Physical Scientist (Program Director)

NSF’s Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) seeks candidates for the position of the Program Director within the Geospace Section (GS) in the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS).  The incumbent will be assigned under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) provisions.

The Geospace Section is comprised of the Aeronomy, Magnetospheric Physics, Solar Terrestrial, Space Weather, and Geospace Facilities programs (GS Programs). The Geospace Section also runs several cross-program solicitations, such as CEDAR, GEM,  the CubeSat-based Science Missions for Geospace and Atmospheric Research, DASI, and ANSWERS.

The Geospace Section Rotator (GS Rotator) will have the following duties.  They will work closely with other Program Officers (POs) within GS on various aspects of the GS Programs. This will include merit review of proposals submitted to GS Programs, particularly in response to the ANSWERS solicitation, the oversight and management of current GS awards, coordination with other federal agencies and work on Interagency Agreements (IAAs), as well as providing backup for other aspects of GS Programs. 

The GS Rotator will have the primary responsibility for the implementation of recommendation 9.13 of the Geospace Portfolio Review (GPR), which calls for the creation of a data systems program to enhance data exploitation within the field.  The current data infrastructure is inadequate for the increasing demands both for accessibility to a larger user base and to preserve and archive data. The need for this program is further justified by the growing importance of data science investigations throughout broad scientific endeavor and the FAIR data principles that are being implemented by journals that publish geospace science, e.g. AGU

journals, Science, and Annales Geophysicae

.  A key step in implementing this recommendation will be to organize a community workshop to discuss options for addressing the field’s needs for data infrastructure and potential options.  The GS Rotator will need to engage with counterparts in the NASA Heliophysics Division, as they are also currently assessing their data infrastructure needs. Potential leveraging of assets will be essential for a cost-effective path forward. The GS Rotator will then need to develop a program solicitation and evaluate the proposals submitted.  In addition to the data systems program responsibilities, the GS Rotator will coordinate with the geosciences cyberinfrastructure efforts including the EarthCube program and the NSF-wide programs related to data including but not limited to the Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Idea and the Cyberinfrasturcture for Sustained Innovation (CSSI) program overseen by the Office of Cyberinfrastructure.