[ESIP-CF] Changes

[Ted Habermann]

Hello friends,

I am happy to let you know that I have accepted a position as Director of Earth Science at the HDF Group that will start on April 1. I realize that this is an auspicious date, but I assure you that this announcement is completely real.

Most of you are familiar with HDF as a premier format for scientific data and as the format that currently underlies netCDF, MATLAB, and many other important tools. The HDF Group has a long tradition in Earth Science that began even before HDF was selected as the standard format for all EOS data several decades ago. My position is a new one that reflects a continued commitment of the HDF Group to these critical data and the problems they help us understand. I hope to build on that commitment and extend HDF to include elements of documentation and to build on the benefits of that integrated information. It is time to diminish the barriers between data and metadata and I believe the HDF Group is uniquely positioned to make important contributions to that task. I will also have the incredible opportunity to work with Mike Folk, the President of the HDF Group and a long-time insider on many of the developments that have changed our world. In addition to Mike, the HDF Group includes a great group of experienced and creative computer scientists and developers. They enthusiastically support the ideas I have proposed and will be great partners in executing them. In addition to Mike, the HDF Group includes a great group of experienced and creative developers.

The 25 years that I have spent at NOAA have been interesting and amazing. The world that existed when I started at NGDC in 1987 was very different than today’s world. I was lucky to be there for some of the first CD-ROM data collections and data description languages, the first web server in NOAA, and the recent explosion in spatial databases, internet mapping and many incredible web services and tools. Of course, we are only now starting to understand how more complete metadata will facilitate data sharing and ultimately improved understanding of the environment we live in. The excitement will certainly continue!

I will live in Boulder and am looking forward to building some elements of the HDF Earth Science Group here. I expect to continue to work on ISO standards development guidance and the work we are doing in EDMC, ESIP, and ESDSWG.  It has been great working with you all and I look forward to seeing you and making incredible things happen in the future.

Thanks for a great quarter century!

Ted

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