HIPPO Project Coordinators

• Pavel Romashkin, Project Manager - Aircraft Operations Support, NCAR RAF
• Henry Boynton, Chief Pilot, NCAR RAF
• Ed Ringleman, Pilot, NCAR RAF
• Al Cooper, HIAPER Chief Scientist, NCAR RAF
• Brent Kidd, GV Chief of Maintenance, NCAR RAF
• Robert Beasley, GV Mechanic, NCAR RAF
• Mark Lord, Structural DER, Aeronautical Engineer, NCAR RAF
• Kurt Zrubek, Electrical Systems DER, Head of Instrumentation Group, NCAR RAF
• John Cowan, Senior Technician, NCAR RAF
• Greg Bruning, Technician, NCAR RAF
• Bill Irwin, Technician, Inlet Specialist, NCAR RAF
• Tom Baltzer, RAF Software Engineer
• Vidal Salazar, Project Manager - Ground-based Field Support, NCAR FPS
• Greg Stossmeister, Field Catalog Support, EOL CDS
• Chris Webster, Software Engineering Group Head, NCAR CDS
• Brigitte Baeuerle, Global Operations, FPS
• Jose Meitín, Associate Scientist, FPS
• Shelly Zucker, Administrative Assistant, FPS
• Alison Rockwell, HIPPO Media & Outreach Coordinator

Pavel Romashkin, Project Manager - Aircraft Operations Support, NCAR RAF

Originally from Russia, Pavel graduated with a M.S. degree from Novosibirsk State University and came to the United States for graduate studies. Living in working in South Carolina, he completed his Ph.D. in geology in 1997 and went to work for NOAA in Boulder, CO. During the next seven years he participated in a number of research projects with NASA, addressing issues related to ozone destruction and recovery, ozone processes in the Arctic and global environmental observations. The latter involved two 4,000 mile, 14-day trips on an instrumented railroad car along the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Pavel joined NCAR in 2004 as a project manager to help the Research Aviation Facility advance the new research platform that just was coming online, the Gulfstream-V aircraft (aka HIAPER). In the next years he led field projects that studied hurricane Katrina, pollutants transport from Asia across the Pacific and the first truly global airborne experiment, HIPPO. With two other project managers of RAF Pavel participated in multiple other field projects from Canada to the Carribean.

Becoming a geologist was Pavel's dream since the school years because of his early experience of working in the Soviet Union Geologic Survey. Living in the tents in the endless, untouched woods of Siberia all summer long, mosquito bitten and cold sometimes, and overjoyed by sunsets and amazing scenery on others, he decided he wanted to make this lifestyle his carreer. However, by the time he finished his studies in geology, the collapse of the Soviet Union and dismissal of the State Geological Services in the USSR caused him to start looking for a similar job in the U.S. The challenge of field deployment of atmospheric research instrumentation was irresistable, and following on to NCAR as a field project manager was just a logical conclusion.

Traveling to remote field sites is both rewarding and demanding. There is no place that we deployed to that would be like the United States in either the creature comforts or the operating conditions. From becoming friends with local fuelers and tower operators, to understanding the unique demands of complicated scientific instruments, to working with people from different countries and cultures, to being involved in troubleshooting aircraft problems, to working with the Air Force on military airlifts - everything has a place in the life of a project manager in research aviation. And enjoying a beautiful sunset in Tahiti or Easter Island with a Mai Tai in hand after a long work day only adds the last drop of perfection to the satisfying feeling of a job well done.

Henry Boynton, Chief Pilot, NCAR RAF

Henry Boynton can tell you what the atmosphere looks like at 51,000 feet above Earth's surface, a good 15,000 feet higher than most commercial airplanes venture. "The biggest thing you notice is that the sky is a lot bluer," he observes.

Cruising to that altitude is just part of a day's work for Henry, NCAR's chief pilot. He and the three other pilots on his team—Lowell Genzlinger, Robert Maxson, and Ed Ringleman—fly NCAR/EOL research aircraft: HIAPER, a modified Gulfstream V jet designed to fly at the cutting-edge of scientific research; and the C-130, a four-engine turboprop built for military transport and adapted for a variety of research missions. Both planes are owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by NCAR.

Ed Ringleman, Pilot, NCAR RAF

Bio coming soon!

Brent Kidd, GV Chief of Maintenance, NCAR RAF

Bio & picture coming soon!

Al Cooper, HIAPER Chief Scientist, NCAR RAF

Bio & picture coming soon!

Robert Beasley, GV Mechanic, NCAR RAF

Bio & picture coming soon!

Mark Lord, Structural DER, Aeronautical Engineer, NCAR RAF

Bio & picture coming soon!

Kurt Zrubek, Electrical Systems DER, Head of Instrumentation Group, NCAR RAF

Kurt is an engineer at RAF where he is one of two FAA Designated Engineering Representatives (DER) at RAF. One of his responsibilities is to oversee the equipment upload and that the project equipment installed on the G-V for HIPPO meet the required Federal Aviation Regulations. He works hand-n-hand with the FAA. He'll also man the RAF data system for the flights down to Christchurch, ensuring instrumentation and data quality, as well as assisting the scientific crew on the flights with technical issue.

John Cowan, Senior Technician, NCAR RAF

John is a Technician at NCAR's Research Aviation Facility (RAF). He works on installing and maintaining the scientific payload on the aircraft. He also will fly the first North Pole mission with the G-V and support the plane while it is in Anchorage. You can watch John on YouTube explain how himmels (the air intake devices) on the aircraft funtion and is how the atmospheric sampling begins.

Greg Bruning, Technician, NCAR RAF

Bio coming soon!

Bill Irwin, Technician, Inlet Specialist, NCAR RAF

Bio & picture coming soon!

Tom Baltzer, RAF Software Engineer

Tom Baltzer is a Software Engineer with NCAR's EOL working at the Research Aviation Facility. Having been with RAF just over a year, he's still adjusting to the jet setting pace, dizzying heights and occasional turbulence offered by the experience.  Tom was responsible for the software side of the HIPPO-1 and HIPPO-2 data system uploads and in field support. Working in close partnership with  RAF technicians, other EOL Software Engineers and RAF staff, he makes sure that all data signals are being correctly received, stored and processed for use by the science team. He also assures that the science team has all the software tools that they need to get their work done.

Tom keeps his wings under him by leveraging his experience working in remote sensing and scientific application software development as a contractor for JPL, the Alaska SAR facility, Byrd Polar Research Center, NOAA and the US Army Corp of Engineers as well as recent experience working for UCAR's Unidata Program Center.

Vidal Salazar, Project Manager - Ground-based Field Support, NCAR FPS

Bio coming soon!

Greg Stossmeister, Field Catalog Support, EOL CDS

Bio & picture coming soon!

Chris Webster, Software Engineering Group Head, NCAR CDS

Chris is a Software Engineer for The Research Aviation Facility at NCAR. His primary duties are writing data acquisition, data processing and analysis software. Author of the nimbus processor for the aircraft data, ncplot, ncpp and xpms2d for data display and analysis, and of cour field support.

Brigitte Baeuerle, Global Operations, FPS

Bio coming soon!

Jose Meitín, Associate Scientist, FPS

Jose is one of the field project coordinators at EOL- During Phase II of HIPPO, he will be returning to Alaska to provide ground support at the Anchorage resupply station. He will handle security arrangements to access the FAA hangar,  will arrange for a supply of cryogenics to be available for the instrumentation and he'll  assist the onboard science crew with shipping their samples from the first leg and the North Pole flight back to their home institution. When the G-V heads southward, he will return to Colorado to assist the Global Operations team with the daily weather briefings, flight planning and overall coordination. Learn more about his work at EOL at http://www.eol.ucar.edu/~meitin/.

Shelly Zucker, Administrative Assistant, FPS

Bio & picture coming soon!

Alison Rockwell, HIPPO Media & Outreach Coordinator

Alison recently joined the HIPPO team and is excited to be a liaison between the incredible science that FPS supports and the greater community. She's the energy behind the website, the Facebook page and the global outreach events - with more to come! When she's not in the office, you can usually find her on the trails either running or mountain biking. Alison lives in Boulder, CO with her husband and a menagerie of pets.