Dr. Charles F. Kennel
Chairman, Space Studies Board
National Academies
Charles F. Kennel was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was educated in astronomy and astrophysics at Harvard and Princeton. He then joined the UCLA Department of Physics, developed a research career in space plasma physics and astrophysics, and chaired the department for three years. From 1994 to 1996, he was Associate Administrator at NASA for Mission to Planet Earth, the world's largest Earth science program. He was the UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor, its chief academic officer, from 1996-1998. His experiences at NASA convinced him to return to Earth and environmental science in 1998.
Kennel was the ninth Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Vice Chancellor of Marine Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, from 1997 to 2006. Dr. Kennel was the founding director of the UCSD Environment and Sustainability Initiative, embracing teaching, research, campus operations, and public outreach.
A member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, Kennel has chaired the NRC Committee on Solar and Space Physics, the NRC Board on Physics and Astronomy, The NRC Committee on Global Change Research, the NRC Fusion Sciences Assessment Committee, and he co-chaired the recent NRC Beyond Einstein Program Assessment Committee. He was a member of the Pew Oceans Commission from 2000-2003, the NASA Advisory Council from 1998 to 2006, and its chair from 2001-2005. He is presently chair of the California Council on Science and Technology, and the NRC Space Studies Board. He has had visiting appointments to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste), Ecole Polytechnique (Paris), Caltech (Pasadena), Princeton, Space Research Institute (Moscow), and the University of Cambridge. He is a recipient of the James Clerk Maxwell Prize (American Physical Society), the Hannes Alfven Prize (European Geophysical Society), the Aurelio Peccei Prize (Accademia Lincei), and the NASA Distinguished Service and Distinguished Public Service Awards.
