Lin Chambers facts for kids

Lin Chambers is an American scientist who works at NASA Langley Research Center. She has created and helped with many international programs. These programs teach people about science and involve regular people in scientific research, which is called citizen science.

Early Life and Education

Lin Chambers went to East Lansing High School. She earned two degrees in aeronautical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1985. Aeronautical engineering is about designing and building aircraft and spacecraft.

She started working at NASA Langley Research Center in 1983. This was part of a special program while she was still a student. Later, she moved to Hampton, Virginia, to work at NASA full-time.

In 1989, she attended the International Space University Summer Session in France. She then earned her PhD in aerospace engineering in 1991. This degree was from North Carolina State University. For her PhD, she created a computer model. This model helps predict how heat moves in spacecraft. It was important for understanding how spacecraft behave when they enter Earth's atmosphere.

Career at NASA

Lin Chambers began her career at NASA as an aerospace engineer. Her early work focused on how spacecraft safely enter Earth's atmosphere. This is a very important part of space travel.

In the mid-1990s, she started using her knowledge to study Earth's atmosphere. She worked on projects like Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES). This project studies how clouds affect Earth's energy budget. She also worked on the CALIPSO satellite mission. This mission uses satellites to find clouds and tiny particles in the air from space.

The S'COOL Project

In 1997, Lin Chambers started a project called Student Cloud Observation Online (S'COOL). This was a citizen science project. It encouraged young students to observe clouds in their local areas. Students would collect data about clouds. This data was then used to check measurements from the CERES satellite.

By 2016, the S'COOL project had received over 144,500 cloud observations. These observations came from students in 77 different countries. Some observations even came from ships crossing the ocean! In March 2017, the S'COOL project joined forces with the GLOBE Program.

MY NASA DATA

In 2004, Chambers helped create the MY NASA DATA project. The goal of this project was to make earth science data easy to find. It was designed for teachers, students, and amateur scientists. This way, more people could learn about and use real NASA data.

From 2016 to 2018, she was the temporary manager for the GLOBE Program. This role was at NASA Headquarters. As of 2020, Lin Chambers has written more than 150 scientific papers. These papers cover topics like aerospace engineering, atmospheric science, and science education.

Honors and Awards

Lin Chambers has received several important awards for her work:

• 1999 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
• 2009 NASA Exceptional Service Medal
• 2014 North Carolina State University Alumni Hall of Fame
• 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow for her work in science education
• 2024 American Geophysical Union Excellence in Earth and Space Science Education Award