My 40 Years’ Career at JPL: Opportunities, Challenges, and Rewards – 中華民國時空論壇協會‧台大物理系友會

傅立倫博士

1972級

美國太空總署噴射推進實驗室(JPL)資深科學家
2017年臺大傑出校友
Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography, MIT (1980)

(本篇文章傅立倫博士已授權刊登)

It is a great honor and privilege to have this opportunity to speak to you to celebrate the heritage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Actually, this is the first time I participate in such activities. I was not particularly sensitive to my skin color or Asian cultural background until the later years of my career. I will spend some time on this topic later.

What I’d like to do today is to tell you about my personal story as an Asian immigrant: my education, personal life, with a focus on my 40+ year career at JPL. This lab is a special place with many lifers like me, spending their entire careers here. I believe , Dare mighty things is the best cause.

I grew up in Taiwan during the years of the Chiang Kai-shek regime. Freedom of speech was quite limited in those days. As an outspoken passionate youngster, I had admired the US as a land of freedom and opportunities. This admiration was heavily influenced by my father who attended the University of Michigan and obtained a PhD degree in the 1950s. Since teenage years my dream of future had been to come to America after college.

My college major was physics, but I decided to study oceanography when I applied to graduate schools in US. In 1974, I was admitted to University of Miami’s school of marine science to study physical oceanography. I spent a comfortable year in Miami, enjoying the subtropical weather similar to Taiwan, plus the diverse metropolitan atmosphere of the Miami-Dade county.

But as a trait of Chinese culture, my goal was to go to the best school possible for education. So I applied to MIT and was accepted to the program in oceanography offered jointly by MIT and WHOI, considered the best graduate program of oceanography not only in US, but the whole world.

I moved to Woods Hole, Cape Cod in the summer of 1975 to start my PhD study. It was quite a change from Miami, both physically and culturally. To be honest, I felt intimidated by the Cape Cod elitist environment as a lonely Asian student. After the fall semester started in September, I moved to Cambridge Massachusetts to start course work at MIT. I felt much more comfortable instantly, with the diverse student body and metropolitan culture. So I decided to make Cambridge my base for PhD study instead of Woods Hole. That was a great personal decision.

A great reward of this decision was meeting my wife Cecilia in the fall of 1976. We fell in love immediately and got married next spring. She was a research technician specialized in microbiology at the venerable Mass General Hospital. She also grew up in Taiwan with a similar upbring as mine. Both of our parents fled the communist reign of China in 1949.

My marriage was a singular turning point of my life. Cecilia became my life-long soulmate with heavy influence on all aspects of my life. The Cambridge years turned out to be one of my happiest periods of time.

My mentor at MIT, Prof. Carl Wunsch, only 9 years my senior, has been my role model for life. Through my career I have tried my best to emulate his style and integrity as a scientist. I often ask myself at certain critical moments: What would Carl do in a similar situation? Would he approve my approach or decision?

I successfully defended my PhD dissertation in 1979. Then I faced the first quandary in my professional life next year, when I was trying to decide where to start my career. I followed a conventional path to seek a faculty position in oceanography. Just before I was offered assistant professorship by the Florida State University at Tallahassee, an intriguing position became available at JPL. It was for conducting research on satellite radar imagery of the ocean taken by Seasat, the first satellite designed to study the ocean from space. Out of curiosity I also applied to this position. When the Florida State offer came, I discussed with Cecilia, we immediately agreed to take the offer, which was a great opportunity not easy to come by.

A few weeks later, JPL also offered me the job. I thought I did not have to think too much about it as I had already accepted the Florida State position. Besides, the JPL job was way out of the norm of a conventional career of an oceanographer. Most established oceanographers of the day dismissed any promise of a career out of analyzing dubious satellite imagery, which was considered a fad at best. The prospect of satellite oceanography was simply too risky. Neither NASA nor JPL had any long-term interests in oceanography at that point of time.

However, Cecilia was attracted by the location of Pasadena and became somewhat concerned with the life of a lonely Asian couple in the deep south of Tallahassee. Its environment was no comparison with the deeply rooted Asian community of Southern California. I was then puzzled what to do. One day after work, Cecilia told me she had consulted her colleagues at MGH, a group of hot-shot doctors from Harvard Medical School. Their consensus was to ask Cecilia to tell me that I would make the biggest mistake of my life by choosing Florida State over JPL. That message was certainly overwhelming. Then I went to ask Prof Wunsch for advice. He told me “ Lee, you would be doing well no matter which job you choose to take”. What an endorsement!

After all this encouragement, I went through soul searching with deep thought on the potential of satellite oceanography. Afterwards, I was fully convinced to renege the Florida State offer, as painful as it was, and took the JPL job.

Let me give you the perspective I had then on the promise of satellite oceanography, which was the rationale for the seemingly risky decision that changed my life.

In 1979 the British scientist James Lovelock published the book “Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth”. It included the now famous quote of Arthur C. Clarke: ‘How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean’ It just dawned on me that the massive ocean must play a crucial role in climate change, which was an emerging topic of societal concerns in the 1970s.

Let me give you the perspective I had then on the promise of satellite oceanography, which was the rationale for the seemingly risky decision that changed my life.

This slide illustrates that more than 90 % of the heat from global warming since the industrial revolution has been stored in the ocean. The ocean literally functions like a giant air-conditioner. If not for the ocean, the temperature at Earth surface would be a scorching 67 degrees C. It is therefore paramount to understand the ocean’s capacity to continue absorbing heat to protect humanity.

However, It takes global observations to assess the heat in the ocean. Traditionally ocean observations are taken by slow ships that take months to crisscross an ocean basin. But the ocean is changing constantly, the piecemeal observations simply cannot reveal the true nature of ocean circulation.

As noted earlier, Seasat was the first ocean-observing satellite. It was launched in 1978 by JPL when I was still pursuing PhD at MIT. The mission was the first endeavor of JPL on oceanography to demonstrate the concept of ocean remote sensing. Unfortunately the mission lasted for only 3 months. But the data collected were a treasure trove. The amount of data collected by Seasat in 3 months exceeded that by ships in the preceding 100 years.

In one month’s time, Seasat provided a snapshot of ocean circulation, which was fundamentally different from the notion of oceanographers based on the scanty data of the past. The figure on the left shows the patterns of the variability of sea surface height from one month’s data of Seasat radar altimeter. The reddish color shows where the sea surface is most variable, revealing the fast-changing currents of the global oceans.

Before I came to JPL, the potential of satellite oceanography had been realized by a handful of visionaries including Prof Wunsch, my thesis advisor. A mission to follow Seasat was conceived then, called Topex, or topography experiment to determine ocean circulation from the shape of the topography of sea surface measured by the radar altimeter onboard Seasat. Part of the reasons for me to take the JPL job was to pursue the concept of Topex.

In 1983, Topex was joined by the French space agency’s proposal of Poseidon. A joint mission development was started for the Topex/Poseidon mission. By that time, I had focused my research on Seasat altimeter data to prepare for this next mission. After a few years I emerged as a leading young scientist with fresh ideas on Topex/Poseidon, as well as on the future direction of the nascent oceanography group. As the leadership of the oceanography group was at a crossroad, I became the group supervisor in 1986.

Under the leadership of Professor Wunsch who was the chair of the T/P science steering group, the mission reached its new start status in 1987, beating a number of other space science missions advocated by the old hands in space business. The new start of T/P, like a new kid on the block, was considered an impressive feat. Through a competitive process, I became a PI on the new T/P science team. In the meantime, This mission needed a chief scientist, or Project Scientist in NASA/JPL nomenclature. I naturally became a leading candidate and got the job in 1988, becoming perhaps the youngest Project Scientist of a flagship mission of NASA/JPL at the time.

T/P was launched in 1992. I delivered a talk in the first World Space Congress in Washington DC that year, introducing this landmark mission to the space science community. It marked the beginning of the modern record of global ocean circulation and sea level change.

A major impact of T/P was its continuous monitoring of the global oceans, tracking the surface circulation and its effects on weather and climate. For example, it showed the development of the historically largest El Nino event in 1997-98, making El Nino a household term, demonstrating the benefits of space observations to society.

The mission also discovered the turbulent nature of ocean circulation as shown by the image on the right. A close-up of the image reveals the energetic eddies, or swirls of ocean currents, which are the storms of ocean circulation. This image of ocean circulation is in sharp contrast to the traditional notion of a sluggish laminar flow around ocean basins.

The success of T/P made us realize the need of making continuous long-term observations of the global ocean using the new technology. After the initial promise of the mission’s performance, I brought the results to show to NASA and NOAA leadership, leading to the concept of a series of follow-on missions.

While T/P continued its operation through the 1990s, its follow-on mission, called Jason, was being developed by NASA and the French Space Agency. Jason-1 was launched in 2001. It managed to overlap with T/P for a number of years to ensure seamless transition from one satellite to the next to maintain a long record of global sea level change.

This slide shows the global sea level rise and acceleration over the past 3 decades. This is an unequivocal evidence of the warming of the planet, melting the ice sheets and glaciers, as well as expanding the volume of the ocean from thermal expansion. The T/P Jason series is being continued as a cornerstone of the modern global ocean observing system. Maintained by the international space community, It serves a benchmark for a half dozen other radar altimetry missions, forming a constellation of satellites keeping an eye of the global oceans.

As noted earlier, most of the heat from global warming has been absorbed by the ocean. It is important to assess the capacity of the ocean to continue taking up the heat from sunlight and transferring it to the cold deep ocean. Furthermore, a quarter of the CO2 emitted to the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean and transferred to the deep ocean, where the carbon is stored there for a long time.

This vertical transfer of heat and carbon takes place over sharp fronts of ocean currents. These fronts, on the scale of a few tens of km, are not resolvable by the conventional radar technology. Based on the technique of radar interferometry, a new mission has been developed over the past decade, called SWOT. This mission is again a collaborative effort of NASA with our long-term partner in radar altimetry, the French space agency, with contributions also from the Canadian and UK space agencies. So It is truly an international enterprise.

This slide shows the progression of the resolution of ocean surface topography, from Seasat, through the Jason series, leading to SWOT. The transformation of a blurred image to a high-definition view of ocean eddies and fronts is the new thrust.

Compared with Jason whose dimension is 2x 4 x 10 m, SWOT is a gigantic structure of 5 x10 x 16 m in orbit for performing radar interferometry.

The high resolution of SWOT will also make it possible to monitor storm surges near the coast and ocean pollution in the open ocean.

The rising sea level made the storm surge of hurricane Sandy encroach into well populated areas of New York City. The last 7% of the storm surge caused 20% of the property damage.

Pollution of debris and oil spills in the ocean has become an environmental crisis. SWOT will provide new capability to monitor ocean pollution.

Another important capability of SWOT is measurement of the elevation of water bodies on land. Optical imagery from space shows only the two-dimensional extent of water bodies, but SWOT will reveal the third dimension of water, its elevation, and hence the volume of water.

A critically important impact of climate change is on earth’s water cycle, affecting our freshwater supplies, as well as the hazards of floods and draughts. SWOT will provide information on water storage of lakes and stream flow of rivers. Such information will go a long way to help water managers plan water usage and predict floods and draughts.

Conventional altimetry can only observe large lakes like the Great Bear Lake in Canada and the Great Lakes of the US. The smallest lakes observable are of the size of Lake Tahoe, for instance. SWOT will be able to observe lakes larger than 250 x 250 m. There are nearly 2 million such lakes, most of which are not observable from space now. SWOT will extend the areal coverage of global lakes from current 15% to 70%.

This figure shows the global river systems that will be covered by SWOT. It will extend the coverage of large river basins from current 15 % to 85 %. The river discharge, or stream flow, will provide information on water budget of river basins that affect water supply management and prediction of floods and droughts.

The payload module of SWOT has been integrated and tested. It is ready for shipment to France to mate with the satellite next month. After the integration and test of the observatory is completed in the summer of next year, It will be shipped back to US for launch at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in November 2022.

Now with SWOT ahead of me, In retrospect, I consider myself extremely lucky to have a career that allows me to focus on a coherent theme of radar altimetry missions over 4 decades, delivering useful information to benefit society. I have no complaint but only gratitude to this country and JPL for the opportunities given to an aspiring immigrant.

As noted earlier, I came to this country to search for a land of freedom and opportunities. However, I was not naïve about the challenges I would face as an Asian in a white-dominated country. But I was particularly inspired by the civil right movement of the 1960s, especially the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King of a nation where one is not judged by the color of skin but the content of character. This notion of colorblind meritocracy has been the driving engine to propel me through my career.

In my early career, the motto of Dr. King served me well. My talent, skill, and effort was duly recognized and rewarded. Was this because I was lucky, being at the right place and the right time, all the time? Luck was surely a big factor. We all want to be lucky than smart. Don’t’ we? But I must give credit to the wisdom and resolve of the Lab’s top leadership, cultivating a culture of meritocracy that outweighed racial bias and prejudice, which inevitably exists in every corner of society. JPL is no exception.

I was content and vindicated of my belief in a fair and just environment of the lab, until an incident hit home hard during my mid- career, when Topex/Poseidon reached the end of its operation in 2006, after 13 years of glorious service. To commemorate the end of this celebrated mission, the Lab organized a press conference. The story of this event was shared in a listening session on DEI a few months ago. I apologize to those who have already heard about it. But the weight of this incident is so heavy that I feel it’s important to share with you in the context of today’s talk.

When the assignment of speaking engagement for the press conference was put together by the Media Relations, To my dismay and anguish, as the chief scientist of the mission from beginning to end, I was asked by the Media Relation Manager to speak only to the Chinese language media, whereas a white male who had no authority in the project, to speak to the mainstream media. I immediately launched a vigorous protest against this apparent racial bias.

To my further astonishment, the manager pushed back and criticized my English, even though I had spoken about the mission to numerous media outlets, both national and international, over more than a decade. Although my English was not as fluent as a native speaker, but I believe it had been more than functional.

I then escalated the protest to the lab’s top management. In the mean time I also filed a grievance on the manager to HR. The lab’s top management sensed the seriousness of the situation and restored my authority in the press conference to all media representatives. However, HR was still defending the manager, stating that her intent was for the good of the lab and NASA, and continued challenging my English ability.

Finally, while my case of grievance was not yet over, the lab launched its first ever training on diversity and inclusion, which was mandatory lab-wide for all employees. But it lasted for only a few years. It was discontinued without any explanations.

Now, many years later, let me editorialize my personal view of this incident and its underlying issues. A perennial problem with the management of the Lab, as well as many other organizations, is its tendency of being reactive as opposed to proactive on such issues. The problem of diversity and inclusion of course did not go way after a few years, but the lab chose an easy way out to stop the training, because it was no longer considered a priority. If the training had continued, the lab might not have the dismal record of diversity and inclusion today. Now facing the tsunami of outcry on social injustice, the lab is in reactive mode again by launching training on diversity, equity and inclusion, even with the search for a DEI Manager. So this time, the effort might have a chance to last for more than a few years, I hope.

My story reflects an inherent racial bias and stereotype underlying society, even though the top management has been trying hard to fend it off. My career has been thriving with the momentum of colorblind meritocracy emphasized by Dr. King’s philosophy and doctrine. Many Asian Americans have had a career like mine benefiting from its values. The incident I had with the media office and HR, as devastating as it was at the time, was basically a temporary setback that was fixed. But I personally feel that we Asian Americans are now facing a new fundamental challenge, breaking away from what I have experienced in the past.

I have sensed a significant change in today’s landscape of racial tension. Colorblind meritocracy is actually under attack. Even Dr. King may be canceled one day if not already. For example, racially biased admission policies are reigning in schools ranging from Harvard University to Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson high school of science and technology, with a target on the meritorious Asian applicants to limit their populations on campus.

Overachievers are being viewed today as diminishers if not oppressors. For Asian Americans to be accepted by society and thrive today, just focusing on personal achievements is not enough. We should also pay attention to the shifting social trends and make the best out of it. We should try to balance personal achievements with other elements of societal appeals, not so much on the ground of being pragmatic, but on the ground of being a better human being. So let me now finish the talk by saying: Let’s take the high road to move forward. This is the final message I like to leave you today.

Thank you very much for listening to my story. Have a good day.