John Murray Associate Program Manager, NASA Earth Science Disasters Program NASA Langley Research Center

John Murray joined NASA in November 2000. He currently serves as the NASA Disaster Program’s associate program manager, and the program’s lead response and risk reduction coordinator at NASA’s Langley Research Center. He recently also served as the deputy program applications lead of the NASA Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission, which was completed in December 2018.

Mr. Murray’s research has focused on natural disasters, aviation weather, coastal inundation, and the volcanic ash threat to aviation. He initiated and has overseen the Disasters Program’s research on coastal inundation and recurrent flooding due to sea level rise and land subsidence in the lower Chesapeake Bay region.

Mr. Murray previously served as the senior atmospheric scientist for the NASA Aviation Safety Program, Atmospheric Environment Safety Technologies Project. From 2002 through 2011, he worked as deputy program manager for the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Applied Science Program weather applications research, and was lead scientist for weather applications until 2011 as project manager for the NASA Advanced Satellite Aviation-weather Products Project. He was concurrently the NASA Aviation Safety Program’s project meteorologist in support of atmospheric basic-state measurement, and in-flight icing and aviation turbulence sensor development and validation efforts for its Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Detection and Reporting (TAMDAR) Project.

Mr. Murray served as a NASA principal investigator for the 2003 Atlantic THORPEX Regional Campaign (ATReC) and the 2004 Pacific THORPEX Observing System Test (P-TOST). THORPEX — The Observing system Research and Predictability Experiment — was an international research program established by the World Meteorological Organization to accelerate improvements in the utility and accuracy of high impact weather forecasts up to two weeks in advance.

John has been awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the NASA Langley Research Center’s Paul F. Holloway Award for Technology Transfer, and three separate group achievement awards.

Mr. Murray received a B.S. in Oceanography from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1979 and an M.S. in Meteorology and Oceanography from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1987. He was commissioned a meteorology and oceanography officer in the U.S. Navy in May 1980, and served in a wide variety of senior technical and supervisory positions including as a certified weather forecaster. Mr. Murray’s last assignment before retirement from active duty was as director of meteorology and oceanography for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Submarine Force.