Dr. Garik Gutman

Dr. Garik Gutman is Program Manager for the NASA Land-Cover/Land-Use Change (LCLUC) Program. He received his Ph.D. in Climate Modeling in 1984, was a National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences Fellow at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and then worked there 14 years as a research scientist. His research focused on remote sensing of the Earth's land surface and atmosphere from space. In 1996, for developing an original technique using satellite data for reliable analyses of the Earth’s vegetation cover and its long-term variations Dr. Gutman received the U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award.

He joined NASA in 1999 as the LCLUC Program Manager at NASA Headquarters and has been leading this program as well as Landsat-related activities at NASA.

He is author of about 80 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and of several chapters in various climate and land-cover related scientific books. Dr. Gutman was the Chief Editor of a compiled book “Land Change Science” published in 2004 based on the results of the projects supported by the NASA LCLUC Program during the first 8 years of the program. He has been a lead or co-editor on several books on LCLUC-climate interactions: in the Eurasian Arctic, in Siberia, in East Asia drylands, and in Eastern Europe.

Dr. Gutman’s current research interests include the use of remote sensing for detecting changes in land cover and land use, and analyzing the impacts of these changes on climate, environment and society. His NASA research program helps to develop the underpinning science and promotes scientific international cooperation through supporting the development of regional science networks over the globe under the GOFC-GOLD international program. Dr. Gutman has been playing a key role in building two multi-agency, international programs: 1) Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), and 2) Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Initiative (MAIRS), both under the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). Dr. Gutman represents NASA in CEOS Working Groups and in the CEOS Land Surface Imaging Constellation team. He is Program Scientist for Landsat, EO-1 and Terra satellites. Dr. Gutman chaired the US Global Change Research Program Land-Use/Land-Cover Change Working Group for two years. He collaborates with USGS on Landsat-related activities and co-leads the NASA-USGS Global Land Survey initiative. He has wife and two daughters. His hobbies include guitar, fencing, tennis, and learning languages.