This information appeared in a press release on July 7, 2010.

Photo caption: Paul Heppner accepted the position of Program Manager for MoPED.

 

Global Science & Technology Hires
Paul Heppner to Manage Weather and Environmental Data Programs

Greenbelt, MD —Global Science & Technology, Inc. (GST) proudly announced that Paul Heppner has accepted the position of Program Manager to run and manage the Mobile Platform Environmental Data (MoPED) observation network for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Weather Service (NWS). Concurrently, Heppner will be managing GST’s successful Weather Group, which sells commercial workstations and satellite reception systems to the meteorological community.

“Paul is no stranger to GST,” said Global Science & Technology President Chieh-san Cheng. “As a principal for the New Jersey company Spatial Software Solutions, Inc. (3SI), Paul worked closely with the GST Weather Group over the last several years. Additionally, for the last 8 months, Paul has worked for the GST Innovation Lab as a consultant on the MoPED project team. We’re pleased Paul has decided to become a permanent member of the GST family.”

MoPED ‘s objective is to validate that the mobile observational data can support surface transportation weather applications and be included as part of the National Mesonet system. A mesonet is a network of weather stations that observe weather phenomenon ranging from 1 mile to 150 miles. Mobile observation processing systems, such as MoPED, are being developed to provide this new data source to NOAA.

Paul Heppner is cofounder of 3SI, a corporation headquartered in Marlton, New Jersey. 3SI is a provider of information systems and integration services, primarily to the aviation meteorological community. 3SI and GST’s Weather Group have served customers worldwide with the unique combination of products and services by both companies.

Heppner received his meteorological education (M.S. (1985), B.S. (1982) Meteorology) at Pennsylvania State University, where he served as President of the Campus Weather Service and earned the Behrmann Award for academic excellence. Heppner was also one of the first student meteorologists to work on Weather World, which broadcast on public television stations throughout Pennsylvania from WPSX-TV. After graduation, Heppner worked in the broadcast industry at top-rated WNEP-TV, then as Chief Meteorologist at WYOU-TV, both in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

During 1993, Heppner left broadcasting and joined RMS Technologies, where he served as meteorologist and project manager for meteorological workstations, including a major installation in the Netherlands that modernized the Dutch national weather service. In 1996, Heppner co-founded 3SI with Greg Smith. At 3SI, Heppner served as a company executive, and developed the meteorological content of the workstation technology which is installed now in more than 20 countries. Heppner directed most of these installations and trained meteorologists worldwide. During the past year, Heppner added responsibilities by leading the GST team for its MoPED project.

“I feel like I’ve come full circle with GST,” explained Paul Heppner. “I’ve worked with the company for many years as a partner and consultant. Now, coming on board as a program manager, I feel I can accomplish even greater success for GST’s weather and environmental-related activities, particularly those related to mobile environmental observations and the National Mesonet. It is exciting to be at the forefront of emerging data and be able to create a system, such as MoPED, with new data that improves weather forecasting accuracy.”

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