Dr. Franco Einaudi has been named the new Director of the Earth Sciences Directorate at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

In his new position, Einaudi will be responsible for planning, organizing, and evaluating a broad program of scientific research, both theoretical and experimental, in the study of Earth sciences. The program ranges from basic research to flight experiment development, to mission operations and data analysis.

Prior to accepting this new position, Einaudi had been the Chief of the Laboratory for Atmospheres since 1990. Before that, he served as the Head of the Severe Storms Branch, now called the Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Branch.

Einaudi’s career has included two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the Physics Department of the University of Toronto and 10 years with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences of the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Einaudi spent seven and a half years at the Georgia Institute of Technology as Professor of Geophysical Sciences.

A native of Turin, Italy, Einaudi received his bachelor’s degree from the Politecnico of Turin, and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering with specialization in plasma physics and atmospheric sciences from Cornell University.

An atmospheric dynamicist, Einaudi is recognized nationally and internationally by his peers for his work on gravity waves, gravity waves/turbulence interaction, propagation of gravity waves in a moist atmosphere, and the role of gravity waves in initiating and interacting with storms.

A member of the American Geophysical Union and a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, Einaudi was elected Fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 1999. Einaudi has served on numerous committees and panels and is the Chair of the Technical Review Committee for the Center for the Study of Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Atmospheres (CSTEA) at Howard University, and a member of the Scientific Program Evaluation Committee (SPEC) of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

Einaudi and his wife, Paula, live in Columbia, Maryland. They have two sons.