air Force Space Command and the National Reconnaissance Office.

Andrucyk earned the Senior Executive Service Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the Goddard Outstanding Leadership Honor Award, and the Goddard Exceptional Achievement Award in Diversity and Equal Employment Opportunity. In 2000, he was selected as a Goddard Senior Fellow.

Andrucyk graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1982.