By Edd K. Usman
Dr. Josefino “Joey” C. Comiso, a Filipino emeritus scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US, is coming to Manila to deliver a lecturer on climate change.
Comiso, who has been a prominent researcher at NASA for around 40 years, is with the space agency?s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Comiso’s lecture follows the withdrawal of the US on June 1 from the historic Paris Agreement on climate change ratified by 148 countries, including the Philippines. His lecture, though, was scheduled months earlier.
He is slated to speak at the 17th Conference of the Science Council of Asia (SCA) organized by the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), which is under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on June 14-16 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.
To date, the NRCP said around 400 participants from the Philippines and other SCA member-countries have registered for the conference. “The conference affirms the role of science, technology and innovation (STI) in the attainment of inclusive development for Asia,” the NRCP said.
Comiso’s paper is titled “Climate Change: Impacts, Resilience and Adaptation Strategies.” The Philippines is hosting the international conference for the second time.
Comiso started working in NASA’s Earth Sciences Division in 1977. Before his four decades of stint at NASA, Comiso had a post-doctoral position at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and worked as a senior consultant for Computer Sciences Corporation.
At NASA, he rose to become a senior research scientist. His numerous studies won him accolades. Among his awards are the NASA Group Achievement Awards in 1982 and 2003, and the NASA Exceptional Scientific Medal in 2013.
He also authored or co-authored five books, 20 book chapters and over 130 refereed journal articles and is a coordinating lead author of the IPCC/WG1 AR5 (2014) report on “Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis.”
The NRCP said Comiso had recently retired from NASA as senior research scientist, but he still works as NASA emeritus scientist.
Comiso took his Bachelor of Science in Physics UP Diliman in 1962. He then went to the US where he completed a Masters Degree in Physics in 1966 at the Florida State University. He proceeded to finish a Doctorate Degree in Physics in 1972 at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).