Interview with David Tobin

Partial Transcript: Alright, today is March 15, 2018

Partial Transcript: First question is, what brought you here to UW-Madison?

Segment Synopsis: He got involved with researchers at the Space, Science, and Engineering center when he was in graduate school at the University of Maryland. He was doing research related to satellite remote sensing. His thesis adviser had relationships with people at UW-Madison and when he got his PhD in 1996, he looked around for jobs. Bill Smith at UW-Madison called him up and asked him to come to Madison. He started in September

Keywords: 1996; Madison; PhD; Post-Doc; September; Space, Science and Engineering Center; UW-Madison; thesis

Partial Transcript: When you say that you were involved with the UW-Madison group...

Segment Synopsis: Tobin remembers the time before cell phones and Twitter. He emailed a few people here and was involved in a field campaign with the University of Wisconsin and University of Maryland. He met members of the UW-Madison group out in the field for this campaign. Wisconsin at the time had the hardware experience and best capabilities. He was impressed with their experience.

Keywords: NASA; UW-Madison; campaign; experience; field; impressed; interaction; satellite; team; work

Partial Transcript: So to back up a little bit, what factors

Segment Synopsis: His dad was an electrical engineer for the Navy and that took him to Annapolis. He grew up trying to understand what his dad did and the science always fascinated him. He followed in his father's footsteps. He started in a pre-engineering field in college because he thought he wanted to be a mechanical engineer. He really enjoyed Physics and ended up being a physics major. He didn't know what to do after graduation. There weren't a lot of jobs he could get that interested him. He worked as a research assistant and got into the field that he is in today.

Keywords: Physics; assistant; engineering; experience; field; graduation; interest; job; major; research

Partial Transcript: You've talked a little bit about what you do. I have a history background...

Segment Synopsis: Tobin tries to explain it in simple terms. There is the what and the how. They have to understand what is happening in the Earth's atmosphere for weather applications and for climate. One of the most efficient ways to monitor the Earth is from a satellite, because it gives you routine observations of the entire planet all the time. It comes to the question of what instruments do you put on the satellite, and that determines what types of information you get back. They basically have cameras on these satellites that orbit around the earth the whole time and give you nice images. But the majority of the readings they get are in wavelength monitors.

Keywords: Infared; atmosphere; camera; forecast; model; orbit; pictures; temperature; wavelength; weather

Partial Transcript: Not that there is probably anything such as a typical day

Segment Synopsis: DT enjoys it because he is always doing different things. It is always different and is always a challenge. DT enjoys the variety in his work days. The typical day is get up, either ride his bike or take bus into work, go through emails as quickly as possible, he has three or four different projects he is working on at any given time. Each project has an outline and schedule associated with it and he wants to keep making progress on all of them. He's usually driven by the next team meeting or conference or paper he is trying to write.

Keywords: conference; daily; funded projects; meeting; presentations; proposal; results; tasks; work

Partial Transcript: A lot of what I do, recently, has to do with the launch of several new satellites

Segment Synopsis: The JPS 1 was launched in late November 2017. It is the second of its kind. It is kind of like a new, state of the art satellite. The group at UW-Madison plays a big role in its collaboration and making sure it is collecting the correct data. They have been looking at the data that comes down and doing in-depth assessments of the quality of the data.

Keywords: November 2017; data analysis; data collection; expensive; focus; new satellite; recent; state of the art

Partial Transcript: I asked a little bit, in some of the questions I've asked indirectly, about technology

Segment Synopsis: What he does on a daily basis has changed drastically. Computers especially have advanced leaps and bounds and it continues to do so. They had an instrument that was in the concept stage in the late 1990s and at that time, it was thought to collect so much data that nobody was going to be able to use it. The instrument didn't fly until ten years later. By that time you could take all the information from that data and process it on your laptop. The data analysis and forecasting is constantly getting smaller grid cells. And that is one of the fields that pushes computer processing forward.

Keywords: computing; data analysis; forecasting; instruments; laptop; technical; technological advancement; technology; weather

Partial Transcript: And then on the satellite side, it's, the technology that's available keeps advancing

Segment Synopsis: The technology that is available keeps advancing at a very high rate. If they built a new instrument now, it would be leaps and bounds beyond what you could do 10 years ago. They deal with NASA and NOAA and they don't like to change things that quickly. They are trying change advancements. Other countries have completely different approaches. China is advancing by just making changes and doing it; they launch a new satellite every two years.

Keywords: China; NASA; NOAA; advances; government; new; problems; quickly; resistant; slow; technology

Partial Transcript: Thank you for that. So about halfway through here.

Segment Synopsis: Academic staff governance and groups. Tobin was a member of the academic staff assembly representing his district for three years. He basically did it because he was interested in the process and to make sure their district was represented. Recently, he has been a member of the Ad Hoc Research Group because it is important. Good research that is done by academic staff that isn't recognized at the highest level. And the idea of a research professor.

Keywords: academic staff; governance; groups; ordinance; professor; recognition; representation; research

Partial Transcript: So, I think you have sort of answered this but I want to ask it directly.

Segment Synopsis: What DT saw was that there was a big, slow-moving, governance group. Not a lot happened in general. He isn't sure he really offered a whole lot, to be honest. He saw at the Space, Science and Engineering Center was that it was almost entirely academic staff at the edge of campus. There was no concern that academic staff weren't represented well. He was more of an observer. He served a more active role in the more recent group.

Keywords: Space, Science and Engineering; academic; academic staff; governance; represented; staff; unique

Partial Transcript: I think you've started to allude to this in your answer but I want to ask directly

Segment Synopsis: DT really hasn't thought about it much until the last couple of years. His program is unique because it is mostly academic staff. There are a handful of faculty that will run their grants through his program, but he didn't give it much thought. There are differences between faculty and staff.

Keywords: faculty; funding; handful; program; relationships; staff; together; unique; versus

Partial Transcript: Thank you. So now I want to ask about a specific point in time

Segment Synopsis: DT remembers it very clearly. He was getting ready for work and looked at the TV. He couldn't believe his eyes. He was in shock and the following week, they were holding a big workshop at UW-Madison where there were 30 people coming from around the world. When he got to work, it took them an hour to realize that there was no way people were going to be able to fly in.

Keywords: 9/11; aftermath; canceled workshop; conference; horrific; shock; specifics

Partial Transcript: So now I want to, sort of the final question before we get to a legacy question, is the story behind the academic staff award.

Segment Synopsis: DT was nominated by his mentor and by the current director. They walked into his office and told him he was nominated. He was blown away when he heard he won. He knows how much research goes on on this campus. He considers himself to be fairly young. There was a reception at the Pyle Center and it was very enjoyable.

Keywords: award ceremony; blown away; campus; incredible; nomination; winners; won; young

Partial Transcript: Something that dawned on me earlier and then you just mentioned that you have a wife and kid

Segment Synopsis: DT has two children, one of whom is a daughter in college. Life outside of the job is tough. It's tough to find that balance, but he tries to keep that time. Connectivity helps this.

Keywords: balance; cell phone; connectivity; family; kids; technology; tough

Partial Transcript: So, my final question before I then ask you if you have anything else to add is a legacy question.

Segment Synopsis: DT hopes people remember him as a nice, considerate person. The work stuff is good and interesting but what it comes down to is how you treat people.

Keywords: considerate; kind; legacy; nice; treatment

Partial Transcript: So I want to make sure that if there is something on your mind about your time here

Keywords: last word