BOULDER, CO, February 12, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Alexander Franklin Hermann Goetz, PhD, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Goetz celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Dr. Goetz, a professor emeritus of geological sciences since 2006, garnered a laudable reputation for his talents as an educator at the University of Colorado in the College of Arts and Sciences. He also served as the director of the Center for the Study of Earth from Space (CSES) at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES), which is a research center on campus that is devoted to the study of the earth's system. Hired in 1985, Dr. Goetz served as the director for over 20 years, until 2006.
A former entrepreneur, Dr. Goetz founded Analytical Spectral Devices Inc. as the chairman and chief scientist in 1990. He later sold the successful business to Spectris PLC in 2012. The company notably manufactures portable spectrometers and spectroradiometers for remote sensing field measurements, as well as various quality control instrumentation for the pharmaceutical, mining, food and wood products industries and art museums which have developed spectroscopic techniques to measure pigments and determine authenticity of paintings. He notably secured 13 patents in his field for various systems, methods, and apparatuses.
Among several other leading roles in the field, Dr. Goetz was the principal and owner of GeoImages Inc. from 1974 to 1978 and was a senior scientist and manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, between 1970 and 1985. Additionally, Dr. Goetz served as a consultant in his field to many organizations, among them The National Academy of Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Naval Research Laboratory, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science, International Program Review Committee Helmholtz Gemeinschaft, Potsdam, Germany. University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia.
As a seasoned scientist, Dr. Goetz focused on the development of techniques and the application of remote sensing issues in earth sciences. He was also responsible for building various portable spectrometers and laboratory instruments, and became a leader in hyperspectral imaging after overseeing the instrument development at the Jet Propulsion Lab. Following this period, he began teaching at the University of California Los Angeles as a visiting professor in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences.
Disseminating his research findings, Dr. Goetz has authored approximately 80 peer-reviewed articles and 130 Proceeding papers, which have resulted in over 10,000 citations. He also served in various editorial capacities for such scholarly journals as the Journal of Remote Sensing of Environment and the Journal of Geophysical Research. In retirement, Dr. Goetz serves as a major donor to various charities such as Meals on Wheels and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, among others, and the Boulder Community Foundation. He also provides endowments for graduate fellowships at the University of Colorado and Caltech. He formerly found success as the president of the Spaceship Earth Fund in Boulder and as a trustee for the San Juan Institute in San Juan Capistrano, California.
Following the example of his father, who was a physics professor at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Dr. Goetz began in physics but became more interested in the study of the Earth and decided to pursue geophysics instead. After receiving a high school diploma at John Muir High School in Pasadena, CA at age 16, he moved to Schule Schloss Salem, a boarding school in Germany, became bi-lingual and received the Abitur degree in 1958. He entered Caltech in 1959, where he received a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1961, a Master of Science in geophysics in 1962 and a Doctor of Philosophy in planetary science in 1967. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Palomar Observatory in 1967. Thereafter, he joined Bellcomm, a part of AT&T Bell Labs, to work on the Apollo program. He had the first manned lunar science experiment at the moon during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, followed by another camera system mounted in the command module hatch window on Apollo 12. He was an investigator on Skylab, the precursor to the International Space Station. In 1982 he was on the investigator team for the first NASA Landsat earth observation satellite, as well as on Landsat 2 and 7, a series that continues 50 years later. In 1981 he was the Principal Investigator for one of the five instruments on the first scientific payload carried by the Space Shuttle.
During his career, Dr. Goetz was actively involved with several significant professional organizations, including the local chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union and SPIE. As a reflection of his accomplishments, he received over a dozen different awards and recognitions. Some of these honors have included a joint National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Department of Interior, William T. Pecora Award, and the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal. Dr. Goetz also received several scholarly and paper awards for his writing contributions and was elected to the Alumni Hall of Fame for Science at John Muir High School in Pasadena in 1995.
Dr. Goetz was not all-consumed by science during his career. A major interest was sailing, cruising and ocean racing, which began at age 6-weeks with his parents and then later with racing to Hawaii and Mexico in his own boat and as crew on other long races. He was a yacht delivery skipper in the Pacific and bareboat charter owner in the Caribbean and Pacific Northwest. In the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean and the Mediterranean waters he has sailed over 70,000 nautical miles. In retirement he enjoys woodworking and vegetable gardening.
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