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Biographical Sketches of BISO Board Members

Tilahun D. Yilma (NAS) is Professor of Virology and Director, International Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Tropical Disease Agents, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis. He is nominated to serve as chair for a three year term. Dr. Yilma is a current member of the Committee on Human Rights of the NAS, NAE and IOM; NAS International Temporary Nominating Group for Class VI: Applied Biological, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. Dr. Yilma is an immunologist whose research has focused on the development of recombinant vaccines and rapid diagnostic kits for the viral diseases of animals and humans. This work has produced the knowledge and the biotechnology required for the global eradication of rinderpest, a virus infecting cattle that has threatened the economies of developing countries in Asia and Africa. He received his PhD from the University of California, Davis in 1977.

Robert S. Chen is the Director of CIESIN and a Senior Research Scientist. He is nominated to serve as a member for a three year term. Dr. Chen served as CIESIN’s deputy director from July 1998 to April 2006 and as CIESIN’s interim director from May 2006 to January 2007. He is also the manager and co-principal investigator of the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC), a data center in the NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System. He is currently secretary-general of the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and a member of the new ICSU ad hoc Strategic Coordinating Committee on Information and Data (SCCID). Dr. Chen has contributed to activities of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for more than a decade and currently serves as an ex officio member of the IPCC Task Group on Data and Scenario Support for Impacts and Climate Analysis (TGICA) and co-manager of the IPCC Data Distribution Center (DDC). He was recently appointed to the Committee on Spatial Data Enabling USGS Strategic Science in the 21st Century of the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) Board on Earth Sciences and Resources (BESR) and also serves as an ex officio member of the NRC Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI). Dr. Chen received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Marvin Geller is Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Marine Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He is currently the president of SCOSTEP -- the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics. He has been active in a number of NRC committees since 1987, including the Committee on Strategic Guidance for NSF's Support of Atmospheric Sciences and the Committee on Metrics for Global Change Research. His current research interests include using atmospheric general circulation models, mechanistic models, and data analysis to better understand interannual variability in tropical upwelling through the tropopause and its effect on stratospheric water vapor; using high resolution radiosonde data to characterize atmospheric gravity wave activity and better understand the sources for this activity; and using models together with data assimilation techniques to better characterize and understand stratospheric ozone losses that have occurred. Dr. Geller received his Ph.D. in 1969 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Daniel L. Goroff is currently a Program Director at Alfred Sloan Foundation in New York.  Prior to that, he served as vice president and Dean of the Faculty at Harvey Mudd College, CA.  Dr. Goroff is a past chair and member of the U.S. National Commission on Mathematics Instruction and has distinguished himself as a leader in mathematics and science education and in its advocacy.  In addition to his faculty roles, he served as associate director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and as a tutor at Harvard's Leverett House. His interests are in dynamical systems and Hamiltonian mechanics mathematical history, philosophy, and education.  Dr. Goroff received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1984.

Priscilla Grew is Director of the University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History. She is also Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and teaches a large undergraduate course on Geology of National Parks. Since 1998 she has also served as UNL’s NAGPRA Coordinator for repatriation of human remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. She was Vice Chancellor for Research at UNL from 1993 to 1999. Since 1989, Dr. Grew has served as a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University. She has been a member of the Education and Outreach Steering Committee of the NSF-funded EarthScope project administered by the Incorporated Research Institutions in Seismology (IRIS). She chairs the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and is a former Vice Chair of the U.S. National Committee for DIVERSITAS. Dr. Grew was Director of the Minnesota Geological Survey at the University of Minnesota from 1986 to 1993. She served as a Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission from 1981 to 1986, and as Director of the California Department of Conservation from 1977 to 1981. Prior to 1981, she taught geology and environmental studies at Boston College, UCLA, and the University of California at Davis. Dr. Grew graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1962 with a B.A. magna cum laude in geology and earned her Ph.D. in geology in 1967 from the University of California at Berkeley.

William H. Hooke is a Senior Policy Fellow at the American Meteorological Society since June 2000, and Director of the Policy Program since July 2001. He is nominated to serve as a member for a three year term. His current policy research interests includes natural disaster reduction; historical precedents as they illuminate present-day policy; and the nature and implications of changing national requirements for weather and climate science and services. He also directs AMS policy education programs, including the AMS Summer Policy Colloquium, and the AMS-UCAR Congressional Science Fellowship Program. Dr. Hooke received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1967.

Melinda Kimble is Senior Vice President at the United Nations Foundation. She oversees the program areas of health, population, the environment, and peace/human rights. Ms. Kimble joined the UN Foundation in May 2000. Prior to that, she served as a State Department Foreign Service Officer, attaining the rank of Minister-Counselor. Ms. Kimble served in policy-level positions in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, overseeing multilateral development issues and debt policy, and in the Bureau of Oceans, International Environment and Scientific Affairs, leading environmental negotiations (e.g, Climate Change Conference, Kyoto, Japan, 1997). Ms. Kimble's assignments abroad include Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, and Tunisia. She speaks French and Arabic and holds two masters degrees: economics (University of Denver) and MPA (Harvard's Kennedy School of Government).

Lueny Morell is Director of University Relations for Latin America for Hewlett Packard (HP) Company. She is nominated to serve as a member for a three year term. She is responsible for developing and strengthening HP's ties to a select number of institutions in Latin America. Her job entails working with the higher education community and leading academic institutions on everything from research and student recruitment to customer and government relations and policy advocacy. She is also involved in curriculum development, advising industry, facilitating accreditation initiatives, supporting student and faculty research, and philanthropic projects. Before joining HP in 2002, Professor Morell had a 24-year career at the University of Puerto Rico, where she held various positions, both at the Mayaguez Campus (UPRM) and the system level. A full professor of chemical engineering, she was director of the UPRM Research and Development Center, a member to the Academic Senate and Administrative Board, and special assistant to the chancellor and dean of engineering in charge of strategic alliances, new educational initiatives, and outcome assessment. Professor Lueny also coordinated the ABET 2000 accreditation for UPRM. A licensed professional engineer and certified ABET evaluator, she has done professional consulting work and is a member of many professional and honorary societies, including Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, Alpha Delta Kappa, American Society of Electrical Engineers, and American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Professor Morell has more than 40 scientific and educational papers to her credit and has received the NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize along with many honors during her academic career. Dr. Morell received her MSChe from Stanford University.

Dennis Ojima is Senior Research Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and an Assistant Professor in the Rangeland Ecosystem Science Department at Colorado State University.  His research activities address ecological issues related to global and regional land use and climate changes on ecosystem dynamics; studies of the interaction between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere; the impact of changes in land management on trace gas exchange; and the development of a global ecosystem model.  Dr. Ojima is a current member of the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, and a past member of the U.S. National Committee for SCOPE and of the NRC's Committee on Extending Observations and Research Results to Practical Applications: A Review of NASA's Approach. Dr. Ojima received his Ph.D. from Colorado State University in 1987.

Kennedy Reed is a Theoretical Physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where his research focuses primarily on atomic collisions in high temperature plasmas.  He is a member of the U.S. Liaison Committee for the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), and is also Chair of the IUPAP Commission on Physics for Development.  Dr. Reed has served as Vice-Chair of the American Physical Society (APS) Committee on International Scientific Affairs, and has been awarded the APS John Wheatley Award for his contributions to Physics Research and Education in Africa.  The California Section of the American Physical Society annually presents a student award that is named in honor of Dr. Reed.  He is also a recipient of the 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.  Dr. Reed is a Fellow of the American Physical Society; Charter Fellow, National Society of Black Physicists; member, Optical Society of America; and member, American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He received his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Nebraska in 1978.

Karen B. Strier is a Hilldale Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin.  Dr. Strier is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a past member of the USNC/International Union of Biological Sciences. An authority on the behavioral ecology of the endangered northern muriqui monkeys of Brazil, her research efforts have been critical to conservation efforts on behalf of this species, and she has been influential in broadening comparative perspectives of primate behavioral and ecological diversity, as well as the evolution of variation in behavior.  She received her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1986.  

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