Dr. Daniel J. McCleese has been appointed manager of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Earth and Space Sciences Division, it has been announced.
McCleese, 38, succeeds Dr. Charles Elachi, who was recently named assistant laboratory director for JPL's Office of Space Science and Instruments. McCleese formerly was manager of the Laboratory's Atmospheric and Cometary Sciences Section.
The Earth and Space Sciences Division includes research and instrument development in such areas as atmospheric sciences, oceanography, cometary sciences, geology, planetology, space physics and astrophysics.
A native of Chula Vista, Calif., McCleese was graduated in physics from Antioch College, Ohio, and took doctorate in atmospheric physics from the University of Oxford, England.
McCleese joined JPL in 1976 after serving as research officer at the University of Oxford's Clarendon Laboratory. He since has held variety of scientific, technical and managerial positions in planetary atmospherics and atmospheric sciences at JPL.
Among his scientific duties, McCleese is principal investigator for the pressure modulator infrared radiometer on Mars Observer, planned for launch in 1992. McCleese is also principal investigator for atmospheric sounders being developed for Cassini, proposed mission to Saturn, and for the Earth Observation System, an Earth-orbiting spacecraft under study at JPL.
His honors include Fulbright scholarship while pursuing his doctorate at Oxford as well as NASA achievement awards for his work on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter science team and in remote wind sensing. He also was awarded patent for methods and apparatus for the Stratospheric Wind Infrared Limb Sounder.
McCleese and his wife, Judith, reside in Altadena with their son.
818-354-5011