This information appeared in a press release on June 10, 2010.

Photo caption: Dr. Jack Bufton comes to GST following a 40-year career developing laser electro-optical sensors

 

Global Science & Technology Hires
Long-Time NASA-Goddard Scientist Dr. Jack Bufton

Greenbelt, MD —Global Science & Technology, Inc. (GST) proudly announced that Dr. Jack Bufton is the Company’s first Electro-Optical Sensor Systems Scientist. Dr. Bufton will support NASA scientists and engineers in development and flight of airborne and space-based lidar systems for sensing vegetation and other complex, dynamic Earth-surface structures.

“We are pleased to have a person with Dr. Bufton’s 40-year experience in both Government and Industry research, development, and applications of laser and electro-optical sensors for the study of Earth’s atmosphere, planetary surfaces, and free-space & fiber optical communication,” said GST President Chieh-san Cheng.

Dr. Bufton’s initial 35-year career at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) culminated in the flight of laser altimeter instrumentation on the Mars Orbiting Laser Altimeter (MOLA), Shuttle Laser Altimeter (SLA), and the ICESAT-1 Mission.

The Shuttle Laser Altimeter (SLA) was designed as a pathfinder experiment to evaluate engineering and algorithm techniques to aid the transition of the airborne laser altimeter and lidar technology developed at GSFC to low Earth orbit operational space-borne systems.

Dr. Bufton served as an engineering team member of MOLA, principal investigator of SLA, and science team member of ICESAT. He held engineering section and branch head administrative positions at GSFC and rose to be the Associate Division Chief for Sensor Physics in the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics. During this time he served the Optical Society of America in organizing technical conference programs rising to Co-Chairman of the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics. In industry he served as a consultant, project engineer, and principal engineer.

“I am thrilled to support NASA and its DESDynI Flight Project through my new position at GST,” Dr. Bufton said. “With my experience in development of aerospace laser sensors, I plan to assist GST in achieving continued growth.”

For more information, please contact John Dahlia: work (304) 368-1862 ext. 14; cell ( 304) 657-7095; or e-mail John.Dahlia@gst.com.