[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 10, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E319]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IN HONOR OF DR. SIMON W. CHANG

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 10, 2015

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the remarkable public 
service career of Dr. Simon W. Chang, who is retiring as the 
Superintendent of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Marine 
Meteorology Division in Monterey, CA following a 32-year career with 
the Federal Government. During that time, Dr. Chang built an 
unparalleled reputation for scientific excellence and insightful 
leadership through overseeing the development of state of the art 
weather prediction systems to support U.S. military operations. Dr. 
Chang's insightful leadership was recognized in 2007 with the 
Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive, and in 2009 with his 
election as a Fellow of the American Meteorology Society.
   A native of Nanjing, China, Dr. Chang earned his Bachelor of Science 
Degree in Meteorology from the National Taiwan University. After 
immigrating to the United States he earned his Master of Science Degree 
in Atmospheric Sciences from the South Dakota School of Mines and 
Technology and his PhD in Meteorology from Pennsylvania State 
University. Dr. Chang joined NRL in 1983, and has led the Monterey 
Meteorology Division since 2003. His work has advanced the science of 
meteorology and, in particular, the study of tropical cyclones, air-sea 
interactions, numerical weather prediction, satellite data 
assimilation, and mesoscale meteorology. He authored the definitive 
mesoscale meteorological analysis for the 1991 Gulf War Illness study 
that determined the extent to which our deployed military forces could 
have been exposed to dangerous contaminants in the aftermath of 
Operation Desert Storm.
   As the NRL Monterey Division Superintendent, Dr. Chang was in charge 
of developing several key Navy global and regional scale weather 
models, tropical cyclone prediction models, highly accurate data 
assimilation systems to bring millions of observations per day into 
those models, and user-friendly tactical-scale tools to translate raw 
weather data into actionable military information. He established close 
collaborations with other regional scientific organizations; such as 
the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, the Naval 
Postgraduate School, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and 
the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System, to put the 
Monterey Bay Area at the forefront of atmospheric and oceanographic 
research. For my part, I had the great pleasure of working with Dr. 
Chang to secure funding for a new state of the art lab building for the 
Monterey Division.
   Mr. Speaker, I know that I speak for the whole House in sharing our 
gratitude to Dr. Chang for a job well done and extend our best wishes 
to Simon and his family in this next chapter of life. I know that even 
in retirement, he will still find himself involved in the community and 
helping people in need and will continue to stand as an example for 
others.

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