Jack Kaye currently serves as associate director for research of the Earth Science Division (ESD) within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). He has been a member of the Senior Executive Service since August, 1999, managing NASA’s Earth Science Research Program. As associate director for research, Kaye is responsible for the research and data analysis programs for Earth System Science, covering the broad spectrum of scientific disciplines that constitute it.

Earlier positions in his more than 38-year career at NASA include being a space scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center and manager of the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program at NASA Headquarters. In addition, Kaye has held temporary acting positions as deputy director of ESD and deputy chief scientist for Earth Science within SMD.

Kaye’s academic training is in chemistry (B.S. Adelphi University, 1976; Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 1982). He also held a post-doctoral research associateship at the US Naval Research Laboratory.

Kaye represents NASA in many interagency and international activities and has been an active participant in the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), in which he has served for many years as NASA principal of the Subcommittee on Global Change Research (from January 2009 through May, 2010 he served as the acting chair for these activities).  He also serves as NASA’s representative to the Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology, as well as vice chair of the Expert Team on Satellite Systems and Utilization for the World Meteorological Organization. Kaye was named an honorary member of the Asia Oceania Geoscience Society in 2015. He previously completed a 6-year term as a member of the Steering Committee for the Global Climate Observing System and currently serves an ex officio member of the National Research Council’s Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability and the Chemical Sciences Roundtable, as well as a member of the Roundtable on Global Science Diplomacy.

He has received numerous NASA awards – most recently, the Distinguished Service Medal in 2022 – and he was recognized as a Meritorious Executive in the Senior Executive Service in 2004, 2010, and 2021. He was named as a Fellow by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in 2010 and by the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2014. Kaye was elected to serve as an office of the Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Science section of the AAAS (2015-2018) and co-secretary of the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) for 1998-2000 and earlier served on the AGU Publications Committee. AGU has recognized him on two occasions with a Citation for Excellence in Refereeing.

Kaye has published more than 50 refereed papers, contributed to numerous reports, books, and encyclopedias, and edited the book Isotope Effects in Gas-Phase Chemistry for the American Chemical Society. In addition, he has attended the Leadership for Democratic Society program at the Federal Executive Institute and the Harvard Senior Managers in Government Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.