José Alonso. Photo by Tony Acevedo.
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NAIC/AO Newsletter, March 1997
It is sad to have to report that John Cho will leave the Atmospheric Sciences group at Arecibo. After almost four years of employment, he departs at the end of March to take up a research position with the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at MIT. John leaves to have a more extended opportunity to pursue his primary research interest in the structure and dynamics of the stratosphere and troposphere. Unfortunately, several external factors prevented this from developing at Arecibo to the fullest extent that John would have liked. At this point he felt it was important to seize a new opportunity to further his career.
During his short tenure with us, John was able to develop a fairly vigorous program of research of the lower atmosphere. When our own radar systems were unavailable, he made good use of other facilities, like the 2320-MHz Goldstone planetary radar, where he developed new data acquisition techniques to measure the characteristics of waves and layers of turbulence in the stratosphere. He also initiated an observational program at the Indian National MST Radar in Gadanki (southern India), and worked with scientists at the Institut für Atmosphärenphysik in Kühlungsborn, Germany, who operate the ALOMAR observatory in Norway. At home, John was also involved in the planning and realization of our 430-MHz Spatial-Domain Interferometer, a receiver capable of measuring the three-dimensional structure of the neutral winds in the troposphere. He collaborated with other groups involved in the Space Shuttle LITE (Lidar In-space Technology Experiment) mission and with the Tropical Atmospheric Sciences Center recently developed by the University of Puerto Rico through NASA EPSCoR support.
John's scientific work was extremely well received by the cognizant atmospheric community. During the last few years, he was honored with two awards, the 1993 CEDAR Prize for his research contributions to the Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions, an NSF sponsored program. The second prize was a 1996 URSI Young Scientist Award, only one of roughly 20 awarded to scientists throughout the world each year.
During his short stay in Puerto Rico, John managed to find time to learn to fly and to scuba-dive, becoming certified in each. He wrote popular columns on music and travel for an island-wide newspaper and for several magazines. Plus, John's work as co-editor of this Newsletter enhanced its quality tremendously, and he will be difficult to replace. For those less fortunate who have not yet experienced his off-hour writings, you should sample some of John's many Web sites accessible via his home page at http://www.naic.edu/~jcho, and treat yourself to some unique, sometimes bizarre script before they disappear from these locations (although they are likely to reappear wherever John himself turns up).
Although we would rather have him stay, all of us at Arecibo do wish John great success in the pursuit of his research activities and in his life's journeys. We trust we will see him again as a visiting investigator and hope that he remains a pivotal ally and a critical advocate for the need for Arecibo to continue to commit its resources to research of the lower atmosphere.
José Alonso. Photo by Tony Acevedo.
Dr. José L. Alonso joined our staff as Head of the AOVEF and Educational Officer. After graduating from UPR-Rio Piedras (physics) Josè obtained his PhD in astrophysics from the University of Massachusetts in 1989. He returned to Puerto Rico to take a faculty position at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, where he devoted quite a fraction of his effort to the education of science teachers in Puerto Rico.
Miguel Irizarry. Photo by Tony Acevedo.
Miguel A. Irizarry is the new AOVEF Store Manager. Having previously worked as store manager for a large corporation in San Juan, he expresses satisfaction at being able to lead our new store and working in his home town of Arecibo.
Greg Garcí. Photo by Tony Acevedo.
Gregorio García joins the AOVEF as Assistant Store Manager. Gregorio is an amateur astronomer and is currently the president of the Puerto Rican Astronomical Society. In addition to his normal duties he will be able to advise store customers on purchases of binoculars and small telescopes.
Carlos Díaz. Photo by Tony Acevedo.
Carlos Díaz worked as a security guard at a local school, and brings his experience handling students to the AOVEF where he will be in charge of security and maintenance.
In addition eight science students from the Arecibo campus of the University of Puerto Rico will work during weekends and holidays to help when we expect a large number of visitors.
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